Latest from the Winhills Blog 

24/6/2011

The children had a really good journey home arriving 45 mins early at 1.15pm. After sharing their news with their friends at school, parents began to arrive to collect them. So much to say and share; so much praise from the team at Wick Court and so much sllep to catch up with. Any enjoyable time by one and all.

23/6/11 - Wick Court

The children have started their last morning working on the farm. When we rang this morning some of them were mucking out the claves shed.with Miss Rowlinson. This afternoon they are off to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust on the Severn Esturary. You can find out all about the centre at  their website http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/slimbridge. For their final night the children are letting their hair down by staging their own talent show

At present tomorrow's anticipated time of arrival back at school  will be 2pm. They will telephone school when they are approximately 30mins away in order that we can update a board at the front of school and this blog.

21/6/11 - Wick Court Farm -2011

Pizza was the order of the day today! During the day the children made their own pizzas for their evening meal. We'll have to ask them how they turned out?

They have been orienteering as well as a group visiting the chicken farm. Apparently some had chickens standing on their heads. We'll have to see how Miss Rowlinson got on when she visits the chickens as she told the children before they went that everyone needed to try new experiences and going in a chicken coup was something she wasn't looking forward to.

All were soundly tucked up in bed by 9.45pm last night !

20/6/11 - Wick Court Farm - 2011

Today's news from the farm is that they have enjoyed a meal made entirely from the produce of the farm! They helped collect the ingredients including potatoes, peas and carrots. Even the sausages were Wick Court Farm produce.

The work finally seems to be tiring them out as they have requested an earlier bed time tonight - we'll wait and see if they keep to it!

 20/6/11 Congratulations to all our film makers

Congratulations to all our budding film makers, all three of our entries to this year's film festival have been nominated. You can watch the films, produced by the foundation stage, year 3 and year 4 children by logging on to http://www.filmstarz.org.uk/. We hope to take a representative group of children to the awards ceromony at Cambridge Corn Exchange on 7th July.

18/6/11 - Wick Court Farm - 2011

The group is settling really well into life on the farm. The adults at Wick Court have commented on how good a group the children are. They've been straight down to work milking, mucking out and weighing the pigs. Highlights of the day were feeding the baby calves and going in with the piglets. There have been rain showers but they haven't stopped the various activities taking place.

17/6/2011 - Wick Court Farm - 2011

We have heard from the trip to Wick Court Farm that they had a very smooth and safe journey and are settling into life on the farm.

 Everbody Writes Day 1/3/11

Children, staff and parents had a great day writing on Tuesday. A number of classes followed a pirate/treasure island theme with Sophie in Rabbit Class writing home from from her desert island. If you were lucky enough to find her message in a bottle this is what she wrote:

Dear Friends and Family

I'm having a good time sunbathing.Luckily I found a beachball and I played with it for a long time. I hope you get my message because I want you to now how much fun I am having. When you get this message please send one back. I wish you were here because I am lonely and I don't have anyone to speak to. There's quite a lot of food. I ended up here on the desert island by crashing my boat. Be careful of the rocks!

From Sophie

BMW Y3&4 Art Exhibition

Children from Bushmead, St Mary's and Winhills Schools visited an art exhibition of their own viking work. Their paintings, potery and sculptures were produced as part of their theme "Ice Age" which they have been working on since January. Acting as art criticts for each other, they placed post-it notes with their views next to each entry. A child from St Mary's School commented, “It was lovely to share and the people who were there were so nice and gave us lovely compliments”

Fairyland comes to Winhills - 3/2/11

Knights, princesses and dragons gathered in huge numbers on Thursday for a special gathering of year 1 & 2 children from the kingdoms of Bushmead, St Mary’s and Winhills! This was not for jousting or climbing battlements but to share their performance storytelling to each other. Each school had prepared a different fairy tale to recite to the crowd that had gathered in the small hall. Using ‘action storytelling’ never a slip was heard as they recounted these traditional tales.

Jeff Rich raises the hall roof! - 31/1/2011

Last week, Jeff Rich re-visited Winhills to lead a lively and loud workshop to the whole school. As well as performing some of the Quo’s famous tracks the children all had a chance to join in using a wide range of percussion instruments. A great time was had by all. Jeff played with Status Quo for 16 years touring all over the world. He played in some memorable concerts including Knebworth along with a multitude of famous bands including Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Elton John & Tears for Fears.
 

Attendance Winners - 21/1/2011

Pictured below are the Foundation Stage, KS1 and KS2 winners of the attendance prize for the second half of the autumn term. Today they went to choose a book at Waterstones.  A 96%+ attendance rate enters the children into this half termly draw.

Better Reading Partnership - 10/1/2011

 This week sees the start of a term long reading project. We have appointed three new members of staff to provide 1:1 suuport for children across KS1 and KS2. Each of the children involved will be heard for 20mins three times a week. 

The project is being managed by our Every Child a Reader teacher, Mrs Knox, who will be accompanying the staff on a  2 day Better Reading Partnership course during Janaury.