My Education Website

On Thursday 22nd November Mrs Armstrong took a group of children to the Gymnastic Festival held a Gateshead leisure Centre. The two groups of children were Year 3/4 and Year 5/6. The children each did a floor routine which had some technical gymnastic moves. The children, staff and parents enjoyed the festival.

Author Sally Prue visited school on 14th November. She worked with children in Miss Masons, Mrs Barnes and Mrs Walkers classes. The children had opportunities to ask questions and purchase signed copies of her books.

Parents were invited into school on the afternoon of Thursday 18th October to share in the Harvest Celebrations. The staff and children put on a performance of Harvest Rock!. The parents enjoyed songs, dance, drama and readings.

Year 3 and 4 classes visit Gateshead CLC.

A reminder of some of our Christmas Events.

Mrs Commons and Mrs Rudge`s classes have been enjoying tennis coaching on a Tuesday afternoon in school. The six week course involves the children learning new skills, playing short games and learning the rules of tennis. The children are very enthusiastic about the lessons. Miss Mason`s class will be doing the coaching after christmas.

On Monday 10th December from 6 - 7 pm, 27 children from Miss Mason's and Mrs Barnes' classes sang two carols at the Royal Bank of Scotland Carol Service at Wesley Methodist Church, Durham Road.

Children from Year 3 and 4 performed a traditional Russian folk tale, 'the Snow Child', for parents and carers on Thursday 13th December. A spectacular extravaganza of song, dance and drama was enjoyed by all.

Miss Waters, Ms Ferguson, Mrs McGinley and their class visited Seven Stories in the Autumn Term.

Every Thursday Miss Waters Class enjoy their PE Programme.

On Thursday 10th January the Panto came to school.

Miss Water`s class walked to the Pet Shop at Felling in the Autumn Term.

Year 3 and 4s Autumn topic was Castles.

Linda Robinson visited school on 16th January to give a talk to Year 5 and 6 in the morning and Year 3 and 4 in the afternoon. Parents were also invited on the afternoon to attend a workshop.

This term Year 3 and 4 are learning about Australia.

We are fortunate to have a number of coaches coming into school during this term, including tennis coach Jonathan Newton, who has coached a number of different classes across the school. He is currently working with Mrs Damti's class. Mrs Barnes' and Mrs Walker's class are receiving coaching from the Eagles as part of the Hoops for Health programme, prior to their tournament later this term. Mr Otterson's class have just begun a programme of rugby coaching on a Thursday afternoon - so watch out Jonny Wilkinson!

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

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 in Year 3/4 are enjoying experiencing conversational French with Mademoiselle Mason and Madame Sharp from Joseph Swan.

Children in Year 3/4 are enjoying experiencing conversational French with Mademoiselle Mason and Madame Sharp from Joseph Swan.

This week all classes in years three and four are visiting Shipley Art Gallery to work alongside an artist to produce samples of felt.

Year 3/4 will be visiting Durham Cathedral as part of their RE work on Thursday 27th March.

As part of National Science week, all classes Year 1 to Year 6 will be going on visits connected to science.
Year 1 and 2 classes will be going to Sunderland Winter Gardens on Friday afternoon to learn about weather around the World.
Year 3 and 4 classes will be going to the Shipley Art Gallery to do some felt making.
Miss Walkers class will go on Monday morning, Mrs Etheringtons on Thursday afternoon and Miss Masons on Friday afternoon.
Year 5 and 6 will be going to the Discovery Museum on Tuesday afternoon to watch Professor Brainstorm perform some amazing experiments and explosions.
We hope all the classes enjoy their visits.

All children will be working with Jonathan Newton, the professional tennis coach at some time this academic year. This half term he is working with Mrs Barnes' and Miss Mason's classes.

Every 5 weeks or so, 16 children from Key Stage 2 will be chosen by their teachers to go for a fun sports afternoon at Joseph Swan.

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.

ICT Club will be running on Tuesday lunchtimes for the whole of the Summer Term.

On Tuesday 1st April, year 3/4 held a French Coffee Afternoon for parents & carers. The children showed their visitors all of the fantastic French things they have learned with Mrs Spark from Joseph Swan, including how to order food in a French cafe.

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.

