Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Harlow Carr visit

  Fri 30 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  What a super day we have had at Harlow Carr. The children thoroughly enjoyed the gardens and were expert at making all kinds of interesting observations of nature around us. They spotted flowers, berries, fungi and tiny creatures, as well as signs of autumn in the trees and the bigger features like waterfalls and artwork. The children loved using the new school cameras to take snaps of their finds too! 

  A highlight of our visit was meeting the BFG himself. We sat underneath his towering figure and read some of the BFG story together.

  After picnic lunch on the grass, we had a lovely afternoon workshop finding scented leaves, flowers and seeds to make perfumes, before collecting autumn finds to make into fantastic crowns.

  Of course, we also made sure we had time to go on the adventure play areas, and after that, with all the walking too, I am sure the children have gone home very tired but very happy!

   

  Have a look at more photos of our visit in the Gallery section of our website.

   

  http://www.hampsthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk/y12-harlow-carr-visit-september-2016/

  

• Hampsthwaite win silver in swimming gala

  Thu 29 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix
  Hampsthwaite swimmers scooped silver in the 2016 Tolly Richardson swimming gala. Congratulations to our fantastic swimming team, who swept through each heat with speed and style to claim their silver medals.
  The excitement really built up through the afternoon, and it was wonderful to see the children's support, encouragement and congratulations for one another as each member of the team put their very best effort into their heats and relays.
  Hampsthwaite took 1st place in 7 of their separate heats and came 2nd in 5 others, to total a massive 171 points in the end - just 7 points behind the overall winners.
  The children were delighted to be presented with their silver medals, and the team will now go forward to the area finals on Tuesday 18th October. Thank you to all the Hydro staff for hosting such an enjoyable and exciting event, and very well done to all our amazing swimmers - we are really proud of you all. 

  

• Ancient Egyptian Workshop

  Wed 28 Sep 2016 Mrs Borchard

  What a fabulous day! A visitor came for the full day in to Team Phoenix with a whole host of amazing artefacts. During the morning, the children handled, talked about and drew several of the artefacts, which included a wooden spinning drill, flint, bronze and copper arrow heads, swords and a headrest. The mummified crocodile raised a few eyebrows after playtime, which lead on to a presentation about the process of mummification. As incense burned, the children watched intently as John demonstrated the pulling out of the brains with a sharp tool through the nose and children took turns to remove the intestines, stomach, heart and lungs. After lunch, every child had the opportunity to dress up with some of the Egyptian armour and hold weapons. They learnt about archers and wrestlers and observed the changes through time of how the weapons were adapted and improved. Seega, an Egyptian game, was a fun way to finish the day.

  I was absolutely delighted with the children's attention and excellent questions. Well done all!

  

• Phonics Workshop

  Wed 21 Sep 2016 Michelle Herrington

  Thank you to all the parents who attended the Phonics Workshop on Wednesday. We discussed what phonics is all about, the format of a phonics lesson and what is taught during Reception and Year 1. The parents and grandparents who attended joined in with some exercises such as a phoneme spotter activity. If you were unable to attend the workshop and have any questions then please do come and have a chat.

   

  

• Buddy Reading

  Mon 19 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  Everyone in school enjoyed a super Buddy Reading session this afternoon. Children in Team Dragon were matched with buddies from Team Phoenix, and Team Unicorn with buddies from Team Titan.

  The children then had around 20 minutes to share books together, and it was lovely to see the interaction between the children of different ages, as reading went on right across the school. Their enthusiasm for the stories and information they shared together was fantastic. What a super way to make friends in different classes too!

  We will keep up Buddy Reading as a regular event, and we may ask for children to bring in some of their favourite books to share from home too.

  On the subject of books at home, don't forget that children can contribute book reviews, favourite reads and other ideas and thoughts on our DB Primary Reading forums and other on-line discussions. They can access DB Primary any time from home as well as in school.

   

• School Values Assembly

  Fri 16 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  Thank you to all those who were able to join us for our School Values assembly this afternoon.

  It was great to be able to see work and ideas from children of all ages linked to each of our school's values of belief, respect, support, creativity and friendship. The assembly showed very clearly how children's understanding of the values grows as they move through the school, from day-to-day application of the values in the younger classes, to deeper reflection and discussions on the wider implications of the values from our older children. We saw examples of the values in practice, in words and actions - poetry, word games, a quiz, physical demonstrations and mini drama sketches. Team Titan have also been thinking about how the school values can also be applied in wider contexts - even at home!

