A letter from the Mayor!

As you know last half term we visited Sherwood Forest as part of our 'Fantastic Forests' topic. When we returned to school we learnt that Sherwood Forest was set to be demolished to make space for a theme park with hundreds of rides. We worked very hard that week to think of reasons why we should save Sherwood Forest. We even wrote persuasive letters to the Mayor of Derby and the Mayor of Newark to get their help! Here is the reply we received from the Mayor of Newark...

'Dear Year 2,

SHERWOOD FOREST

Thank you for your letter outlining the project that your children have undertaken following their trip to Sherwood Forest.

As a person who was born and has spent most of his life in Nottingham I am very proud of our heritage and Robin Hood is a symbolic feature that is recognisable the world over.

Whilst a new theme park would, no doubt, bring many jobs to the area and provide a boost to the local economy, I agree with the views of the children that the negative impact of such a development significantly outweigh the benefits.

The loss of the natural environment with an historic woodland, containing so many amazing trees that are centuries old could, perhaps, be described as an act of modern day vandalism. The woodland has remained untouched for hundreds of years and it should be protected for future generations to come who, like your children, can explore and re-live what lie would have been like for Robin Hood.

On a personal note when I was a young boy (50 years ago) I visited the Major Oak with my grandma & Grandad. At that time it was possible o get close to the Major Oak and explore the splits in the trunk, where it is thought Robin Hood may have hidden. My lasting memory of the visit was seeing my grandad get stuck in the tree; as he was a bit too fat to fit through the split. This may have led to the increased protection for the tree from the many people who visit it each year!

Whilst there is always a balance to be stuck between progress, new building & new investments and the loss of landscape, natural habitat or heritage; the loss of the site would not be acceptable and the idea of a theme park should be re-located to one of the many sites nearby that are still empty and redundant following the closure of the many coal mines that existed in that part of Nottinghamshire.

In summary I, the Town Mayor, am fully behind your campaign to protect Sherwood Forest for the future, good luck and best wishes.

Yours Sincerely

Cllr R Crowe

Town Mayor.  '

We were extremely excited to receive a letter of support from the Mayor of Newark and hopefully Sherwood Forest will no longer be destroyed. 

Andy Goldsworthy Art!

We had a special job to do outside with Miss Lambert yesterday. We were set the challenge of creating an animation showing our artwork. We based our art on Andy Goldsworthy's pictures where he uses natural things like bark, stones and sticks to make patterns and pictures. 

Our first job was to decide as a team what sort of picture to create and what we might need. We collected twigs, stones and bark to start our project. We chose Grace to be lead photographer and she had a tough job to take pictures because she had to make sure that she stayed still and kept the camera in line with the previous photos. When you make an animation its made of lots of photos where you only change 1 little thing at a time like adding 1 stone. This is when we started putting the material on the floor to create a masterpiece.  

'We had to add one little piece at a time to our picture so that Grace could stay still to take the photos.' - Oliver and Zak 

As a team we had to take 62 photos to make the animation 15 seconds long. What a lot of photos! We had such a good time and the best part was seeing that we were artists like Andy Goldsworthy. 

By Grace, Zak and Oliver C

Sherwood Forest Trip

Last Tuesday we went on an adventure to Sherwood Forest. When we got there we met our guide. His name was Robin of Wentworth and he is one of Robin Hood's Merry Men.  Then we listened whilst he talked  to use about robin hood. It was really interesting.

Next we went for a long walk through the deciduous forest. We saw woody, thin Silver Birch trees with rough bark and wide, huge Oak trees. We walked a little bit further and saw the gigantic Major Oak. What an humongous tree it was!

After that we made animal habitats with a guide called Becky. Our favourite habitat was the one that was made for a hedgehog because it had lots of sticks and grass.

Finally we got back on the coach and went back to school. We were exhausted! What a wonderful, spectacular day we had!

By Connie, Kaynan and Oliver C

Dig and Chips!

On Wednesday 13th April some children and their grown ups stayed after school for the 'Dig and Chip' event. We had to all wait outside of reception so Mrs Patel and Miss Coburn could give people jobs and areas to work in. 'First I went to help Mrs Patel clear the dead plants from the Sensory Square' - Amreet. 

One of the jobs was in Class 8 to make crafts for the shaded area. Jack and Jared made wind chimes and a bird house. To make the wind chimes we had to paint a wooden triangle on both sides, followed by attaching keys to the bottom to make the noisy part. Some of the other jobs in Class 8 were to make feely boards using wool, pom poms, sponges and cds. We also made things to hang from the ceiling called sun catchers. 

