Week Ending 27th May 2016

Early on Monday morning, eighteen excited Year 5 children boarded two minibuses, heading down to Devon for a fun packed week at Beam House PGL Centre, near Bideford.

They have enjoyed a fantastic week, with glorious sunshine, and taken part in all sorts of adventurous activities, including body boarding, street surfing, high ropes, aeroball and much more.

Once again, we have been able to follow their adventures via Twitter, and parents have been able to see photos of their children's happy faces - and assess just how much laundry they will need to do on their child's return...

 

As you can see, they have had a wonderful time, and we are very proud of them for their good behaviour and great attitude throughout the week.  Everyone got fully involved in all the activities, and really got the most out of their experience.  Well done Foxes, you are a credit to the school!

Back at EBA, the children have enjoyed a relaxing week, with plenty of art, craft and music on the timetable.  The School Choir are busy rehearsing their harmonies in preparation for the Edlesborough Music Festival in June, and the ukulele group is perfecting their song in readiness for a performance at the HSA Fun Day.

Squirrels Class enjoyed a post SATs picnic on Monday, feasting on chocolate cupcakes and having fun in the park.  They have also been very creative and made paper carnations as a follow up to their local history work last week.

There has been a Grecian theme to much of the artwork done in school this week, which is linked to our Olympic topic for this term, as the children find out more about the Ancient Greek Olympics.  Rabbits Class have made and decorated Greek pottery, while children in Badgers, Foxes and Deer Classes have been painting art work for our Carnival float, which will have a mythical theme this year...

Children in Deer Class meanwhile, are exploring another aspect of Ancient Greek culture, and are engaging in philosophical debates, which they are thoroughly enjoying.  The hot topic of discussion this week has been whether twelve year olds should be allowed mobile phones.  As you can imagine, the children have plenty of opinions on this matter!

Our library has been having something of a refurbishment this week, with new bookcases, tables and chairs, and lots and lots of lovely new books, paid for by donations from parents following our Readathon last week.  We are looking forward to creating a fabulous space in which to continue our "Reading Revolution!"

 Have a lovely half term!  We are back on Monday 6th June.

Week Ending 20th May 2016

Our Creative Curriculum theme for this term is"The Olympics" and this week the children have really got into the spirit of the Olympic Games.

In maths, children in Otters class have been estimating, comparing and weighing different objects in the classroom.  They then began finding out about two Olympic events that involve the use of heavy weights - shot put and hammer throwing - and the children had to solve some maths problems involving these sports.  They have also made some athletes for the class Olympic area by drawing around a volunteer, which they painted in suitable colours for Great Britain, and arranged into medal order!

Hedgehogs Class have focused on Olympic cycling events.  Their story for this week was "Mrs Armitage on Wheels", about a lady who goes for a cycle ride and makes all sorts of modifications to her bicycle!  The children  had great fun in the sunshine, riding their own bikes and scooters in the playground, while learning about directions - left, right, forwards, backwards...

We have all been doing our own version of the Marathon this week - the EBA Readathon!  Peace reigned, as every child in the school chose a book, and had the pleasure of reading for a whole uninterrupted hour, noting down how many pages they were able to get through in that time.  Parents were asked to sponsor their children, and the money raised will go towards books for the School Library, enabling us to continue our "Reading Revolution."

Having finished their SATs tests, Squirrels Class enjoyed a walk around the village on Monday.  In the past, Eaton Bray was famous for carnation growing, and the greenhouses, where the carnations grew are still standing, though they are rather overgrown and derelict now.  The children enjoyed visiting the site of the carnation greenhouses, and discovered that many of the road names in that area reflect the activities that used to take place there.  They were also very interested to learn that Mrs Warby's mother used to work in the greenhouses when carnation growing in Eaton Bray was a thriving industry.

Back in the classroom, the children had the opportunity to look closely at carnations, and draw and paint them in their Art lessons - with impressive results!  There really are some "budding " artists amongst our Year 2 children!

On Wednesday, Badgers Class paid host to their friends from Hillborough School in Luton.  This visit was part of the Schools Linking Network programme, and was a follow up to Badgers' visit to their school in April.  The children enjoyed plenty of activities together, and a picnic lunch.  Unfortunately, in the morning it was a bit wet for them to spend much of their time together outdoors, but lots of fun was had in the School Hall and classroom, and happily, the sun came out enough for them all to enjoy some playtime in the park in the afternoon.

The highlight of this week was without a doubt, Thursday, when the whole of Main School had an "Olympic Day Out" at Stockwood Park Athletics Stadium, to enjoy a day of sports and activities.

The day's events started with race heats, with children participating in everything from 50m sprints to 1500 distance runs.  The children showed wonderful support for their friends, cheering them on with great enthusiasm.  One child is particular made us very proud, when she stopped running and went back to help a friend who needed a bit of extra encouragement to finish the race.  Her actions won her a special award for kindness.

After the running races, there were team games, including shot put, hockey skills, hurdling and the long jump.  These were followed by the finals of the running races, and the relay event, before everyone returned to school for a special awards assembly.

The day was a wonderful success, thanks in part to the weather being kind to us, but mostly to the excellent behaviour of the children, and the hard work of Mrs Hawkes who organised the whole event.

Next week: lots of excitement for some of our Year 5 children, who will be off to Devon for a few days at Beam House PGL Centre.

Week Ending 13th May 2016

Key Stage 2 SATs have finished!!

Our Year 6 children can now relax and enjoy the remainder of their last term at Eaton Bray Academy.  Year 2 children, meanwhile, have just one more task to do next week.  It's been a quiet week with all the assessments going on, but everyone has found time to enjoy the usual variety of activities.

Children in Otters Class have continued their work on growing, by finding out how plants develop and grow.  They have planted sunflower seeds and are continuing to monitor the growth of the potatoes they planted last week - most of them now have their tops showing!

Throughout the school, children have been using our fabulous ipads, and investigating diffferent "apps" to enhance their computing skills.  The Digital Leaders Club, which meets after school every Thursday, are choosing an app to review each month.  Their "App of the Month" for May is "Book Creator", which allows the children to make their own book, adding photos, voices and videos.  They have all agreed that this is a five star app!

The EBA Enterprise team enjoyed another great cookery lesson on Wednesday.  This week they were shown how to make lasagne.  Our aspiring chefs really enjoyed finding out the secrets of how to create this classic Italian dish - and tasting it of course!

Also this week, one of the wraps that was devised in the Enterprise session last week, was included on the school dinner menu.  Everyone enjoyed their tasty fish finger wrap ("The Appetiser"), not least the boys that created the recipe!

On Friday, it was the final Class Assembly of the school year.  This time, it was Hamsters' turn, and the children that took part were the oldest pre-schoolers, who will be joining Hedgehogs Class after the summer holiday.  They shared with their parents some of the lovely work they have been doing this term, including drawings, letters and number work, sang some songs, and told the story of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".  Everyone who attended agreed that it was a really lovely occasion.

In the afternoon, our Year 6 children celebrated the end of SATs week with a bit of a party on the field and in their classroom.  There was music and dancing, a film to watch on the interactive whiteboard, and plenty of party food - sausage rolls, crisps, cake, fruit juice - as well a special celebratory chocolate cake made by Mrs Healy in the kitchen.

All very well deserved we think!