Although this has been a short half term, we have still had lots of activities, outings and fantastic learning opportunities. In the last newsletter we promised you more pictures and accounts of the recent Year 5 residential to PGL Windmill Hill and I am sure you will see from the pictures and children’s reviews how much fun the children all had. I am sure our current Year 4 children will be especially interested to see what they could be doing in Spring Term 2015. At the back of this newsletter are important dates for the remainder of the year. As well as term dates for the next year. PGL Review In year 5 we have been on an amazing, fun, cool and incredible trip to PGL! All the activities were awesome. Some of our favourite activities were giant swing, trapeze, zipwire and Jacob’s ladder. All these activities were so much fun. We got to act like we were heroes, starfish and lots of other things as we went down the zipwire. Even when we were feeling a little bit scared of heights, the PGL instructors encouraged us to try our best and we gave everything a go. We would have really regretted it if we hadn’t because the activities were amazing. The evening entertainment was also great fun. We did wacky races one night. You get to dress up in wacky clothes and race in wacky ways. We also played around the world, where you get to go around the PGL site and look for a flag. They give you questions to answer to help you find it. Our favourite evening entertainment was ambush. It is like hide and seek, but if the seekers walk past you shout ‘AMBUSH!’ Also we loved the disco. It was epic and they played the best songs. At PGL you get 3 hot meals a day with tasty drinks that you can keep on filling up. Also there is a salad bar where you can get the nicest sides and some fruit. The rooms are very cosy, have en-suite bathrooms and lovely beds and bedding. Don’t worry if you feel scared in the night. The instructors and teachers are there to help you and are always close by. The groupie (group leader) makes you feel welcome and makes everything fun. We are so glad that we went to PGL and are very grateful to all of the adults that came with us! Lydia and Joey . Our Nursery classes went on a trip to Maryon Wilson small animal park, where a good time was had by all. We got to feed and handle lots of different animals: a pig, deer, sheep, chicken, ducks, geese, a peacock, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, a rat, terrapins and a chinchilla. Our favourite was a duck called Peking. In the classroom our student teacher brought in some eight week old chicks from home. They were much bigger than the chicks we saw just hatched in Ms Driscoll’s class. We learned lots of things about chickens such as when they like to sleep and what they like to eat. We really enjoyed stroking and holding the chicks too We have also had caterpillars in our class for the last three weeks and we have watched them grow from being really tiny to very big caterpillars. Now they have turned into cocoons and we are really hoping that they become butterflies before the holiday. We read the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar and as he liked to eat lots of fruit we made fruit salads to try lots of fruit too. We could choose from melon, pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, pears, banana, apples, oranges, plums and nectarines. Some of us tried them all! Delicious! Every year we have the Living Eggs Programme come into our school for two weeks. The eggs arrive and the children are able to watch them hatching and see how the chicks grow. Jake L said “ the eggs arrived on Monday, we had to be quiet so the eggs could hatch. On Tuesday one hatched when we were out at playtime and we found it sitting in its shell, it finally kicked the shell away. We had to keep the heat at 34 degrees until the others hatched. They looked slimy when they came out . When they were all hatched and they had fluffed up we put them in their other box. We then got to hold them , the female chicks are brown and the males are a lemony colour.” Ellie D and Ellice L said “We went into the music room first and found old instruments. Then we went into the tribal part and we saw everyday use items like a washing board and a chair. They also showed us a stuffed alligator from the Rain Forest. We went into the Aztec room and used a huge I pad to find out information. We then had to use our senses to find our way our of a pitch black cave, it was a bit scary as it was so dark and we held onto each other. We then visited the aquarium where we saw lots of fish, jelly fish and some green frogs that are poisonous and hide in the plants. We also saw Indian feather headdresses.” Maisie D said “ We went on the bus to Hall Place and we walked there from the bus stop, we put all our bags in a box and then two ladies Helen and Anne showed us around and told us where to go. We went into the hall and then 4A went with Helen to learn about the kitchen and food and 4B went with Ann to learn about the Tudor fashion and rich Tudors and then we swapped. We got to dress up in the clothes, it was really fun and funny when we dressed up as the clothes were so big.” Megan T said “ We brought in a cardboard box and painted it, we then decorated it. We used a pencil and blue tac to make holes in for the split pins and then we could attach wires to connect the answers to the questions. We are going to be testing the games tomorrow.” Avanti, Make a Difference Judge wrote: “I am very pleased to announce that your Year 3 class at Hook Lane Primary School was the Runner-Up in the Greater London Make A Difference Scrapbook Competition! You were very close to being a winning scrapbook, so a very big and warm congratulations to you and your pupils for their amazing efforts! The competition was tough, but