Westdale Junior School news

Governor Election (February 2012)

2012-01-26T18:26:00.000Z

Links to a letter and a nomination form in connection with the election of a parent governor have been placed on the "Parents" page of our website.

End of term - Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T17:22:00.001Z

The Autumn Term finished with Christmas parties for Years 3 & 4 on Monday 19th and for Years 5 & 6 on Tuesday 20th December.

Also on 20th December, we enjoyed a super Carol Service in which the children in all the years groups took part by providing a song or a poem as part of the service. The Choir and Assembly Choir opened the carol service with Jingle Bell Rock and Merry Christmas Everyone accompanied by our ukulele group and school orchestra. There were plenty of carols for everyone to join in and readers from Year 6 narrated the Christmas Story for theYear 3 actors and actresses. Later, the Choir and Assembly Choir sang again, this time performing A star in the sky (a carol from Milawai) and a special arrangement of Little Drummer Boy.

Christmas production 2011 - Virtually Christmas

2012-01-07T17:21:00.000Z

Year 5 and Year 6 presented their Christmas Production on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December. The theme was the traditional nativity story, but it imagined that many of the characters in the story had access to modern technology. So, Herod was trying to find out about the new king who the wise men were searching for by following their tweets on Twitter and seeking support from his followers on Facebook. The wise men found the way with the help of sat-nav and mobile phones, ipads and laptops were in use throughout. In the end, however, it was decided that none of this really changed the story.

The production was very well attended by family and friends and everyone in the huge cast (nearly sixty actors) was congratulated on excellent performances.

At the end of the week, older children from our choir went to sing carols at St. Andrew's House - a residential home for old people which is close to our school. There were lots of old people there and they made us very welcome again (even providing sweets and a drink for all the children).

More Roman Day activities

2011-11-29T14:34:00.000Z

In the morning we did some Roman marching and we have also tried some Roman maths. What is the answer to this question?

XII + IV =

(Find the answer at the bottom of the post.)

XII + IV = XVI

(12 + 4 = 16)

Roman Day Activities

2011-11-29T13:44:00.000Z

There are lots of different activities going on today.

We have been making some sweet Roman cakes and creating mosaics.

Romans have arrived!

2011-11-29T10:49:00.000Z

There was some surprise and concern at Westdale Junior School early this morning when someone thought that an new Roman invasion was taking place. But then we realised that it was "Roman Day" for our Year 3!

Everyone in Year 3 is dressed in fantastic Roman costume - lots of children and parents must have given it all a great deal of thought. Thank you.

Here are the Roman hoards in assembly:

School Closure on 30th November

2011-11-24T17:44:00.001Z

In the Newsletter to Parents published today, Mrs. Hayles has written the following to inform parents that Westdale Junior School will be closed on Wednesday 30th November 2011:

"As you will no doubt be aware, a number of public service unions have balloted their members for a day of industrial action Wednesday 30th November.

I have been informed today by members of one union that they will be taking industrial action. Due to the numbers of staff who are members of this union I have no alternative but to close the school for pupils on
Wednesday 30th November.

The decision to close the school or send pupils home is never taken lightly, but in this instance, where staff have elected to take lawful industrial action, I have no choice but to take appropriate steps to ensure the health, safety and well being of all pupils.

Children should return to school as normal on Thursday 1st December."

The full newsletter is available to view from the Letters and Newsletters page of the Parents section of our website.

OFSTED visit

2011-11-18T19:17:00.001Z

OFSTED inspectors will be visiting our school next Tuesday and Wednesday (22nd and 23rd November).

Your son/daughter should have brought home an OFSTED questionnaire for parents today and we have posted a covering letter about this on our "Letters and Newsletters" page. Click here for this link.

Children in Need 2011

2011-11-18T17:30:00.000Z

We had a special day at school today when we had a non-uniform day to mark Children in Need day.

Teddies were welcome and even joined us in assembly.

Each class had a special "Pudsey" activity ranging from cooking "Pudsey" biscuits to making a device to weigh Pudsey bear....

... or making something (like these marble runs) to entertain him.

The money you donated has been counted and your donations helped us raise £260!

Thank you for supporting Children in Need.

Year 6 residential visit to Caythorpe November 2011

2011-11-08T21:06:00.001Z

Most of the Year 6 children are setting off tomorrow on their residential visit to the PGL activity centre at Caythorpe. We hope they have a very enjoyable time together.

You may follow their activities on the Westdale at Caythorpe blog here: http://westdaleatcaythorpe.blogspot.com/

This will be updated as regularly as possible during their visit.

Harvest Festival 2011

2011-10-13T19:26:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday we had our Harvest Festival.

Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 each gave a presentation at our harvest festival - including some readings, poetry, drama and songs.

The items encouraged us to think about the beauty of the natural world, all the different kinds of workers who are involved in helping to provide the food we have to eat and think about how fortunate we are now in comparison with times in the past (including when they had rationing during World War 2).

In between these items, and we all joined in our harvest hymns and songs.

It was a lovely occasion and many parents, carers and grandparents were able to be present.

Thank you to everyone who sent in tins, packets and fresh food for our harvest display. After our service, some of this was distributed to people recommended by parents and some was donated to Framework, a local charity supporting homeless people.

Autumn Term begins

2011-09-07T08:05:00.000+01:00

The new school year has begun and we are looking forward to an exciting Autumn Term.

Autumn Term 2011

2011-07-26T17:16:00.000+01:00

School will open for the children on Wednesday 7th September.

We hope that everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday.

End of Term

2011-07-22T08:00:00.002+01:00

We have had a happy end to the term and the school year.

Year 6 had their Leavers' Party on Tuesday evening. There was a good turn-out for the disco. This and the refreshments were very much enjoyed and everyone was very well behaved.

On Wednesday evening we had our Summer Music Concert. The pupils achieved very high standards and there was a lovely variety of music. The choir and assembly choir performed (songs included Matchstalk Cats and Dogs, Vincent, This is the moment and Halleluyah) as did the orchestra and Music Club. There were contributions from different groups of flutists and violinists and Year 6 instrumentalists played solos. We were very proud of them all.