It was a very sunny day so lot of people chose to work outside tidying the garden areas and planting new plants. 

After all our hard work we charged into the hall to get our chip butties. What an exciting day it was! The chip butties were soft and fluffy and we couldn't wait to tuck in. 

By Amreet, Jared and Jack

The Sensory Den

After our 'Dig and Chip' event last week, we have now completed our Sensory Den and we can go and enjoy it. 

Inside, each of the walls have a theme of the 5 senses. As it is a Sensory Den we had to make sure it had things to show sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Outside the entrance on the sides of the hexagon we have pots of special plants called herbs which you can smell and taste - although only grown ups can let us taste them! Inside on one wall we made feely boards for people to feel the range of textures, we liked the sponge best because it was soft and squishy. On the next wall we have wind chimes that were made at Dig and Chips using keys that make a magic tingling, jingling sound when the wind blows. On the final wall we have sun catchers that make the Sensory Den look like a colourful disco when the sun shines and they reflect on the floor. 

Finally we have a super, special chair for story telling. It is made out of a Sycamore tree and has been beautifully carved into the shape of stacked books and a mystical castle. The seat part of the chair is made of an open book that says 'Once upon a Ridgeway time...', We are so excited to start using our new Sensory Den!

By Izzy, Aimen and Leianna

A special STEM assembly

After the Easter holidays we came back to school and the first job of the day was going to a surprise assembly in the hall. Miss Coburn started the assembly by recapping our STEM days throughout the year so far. What hard work it was!

Miss Coburn announced that our beautiful, magical story chair had been finished and put inside our new shaded area. She put lots of interesting photos on the screen to show us the finished chair. The whole school were shocked and amazed that the chair was already finished and looked so fantastic. 

Next we had to do a very important job. Miss Coburn explained that the shaded area didn't have a name yet, so we needed to vote. Some of the name suggestions were 'Sensory Den', 'Sensory Hex', 'Sensory Hub' and 'Sensory Hut'. After we had heard all of the names we each had a cube and class by class we went to the front of the hall to make our decision.

In friday's assembly the new name was announced. We were so excited to hear the result! The shaded area is now called...

The Sensory Den!

By Arzoo, Liyanna and Jasleen

STEM Day 3

On STEM day 3 we investigated shadows and searched for existing shading in our playground. We know that a shadow is formed when an object is blocking the light. We found that there are a few shaded areas already on the playground but not enough!

After that we showed our VIP guest (Sam from Rolls Royce) how to test materials to see if they block light. As Scientists we used scientific language to describe the materials. We know that transparent materials are not a good material to use for shading because they let all or a lot of light pass through them. Translucent materials are not suitable either as they let some light pass through. We found that the best materials would be wood or plastic as they are opaque and waterproof.

This week the builders have been working hard to fit our new shaded area (made from wood). This area will help to keep us sun safe, do more learning outside, keep us dry when it rains and give us a space to sit and relax with friends at playtime's. We cannot wait to start using it!

All of Class 8

MADD Week!

This week has been MADD! That stands for - Music, Art, Dance and Drama.

Class 8 had the challenge of looking carefully at Discussion Dolphin - that's one of our new school values. Throughout the week we had to put together a class performance to show the other classes the story of Discussion Dolphin, to show what he represents! He say's 'look, listen and share' and shows us how to be good communicators. 

Some of us were narrators, some were dancers, others were musicians and the rest of us were actors and actresses! We really enjoyed practising and performing our performance. We even learnt a new funny song!

We also had the challenge of creating a large piece of artwork in the shape of Discussion Dolphin. We used powder paint and pointillism. We had lots of time to explore the technique and to explore mixing shades of blue's and grey's. 

Our visitor this week was from West End in schools. He taught us some crazy, strange and funny dance moves and we had to dance to lots of styles of music. The girls had to show lots of attitude and the boys showed lots of style! It was very creative and fun!

Jasleen, Mia, Aiden, Zakariya, Jasmine and Grace

School Council Trip

The school council trip was AMAZING! We went on a coach with the other school council children to the council houses. When we got there we were allowed to go upstairs into the Chamber. We all had a name tag to tell us where to sit. When the Mayor arrived he showed us how to press the button to talk through our microphones. It was cool! We got to ask the Mayor questions and hold our very own school council meeting right there in the Chamber like real Councillors!

