My Education Website

We have been very busy in Nursery and Reception this half term starting to create a new garden area. This has been inspired by our topic on Healthy Eating and in particular by the character in the story book "Oliver`s Vegetables".

A reminder of some of our Christmas Events.

In December 2007, Nursery and Reception performed the amazing "Mary's Knitting"
It went down a storm and everyone loved it. Well done everyone!!!

Reception have been growing their own fruit in the school garden.

They grew strawberries and their own delicious apples.
They tasted fantastic!!

Our topic in the Winter term was all about people who help us, both in school and out of school. We looked at a variety of jobs such as school administrative officer, firefighter , librarian, police officer, mechanic and medical workers.We visited lots of these people at work and loved recreating their jobs in our classroom. I wonder if any of us will choose any of these jobs when we are older! We loved our visit to the hospital.

We pretended to be doctors in our own doctors surgery in the role play area.

We would like to welcome all the Nursery children who have joined us since September 2007 to Glynwood.
We are sure you are going to have a fantastic time at our school.

On Thursday 10th January the Panto came to school.

Friends of Glynwood will be holding Valentine's Discos on Wednesday 13th February.
Reception and Key Stage 1 - 4 to 5pm
Key Stage 2 - 5:15 to 6:15
Entry £1

Reception class have been celebrating Chinese New Year. They made their own dragon and did some fantastic dragon dancing with it.
They also tried some Chinese noodles, learned how to say some Chinese words and sang Chinese songs. Well done Reception.

The children and staff in Foundation Stage are busy creating a new garden area for the children to work in. They have already planted out some vegetables in a new digging area. Some of the older children in school helped cut down some willow from the big main garden area and created a new willow dome for the younger children. There will be fruit trees planted and more digging and growing areas created. The children are already enjoying working in the new area.

Reception class have been celebrating Chinese New Year. They made their own dragon and did some fantastic dragon dancing with it.
They also tried some Chinese noodles, learned how to say some Chinese words and sang Chinese songs. Well done Reception.

During January and February the children in Nursery and Reception have been hearing lots of traditional tales and doing lots of work around them.
Read on to find out more about what they have been doing.

To link with National Science and Engineering Week, we are holding our own Science week in school. All children Year 1 to Year 6 will be going on a science visit that week, more details will follow in the Newsletter. There will be lots of fun science activities and crazy experiments going on in school. Watch out for fun things going on.

Children from Nursery and Reception classes have been enjoying working outside.
They have been helping to dig a new area for free digging.
They helped make a new willow dome (though this now may need some attention due to the high winds!!)
They also loved finding worms and were fascinated by them.

We look forward to some warmer weather so we can get out even more.

Congratulations to the children who entered the Northumbria In Bloom Competition.
All entries were displayed at Saltwell park on Saturday 8th March.
There were lots of amazing paintings done by our children.
We also entered lots of bulbs we had grown ourselves.

Children who made their own miniature gardens did particularly well.
Louise Dixon came 3rd and Harry Dodds came 2nd in their category.

Shona Mullen came 3rd and Devon Armstrong came 2nd in their category.

Reception made 2 different entries in different categories and
came 2nd in both. Well done to everybody who entered.

To link with National Science week we held our own science week at Glynwood, during the week of 10th to 14th March.
All classes Year 1 to 6 went out on science visits and really enjoyed them. Years 1 and 2 had fun at Sunderland Winter Gardens. Years 3 and 4 enjoyed making their own felt at the Shipley Art Gallery. Years 5 and 6 had great fun watching some explosive experiments with Professor Brainstorm at the Discovery Museum.
In addition, children took part in fun science activities and experiments in class.
Lots were connected to food, so we made honeycomb toffee,

experimented with making our own sherbet,

as well as making bath bombs, making rockets fly high

and playing with balloon powered cars.
Well done to everyone who joined in.

On Tuesday 25th March, Reception class went to Hall Hill Farm.
The day was fantastic despite being a little chilly.
Children enjoyed getting close to goats, pigs, sheep, rabbits, donkeys, peacocks, deer and even wallabies!!
But the favourite activity must have been feeding the baby lambs. Aaahh!
Or was it the holding fluffy chicks or maybe even the tractor ride?
What a great day!!

www.bbc.co.uk/schools has various games relating to all areas of the curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2.
Copy and paste the address into your web browser.