On the last day of term there was a Leavers' Assembly for our Year 6 pupils and we were pleased that many parents were able to attend.

School has now broken up for the summer holidays.

Teachers' strike on 30th June 2011

2011-06-28T20:04:00.003+01:00

The text of a letter sent to all parents on 28th June 2011 has been posted on our "letters from school" blog. Click here to read this letter.

Sports Day

2011-06-17T19:21:00.000+01:00

We were incredibly fortunate with the weather on Sports' Day. The forecast was not good, but the rain held off for the Year 6 pupils to set up the events and we wre able to start on time in the afternoon.

Twenty teams competed in eighteen events and there was lots of effort, excitement and fun. The winning team scored very highly - and looked competitive all afternoon - really earning their winners medals.

Five minutes after we finished and had all the equipment indoors, the rain came and there was a heavy twenty-minute shower.

Year 4 in Shropshire

2011-03-09T13:01:00.000Z

The coach has arrived safely and everyone is having their lunch.

Half-term holidays

2011-02-17T19:03:00.001Z

We have now begun our school half-term holidays.

School will re-open on Monday 28th February.

Christmas Holidays

2010-12-22T21:41:00.002Z

School is now closed for the Christmas Holidays.
School reopens for pupils on Wednesday 5th January.

Happy Christmas!

End of term concerts

2010-12-22T21:28:00.002Z

Term ended with a carol service at school today. All the year groups took part, as did the choir. The children in Year 3 sang Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer as well as acting our the nativity story as Year 6 read the Bible story. Year 4 and Year 5 recited Christmas poems and the choir sang The 12 Days of Christmas and The Holly and the Ivy. At the end of the service the violins played Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland and the orchestra then played We wish you a merry Christmas.

Yesterday, some of the older choir members went to sing to the residents of St. Andrew's House. This was a super event. Lots of the old people came and enjoyed the singing and readings. We had chance to speak to the old people afterwards and there was a drink and some sweets for us too.

Xmas Factor

2010-12-17T19:43:00.000Z

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings Years 5 and 6 presented their Christmas production - Who's got the Xmas Factor?

The idea of the story is that God asked angels to put his plan for the first Christmas into action and, in the different scenes, angels go and help chose the characters for the Christmas story (i.e. Mary, Joseph, wisemen, etc.).

Everyone in Year 6 had a part and their acting and speaking was very good. Some also sang solo parts or in small groups. Everyone in Year 5 hard choral speaking parts which introduced the different scenes and, of course, everyone joined in to sing the songs.

The play went very well indeed on both evenings. The audience was very complimentary and several people thought this was the best Christmas production ever.

Thank you to all the adults who gave special help with the backdrop and costumes.

Christian Aid BIG SING in Nottingham

2010-12-14T19:36:00.000Z

On Sunday 21st December about forty members of the school Assembly Choir took part in the Christmas Big Sing in Nottingham. We joined in with carols like and songs including Angels from the realms of glory and songs like Little donkey and even White Christmas. Our own special song was Stable Carol. We also signed the first verse of Silent Night and listened to other choirs sing and musicians play Christmas music. There were Christmas readings from the bible and a funny story of Christmas in Wales. We enjoyed it very and the audience clapped our singing for a long time. Afterwards there were mince pies, biscuits and a drink for everyone.

LP

Y6 residential visit to Caythorpe

2010-11-10T07:59:00.006Z

News of our Y6 residential visit to Caythorpe is posted on our special Westdale at Caythorpe blog.
Here is the link: http://westdaleatcaythorpe.blogspot.com/

2010-11-06T19:12:00.003Z

CLUBS
In our school we do lots of clubs everyday and these are some of them:

MONDAY
On Monday you can do Orchestra and French Club.

TUESDAY
On Tuesday you can do Choir and Cookery Club.

WEDNESDAY
Gardening Club and Dance Club are on Wednesday.

THURSDAY
You can do Recorders, Book Club and Boccia on Thursday.

FRIDAY
Ukulele, Golf and Music Club is available on Friday.

A different times of the year there are also: Football Club, Netball Club, Film Club and Computer Club.

EJ

Musical Instruments at Westdale

2010-11-01T19:09:00.001Z

Lots of pupils at this school play an instrument such as the recorder, ukulele, flute and violin. Recorder is taught by Mr Jennings and Mrs Tupholme. The flute teacher is Mr Banahan and the violin is taught by Mrs Williams. Mr Jennings teaches the ukulele.

When you get really good at playing an instrument you can join the orchestra and play in assembly for the songs every day of the week.

School visit to Magna October 2010

2010-10-13T19:28:00.010+01:00

We all had a super visit to Magna, the science adventure centre, today.

Here are a few photographs taken on our visit.

Arriving:

"The Big Melt":

"Fire":

Down a mine in the "Earth" zone:

Who is on top of the climbing frame in the playground?

The whole school (year 3, year 4, year 5 and year 6) went to Magna . We looked at seven different sections and here they all are: fire, big melt, water, earth, air, playground and gift shop.

At Magna we did some activities in the Water zone. When you are entering you go through the middle of two mini water falls. Also there is a big model of the journey of a river. It shows where it starts and the middle course and so on. After looking at that we went into the water play area. The hand rail was covered in ice. There was a game where you had to squirt panels with a water gun and also a place where you pumped water into the mini pool. (We got quite wet.)

A boy from class 5J said that his favourite section was the air section where he played air hockey and a pupil from 5H said that she liked the water section where she got very wet but still had a great time in Magna.

LP & EJ

War veteran comes to year 6

2010-10-12T19:12:00.002+01:00

In year 6 we are learning about World War 2 and we were lucky enough to have a war hero come in to class to answer our questions.

His name is Mr. Roy Croft and he was a young boy when the war was on. He remembers German bombers flying down Carlton Hill and people diving into shops to escape the gunners. When he was older he joined the navy and worked on submarines - he even searched for mines on the bottom of the sea!!