  Well done to all the children for taking part so confidently. It was not an easy task to coordinate the opportunity for every child in the school to be able to share something, including our new reception children, and they all did a fantastic job. Although this meant a slightly late finish, I am sure you will agree that it was worth it - especially with reception's lovely friendship song at the end of the assembly!

• Roald Dahl's centenary

  Mon 12 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  This week is Roald Dahl’s centenary, and as well as Dahl being our focus for assemblies, Team Unicorn have already been busy learning about the BFG and launching a Roald Dahl topic in their classroom. So far, we have built a life-size BFG cave role play area, made ‘real’ snozzcumbers, and equipped the cave with a book of dreams, a dream trumpet, frobscottle and some ‘magic’ dream jars. On Friday, the children had a great time exploring the cave and acting out being the BFG and Sophie, as they shared their dream ideas and kept a watchful eye for any nasty giants in the vicinity! We have also been using the Discovery Education ICT based resources and videos to find out information about Dahl and his stories.

  As a founding school in the UK Discovery Education Community (following my visit to their USA conference back in 2014), I was approached by the Discovery team at the start of term to ask if we would be doing any work linked to Roald Dahl. We were also offered the opportunity to put in early entries to Discovery Education’s Roald Dahl sweet-design competition. When I informed the Discovery team about the work Team Unicorn were doing about the BFG, they were keen to include our school in their press releases. One such article has already gone live – on the Primary Times news website. You can view the article here:

   http://www.primarytimes.net/news/2016/09/roald-dahl-goes-digital-discovery-education-launches-new-resources-and-pupil-competition

  Below are photos of some of our Team Unicorn children busy in the BFG’s cave. The children have been having a great time already learning about Roald Dahl and his amazing stories!

   

  Harrogate News have also reported on our school's Roald Dahl work with this fizzwhizzing article:

  http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2016/09/13/harrogate-pupils-celebrate-roald-dahl-day/

  

• Our School Values Day

  Fri 09 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  On Friday 9th September we had a whole-school Values Day. Children in all classes spent the day working on activities exploring our values of Friendship, Respect, Belief, Support and Creativity.

  Throughout the day, we discovered more about our values and what they mean in practice - what does friendship look like; which words and phrases can we use to show respect; open-ended creative tasks, and reflecting on how it feels when we are being creative; how physical support affects the success of making a model, and therefore how important support, in its different forms, is.

  Discussions in classes revealed how children are aware of different values and how understanding deepens, especially as the children grow as they move through the school - from children in Team Dragon explaining the importance of helping one another and being kind and friendly, to children in Team Titan considering the idea of 'doors of opportunity' and how self-belief and belief in one another can help us aspire to reach our goals.

  In worship time at the end of the day, we thought about the story of the houses built on the sand and the rock, and just as important as the foundations are for a house, so the values we build our lives on are fundamental to the people we become.

  The children (and staff!) all had a great day, and some of them asked me if they can carry on some more values activities next week! 

  On Friday next week, we will be having a special Values Assembly for parents, when we will share some of the ideas and activities we have been doing from all the different classes. I hope you can join us - 2:50pm on 16th September.

   

   

   

   

• Outdoor learning in the warm sunny weather

  Wed 07 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  The humid warmth this afternoon gave us the perfect opportunity to make use of the outdoors. Whilst some of the infants busied themselves building a grass snowman on the field during afternoon playtime, Team Phoenix were working outside on team-based pyramid-building challenges.

  With different equipment, the Team Phoenix children had to design and build pyramids, thinking carefully about secret entrances, shape, orientation, and size - and some groups decided to combine skills and materials and negotiate a 'river or desert journey' to transport their bricks across the field to make a larger structure.

  Their experience of pyramid building is now forming the basis for writing accounts about how the ancient Egyptians constructed their tombs. 

  

• Congratulations Radek and Aneta

  Tue 06 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

  Congratulations to our dedicated and very hard-working cleaning staff, Radek and Aneta, who got married during the summer. They had a lovely sunflower-themed Polish wedding during August.

  They wanted to share their wedding news with the children, and kindly gave a lolly to every child in school to enjoy. Many thanks to Radek and Aneta, and our best wishes from everyone at Hampsthwaite!