We had the very important job of deciding which shaded area we would like to buy as part of the 'Sensation Activation' Rolls Royce project. We talked about the good and bad things of each type of shading and said what we liked and disliked about them. Eventually we decided we liked the wooden shading best because it is waterproof and it will help to keep us sun safe.

After our meeting we got to see the Mayor's office! He showed us a big clock and a chair that had been sat on by Queen Victoria! We liked the swords and weapons that he had hung on his walls.

The trip was awesome and we want to go back!

Jake and Oliver P

The grand opening of our Sensory Square!

Last week we had a special event to announce the opening of our school's Sensory Square. We've been working on our Sensation Activation project for a very long time. Class 8 had to do lots of jobs to help create such interesting sensory pathways including measuring for materials and choosing where we wanted them to go.

We were very lucky because two VIP guests came from Rolls Royce to help with the Grand Opening. Miss Coburn has been updating them about all the hard work that we've been doing so they knew all about the project. 

The whole school gathered around the edge of the sensory square feeling excited and happy. Miss Coburn said a few words about how hard all the children and grown ups have worked. Next was the big moment! Miss Coburn and Sam cut the shiny red ribbon to announce that our Sensory Square is open and we can all enjoy it now and have lot of fun.

By Jack, Pele and Amreet

Pirate Day

Last Wednesday we had a special Pirate day and were nasty Pirates! We came to school in our best Pirate outfits including lots of eye patches and skull bandanas! 

'On the way to school I was so excited because I love learning about Pirates' - Oliver. 

At the start of the day we had an assembly but we were very shocked when a real Pirate walked into the hall! Captain Burwash told us all about famous Pirates like Blackbeard and about why he was wearing the clothes he was. We listened to him tell us all about how he was trying to steal a ship in Hull. He even set us a challenge to make a scary flag for his ship and a wanted poster to hire a crew.

After the assembly we went back to our classroom and we worked in groups to complete the challenges. 

'On our flag we put lots of fire coming out of the skulls mouth to scare other Pirate ships when they see it' - Liyana. 

Captain Burwash visited our classroom and showed us all of his Pirate weapons like guns, swords, axes and grenades. We got to stand at the front and hold his sword whilst he told us about how they use them and why. Did you know that if a Pirate jumped on another boat and got too close to another Pirate they would hit them on the top of their head with the bottom of the sword handle!

We really enjoyed Pirate day because we got to know lots of Pirate secrets and we learnt lots of scary things.

By Hana, Oliver and Liyana

Ahoy! Pirates!

After our nice break from school we came back to find out that are new topic is all about Pirates! We were very excited to hear about all of the interesting things to do with Pirates and their lives at sea. 

So far we have written acrostic poems about Pirates. These poems don't have to rhyme but the first letter of each line spells out a word going down. We made our poems spell out 'Pirates'. 

Last week we made 'Wanted' posters. They have photos of us dressed as mean and angry Pirates. We had to write a description of how the Pirate looked, the reasons why they were wanted and we even offered a reward for their capture! After we wrote on our posters we coffee stained them to make them look old and dirty. Our final job was to gently tear the edges to make them look like historical wanted posters. 

We are extremely excited to have Pirate day where we are allowed to dress up as Pirates for the day. We hope to learn about where Pirates visit and how they find the treasure so easily just using a map during this half term.

By Arzoo, Jaskiran and Leianna 

R.E Trail

Last week we were very lucky to go on our first school trip in Year 2 to the Mosque, Mandir and the Gurdwara. When we came to school we were so excited!

First we went on a large, blue coach to the Mosque. When we arrived we had to cover our heads to show respect to the people who follow the Islamic religion and use the Mosque. Then we took off our shoes and went into the prayer room. There were lots of boxes on the carpet to show where people can use each square as a prayer mat. In the Mosque we learnt that Muslims pray 5 times a day but at different times in the summer and the winter. We also saw some Arabic writing. Did you know that you read Arabic from right to left?

Next we went to the Mandir, this is the Hindu temple of worship. We had to take our shoes off here too. We saw lots of beautiful statues showing the Hindu gods, one of them had 8 arms! We walked around the statues, and saw some people pouring milk and water on a special statue of a snake and then we got a tasty sweet. 

The final place of worship we visited was the Gurdwara. Firstly we had to cover our heads and remove our shoes again. Then a lady taught us about the 5 K's that Sikhs follow. Then we went into the Lungar Hall and we were lucky enough to try some curry and chapati's! This was our favourite part because we got to try new foods and they were delicious!

