A gift from Barwick...

As an avid lover of all literature, I believe the key to everyone's success lies in reading books. Any books. All books. Books about anything and everything - stories of suspense, tall tales of terror, hardcovers of horror, manuscripts of mythical quests, volumes of ventures into fantasy worlds, westerns, graphic novels, romance, history, comedy, tragedy...there is a genre to suit everyone.

Be it fiction or non-fiction, just read. Read every category, field, genre, type and sort of book there is.

To help you on this journey, the staff would like to present each child with a book of their choice from the Booktrust's 100 Best Book Lists, as a gift to say thank you for everything they have contributed to the school during their time here. Why not take the quiz and see how many of the books you have read, and choose your book from the ones that you have yet to discover?

Let me know your choice as soon as possible. 

Mrs Evans

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/have-some-fun/quizzes/15 - (Age 9-11)

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/teenagers/have-some-fun/quizzes/14 - (Age 12+)

19th May update

SATs - I want to say how proud I am of every member of Willow Class during SATs week. All of the children were focused, engaged and committed to doing their best in each one of those difficult tests. Unfortunately we can't now sit back and relax; there is much of the curriculum still to cover, and the deadline for Teacher Assessments in Reading, Writing, Maths and Science need to be completed by Tuesday 21st June.

Results are available to schools on Tuesday 5th July. Once school has downloaded the results, we will contact parents and also tell the children. More information on how this year's results will be published can be found in the link below, as this differs to previous years.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/scaled-scores

Robinwood

Wow! What a thrilling and exciting few days we have had at Robinwood! Huge thanks to Mrs Roberts and Miss Goodison for helping make the trip so memorable, and a big, big thankyou to all the children. I am so impressed with how everybody supported each other during any wobbly moments, and how the children overcame any fears to try the new and often very challenging activities. On several occasions my eyes were filled with both tears of laughter and tears of pride. The many, many photographs are being sorted through - a selection of them can be found below, with the remainder to be enjoyed in the assembly.

Normally, we would invite parents in to a special assembly in the week following the residential, to enjoy the video clips and photographs, as well as watch their children receive a special certificate for taking part. However, Willow class will be on a Bikeability course (please return the consent form for this if you haven't already done so), so we are postponing the assembly to Friday 10th June. It would be great if you could be there.

Magna

Whereas most Y6 classes around the country were having a chilled out day in class on Friday, Willow class (never to be accused of missing a learning opportunity!), were exploring the Magna Science Adventure Centre. What a fabulous day! On arrival, we participated in a very interactive workshop, learning all about how electricity and circuits work before embarking on a team challenge to prove that they could wire up a circuit. 

Following the workshop, we explored the four pavilions of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. As always, the children were a credit to the school, and fully engaged with the exhibits, demonstrating what wonderfully inquiring minds they all have. We could have stayed there for hours more, and I hope you get the opportunity to visit this marvellous place as a family. The history of the British Steel Industry was fascinating, and we all enjoyed 'The Big Melt', when the massive furnace was brought to life, hinting at just how drastically different the building would have been when in working order. 

As part of our exploration into Yorkshire tourist attractions, Magna is definitely up there on our 'must see' list!

(Photos below)

The Circulatory System - Learning how nutrients and water are transported around the body via the digestive system

Today, we made poo in class! 

16th March 2016 - Pond Day!

Willow Class have had the most fabulous (and exhausting!) day, digging up well established plants from in and around the pond and garden of Mrs Horkan (Harrison's Grandma). Mrs Horkan is moving house so has (with the permission of the new owners), kindly donated a wide variety of plants to continue their life at Barwick Primary School.

The children learnt how to correctly dig up the plants without upsetting the roots, and how to best re-plant them in their new home so they have the best available chance of survival. Children worked incredibly well as a team, ensuring the (quite honestly, very large!) task was completed in just one day.

There is still a bit of tidying up to do, and we look forward to seeing the plants thrive and grow in their new environment. 

Not only did we bring new plants to Barwick, but we now also have a whole family of frogs, and (providing they survive the trauma of being moved), goldfish.

Huge thank you to Mrs Horkan for giving up her day to teach the children all about the names of the plants, what they look like in the summer when in bloom, how best to transport them and where to position them for maximum effect. We could not have done this without her.

Have a look at the photos below to see how hard we all worked!

SATS 

Please find below the presentation used at the SATs Information Event on Thursday 11th February. 