We thought it was the best history lesson ever!

Athletes in School

2010-10-08T21:01:00.004+01:00

Rob Michael, the Welsh high jump champion, came to Westdale Juniors for an exiting visit on the Thursday 7th October.

Each class had a seven minute work out with Mr. Mitchell: We had to do one minute of "spotty dogs", one minute of leg drives, one minute or press-ups and one minute of star jumps.

Later, in a special assembly for the whole school, Rob told us about he became a world famous high jumper. We also enjoyed watching those people who were brave enough to go in front of the school and do Rob's little exercises.

Harvest Festival 2010

2010-10-06T18:25:00.007+01:00

A large audience of parents, carers and relatives were able to attend our school harvest festival today, 6th October 2010.

Everyone in the school took part in a lovely service. Year 3 read a poem and sang a harvest song, Year 4 presented a harvest play with mice as the main characters, Year 5 talked and sang about the harvest of coal and oil and the need to protect our environment and Year 6 read peoms that they had written themselves. In between all the items there were harvest songs.

Thanks to everyone who sent in food-stuffs for our harvest display. The food will be put in bags and given to those individuals that parents/carers have nominated and any remaining food will be taken to Emmanuel House - the Nottingham charity which cares for the homeless in our city.

"This week we had our harvest festival, we sang some songs like Autumn days, Fill your hearts with joy and gladness, God of the harvest and Jubilate.

We also explained what Harvest is about and what is important about the festival. If you managed to come we very much appreciated it, but if you didn’t manage to come… well you missed a lot of extremely exciting things all preformed by your children.

We practiced very hard and put 100% effort into our performances on the day.
Also, we want to thank you for sending in all the fruits, vegetables and other foods that you donated. We will share the food out to people who need it most."

AR, LP & EJ

Harvest Service

2010-10-02T15:42:00.003+01:00

Our Harvest Festival Service will take place in school on Wednesday 6th October. Parents/carers welcome.

A letter has been sent home about this on the reverse of our recent Newsletter. (A copy is available from our "letters and newsletters" page.

New School Year 2010-2011

2010-09-05T15:04:00.003+01:00

The autumn term begins on Tuesday, 7th September at our usual time of 8.40 am.
We look forward to seeing everyone then.

Important dates for the term and school year will be posted shortly on the for parents page.
A new version of the School Uniform Order Form has already been posted.

International Day July 2010

2010-07-20T21:27:00.005+01:00

On 13th July, we had another International Day at school.

The special day started with an opportunity for everyone to have a French breakfast in the canteen. This was followed by a series of different activities during the day as all the children visited different classrooms for lessons, games and activities about different countries in the world.

The Mayor of Gedling visited school and joined us for the breakfast.

Our Football Season 2009-2010

2010-06-20T21:16:00.003+01:00

The first game of our season was against Arno Vale and it was at home. The starting line-up was: Luke in goal; Steven and Sam in defense; in midfield Matt, Joe and Mitchell; with William in. The subs were Daniel and Shaquile. We played some good football. We went behind to an early goal but came back strongly to win 4-1.

Our second game was against Ernehale, which we won. The same seven players were used for that game. Then we had a five month break until February, our third game was against Parkdale at home, we won 2-0. In our fourth game we went to Parkdale and sadly lost, their goal was a lucky header from a corner. After a disappointing loss our fifth game we were hosting Ernehale and went behind 1-0 but then switched on to get three goals and win the match 3-1. After beating Ernehale we travelled to Good Shepherd and we battered them 8-0, Daniel got four, Luke got one, Joe got one, Mitch got one and so did Shaquile. Then Good Shepherd came to our place and we won 5-0. The last game of the season was at Arno Vale, we went there knowing that if we drew or won we’d go through to the knock-out stages of the league play-offs. Fortunately, we sneaked a 1-0 victory.

In the knock-out stages, we played Sir John Sherbrook at home in the last 16 and beat them 4-0 which put us through to the quarters. In the quarter- finals we played Parkdale (for the third time). We won 3-0 (revenge!). After beating Parkdale we made the trip to Burton Joyce, and quite comfortably beat them 3-0. So that meant that we went through to the final.

The final was at a neutral ground which was at (Stanhope) where we played Sacred Heart. After a hard fought match in which there were no goals in normal time, the game went in to overtime. We went behind to a goal in extra time but then Steven scored a dramatic last minute equaliser so had shared the trophy which Joe, the captain, lifted.

So, overall , this was a fantastic season , winning the league and cup double. We scored 38 goals and only conceded 4!

BRILLIANT!!

Book Week 2010

2010-06-07T19:42:00.000+01:00

Just before half term we have a school Book Week. Everyone in school took part in a range of different activities all connected with books.

The activities included:

- making bookmarks
- visiting the local library
- writing a profile of a character from a book (on the computer)
- having a presentation from Nick Toczeck (a published author)
- a Book Quiz
- dressing up as a book character
- visiting the book sale in school
- taking part in a short story-writing competition

Dressing Up
The whole school was invited to dress up as chacaters from books and, on the Friday, the whole school was filled with magical and wondersful characters: wizards, witches, warriors, cowboys, Dorothys, Harry Potters, Red Ridding-Hoods, Gandalfs and even a toad. Some people made a huge effort and some of the Red Ridding-Hoods even had real cakes. (But not for long!)

Library Visit
After lunch we walked to Mapperley Library. When we arrived we were able to look at the books and how they were organised. The librarian talked to us about the library and about the different sorts of books and other things you can borrow from the library then gave us a "true or false" quiz. You can borrow over twenty books at a time from our library. We also had time to choose a book and spend some time reading it.

Nick Toczeck
Nick Toczeck was really funny. It was good to be able to meet a successful author and to work with him in class. He read us some of his poems - which were very rhythmical and were full of rhymes and pace. He used a camel puppet (called Humphrey) and did some magic tricks to help keep everyone's attention.