On Wednesday 7th May, 13 children from Key Stage 2 visited Joseph Swan as part of their Rewards for Sport Programme. Photos from the afternoon can be found in the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 galleries.

This Wednesday will be the last time we will be selling our Fairtrade products after school. But don't panic, we will have a Fairtrade stall at our Summer Fair in July.

Several classes are having sports coaching this half term, and having loads of fun learning new sports skills.
Year 5 - cricket, athletics, golf
Year 5/6 - cricket, athletics
Year 6 - girls' football
Year 1/2 - dance
Year 3/4 - basketball
Year 3/4 - funfit
Cricket coaching is through the Chance to Shine initiative, FunFit and basketball are run by our own Mrs Armstrong, the other coaching is provided through the PE Partnership.

Teams from Glynwood are taking part in two tournaments in the near future.
22nd May - Year 3/4 striking & fielding at Joseph Swan
12th June - Year 5/6 girls' football at Joseph Swan
We wish both teams every success & hope that they have fun taking part!

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!

This week (16th to 20th June) is Healthy Schools Week.
All of the classes will be doing work about how to live a healthy lifestyle by eating a balanced, healthy diet and taking plenty of exercise.
There are also lots of sporting events taking place. Year 1 Multi-Skills is on Wednesday. Year 2 Cricket tournament is on Thursday. Key Stage 2 will be taking part in the Glynwood Games on Friday.

On the final day in June, 20 pupils attended the annual athletics tournament at Gateshead Stadium. There were a team of 10 year 3 / 4 athletes and 10 year 5 / 6 athletes participating in a range of different events. The Glynwood athletes proved extremely successful winning a host of medals on the day.

Roll of honour

Year 5 / 6

Bronze medal in the cricket ball throw - Hazel Harpin
Silver medal in the 3 spring jump - Bart Kowalczyk

Year 3 / 4

Gold medal in the 3 spring jump - Chayse Martin
Gold medal in the girls 60 m sprint - Chayse Martin
Gold medal in the girls relay - Chayse Martin, Gemma Tse, Caitlin Worlidge & Lucy Richardson
Silver medal in the 800m run - Lucy Richardson
Bronze medal in the 60m skipping - Molly Barber

All the children performed exceptionally well and many more pupils missed out on a medal by only one or two places.

fantastic job well done!!!

Year 3 and 4 had their annual design and technology day on Wednesday 2nd July. All children took part designing, making, testing and evaluating a Roman catapult or chariot. Everyone had a very productive day, not only making their designs but working things out in a team! ( see the children in action on the Gallery )

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 part of our Rainforest topic, Year 3 and 4 visited the Botanic Garden at Durham. Children had the chance to experience what it would feel like in a rainforest and learn about some of the plants and animals that are found there. Children particularly enjoyed handling minibeasts and discovering how huge and sharp lily pads can grow in the rainforest.

On 26th September, years 3 and 4 studied Sweden, experiencing a variety of foods (including reindeer meat!) and enjoyed dancing to Abba! We learnt some Swedish vocabulary and used our map skills to find out more about the country.

What a fabulous day years 3 and 4 had at Heworth City Learning Centre. It was fantastic for each child to have a computer each for the whole day, learning lots of new skills. Some of us learnt how to make an animation and others used a music program to create their own piece of rainforest music, sending it to their classmates to listen to.

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.

On Thursday 11th December, Year 3 and 4 performed their Christmas production, 'A Tale of Two Birthdays.' Miss Mason, Mrs Rudge and Mrs Etherington were really proud of all the children who entertained friends and family with their fantastic singing, dancing and acting. The production was such a success thanks to the support of parents who helped the children learn their lines and provided colourful costumes. Thank You!

Everyone looked absolutely fabulous in their party clothes and what a great time we all had! We all enjoyed great games and lots of delicious food. Thanks to parents for your support.

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!

Friday 26th June saw the annual athletics festival at Gateshead stadium with 50 schools competing and Glynwood school performed tremendously well yet again. A total of 20 children took part in a range of track and field events on an extremely wet day in high summer! Everyone took part in a fantastic sporting manner and we were successful in a number of events including the following:
Chayse Martin - Triple jump (gold medal), Relay (Silver medal) and 80m sprint (bronze medal)
Lucy Richardson - Long jump (gold medal), Relay (Silver medal)
Chelsey Smith - Javelin (bronze medal), Relay (Silver medal), 800m long run (bronze medal)
Jessie Cain - Relay (Silver medal)
Caitlin Gaughan - Relay (Silver medal), Cricket ball throw (silver medal)

Lots of other children reached finals and semi finals of their events and a good time was had by all!