By Deanna, Isabelle and Rohan

STEM Day 2!

On Wednesday we had the second of our STEM days as part of the Sensation Activation Rolls Royce project. First Miss Coburn told us what we would be doing in a whole school assembly. She explained how we would be better technologists and engineers by designing and making models of a new story chair for our playground.

Our first mission was to design how we wanted the back, arms and legs of our new chair to look. We looked at other chairs and used our imaginations to think of new ideas. We had some super ideas like a king themed chair, a beauty and the beast themed chair and a book themed chair! 

Next we had to copy our ideas onto our final designs. This was when we could make little changes to our designs to make sure they were amazing and unique to our school!

In the afternoon we made models of our final chair designs using foil and sticky tape. We found the foil really tricky to build with because our models wouldn't stand up. In the end and after lots of hard work our models looked great. 

By Ebaney, Oliver and Harleen 

When we went to the Church...

Today we came into school feeling ecstatic to be going on a trip to the Church. First we had to go on a long walk to get to the Church, it took us 20 minutes! On the way we talked to our partners to make our journey go quicker. 

When we arrived we looked at the grave stones that were outside the Church. We learnt that round the back of the church there was an area of really old graves. Next we went inside the gigantic, beautiful Church. The first thing we did inside was sit down on chairs to listen to a man tell us all about Christianity and the Church. He asked us lot of questions and we tried to answer them with what we learnt at school. 

Then the teachers gave us work booklets and we had to look all around the Church to find the objects that were on the first page of our booklets. We also had to draw our favourite parts of the Church - ours were the Font and the Organ! 

Before leaving we were treated to some juice and a biscuit, which were delicious! Then we had the walk back to school but it was much quicker on the way back. 

By Kaynan and Lewis

Mysterious Me

Our new topic this half term is called Mysterious Me and we shall be learning about other peoples lives and thing that make us all special. 

At the start of our topic we made shields. On these shields we had to draw and write about our family and friends. We also had to talk about some of our favourite things and things we are good at.  We made these shields to put on our topic display so we can learn lots about everyone in class 8. On this display we have put up pictures of us with our families, us in our favourite places and pictures of us with our favourite things. 

Next week as part of our topic we are going on an exciting school trip. Our trip is to lots of special religous places. We shall visit a Church, a Temple, a Mosque and a Gurdwara. On this trip we hope to learn lot of new things about the places we are visiting, maybe even about the food they eat and what clothes they wear!

Written by Lewis, Tanvir and Kaynan

Fabulous Farm to Fork week in Class 8

In October we had a special week called Farm to Fork week. We learnt in this week about lot of types of food and how far they have to travel to get to our plates and local shops.

We had a visit from the ladies at Tesco and they brought different types of cheeses to try. Our favourite was the spicy cheese because it made our tongue tingle! Tesco also brought fish in to school and we learnt how to hold them and how to take the head off and how to gut a fish - it smelt disgusting! Finally Tesco brought in fresh fruit and vegetables to learn how much we need to eat for a portion (as big as your palm is only one portion).

We had a visit from Betty's farm who brought in a chicken to show us. The chicken was called Betty and we all got to stroke her. We learnt about how chickens lay healthy eggs and that lots of things in our homes have egg in them like make up and cake!

A lady came in to teach us how to milk a cow called Jenny and we had to pull the pretend cows udders to make the milk come out. We learnt how to turn the milk into butter. We then ate our butter on yummy soft  bread.

Written by Jared, Aditya and Connie

Super STEM day!

In September we had a super STEM day. STEM means we learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. We had a STEM day as part of our work towards the Rolls-Royce Science prize in which we are finalists. 

In our STEM day we had to test lots of materials so we could change the sensory square because it had lots of small stones in it that we couldn't sweep up! First we had to walk along fake grass and it felt nice and soft on our toes, then we walked through the sand and that felt smooth but it also tickled our feet. Next we tried to walk on rope circles and they felt rough and hard. The big stones and the logs we walked on also felt hard on our feet. We enjoyed walking through the paper because it felt like real snow!

In year 2 we had to measure the sensory square to know where we could put sections of the new materials. After we measured we had to design our plan for the sensory square with the new materials that we tested. The materials we chose as the best for our project were the fake grass, rope circles, the tiles, the big stones and the logs. 

Written by Oliver, Aimen and Ebaney