Book Quiz
To end the Book Week, the whole school had a quiz. There were questions about book characters, authors, books by Roald Dahl, traditional stories, nursery rhymes and a film story featuring Paddington Bear.

Book week was excellent and everyone was very pleased that Mrs Kilbane (helped by some of the other teachers) had organised it.

Countries around the World Day

2010-05-30T19:32:00.000+01:00

On our "Countries around the world" day, everyone did about five different activities to do with different places around the world. Usually we would just have our class teachers all day, but this day gave us an opportunity to work with different teachers. It was lots of fun.

The activities included:

- Story origami - stories were told together with instructions about how to makle a paper fold and, as the story went on the folding and unfolding made different objects linked with the story.

- A lady from Brazil taught us how to do Samba dancing - the Samba comes from Brazil. She told us about different types of Samba and showed us pictures of Brazilian instruments and the sounds they made.

- We did some paper cutting - making puppets to tell and act out a shadow-puppet story involving a dragon.

- Mask making, in which we made and decorated Venitian-style masks using felt-pens, glitter-glue, feathers, sequins, etc.

- Rain forest painting - creating a picture of a rain forest animal using paint, crayon or collage.

Everyone enjoyed the lessons adn we all made something we could take home.

Summer term 2010 begins

2010-04-11T13:44:00.001+01:00

We have been on our Easter holidays.
School reopens on Monday 12th April for the summer term.

Year 3 and 4 production: The Wind in the Willows

2010-03-26T15:46:00.000Z

On Wednesday and Thursday evening, Years 3 and 4 presented their spring production: The Wind in the Willows.

The play tells the well known story from Kenneth Grahame's classic book and featured all the well-loved characters including Mole, Ratty, Badger, Toad, Otter as well as all the stoats, weasels and rabbits. Narration helped keep the story going and there were lots of super songs.

The singing and acting were fantastic. All the actors made sure that the words were clear and the soloists were also excellent.

There were large audiences of family and friends on both evenings and the play was very well received.

Countries around the world day

2010-03-18T15:31:00.000Z

On our countries around the world day, Years 5 and 6 did five different things from countries around the world. Usually we would just have our normal teachers all day, but this day gave us an opportunity to work with different teachers. Also, it was lots of fun, and most of it involved art or design technology.

With Mr. Jennings, we made a mark on a world map, to show where Japan was. Then we did some origami. This origami was linked to stories - with each story the folds that were made linked with the story so far. The stories all involved animals and we ended up making a penguin, a rabbit, and a duck to take home!

A lady from Brazil taught us how to do samba dancing (which is dancing that people do in Brazil.) She also showed us some pictures of Brazilian instruments, and told us the names of them, and the sound that they made. Then we learned two types of samba dancing from two different parts of Brazil.

With Mrs Kilbane, we cut out some people from a story about a dragon, and once we had done that, we used the characters, to act out a play of a story about a dragon, whilst Mrs Kilbane read the story out; the saying was think twice before you act.

Also, with Mr. Slater we cut out some masks, and then we decorated them with things like; jewels, feathers, glitter glue, and we coloured them in with felt tips, and some other stuff. This activity was based on carnival masks from Venice in Italy.

Finally, with Miss Hubert we were doing about the Amazon Rainforest which is in Brazil. We were given a picture of one of the animals from the Amazon Rainforest and we had to either colour in the picture, paint it, or do a collage. These are some of the animals that we could choose to do: a toucan, a frog, a lizard, and many more! All of our pictures were great!

Everybody enjoyed the lessons, and we all made something that we could take home. All of us learnt something interesting and at least one thing that we didn’t know before. We made lots of things, and we all had lots of interesting lessons, and quite a few of them were something that we wouldn’t usually do!

14th January 2010: weather and travel to school

2010-01-14T07:25:00.004Z

Conditions seem just a little easier than yesterday around school.

Side roads and paths are very slippery again but the school site is fine and buses are using Westdale Lane.

7th January 2010: travelling to school today

2010-01-07T07:35:00.000Z

Traffic is flowing well on Westdale Lane at the moment.
Lambley Lane still seems very icy at the bottom and I would try to avoid this.

Mr Jennings
07.30 am

School open on Wednesday 6th January 2010

2010-01-06T11:12:00.000Z

School is open today.

Parents of children at Westdale Infant School have been told that they may collect their children early today (from 1.30 pm) and parents of children at our school may do the same.

School will remain open until the usual "home time" of 3.20 pm.

School re-opens 5th January 2010

2010-01-04T22:02:00.000Z

The spring term begins on 5th January 2010.

School will open at the usual time of 8:40 am.

We wish everyone a very happy new year.

Christmas Party Week

2009-12-19T02:49:00.000Z

This week we had a Christmas Carol Service for the whole school on Tuesday. The Year 3 classes contributed a poem and a song; Year 4 sang and played a Christmas Calypso and Year 5 read a Christmas Haiku. Everyone joined in the carols.

On Wednesday Years 5 and 6 had their Christmas Party and Years 3 and 4 had theirs on Thursday afternoon. There were party games and dancing in the hall and the parties finished a party tea just before "home-time".

Christmas concert

2009-12-18T21:22:00.000Z

The theme of our Christmas concert this year was Christmas around the World.

As part of the concert, the choir and Year 5 and 6 sang Christmas songs and carols from different parts of the world. This included songs from India, China and Central America as well as Europe and we sang in French, Spanish and German. We also learned how to "sign" the first verse of Silent Night in British Sign Language.

In between the songs, Year 6 narrators explained about different Christmas celebrations in different parts of the world. This included Christmas decorations in China and India, Christmas food and hospitality in Africa, Christmas in Hawaii and Christmas carols in Europe.

Mrs Collins

2009-11-13T18:10:00.000Z

Mrs Collins, one of our TAs is moving to a new job and new challenges in a new school.

Mrs Collins has been a valued member of our staff for five years and has made a wonderful contribution to the school - both in her day to day work as a TA and in the way she has involved herself in all aspects of school life.