Well done to all the athletes!

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.

Mrs Etherington, Mrs McGinley, Miss Ferguson and Mrs Hall took their Year 3/4 children on a visit to Hawkesbury House to entertain the eldery ladies. All staff were really impressed with how well behaved the children were and how beautifully they sang. Children had also brought a special toy from home and chatted to the ladies about these. Great excitement was had by all on our walk back to school when we got caught in a torrential downpour!

On Tuesday 29th September, the Year 3/4 classes visited Raby Castle in County Durham. We learnt all about how the castle was defended from attackers hundreds of years ago, as well as looking at some of the rooms in the castle. We were amazed at the Octagon Drawing Room which had silk on the walls and real gold on the ceiling! We learnt a lot about castle life and a few of the adults said they would like to live there!

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.

If you have any old fashion or style magazines that you don't need any more, can you please send them in to Mr Otterson for his class to use in their topic work this term. Many thanks
Mr Otterson

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.

Children in Year 3 and 4 researched the Chinese New Year Celebrations. They made lucky money envelopes, dragons in Technology and heard the story of how each year got it's animal name.

The year 3 and 4 classes enjoyed a day at the City Learning Centre where they composed their own music using 'garage band', then emailed their tunes to one another. They also played a game to learn more about solids, liquids and gases.

The Year 3 and 4 classes are visiting the library each month. Our most recent visit involved the librarian sharing stories about birds and showing us some bird feeders she had made for her garden. All our children impressed her with their knowledge of garden birds and nests. The classes enjoy choosing new books on each of their visits and love sharing them with each other during reading sessions in class.

It has been a very busy summer term with lots of sporting events and tournaments. Here are some of the highlights!

The year 5 and 6 girls competed in a football tournament at Cleveland Hall against several other schools. One of the teams was victorious winning all of the games to come out as cluster champions for 2010.

We also held the annual athletics event of Gynwood games in June, which sees 5 of our local schools come and compete in year3,4,5 & 6 events. We were very well represented by each of the year groups coming 2nd and third in year 4,5 and 6. However, the great news was that for the first time ever, year 3 pupils brought home the winning trophy that has been held by Oakfield school for the past 7 years in a row!

Mrs Armstrong has taken several groups of pupils to Joseph Swan for multiskills events, whilst Newcastle sport in the community have held football and rounders clubs for year 3 to 6.

A group of year 5 and 6 pupils attended a basketball tournament at Kells Lane school and came out winners - well done to the children involved.

Mrs Walker has also held several tennis clubs and taken the pupils to many tournaments around the local area. Pupils enjoyed the events and represented the school very well.

On June 23rd Mr Otterson and Mrs Armstrong took 20 pupils to Gateshead stadium for the annual athletics festival. THere were over 1500 pupils that took part and our children were a credit to their school, behaving very well and performing to an extremely high standard.

Results year 5 / 6

Chayse Martin - Sprint gold medal, 3 spring jump gold medal, relay gold medal
Lucy Richardson - Sprint silver medal, long jump silver medal, relay gold medal
Molly Cronnie - relay gold medal
Aimee Paisley - relay gold medal

Results year 3 / 4

Jane Thomas - Throw Gold medal, Relay Silver medal
Jade English - Relay siver medal
Toni Anderson - Relay silver medal
Tegan Hewitt - Relay silver medal
Ryan Bradley - Sprint and relay bronze medal
Corrie Watson - Relay bronze medal
Joseph Linton - Relay bronze medal
Kieron Morris - Relay bronze medal

Lots of our children also reached finals in their events but just missed out on a medal. Well done to everyone who took part.

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.

On Tuesday 29th November, Jamie from Zoolab visited Year 4 to talk about his many visits to the rainforests of South America. The children had to decide what clothing and equipment would be needed to survive there.
He brought some rainforest animals with him, which the children could handle - giant millipede, giant snails, a snake, a flying cockroach, a tarantula and a tree frog.

Photographs to follow