Week Ending 28th June 2019

The sun came back out this week, which was very welcome!

On Monday, Otters and Squirrels Classes had a right royal day out, visiting Windsor Castle.  They had a wonderful time looking around the state apartments, admiring the decorative ceilings and fine furnishings.  One child described it all as "mind-boggling!"

The children took part in workshops to learn more about the castle. Otters Class took part in "Knights Wanted Here", which explored the history of the castle and its occupants.  They discovered how knights were trained, found out about armour and the kinghts' code of chivalry, and had the opportunity to dress up and enjoy some medieval role play.

Squirrels Class focused on the current occupants of Windsor Castle, taking part in the "Who is the Queen?" workshop. They learnt all about the duties of the Queen, her life, and her love of corgis.  They performed a dubbing ceremony and a coronation using replica Crown Jewels.

The Royal Standard was flying over Windsor Castle, so the children were excited to learn that this meant that the Queen was in residence!

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Back in school, Hedgehogs Class have been finding out about Human Rights and equality.  The children painted their feet and made foot prints, to illustrate that everyone's footprint looks the same so we are all equal.

 

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On Thursday, we all enjoyed a very cultural day.  We were visited by actors from the Grove Theatre in Dunstable, who came in to deliver Shakespeare themed drama sessions with the children.  This was a follow up to our "Shakespeare Spectacular" day earlier in the month.

The children had to role play short scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and freeze-frame them so that the human statues they created would show the essence of the scene, as described to them by the workshop leaders. 

It was a beautiful day, so the sessions took place outside on the playground - open air theatre in the sunshine!  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day, and our visitors commented on how well behaved and enthusiastic the children were. 

 

 

 

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Week Ending 21st June 2019

This week, Badgers Class children had a wonderful trip to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre in Dunstable.  They travelled by minibus, with half the class going on Monday, and the remainder on Tuesday.

The children enjoyed an interesting guided tour of the warehouse, which covers three floors and is the size of four football pitches! They listened to commentary through earphones which cut out all the noise from the machinery, and had to make sure that they walked on the blue pavement, so that they didn't get in the way of all that was going on in the busy work area.

The children were fascinated to discovery how robots are used by Amazon to move stock around.  There are around two thousand of them at the Dunstable Fulfilment Centre, which are programmed by reading bar codes.  The boxes are loaded onto automated conveyor belts, and have labels stuck on to them by robots, before being sent off to their destinations.  All the robots are given names, which are chosen and voted for by the employees.

At the end of the tour, all the children were given a water bottle and a Rubik cube puzzle to take home.

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This year, Rabbits Class has linked up with Maidenhall Primary School in Luton as part of The School's Linking Network which aims to teach and promote identity, diversity, community and equality. 

On Thursday, the children from Maidenhall visited our school.  Rabbits Class children escorted them around the school giving them a thorough tour.  The theme of the day was based upon the book "Under the Same Sky" by Britta Keckentrup.  After reading the short book together, the children were presented with the four key questions from the text:

• Who am I? 
• Who are we?
• Where do we live?
• How do we all live together?

The children were divided into mixed school groups.  To answer these questions the children had to take part in four different activities.  They had to create a 3D mask, writing a brief description of themselves on the inside of the face.  The children drew around their hands, writing a brief account of their interests and grouped the hands together to create a collage where similarities were found.  They searched for their homes on Google Maps, and they created dream-catchers to show how we can all live together.

All the children had lunch together and enjoyed playing on the apparatus on the field.  Part of the story they read involves everyone playing the same games, so the children made up their own games which they played before the children from Maidenhall returned to Luton. It was a very busy and enjoyable day for all.

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 On Friday we had a non-uniform day, where the children could wear their favourite clothes to school in return for the donation of a bottle for the tombola at our forthcoming Summer Fun Day.  The PTA volunteers have been working hard to organise this event, which takes place after our Key Stage One Sports Day on the afternoon of Tuesday 9th July.  Fingers crossed for good weather and a successful fundraiser!

PTA volunteers are also now busy organising the carnival float for the annual procession that takes place this year on Saturday 6th July.  The theme is "Village Life", and our float will chart the history of Eaton Bray, which the children have been learning about throughout this year.  Eaton Bray of course is famed for its damsons and carnations, so if you attend the carnival, do look out for the lorry covered with these!

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Week Ending 14th June 2019

The weather may have been wet and miserable, but it has really been a marvellous week at Eaton Bray Academy!

On Wednesday morning we received a phone call to tell us that our Ofsted report was available, following our inspection just before half term.  We were delighted to learn that we have been judged "Good" in all areas!