We wish her well in her new post and the future.

Year 6 at Caythorpe

2009-11-13T18:06:00.001Z

Most of our Year 6 pupils have had three days away at the PGL centre in Caythorpe.

Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed the various adventurous activities as well as sharing rooms with their friends.

Well done to everyone in Year 6 and thank you to all the teachers who gave up their time to take the children.

Autumn half-term holiday

2009-10-24T06:16:00.000+01:00

Our autumn half-term holiday has begun.
School re-opens on Monday 2nd November.

We we everyone a happy and safe holiday.

Harvest Festival 2009

2009-10-15T20:05:00.000+01:00

There was an excellent turn out of parents, carers and other family members at our Harvest Festival again this year.

Each year group performed a special item it had prepared and everyone joined in the songs in between these. Year 3 recited a poem, Year 4 sang - in Spanish as well as English, Year 5 presented a short musical about water and Year 6 took us back to the difficulties of feeding families during World War 2 and also presented a poem.

At the end Mr. Caldwell gave a short message and Mrs Hayles congratulated all the children and thanked the adults for coming.

The Harvest Gifts that the children brought in were distributed to the individuals that families had recommended and the "left over" items were taken to the Friary Drop-in Centre in West Bridgford.

Year 5 pupils in "Abba" costume
(their songs were set to Abba music)

Important dates

2009-09-04T22:03:00.000+01:00

A list of important dates for events and activities for this term (and later in the school year) has been published on the "Parents' Page" today.

New school term begins

2009-09-03T06:32:00.000+01:00

School re-opens at 8.50 am today for the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year.
We hope that everyone had a good summer and look forward to seeing you today.

Have a good holiday

2009-07-23T04:06:00.000+01:00

School has now closed for the summer holidays.
We hope everyone has a good break and keeps safe.

IMPORTANT: swine flu

2009-07-18T08:06:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately, if perhaps almost inevitably, we learned today that our school has now joined the long list of those in Nottinghamshire and around the country which has a pupil with a confirmed case of swine flu.

A copy of the letter sent to all parents and carers today may be read by following this link: swine flu letter 17/7/2009

Further advice is given by the government and the Health Protection Agency.

We wish to do all we can to minimise the risk to everyone in our community and the current advice we have been asked to give parents/carers is that, if your child develops cold or flu like symptoms in the coming days please:

1. Keep your child off school.
2. Telephone your GP – explain the symptoms and state that your child attends Westdale Junior School where there is a confirmed case of swine flu.
3. Telephone the school and tell us that your child has these symptoms.

If urgent news affecting our school becomes available during the summer holiday weeks, we will continue to keep our website updated.

Thank you for you assistance and support with this matter.

Shine 2009

2009-07-11T17:42:00.000+01:00

During the past week, children in all classes have had the chance to "shine" and show their friends and teachers just how talented they are. Each year group and class has had a little talent show - anyone could take part - children sang songs, played instruments, told jokes, danced, did magic tricks, etc. for their friends and the children chose their favourites to perform again in front of the whole school on Friday morning. This produced a very entertaining show which was enjoyed by all. The photograph above shows all those who performed in the final show.

Sports Day 2009

2009-07-11T17:28:00.001+01:00

We were lucky with the weather for our Sports' Day on Thursday - there was plenty of cloud, but there was no rain! There were twenty teams (mixed Year 3, 4, 5 and 6) and twenty different activities for all the children to do. Lots of parents came to watch and everyone went home with a smile on their faces - and some with a medal around their necks too.

Pound a Poem

2009-04-14T21:01:00.000+01:00

For the second time, children from Westdale Junior School have had poems selected for publication in the national “Pound a Poem” competition. This year we have had TWO winners – and they will have their poems printed in an anthology which will be published and put on sale.

All the children at school got a chance (with everyone else up and down the country) to write poem about fruit and/or veg – they had a week to do it. We had lots of entries. Once the week had ended Mr Caldwell typed up all the poems without a name and all the other teachers chose their favourite out of each year group. The winners got their poems got sent to the pound – a – poem team. They were: Anthony Yr6, Lucy Yr5, Ella Yr4 and Heaven-Leigh Yr3

The runner-ups were Ria Yr6, Faye Yr5, Cait Yr4 and
Ryan from Yr3

Mrs Hayles was very impressed!

And we are yet to find out whether anyone in our school has got through to the next stage of the competition.

Athletics

2009-04-14T20:14:00.000+01:00

Mrs Kilbane and Mr Jennings took some of the year 5 and 6 children to Wheldon School for an athletics competition against 7 other schools in Gedling.

We came first with 108 points beating the next school in second place by 2 points but this was only the heat so we have won a place in the district final. Rudy (one of the children representing our school) jumped a whopping 6.98m the farthest the competition organisers had ever seen. Other events were speed bounce, long jump, triple jump, seated throw and javelin. Finally we just like to thank Mrs Day and Mrs Collins for their help with transport.

(In the Gedling area final, we came fifth out of all the schools.)

Bird watch

2009-03-23T01:27:00.000Z

Mrs Tupholme and Mrs Birkett arranged a bird watch for all the people in gardening. It took place in Mrs Birkett classroom from 12:00 - 1:00. While some of the children were looking out for birds others made finger flexors and drew pictures. To encourage some birds to visit our garden Mrs Tuphlome put some bird feeders out. Despite all their efforts they only saw: 2 wood pigeons, 1 collared dove, 2 magpies, 2 blue tits, 1 robin and 1 blackbird.

Cooking Club

2009-03-23T01:26:00.000Z

Mrs Turville and Mrs Birkett have decided to start a cooking club after school on a Tuesday. It will work in a rota, as so many people seem to be interested. They will show the children how to make healthy food such as fresh pizza, healthy muffins and you can take the food you made home.

School Closed 5th February 2009

2009-02-05T08:23:00.000Z

Due to the weather and road conditions, we have had to close the school today (5th February 2009), together with our infant school and Carlton Digby School.

