Westdale Junior School news

Our school cricket team took part in the area cricket tournament at Gedling Colliery Cricket Club playing against lots of other schools from the Gedling area. We started by playing several matches in a pool. After we won our pool then went on to the semi finals and victory meant that we then played in the final. This match was much harder than the other matches, but we still won – just! This made us Gedling Champions and so we represented our whole area in the Nottingham Sports competition.

Our school athletics team also won the Gedling Area competition. The team took part in running events (under over relay, hurdles and sprint relay), jumping events (standing long jump, triple jump and speed bounce) and throwing events (javelin and seated over-head throw). We competed against ten other schools and went on to represent the Gedling Area in the county final where we came third overall.

We were equally successful at tag-rugby. Again, we practised hard and played in our area competition at the Henry Mellish Rugby Club. On a very hot afternoon we played three pool matches (and had a bye against a team which did not turn up) to win our pool. Then we had a hard match to win our semi-final before having an easier victory in the final. Yet another victory.

Our rounders squad was unlucky – suffering disappointment when two out of our three events were cancelled due to rain. However, we played well in the friendly tournament that did go ahead, doing particularly well in two out of our three matches.

Labels: 2005, report, sport

On the 13th and 14th of December, in the Westdale Junior School hall, the Year 5 and 6 children performed a Christmas concert to their friends and family. It began with some magnificent carol singing, but then something extraordinary happened.

The surprise was that the service was interrupted by Secret Agents. The Agents turned the carol service upside down, with a range of gadgets and a few other modern twists such as a bank and a gift shop.

In the Christmas story the secret agents had some very important jobs to do. They helped the story along by carrying God’s messages to the character, directed the kings and shepherds to the right places at the right times and they kept Mary and Joseph together and safe. My favourite part of the play was when the agents ‘designed’ a star to guide the kings to Bethlehem. The “star chase” which followed was one of the funniest scenes. Luckily, in the end, the whole ‘operation’ was a success with Simeon presenting Jesus to God right under the noses of the Italian mob (the Romans).

“The acting was superb. Some of them could go far with acting like that!” said one of the parents. Mrs Harrison said, “I thought they were all absolutely fantastic!”

All the children in years 5 and 6 took part in this festive event. The actors were great and very enthusiastic with their lines, and you would have thought they had been practicing for much longer than just 2 weeks.

Labels: 2005, music, report