your pupils’ beautifully presented scrapbook really shone as an exemplary model, brimming over with examples and photographic evidence of how to plan and execute the Make a Difference Challenge. We were impressed by your cross-curricular links and your democratic decision-making process. We particularly enjoyed all the animal-themed products pupils made for their fundraiser, and the passion children showed in the powerful poem that they wrote. We also loved the great photograph in the Newshopper! We will be sending your class a card and some small prizes in the post. Congratulations! Warmest wishes, Avanti Make a Difference” Joe F said “ we cut out a picture of a coffin from paper and then we decorated it with Egyptian writing and symbols. We then got clay balls and rolled them into sausage shapes and squeezed it to make two feet, we then mixed gold and white paint and painted our mummies. We put them in their coffins. We then made a lid that opened and closed. I really liked making this.” Evie B and Max T said “ we put paper mache on our cardboard box to make it stronger, we drew a line down the middle to where the centre is. We then sawed 2.5 cm x 5mm wood to make the cam. We found the centre and used a hand drill to drill a hole through the box, this will be the axle and we are going to finish them after half term.” RA have been very busy this term making mini-beasts, planting and watching bean plants grow and watching caterpillars turn into cocoons. RB have been making lots of things including the lovely mini-beast masks they are all wearing. Lifeboat Appeal—We were lucky to have a gentleman from the RNLI come in and talk to the children about this worthy cause and how the money raised is used. Thank you for your donations and we are pleased to announce we were the top primary school raising £125.08 We had out Mad Hair Day and Hat day organised by the PTA. We raised £315.00. Everyone looked great and this money will go towards the new playground equipment planned for the field. Our Year 5 football team reached the final of the Under 10’s tournament. They all played really well and had a great day. They had a positive attitude and were a credit to the school. Our Year 6 team reached the quarter finals of the Kevin McCarthy Cup and got knocked out by the eventual winners so we did really well only losing by 1 goal. Our Year 5&6 cricket team will be taking part in the school sports game tournament later in June at Bexley Grammar— watch this space. We are pleased to announce that we have achieved the Silver Primary Science Quality Mark. This award shows the excellent work the school does in Science and recognises the continued importance of Science at Hook Lane. April’s best attendance is awarded to 2B Mrs Cakirs class with 99%. Well done. May’s best attendance is awarded to 4B Miss Bridles class with 99%. Well done Our staff car park is not able to cope with any extra cars so please can we request that parents do not park in it at any time. This is for staff use only. Also a reminder again to be considerate to the neighbours of the school and not park in front of their drives. If at all possible we would encourage parents to walk to school with their children due to the shortage of parking spaces in the roads surrounding the school. Can we remind you to please use the school diary as much as possible for messages to the teachers, including if your child is being collected by a different adult. Finally a polite request again that all money coming into school is in an envelope with your child's name clearly printed on it. Please enclose the correct money as we do not hold a great deal of change. Reply slips and envelopes, or any information coming into school, should be placed in the white box in reception. Now the weather is warmer, please apply cun cream to your child before school and ensure they have a hat and a water bottle in school at all times. Thank you for your co-operation in all of the above. Monday 2nd June Staff Training Day Tuesday 3rd June 5pm Year 5 Secondary Transfer Meeting Friday 6th June 3.30-6pm Summer Fete Wednesday 11th June 9am 1B assembly Wednesday 11th June 1.30pm Foundation Stage Sports Event Thursday 12th June 9am 3A assembly Friday 13th June 9.30am Key Stage 2 Sports Event Friday 13th June 1.20pm Key Stage 1 Sports Event Monday 16h June Year 3 to Royal Observatory Wednesday 18th June 9am 2A assembly Thursday 19th June 9am 5A assembly Wednesday 25th June 9am RA assembly Wednesday 2nd July 9am 2B assembly Thursday 3rd July 9am 4B assembly Friday 4th July Pupils meet the teacher & Reports home Tuesday 8th July 3.30-4.30pm Discuss reports with teachers (optional) Wednesday 9th July 9am RB assembly Thursday 10th July 9am 3B assembly Friday 11th July Pupils 2nd meet the teacher morning Tuesday 15th July 7pm Year 6 Production Wednesday 16th July 7pm Year 6 Production Thursday 17th July Year 2 to Joss Bay Friday 18th July Pupils 3rd meet the teacher morning Friday 18th July Year 6 PTA leavers disco Tuesday 22nd July 2pm Year 6 Leavers Assembly Tuesday 22nd July 2.30pm School Closes for Summer HOOK LANE PRIMARY SCHOOL SCHOOL TERMS and HOLIDAY DATES 2014/15 Summer Term 2014 Tuesday 22 April – Friday 23 May Half Term 26 – 30 May Tuesday 3 June – Tuesday 22 July Autumn Term 2014 Monday 1 September – Friday 24 October Half Term 27-31 October Monday 3 November – Friday 19 December Spring Term 2015 Monday 5 January – Friday 13 February Half Term 16 – 20 February Monday 23 February – Friday 27 March Summer Term 2015 Monday 13 April – Friday 22 May Half Term 25-29 May Monday 1 June – Monday 20 July Autumn Term 2015 Thursday 3 September – Friday 23 October Half Term 26-30 October Monday 2 November – Friday 18 December Staff Training Days Monday 2nd June 2014 Wednesday 23rd July 2014 +5 days in academic year 2014-15 to be advised