We apologise for any in convenience caused, but we do need to put health and safety concerns above all else.

Castle Avapillo

2009-01-16T21:09:00.000Z

On the 9th and 10th December year 5 and 6 performed a fantastic pantomime based on sleeping beauty but the princess was called...... PRINCESS THICK PEA WITH HAM SOUP.

Tragically the princess pricked her finger because the “wicked old crow” fairy cross put a spell her so she would fall asleep for a hundred years. But her fairy god mother, Fairy Nuff and sisters freed her from the spell and everyone lived “Happily Ever After”.

“I have never seen a better panto in my life!” exclaimed Mrs Hayles, the head teacher.

Christmas party

2008-12-22T23:31:00.000Z

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas parties. We had games and dancing in the hall with our friends (Y3 and 4 together the day after the Y5 and Y6 party).

We would like to thank all the parents for helping out and all the children for bringing some food. We all got put into teams. We collected points by dancing and playing games. The team that got the most points won a bag of sweets to share between them. Finally thank you to all the teachers who helped make such a brilliant afternoon.

Christmas Fair

2008-12-22T23:29:00.000Z

The Christmas fair was a great success and we raised over £700.

Everybody enjoyed it because of the fun games, great stalls and delicious cakes. Most of the teachers did a stall or game along side some of the parents. The tombolar, wii fit, cakes and crackers were the most popular games and stalls. Finally thank you to all the parents for getting infolded with the stalls and games.

The new playground markings

2008-12-06T16:32:00.000Z

New markings have been painted onto our playground to allow more different games to be played at break and lunch-time.

Our new playground markings are being thoroughly enjoyed by all years. Marked on the ground are four hop scotches, ladders, a number box and a circle target which are very fun. All of the markings are very entertaining, bright and colourful giving the playground more life.

Our Harvest Festival

2008-10-29T20:25:00.000Z

Our harvest festival was a great success. All the years put on a brilliant performance. Every body complimented us on our singing, which was accompanied by our school orchestra.

Starting off our service, Year 3 acted out the story of stone soup and sang a song followed by Year 4 who chanted a poem about fruit picking then sang a Spanish song. Then Year 5 sang and spoke about development in the world. Last, but not least, Year 6 preformed a play about harvest past, present and future in the style of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

We ended with a talk from Mrs Hayles, our head teacher, and a song to finish it all off. We were very pleased that so many parents and friends were able to come and enjoy our service.

New Entrance Officially Opened

2008-10-09T21:04:00.000+01:00

Mr. Coaker (our local MP) came to officially open the new entrance hall at Westdale Junior School on 19th September 2008.

The attractive new entrance hall is very modern and creates an inviting and welcoming atmosphere. The glass and metal front allows people to see in and out clearly and there is a large, curved reception desk. The appearance of the entrance hall has been improved by a huge graphic of silver birch trees covering the whole of one wall and on another there are some examples of different children’s work.

When Mr. Coaker arrived he viewed the beautiful smelling sensory garden, full with lots of brightly coloured plants and flowers. Afterwards he went back inside to be interviewed by three year sixes.

He said that Westdale Juniors is a great school - really nice and a place where lots of good things happen. He also thought that it is nice to see the buildings improving as well. He said the first thing he thought was WOW! He was saying that he has always been impressed with our staff, children and thought it always looks good!

Mr. Coaker thinks that working with the Prime Minister is exciting and interesting and he finds the Prime Minister a nice man. Mr. Coaker wanted to be an MP because he wanted to meet lots of people and help them improve there lives.

Music Concert 2008

2008-07-17T20:08:00.000+01:00

On the 15th July, all of Westdale’s many musicians performed in front of their delighted parents after a whole term of practicing. Violins, recorders, pianos, guitars, ukuleles and even a trumpet was played at this amazing concert, together with some beautiful singing that was truly breath-taking.

The night started with some tunes by some talented musicians and then the choir and assembly choir performed the musical My Fair Lady. After what was a master class by the school orchestra, a few more musicians took to the stage and performed in front a stunned crowd.

The evening concluded with the Assembly Choir

performing three songs they had practised for the Music Festival, which was the week before. When it was over, a very proud Mrs Hayles stood up and gave her thanks and congratulations.

It was a certainly a night to remember.

Sports' Day 2008

2008-07-11T20:04:00.000+01:00

On Thursday 10th of July 2008 we had our annual sports day. Year 6 were the captains of the teams, and were excellent at putting the teams in order and supporting their team mates. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t stay dry, but luckily there was only a little shower and we could still proceed with the activities.

The sports activities were very enjoyable for all of the year groups and suitable for a wide variety of children. Everyone supported each other and didn’t upset themselves if they didn’t win a point for their team mates, they just said I will try again next time.

The winners (the three top teams) got a round of applause and a medal each to take home with them. All the children that took part enjoyed the day.

All the teachers, pupils and parents thought that sports day was a huge success.

The Road Safety Quiz 2008

2008-06-28T20:03:00.000+01:00

One June evening a group of children from our school took part in the Area Road Safety Quiz at County Hall. They did amazingly well and came 1st (by one point).

The contestants had to answer a range of questions, mainly based on the “Arrive Alive” Highway Code books, by pressing buttons on a remote control. The questions came up on screen, and there were three answers, a, b and c. Some of the questions were really hard.

Two adults supporting our team won the adult quiz as well – what a lucky night!

GARDENING CLUB NEWS

2008-05-15T15:47:00.000+01:00

May 2008

LOTS of interesting things have been happening in the Westdale Garden over the past few months, and more exciting projects are now underway. Check for updates on our new notice board, which is located in between 3S and 6J.

