Football and Rounders Teams

Westdale has participated in football and rounders matches against other schools in the area this year.

Our football team had a very positive start to the season with a super performance in the Gedling 5-a-side competition which saw our team through to the semi-final qualification stage. We also managed to get through to the third round of the knockout cup competition. The league is a seven-a-side competition now (a requirement of the F.A. for children of this age) and, despite some brave performances, we lost more matches than we won. However, we were delighted to win our final match of the season – the all important “local derby” against Mapperley Plains Primary School.

There was also some disappointment for the rounders team this year because more than half our games were cancelled due to poor weather. Nevertheless, in the games that we did play, we had tremendous success again this year. We played a total of seven matches this half-term, winning four, drawing two and losing just one. The bowling and fielding in particular were very good and more than twenty different children (a third of all our Year 6 pupils) represented our school in at least one match.

Kingswood

In September 2000 most of the Year 6 pupils went to Kingswood near Wolverhampton for the weekend. The trip was organised by Mrs Harrison, and Mr Caldwell, Mr Jennings and Mrs Leigh came with us. While we were there the Kingswood helpers explained the activities and helped us throughout the weekend. The two people who led our group Joey and Stu.

There were excellent facilities at Kingswood and it was fun to sleep with your friends in the dormitories. Everyone had a bunk, which was quite comfortable, and everyone had a box to put their belongings in. (You had to make your own bed though.) The food was very good and there was lots of choice.

We had lots of different activities including three computer activities in which we used a digital camera, a music program and Lego Dacta.

One of the most popular activities was Air Ball. Air ball is rather like netball played on a trampoline and is for two teams of two players. The object of the game is to throw the ball in the four holes in the netting surrounding the trampoline which are the goals. The netting divides the trampoline up into four sections - one for each player - but it is only about one and a half metres high so that players can throw the ball over to score in the holes in the nets of their opponents. It was a very exhausting game, but great fun.

Nightline was an activity that Westdale had never done before at Kingswood. The idea is very simple. You put on a blindfold and have to follow a line over an under a range of obstacles. At the end you’re all muddy, because you can’t see and you have to crawl in mud and go through tunnels with soggy rotten leaves in. (Afterwards you can have a shower.)

Another brilliant activity was the go-karts. The go-karts were very safe, with helmets all different sizes for different children, seatbelts so you don't fall out. and hand straps so you can't get your hand trapped if you bump into the sides. The go-karts were real - you had a motor, an accelerator pedal and a brake pedal. The track was windy with tyres to stop you from hurting yourself.

Music and Concerts

Christmas Concert

The Christmas Concert took place in the school hall on the 13th of December 2000. The whole school took part with every year group made a different contribution. Year 6 did a Christmas play, poem and disco dance, Years 5 and 4 performed poems and Year 3 sang a song about the difference between a mum’s Christmas and a child’s Christmas.

In between each item the whole school sang Christmas carols and songs including Little donkey, It was on a starry night and We Three Kings. The choir also performed several different songs. A member of the audience remarked, "I really enjoyed the show. The children performed well and they looked like they enjoyed every minute of it."

Pantomime

On the last day of term before Christmas, Year 6 (assisted by three entertainers from Year 5) a presented an hour-long pantomime, Ali Ba Ba, in the Westdale Junior School hall. It was a roaring success. The pantomime was written by Mr Jennings who played the story teller. Mr Stephenson was the Pantomime Clock and Mr Caldwell accompanied the songs and created sound effects.

Almost everyone in Year 6 took part in the pantomime playing character such as the robbers, members of Ali Ba Ba's family, slaves and Ali Ba Ba himself. They practised very hard, including every dinner time and some break times during the last week of term. They all took a script home to learn their lines because it was all put together in four days.

The songs in the pantomime were well-known songs with some different words to fit the story line. They included C.A.V.E. (based on the Village People's Y.M.C.A.) and the Pantomime Clock (based on My Grandfathers Clock).

On the day, nobody forgot their lines and the whole audience loved every bit of the performance, joining in and participating at every opportunity. The children said, "We loved learning our lines and practising, and the performance was great fun. We think everyone enjoyed it!"