The 2016 KS2 SATs examinations are on the following dates:

Monday 9th May

English Reading Test

Tuesday 10th May

English SPaG Test, Paper 1, short answer questions

English SPaG Test, Paper 2, spelling

Wednesday 11th May

Mathematics, Paper 1 Arithmetic Test

Mathematics, Paper 2 Reasoning Test

Thursday 12th May

Mathematics, Paper 3 Reasoning Test

Writing is by teacher assessment. The deadline for the submission of writing assessments is 30th June.

NB: If Barwick is selected for Science sampling, this will be during the 6th - 13th June.

29th January 2016

Willow Class have been enjoying learning about the Stone Age and Bronze Age, investigating how developments over time, such as the invention of the wheel and discovery of making bronze out of copper and tin, helped people to learn how to farm.

We made some fabulous clay pots inspired by Neolithic designs, and even decorated our pots using twigs, as people would have done back then. Have a look at our photos to see how hard the children worked!

Towards the end of this half term we move our learning forwards into the Iron Age, and discover how, as people wanted more and more land, more and more conflicts broke out, meaning people needed better ways to defend themselves. In Barwick we are lucky enough to have an actual Iron Age Hillfort on our doorstep, so we are planning a visit to experience how the Hillfort helped the people to defend their land. Watch this space for more photos! 

Happy January!

We are fully into the swing of our new term, and have thoroughly enjoyed activities in Space Week.

We explored physical training; testing our balance, stamina and strength in addition to other physical skills such carrying out somersaults. Literacy work involved a virus on a space station and we have investigated the temperatures and diameters of the planets in our Solar System in Numeracy, as well as learnt about full quadrant co-ordinates whilst playing Space Battleships!

We used drama to create a news report on our Solar System; with resident experts spouting out facts, and interviewers asking questions. Everything was space related - even practising our handwriting whilst learning about the Sun.

In fact, we enjoyed Space Week so much that we started our second week off following NASA instructions to build and launch foam rockets - exploring gravity and force whilst understanding trajectory, angles and range. See the photos below to discover how much fun we had!

An online activity we have found useful whilst exploring negative numbers is linked below. Practise often!

Welcome to Autumn 2!

We have had a fabulous first half term and are ready to get stuck into learning lots of exciting new things before the Christmas holidays.

In Art / DT we have been exploring bead work, creating hanging decorations. We have some very talented designers in Willow Class; the end results really are stunning, and the decorations will be going on sale at the FOBS Christmas Fayre on Saturday 28th November. After our very exciting message from the North Pole on Monday, we have also been exploring different gift design ideas and will soon decide which idea will be taken forward.

In Science this term we are exploring 'Light' - what it is, what it does and how it works. Once we understand how to create shadows, we are going to create our own shadow puppet theatre performance!

The Literacy and History focus is World War One and 'War Horse'. See more about this below. In Geography we will be investigating settlements.

In Maths we are getting to grips with adding and subtracting multiples of 0.01, fractions, 3D shapes and complex word problems. Phew!

This term's focus for PE is Rugby - Mrs Roberts is looking forward to getting muddy on a Wednesday afternoon!

All that is before we have even mentioned Music, Drama, MfL or Computing!

Historical Fiction - War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

This week, we have been excitedly launching into our 'War Horse' topic in Literacy / History. Having read just the first few chapters so far, we are already eager to learn more about Joey and his amazing journey.

If you are interested in exploring the story further, why not try these ideas at home?

Literacy / Drama

• Choose a pet or another animal and write a story from it's point of view. What does it think about its life? How does it feel? What adventures might it have?
• Albert's father thinks that horses are 'obstinate and stupid'. Can you think of synonyms for these words? Can you find any antonyms?
• Read and act out Chapter 4 where Joey is sold to the army. Which emotions are felt by each character at that point in the story?
• At the start of Chapter 6, the soldiers are feeling 'buoyant with optimism'. What does this mean? Can you think of any other words / phrases to describe this feeling?
• Write a letter from Trooper Warren replying to his family.
• Retell the story from Tophorn's point of view. How did he come to be involved in the war? How did he feel about taking part and meeting Joey?

Art / Design

• Can you paint the picture of Joey that is described in the 'Author's Note' at the start of the book?
• Read the descriptions of the farm and other settings in the story. Could you draw / paint a picture of some of these places?

History

• Create a timeline showing the main events of the story.
• What can you find out about World War I? How did it start / end? What were the main events? Who was involved? How were they affected?

Music

• Albert is a bell-ringer. Listen to the sounds of bells ringing. What do they sound like?
• In Chapter 4, Joey hears a military band playing in the village. What instruments might be played in a military band? What songs might by played by one?