The report contains some lovely comments, made by the inspectors, based on the observations they made about our school, the staff and the children during the two days that they were with us:

"Pupils’ attitudes to school and learning are extremely positive. 

Pupils are unfailingly proud of their school."

"The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is securely good and supports 

many pupils in making strong progress."

"Pupils described the school as a caring and fun environment."

"The school’s work to promote pupils’ 

personal development and welfare is outstanding."

"Pupils behave well in lessons and display positive attitudes at playtime. 

Conduct around the school is excellent."

"Adults support children’s personal, social and emotional development well. 

They model how they expect children to speak to one another and how to treat others with respect."

We all agree that this is an accurate description of school life at Eaton Bray Academy, that reflects our school ethos, and confirms that Eaton Bray Academy is indeed "A Wonderful Place To Be!"

The full report can be read on our website - click here to find it.

To add to our delight, we have also learnt that we have been awarded a gilt Primary Science Quality Mark, for our Science provision, in addition to the School Games gold award that we achieved for PE provision earlier this year.

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On Thursday we held a "Shakespeare Spectacular" day.  Everyone came to school dressed as a character from one of Shakespeare's plays, and the children were given the task of finding out information about their character of choice.  They had fun introducing themselves to the rest of their class in character. There were witches and ghosts, fairies, donkeys, kings and queens, and a whole cast of fine Lords, Ladies, Merry Wives, Friends, Romans and Countrymen...!

The day was spent enjoying activities based around the works of Shakespeare.  Otters Class focused on "A Midsummer Night's Dream". They listened to a version of the play, then worked in groups to create a magical woodland collage, filled with enchanted creatures.  Deer Class also looked at this play, as did Rabbits, who created puppet characters to enact the story.  Badgers Class learnt all about the life of Shakespeare, and investigated the story of "Macbeth", while Squirrels Class based their work on "The Tempest".

It was a lovely day, which the children all thoroughly enjoyed.  It will be followed up in a couple of weeks with a visit from actors based at The Grove Theatre, who will come in to deliver some Shakespeare themed workshops to all the children in Main School, which is something to look forward to!

 

 

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Now all that we need is an improvement in the weather, as games on the field in warm sunshine would be most welcome in the coming weeks, rather than all the wet playtimes that we have had this week!

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Week Ending 7th June 2019

On Monday we all returned to school full of enthusiasm for the last few weeks of the summer term.  Hedgehogs, Otters and Squirrels children had an exciting morning, as they released their butterflies in the lovely sunshine.  They were delighted to watch them flutter away, and even more delighted when they returned to land on their hands!

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On Wednesday, Foxes and Deer Classes enjoyed a day out visiting the Verulamium Museum in St Albans.  They looked at a variety of Roman artefacts including mosiacs, pottery, coins, clothing and cooking implements, completing worksheets as they explored the museum.  They learnt all about the hypocaust underfloor heating system, looked at old tombs, and investigated the old Roman city wall. 
 

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On Thursday, Otter Class children enjoyed a superheroes picnic.  They prepared the picnic themselves, using their mathematical skills and knowledge of fractions and division, to slice cakes and pizzas into halves and quarters, and to divide biscuits equally amongst themselves.  They made superhero masks to wear, again using fractions and symmetry to create their designs, before heading out onto the field to enjoy the yummy food after all their hard work!

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Also on Thursday, we bid a fond farewell to a member of staff who has been part of the school for many years. Mrs Young started working as a Teaching Assistant in Hedgehogs Class on June 6th 2006, and her last day with us came exactly thirteen years later on June 6th 2019!  Over this time she has worked with every year group from Pre-School to Year Six, as well as being our IT expert, making sure that the computer systems keep running properly.  We held a special goodbye assembly for her, where the children presented her with cards that they had made themselves.  We will all miss her greatly and wish her well for the future.

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On Friday we celebrated "Wear it Wild" day.  This was a special dress-up day to raise awareness and funds for the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).  Everyone paid £1 to come to school dressed as animal, and enjoyed a day of fun activities with a wildlife theme.

Badgers Class did lots of crafts with recycled materials, while Squirrels investigated camouflage, painting animal skin patterns to conceal different animals.  Hedgehogs found out about the rainforest and made frogs and snakes to populate their own rainforest, and older children did a quiz to help them learn more about endangered animals.

In the afternoon, all the Choices and Enrichment activities had a "wild" theme, so the children enjoyed wild yoga, wild lego, wild golf, wild gardening and so on!

It was a really grrrrreat day!!

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