The Wooden Horse

Just before Easter, Years 5 and 6 presented the musical The Wooden Horse, retelling the story of Helen of Troy and the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans. They performed in the school hall once in the afternoon and once in the evening to an audience of parents and friends.

There were about 120 children taking part, divided into 8 groups for the narration of the story. The narration, based on a ballad-style poem written by Westdale pupils, was interspersed by songs for the children were split into two groups: the Trojans and the Greeks.

Summer Concert

The Westdale Junior School Summer Concert took place on Wednesday 11th July and was attended by a huge audience.

There was a wide range of musical items from soloists and groups. The choir sang songs from My Fair Lady, and the assembly choir sang I am a small part of the world and I can see clearly now. The orchestra played some assembly songs and the music club played a set of British folk songs. The Fiddling for Fun group played and there were solos and duets from recorder players and violinists. There was also a piano solo and flute solo.

On the Friday before our own concert, members of our choir were invited to the Summer Concert at the Wheldon School. This was a special concert to say farewell to the Wheldon Head of Music, Mr. Smith, who is moving to another school at the end of this school year. The choir sang "I'm getting married in the morning", "The rain in Spain", "All I want is a room somewhere" and "I could have danced all night" from My Fair Lady. As well as singing, we also enjoyed watching the Wheldon students and children from Haddon Primary School perform.

Y3 Theatre Visit

We enjoyed it very much when we went to the theatre. The play was called, The boy who fell into a book. The play was at the Playhouse and we had the chance to look at the new sky mirror too. The main character in the play was called Kevin. In the story he met a man called Rockface Slim, who was trying to save the world from a nasty girl called Greenshark. In the end the Greenshark is killed and Kevin gets safely home. The play was scary (when the headless ghost appeared) and the funniest bit was when Kevin met the Wooblies.

Library Visits

When year 3 went to the library, we looked at books and found loads of information, about lots of different things like fossils, sea life, history and computers. The librarian read us a story about The Greedy Caterpillar. It was a very good story. The best bit was where the caterpillar was eating all the food and was getting fatter and fatter.

The Year 6 visits to the library were very enjoyable too. We went to the library twice, and there were lots of fun activities and things to do. Each time we went to the library there were two activities. The first time we went we had to answer questions about fiction books and the fiction section of the library in order to program an imaginary robot. It was lots of fun. The second time we went, the focus was on non-fiction .We had to use a spinner to tell us which one out of a series of questions we had to answer next, then we had to use our library skills to find the answer using the books in the library.

Labels: 2000, 2001, Christmas, music, report, visit

Mrs Harrison organised another excellent Arts and Book Week this year. Taking place during the week before our February half term holiday, we had a range of visiting speakers, workshops and art activities which were very enjoyable.

The main visitors included the author, David Pascoe who writes (among other things) many of the Stanley Bagshaw books and television scripts. In assembly, he performed some of his poems and talked about writing. Then each of the Year 5 and 6 classes had a writing workshop with him.

The Roundabout Theatre brought their play entitled The Book of Miracles to school. They presented two lively performances, one for Year 3 and one for Year 4. It was an interesting story about a quest to recover a page from an ancient spellbook which had been stolen by an evil magician.

Partake, who provided a Tudor Day at school for Year 4 later in the summer, led a drama workshop for the Year 5 classes based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The children took on a variety of roles to re-create episodes from the story which linked with the Year 5 history work on life in Ancient Greece.

Richard Arter brought a complete set of steel drums for Year 5 and 6 classes to learn to play. He demonstrated the drums, explained how they were played and then everyone had the opportunity to be taught how to play the drums. At the end of the afternoon there was a concert to present the music that had been practised to the whole school. Kevin Skillings used his puppet, Eddie, to lead an assembly, Germaine Cookson provided a modern dance workshop and there was a visit from Seven Trent Water Authority. Years 3 and 4 also had library visits.

In addition to all these visitors, pupils in all classes were involved in a range of art activities including creating a flip-picture, book jackets, drawing, painting and using pastels, making cards, scraper-board pictures and quilling.

Labels: 2001, report, summer fair