Monthly archives: June 2019

#Takethemaskchallenge!

 in Scafell / Whole School by

Scafell have been exploring the subject of climate change and the impact of human activity on the planet.  As part of the United Nations World Environment Day on June 5th, children in years 5+6 took the mask challenge – this was a social media campaign to design and make creative masks related to this year’s theme on air pollution and make a pledge to change one aspect of your life to help reduce our carbon footprint.

Here are some of our fabulous creations and promises to change.

We have also created amazing speeches inspired by Greta Thunberg, the 15year old Swedish activist; wrote persuasive poems encouraging people to do more to protect our planet; led assemblies to raise awareness with the rest of the school and our parents; and considered what more we could do as a school to be more environmentally friendly.

One change we will be making soon is reducing the amount of plastic use in our school by changing how our system for supplying milk for our infant children.

Exploring Heaves Farm

 in Scafell / Skiddaw by

Skiddaw and Scafell class enjoyed a fascinating time exploring farming today at Heaves Farm. We walked up briskly and arrived perfectly timed to be whisked away to the far reaches of the farm. We learnt all about the ways farmers and their animals provide for us – such as chickens, sheep, cows and pigs. We’ve walked inside the milking parlour and the cow shed, watched hour-old calves and learnt how robotics, machinery and IT keep the farmer in touch with their animals 24/7. There were also a myriad of other interesting farming and country related stations where we met spinners, veg growers, butchers, vets, sheep shearers, sheep dogs and their owners and dry stone wallers to name just a few. Sincere thanks to all the members and volunteers of the Westmorland County Agricultural Society and Roger, Carole and Gary Mason for opening their farm up to us. We’ve come back to school full of facts and insights into how farming touches everyone’s life everyday.

Outdoor Learning with Skiddaw Class

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

What a wonderful afternoon we enjoyed in our woodland area.  We spent our time developing a range of skills in the outdoors including problem solving, communication, resilience, negotiation.   We exercised our creative talents making small-world environments and by creating images using only natural materials.  We also enjoyed a treasure hunt!

 

Rugby Festival at Kirkby Lonsdale Rugby Club

 in Scafell / Whole School by

This week, Scafell were lucky enough to be invited to the annual rugby festival at Kirkby Lonsdale Rugby Club! Despite being a bit dubious about all of the rain in the morning, it brightened up into a scorcher of a day and a fantastic experience!

We started with a  mass warm up – nearly 450 of us at the same time! (Mr Dean’s note – having 450 children stampeding across a field towards you is very unsettling). This got us into the right mood for the day and we get straight down to it with some skills based games!

Rugby can be a tricky sport – the ball is a weird shape and you’re only allowed to pass backwards, so the skills games really helped us to refine our technique and get some important practice in for the afternoon of games ahead. We also learned about rules specific to tag rugby – tackles are made with two-hand contact and the most important part of the game is good sportsmanship (something which I’m proud to say Levens had in spades!).

Having practiced a variety of skills it was onto the pitches to take part in a gruelling series of quick 5-minute games. We got to play a range of schools across the local area and managed to win more often than not! More importantly, everyone made sure to play fairly and work together to make the day a great success.

Many thanks to Kirkby Lonsdale RUFC (http://www.klrufc.co.uk/) for hosting and organising the day. We’ve definitely got some future rugby players in our midst!

Don’t forget to check out the photo album of the day for some awesome action shots!

NSPCC Speak Out! Stay Safe!

 in Whole School by

This week, the NSPCC visited school to talk to children from Reception up to year six about the right to feel and be safe.  We learnt about all the things that can make us worried; about identifying our trusted adults; about different forms of abuse; and most importantly about where to get help.

Take a look at the Childline website for some useful support and valuable further information: www.childline.org.uk/kids.

 

Exploring the Theory of Evolution and Genesis!

 in Church / Scafell / Whole School by

Scafell have been asking big questions this week!

Our topic in RE this term has involved exploring creation stories from different religions and cultures; and comparing them to the Christian story of Creation found in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis.  We have also looked at the findings of great scientists, including: David Attenborough, Stephen Hawkings and Charles Darwin.

We invited Sarah from NISCU into school.  Sarah is a scientist and a Christian. She talked to us about how it is possible to believe in the scientific theories explaining the beginning of the world whilst also believing that God began this sequence of events.  She really got us to think about these big questions and ideas in more detail with some fantastic props and activities that included: dominoes, party poppers, mystery feely bags and an animation showing the theory of evolution of millions of years.

Bowfell’s STEM day

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Reception and Year One enjoyed their STEM day last Thursday when Fran from C-STEM came to visit with his huge tubs of Lego! The children had the opportunity to have a rummage through the boxes and discovered some specialist pieces of Lego which aren’t normally found in the widely available sets. Fran challenged the children to build the tallest tower that they could with the Lego, they had to remember to try and make sure their towers were strong as well as tall! After looking at everyone’s creation they then had to build a bridge connecting the towers to each other. The final challenge of the morning was creating space houses and rockets. The children were thoroughly engrossed in their activities which promoted team work, problem- solving and critical thinking skills. Many thanks go to FOLS for kindly funding this experience for the children.

 

Tennis Club in the Rain

 in Whole School by

The rain didn’t deter our young enthusiasts at our first of five sessions last week.  Our wonderful expert coach put us through our paces at the start warming us up thoroughly on a cold June day!  We developed our hand-eye coordination; learnt how to strike the ball using forehand and backhand strokes; and then had a fabulous game of ‘Cricket-Tennis’.  Well done everyone and look forward to more fun next week!

Pizza+Canoeing=Fab Day!

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

Canoeing across to an island on Lake Windermere was made even more fun with lots of splashing from the waves, and lots from each other, but we were all dressed for the occasion and we made it in style! After a bit of exploring, we patiently made our own pizzas adding a wide variety of toppings lovingly prepared with mushrooms, ham, anchovies, salami, peppers, tomato and lashings of cheese. Once we had returned to the shore many splashed and played in the chilly water – sorry no pictures of that as we were having too much fun! Thank you to Phil, Pete and Chris for taking us – definitely a day to remember.

Rocket Cars!

 in Whole School by

It’s all gone so fast, but we’ve just had the final session of STEM club! After weeks of research, designing, planning, creating and diagnosing, the rocket cars were finally ready for a race!

Since the beginning of the Summer term, a group of future engineers have been working in small teams to design and build a rocket car out of scrap materials. Inspired by the Bloodhound SSC – a rocket car with a goal of being the first to travel faster than 1000mph, we’ve looked at different ways of producing and controlling thrust. Thrust is the reason why, when you blow up a balloon and let go, the balloon shoots around in random directions. Control this thrust – by strapping the balloon to a vehicle – and you have a very basic rocket engine.

All of the teams have worked super hard throughout the half term to design and build their cars, showing the resilience to not give up and try again if it didn’t work out. Today was the final race, with a wide range of strategies on show. Some slow and steady cars made their distance carefully and methodically, while some cars released all of their power in one big go, at one point ending up with an impressive negative score! Well done to all who joined in – prizes for the winning teams will be awarded soon!

To find out more about the Bloodhound rocket car, please click here! (http://www.bloodhoundeducation.com/