The week beginning 9th June was Arts Week. Everyone had a great week!
Foundation Stage made collages based on Matisse's Snail, made models of minibeasts, decorated tea light holders.
Year 1/2 made sock puppets, did weaving with carrier bags, decorated glass jars, designed and decorated T shirts.
Year 3/4 had a Roman theme for the week. They made life size soldiers using collage, mosaics, jewellery, finger puppets.
Year 5/6 drew landscapes and Northumbrian landmarks using pencil, paint, pastel, mosaic and mixed media.

Photos from the week will soon be added to the Gallery - watch this space!

On Thursday 19th June, Nursery and Reception classes took part in the Big Toddle.

This was to raise funds for Barnados. The children (and their grown ups too) had a fantastic time, toddled a very long way and had a fantastic afternoon.
We raised over £700.
So a big thank you to all who took part and to those who donated to this very worthy cause. Thank you very much.

The children in Nursery and Reception have continued to enjoy working in their garden area.
They have recently pulled up onions, enjoyed tasting their own lettuce
and noticed some tiny apples starting to grow on their new apple trees.
Well done to all our budding gardeners.

Children in Early Years have recently been learning all about transport.
They enjoyed making a car wash and garage, testing out rockets, throwing parachutes and even sawed their own wood to make boats.

What a fun topic.

Just to remind you that it is Early Years and Key Stage One Sports Day on Thursday 3rd July at 9.30 am.
Nursery will have their races first, then can either stay with a grown up or can go home.
Please can we remind you that children need to come to school ready in the morning with their kits and trainers on.
They will also need their water bottles, sun hats and cream, because of course it is going to be a beautiful day!!!
There will be sausage sandwiches for sale, as well as other refreshments, cakes and crisps, So please bring along some pennies.
Programmes will be on sale, but each one will hold a special number.
A winning number will be drawn at the end which will win a prize.
Don't forget too the parents race. We all look forward to it, so get practising. There will be a prize for ladies and mens races too.
See you all on Thursday.

Nursery have been watching some caterpillars grown and change into butterflies.
They were very interesting and the children loved watching.
We recently released them into the garden.
We wonder if they'll come back to visit us again.

On Thursday 3rd July children from Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 enjoyed their sports day. Children competed in events such as running, sprint and long distance, ball and spoon, obstacle, skipping races, the welly waddle and relay races.

Teachers then joined the 3 legged race. Victory went to Mrs Yielder and Mrs Damti.
Finally everyone enjoyed watching the parents race.

Luckily the sun shone all morning for us and a great time was had by all.
Thank you to all who attended and supported us and helped make the morning such a success.

As part of our Eco-Schools work, we have written our Glynwood eco-code. Each class spent a PSHE lesson writing eco-codes, then a winner was chosen. The winning eco-code was written by Emily Eccleston of Year 5.

As a school we were involved in raising money for the NSPCC. Foundation Stage did a sponsored colouring activity, Key Stage 1 children did a sponsored spelling activity, Key Stage 2 children did a sponsored maths challenge.
The children were all very enthusiastic & we raised a huge £1,916 for this worthy cause. The children were all rewarded for their efforts with prizes.

October 23rd saw the first House Time of the year and it was celebrated with a Halloween Theme. Children from throughout the school gathered in their respected houses for an afternoon of quizzes, silly games, art activities, spelling competitions and even Ducking for Apples!

All the children behaved fantastically and worked extremely well as part of a team. A particular highlight was Lauryn Burdis' new world record for apple bobbing of 11 seconds! It was a close run thing, but the overall winners of the event was OTTERS !!!!! Thank you to all the adults who helped out to make the event such a success.

On Wednesday 3rd December, ex-Newcastle United & England footballer, Peter Beardsley came into school to take part in a special assembly. We all wore black and white for the day.

As a Bike It school and as part of our commitment to encourage active travel to school, we are delighted to announce that we are taking part in the National, Bike It Virtual Bike Race event starting the 2nd March 2009!

Our next meeting will take place at 6.00pm on Monday October 5th 2009 at the Victoria Pub, Low Fell. Please come along and get involved!

Breakfast Club
Open each morning from 7.50am. £1.50 each day.

If you have any questions about the Breakfast Club please speak to Mrs Armstrong or Ms Ferguson.

Our next film is the old classic Disney film, Dumbo. It will finish at 4:40pm.

The annual Christmas Quiz took place on the final morning of the Autumn term and proved a great success. It was a close run thing going right down to the final round, but eventuallly the Hedgehogs proved victorious despite the children being hindered by the performance of some of the staff on their team! Well done to all those who took part and a big round of applause to the winners.

We have introduced a new texting service in school to help us keep you better informed. General reminders and important messages will be sent this way.