THE BIG SCHOOLS’ BIRDWATCH
Back in January we took part in the RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch, and had a pleasant lunchtime watching and counting the birds in the school garden. Our results are on the notice board, and the national results are now on the RSPB website at www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch

WILDSQUARE
We have also recently registered to take part in Wildsquare, another activity being run for children by the RSPB. Groups are asked to carry out surveys about wildlife in their square, and send in the results. Each Wildsquare is 1km by 1km and ours is the square km around school, including these streets: Digby Ave, Lambley Ave, Westdale Lane (near school) Holyoake Rd, Roseleigh Ave, Fernleigh Ave, top of Marshall Hill Drive, Unity Crescent, Newstead Ave, Oakleigh Ave, Blenheim Ave. The current survey is about Mammals, which runs from 12th March 2008 to 29th June 2008. We are asked to look out for mammals and record how many we see and when, or if we spot any tracks made by mammals. At school we have only spotted a few squirrels so far. (And a frog but he doesn’t count!) If anyone spots any mammals anywhere on the streets named above, please note down the date and time and let me know, so I can add them to our results. A list of possible mammals you might see is on our notice board, or you can print your own list with pictures from the website at www.rspb.org.uk/wildsquare

GROW YOUR OWN POTATOES COMPETITION
We are very excited to be one of around 8000 schools taking part in this competition, and will hopefully even be able to eat our results! We planted our special competition seed potatoes in March and they are now growing well and we are furiously watering! You can follow the progress of our plants by checking the height chart and photos on the notice board. We will be emptying our pots and weighing the potatoes towards the end of June, ready to submit our results to the competition organisers.

BIG LOTTERY GRANt
We were very pleased to receive a grant for £3,750 from The Big Lottery Fund, in January, to develop our school gardens. We are planning to create a wildlife area including a pond, and an outdoor classroom area where groups or classes can go to work. Watch this space!

ECO-SCHOOLS
With all this hard work going on Gardening Club is also going to encourage the school to work towards gaining its first Eco-Schools Award. The awards are all about helping schools become more sustainable, and increasing awareness about and responsibility for environmental issues. We will look at topics such as saving energy, reducing litter and increasing recycling. Hopefully we will be awarded our Bronze Award before too long.

GO GREEN FOR SCHOOLS ASDA VOUCHERS
Asda are running a voucher scheme for schools until the end of June, where they give customers vouchers every time they re-use a carrier bag or buy a ‘bag for life’. Schools can then collect these vouchers and exchange them for fun eco-equipment to help children help the environment. I realise that Asda is probably not the nearest supermarket for most people, but if you happen to go, please take your own carrier bags with you, collect the vouchers and bring them in to school. We will see if we can collect enough to get any equipment.

CHARLIE DIMMOCK
A competition called ‘Be Ace of Spades with Charlie’ has been launched by EBLEX, formerly the English Beef and Lamb Executive, to get more children growing their own fruit and vegetables. Schools and members of the public are being asked to nominate pupils for a gardening lesson with Charlie Dimmock! We think this is just what we need! Anyone can nominate a school by emailing tuckin@goodrelations.co.uk or by visiting http://www.beefyandlamby.co.uk/scripts/iaxpage.php?sub=beef&header=tuckin before 16th June 2008. We would like as many people as possible to nominate our Gardening Club, as we are working very hard to grow as much as possible in our gardens, and to develop our wildlife area and outdoor classroom, and would really appreciate some guidance from an expert!

DONATIONS OF POTS OR PLANTS
Gardening Club is always pleased to receive any donations of surplus plant pots, plants or seeds you may have at home. Thank you for those already donated, some of the seeds were planted last week! Also, if any parents, grandparents or friends would like to join us, we have a large area to garden, and lots of enthusiastic helpers! We meet every Wednesday lunchtime (weather permitting), and you would me most welcome. Just let one of us know that you would like to come.

Many thanks,
Mrs Tupholme, Miss Birkett and Mrs Roberts.

International School Award

2008-04-11T21:10:00.000+01:00

We are very pleased to have been awarded the International School Award (Intermediate category: Developing Internationalism).

The International School Award scheme is run by the British Council to recognise schools that have raised the profile of internationalism in their curriculum. In achieving the Intermediate Level, we have demonstrated that our curriculum, in the last year, has included three international activities (including the special International Day we had in the Autumn Term) and the link that we have established with a school in France.

Thanks to Mrs Roberts, Miss Turville and Mme Venn for helping us to get this award.

Year 6 residential visit at Caythorpe 2008

2008-03-26T19:58:00.000Z

Year 6 went to Caythorpe from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th March. When we got there, everyone was full of life and couldn’t wait to get started on the activities. We met our leader, Belle, after we got off the coach and we were shown to our rooms. As soon as we had done some unpacking, we went to a field behind the apartments to play some games with PGL leaders while Belle went to talk to our teachers. We were split up into teams and played a series of games. Then all the children, accompanied by the teachers, went to the dining hall and ate their tea.

After tea the children went on a tour around the site, Belle told us which activities they would be taking part in and, what time we would be doing it. When it was dark, we all met in a field to play some unusual relays and a team competition dropping an egg in a cup attached to a balloon from a great height. The children were split up into four teams called The Cheese Brains, The Super Smurfs, The Demented Smurfs and The Funky Doorbells to try to protect their egg as much as possible!

The next two days were busy with an amazing series of activities which included the High Ropes, the Low Ropes, Jacobs Ladder, Abseiling, the Climbing Wall, Outdoor Initiatives, Archery and Fencing. As well as these great challenges, we had a disco on the Saturday evening and we also enjoyed sleeping in our bedrooms with a small group of friends.

Area Athletics Final

2008-02-27T05:51:00.000Z

Fourteen Year 5 and 6 pupils represented our school at the Area Athletics Finals at the Wheldon School on Tuesday 26th February. The team had qualified for this event after its success in the area heats at Gedling School last month.

The team members performed very creditably again but, not surprisingly, the overall standard was much higher than in the heats. This meant that Westdale came sixth out of the eight schools in the final. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable event and the staff were very proud of the performances, effort and sportsmanship of all the children who were representing our school. Well done.

2008-01-25T02:32:00.000Z

All the children in school on today took part in a road safety quiz organised by the County Council. The children did very well and showed a good understanding of being safe on and around the road.