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngq3qlXOq2A

Watch this interview with the author, Michael Morpurgo. What questions would you ask him if you had the opportunity?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Farm-Boy-Michael-Morpurgo/dp/0007450656/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446640890&sr=1-1&keywords=farm+boy

Read the sequel, 'Farm Boy'. Could you write your own sequel / prequel to the book?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4

Watch this trailer from the stage production of War Horse. Could you use it as inspiration for creating your own puppets?

Heroes and Villains Dress Up Day

We have had a brilliant day dressing up as heroes and villains! Thanks to everyone for their support with the book donation day.

Macbeth

This week we have been enjoying learning more about Macbeth and the prophecies of the witches. Please see the attached photos of how we have been bringing Shakespearean language to life. What is wonderful is how all of the children are enjoying the work, and getting engaged with some quite difficult language.

History

We have also been finding out about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 as part of our Black History Month work. Today we discovered more about the very brave and inspirational Ruby Bridges; we will be learning more her, including using drama techniques such as hot-seating, thought tracking and conscience alley to understand how she felt when nobody wanted her to attend school.

Music

Children have been trying out group rhythms which began as a lot of noisy banging on the table but ended up as a coherent, organised and unified percussion piece! (I think Mrs Archdale's ears are still hurting from that particularly noisy lesson!)

Art

The Warhol inspired Superhero/Villain pieces are now on display in the classroom window. Some pieces have been chosen to brighten up the interior of our space. The end result of this technique is fantastic - all of the work looks so bold!

Numeracy

It's been a tough few weeks, with short multiplication, fractions and decimals to contend with! Today we explored place value and multiplication skills with online Maths games, which were very much enjoyed, before once again taking on the mighty Superheroes in our on-going multiplication challenge! Well done to all who achieved a certificate today and commiserations to those who just missed out. Keep revising ready to try again next week!

(See photos).

Here are the links should you want to play our games.

Place Value Pirates - http://mrnussbaum.com/placevaluepirates

Maths Millionaire - http://www.math-play.com/Place-Value-Millionaire/play.swf

Bamzooki - http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?a=activity03

Willow and the World in Union

On Thursday 24th September Willow Class, accompanied by Mrs Evans and Mrs Archdale, donned their patriotic face paint before embarking on our adventure into Leeds City Centre.

Excitedly waiting for the number 64 bus, the children had to decide how they were going to ask the bus driver for their ticket. A lesson in responsibility, children then had to ensure they kept their ticket safe for their journey home.

When we arrived in Millennium Square we were greeted by over a thousand other primary school children, all of whom had been rehearsing the dance routine and song throughout the week in preparation for a mass performance of the Rugby World Cup 2015 anthem, 'World in Union'. After a few run-throughs, we were ready, and the result was fantastic!

Eloise even managed to get interviewed by Made in Leeds TV, and the combination of our impeccable behaviour, enthusiasm, awesome moves and face paint also gathered the attention of Calendar News, who asked if we would like to feature on their website!

After a wonderful morning we moved to the nearby City of Leeds museum, where children were asked to investigate the exhibits and find one object that stood out to them as being linked to our 'Heroes and Villains' theme.

On the way home we stopped for a photograph at Olympic Gold Medallist Nicola Adams's golden post-box to commemorate one of Leeds's local sporting heroes.

A fabulous day was had by all! We are already looking forward to our next adventure!

Welcome to Willow Class!

Hopefully you will have seen the wonderful self portraits created by the children, which are displayed on the windows of our fabulous new classroom. The children worked really hard on these pieces and I am sure you will agree that their efforts paid off. Each self portrait is made up entirely of text written by the children about who they are, their family, what they enjoy doing as well as their likes and dislikes.

Our current art project involves creating a Warhol inspired superhero image - look out for the new display soon.

We have also been learning about 'Macbeth', Shakespeare's darkest and some say most powerful tragedy. Exploring how Macbeth turned from hero to villain, children will be using a variety of drama techniques to understand character, theme and plot.

Ted Hughes is the poet we are currently studying. We are learning how an author uses language such as simile and metaphor to engage the reader. This collection of poetry is inspired by nature, and how animals adapt and survive.

In our Science lesson we investigated the dark corners of the school grounds to see what animals we could discover. We will be learning about habitats, life cycles and natural behaviour in this project.

In other exciting news, I discovered on Friday afternoon that Willow class have been invited to take part in The Big Dance Big Sing event in Millennium Square this Thursday, 24th September! This event is part of the Rugby World Cup Fan Zone events that are taking place. We will be learning 'World in Union' and a related dance involving a rugby ball! I will be in touch on Monday as soon as I find out more details.

As you can see, we have had an exciting and jam-packed fortnight already, and I am looking forward to everything else we have in store this year.

Mrs Evans