We have had a very busy term in Reception and Nursery doing lots of exciting things. We loved our topic about Ourselves - we drew maps of our journeys to school, talked about who lives in our house, we made salt dough and box bodies, we labelled parts of the body, talked about what we can do now and what we could do as babies. We did lots of other jobs too - too numerous to mention ! Reception children have also been busy with their Read Write Inc programme and their writing is fabulous !
Our topic after half term was Traditional Tales which has really been great. There has been lots of role play opportunities and the 3 Bears came to stay. They came to live in Nursery first and then in Reception. We made porridge for them and we ate some too !
We also enjoyed World Book Day in March. We came to school in our fancy dress outfits and our big friends in Year 6 came to read stories to us. Climate Change week was super - we made recycled hats, remembered to put our fruit waste in the compost bin, went on a litter pick, made happy and sad worlds, planted trees in our garden and lots more !! Our grown ups also came in to help us make bird feeders - we are sure that the birds will love them.
At Easter time we made scrummy chocolate nests and lovely little chick Easter cards to take home. The Easter Bunny made a surprise visit and left us some chocolate eggs too !

Film Club will now take place on MONDAYS after school.Our first two films will be:
Monday 27th September - Shrek the Third, finishing time 4:50pm
Monday 11th October - Mamma Mia, finishing time 5:00pm

Please remember to bring healthy snacks and drinks.

Please see Mrs Ryan or Mrs Overman if you have any questions.

On Friday 4th November we had a ‘Take Over Day’ at Glynwood. The children in Years 5 and 6 were able to apply for a staff role in school. It was an absolutely fabulous day! Every child who took part rose to the occasion – we had a new caretaker, teachers, TAs, office staff, lunchtime supervisor and head teacher.

Prior to the half term holiday I talked to the children about the idea in assembly – this generated lots of excitement and enthusiasm for the idea. The children were then able to collect and complete an application form. The forms were read by staff and those for interview were selected – lots of children were disappointed at this stage as we had lots of applications and not enough positions. Those selected were then interviewed and jobs allocated. The children all took their interviews very seriously, dressing the part and being prepared to answer questions in role.

On the day children had to come in school early to prepare – our caretaker was at school for 6.10am to start at 6.30am! They were expected to carry out all of the roles staff would do on a Friday from early meetings to setting things out and planning lessons. The children were outstanding, it was a pleasure to visit classrooms and see them taking control of activities – it was a huge confidence boost to so many children it was amazing to see them ‘shine’. The day generated so much talk about jobs and the future it was great. It was a thoroughly fantastic day and we will certainly do it again next year.

Mrs D. Ryan

More photographs will be added, so please keep checking the website.

Some comments from the children who took part:

“I can’t believe that I was chosen to be Headteacher for Take Over Day. I felt very excited but nervous at the same time. This was a big responsibility and I didn’t want to let me or anyone else down. I was so proud of myself when Mrs Ryan told me I was outstanding that day and I couldn’t do any better. That was the highlight of my day. What an experience!” Sophie Webber, Headteacher

“I think everyone had a wonderful day, I know I did.” Ellie McTeer, Year 1 teacher

“It had been a hard and tiring day, but I had enjoyed it and wish I could do it again.” Miss. Dixon, Clerical Asst.

“I applied to work with Derek our Caretaker – I mopped the packed lunch hall floor, cleaned the toilets, took the milk to the kitchen and Derek made us a cup of tea – he said I had been a pleasure to work with” Joshua Hayden, caretaker

“My second lesson went with a flow. I managed to get their attention, speak to them, as well as giving instructions, I gave them spellings. At this stage I felt full of confidence, I marked their books when they were busy doing their work. Marking their books became easier as I marked them.” Hannah Cartner, Year 4 Teacher

“Take Over Day was a great day. I’m really happy I got the job as Mrs. Armstrong, I had a fun day.” Jade English, Teaching assistant.

Thank you to everyone who kindly put together a box or donated items to a class box. We had 45 boxes for the Peoples Kitchen.
On the 22nd November I took three children: Grace Hall (Reception), Aimee Bartley (Year1) and Will Seager Rooke (Year2) to the Dryden Centre to hand over the boxes to volunteers from the Peoples Kitchen.
The three children made soup and learned more about the vegetables going into the soup. There was also a presentation to the prize winners who had the best decorated boxes.
Grace Hall came second and won a range of super prizes including, a bike helmet, bike lights, sweets, a cooking apron, cinema tickets and a cookery lesson for twelve children. Well done Grace!
It was a lovely afternoon - thanks Grace, Aimee and Will for keeping me company.
D Ryan