The team running the quiz also commented upon the good behaviour of the children during this event. Well done everyone.

Mrs. V. Hayles

Absence from school

2008-01-09T02:10:00.000Z

From Monday 14th January, we will be introducing a new system in to school to help ensure that children are safe.

We are asking that on the first day of a child’s unplanned absence from school that you telephone and let us know by 9:30 am, as has been the normal practice. If we have not heard from you by this time then we will telephone home to make sure that your child is safe. We would hate for something to happen to a child on the way to school and not realize this until the end of the day.

We understand that this will take time to become part of both of our routines and thank you in advance for your support in ensuring the safety of children in school.

Christmas events

2007-12-22T03:00:00.000Z

The Years 5 and 6 performed their Christmas production of "Baboushka" in the school hall on Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening last week. There were over fifty actors with speaking and acting parts and there were lots of good songs. The choir also sang three special songs as part of the concert. The hall was really full and the parents really enjoyed the acting and singing.

On Tuesday the choir and musicians went to give a short concert at St. Andrew's House. They song some of the songs that we had performed in our Christmas production. We also did some readings and sang some traditional carols which the old people joined in. The residents of St. Andrew’s enjoyed the performance and we know that they always look forward to our visits.

Disco

2007-11-16T02:17:00.000Z

Last week we had a disco in the evening. It was organised by Friends of Westdale and lots of parents came to help. So did Mrs Hayles and the teachers. There was lots of good music to dance to and the DJ gave out some glow-in-the-dark things. The disco lights were very good too.

Half way through everyone had a drink and some crisps.

Children in Need

2007-11-14T04:14:00.000Z

Friday 16th November is Children in Need Day and the theme is “Do Something Different”. Therefore we have decided that on Friday we will do something different and have a Pudsey bear technology day. All of the children will be involved in a range of activities involving designing and making different items for Pudsey to use. To help in our activities we would like the children to bring in their own small teddy bear with or without an eye patch - to join in the fun. We will be making a collection for the Children in Need Appeal in school on Friday if you would like to send a small donation with your child and their bear.

Anti-bullying week

2007-11-10T19:06:00.000Z

Week beginning 19th November is the national anti - bullying week. At present there is national concern about bullying and how to prevent it. You may have heard the children talk about S.E.A.L (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) as we are using this programme of work to develop the children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills. It is important to raise awareness of this issue with all our children, but I would like to emphasise that this is not because we have any more bullying than any other school. However, when it does occur we want our children to feel confident to speak to an adult and deal with it. As part of this work we are developing an anti— bullying notice board in school. We have already received messages of support from Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, Vernon Coaker M.P and Jo and Twiggy at Trent FM.

Staff and Governors have also been invited to contribute a short anti bullying message for our display.

If you would also like to contribute a message then we would really appreciate your support.

Harvest Festival

2007-10-19T18:59:00.000+01:00

We had our harvest festival at school on Wednesday. Everyone brought in some fruit, vegetables or tins and packets of food and these were put at the front of the hall. Lots of parents came to the service which began at 10 o'clock. Every year group took part and either did a song or a poem or told a harvest story. Year 6 did a news report with interviews all about fair trade. We all joined five songs.

Welcome to Westdale News

2007-09-01T13:59:00.000+01:00

This page is intended to be the place where we offer the most up-to-date news about our school and our activities.

Arts Week 2007

2007-07-31T09:49:00.000+01:00

This year on Monday 21st May to the 25th of May 2007 we had an arts week with a variety of events and visitors including Bemma, Donna Vann (author), Naomi Tipping (illustrator), Risk Watch, Flight Man, 'Let's talk rubbish' and Circus Skills.

Bemma

Bemma is an interesting African woman who kindly came in and taught us about how the ‘Elephant Dance’ is around today and how it was created. She told us stories from Africa, taught us a song and the dance to that song as well as the story.

Donna Vann

Donna Vann was an American author who came in to talk to us about her books and also gave us a quiz. At the end of her production she gave us all a story plan to write and then turn it into a story.

Naomi Tipping: illustrator

Naomi Tipping is an illustrator who came in and taught us how to do drawings like hers. We looked at examples of her work and then discussed them and drawing in general. We drew our initials (or names) and then turned them into different pictures or animations and then coloured them.

Risk watch

Risk Watch was a session about how to keep safe. Some fire men showed us around the fire truck and told us about some of the equipment they used. They did a demonstration about how you can be saved when you are drowning in water. They also showed us what happens if someone's house is on fire. They would type their address into a computer and it would be bought up on a map of the area and the street. Then we went inside and some other firemen told us about smoke alarms and how they could save our lives! At the end they told us about a competition they were doing. We had to design a poster and the winner would win an MP3 player.

Flight man

On the last day of arts week a man came into school to talk to Year 6 about aeroplanes and how to control them. He gave 12 Year 6’s a challenge to make some aeroplanes, then give a presentation about them. They had to make the aeroplanes so that they could stay in the air as long as possible.

‘Lets talk rubbish’

On Friday there was a production in our hall that was all about recycling our rubbish in the right way. Pupils went up to help out with the production and performed magic tricks and were given balloon sculptures as a reward! The magician was a genuinely funny man who made recycling sound fun for others to do and encouraged to recycle and help the environment.

Circus Skills

A clown called Bozo came in and showed us some circus tricks that he does when he’s performing as a clown. He let us go up and help him with various tricks and also got the teachers involved with the tricks! Mr. Bannister was the one that went up because everyone pointed and shouted for him to go up! He balanced a feather on his palm, finger and chin and then nose and he actually managed to do it!

Everyone had a fun arts week doing all the activities.

Music Concert 2007

2007-07-31T09:47:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday 17th July 2007 some talented children performed at a brilliant music concert in front of parents/carers. There was a variety of things that were performed including:

Singing by the assembly choir and choir.
Recorders
Guitar
Piano
Violinist

The assembly choir sang a song from ‘The Sound Of Music’ called So Long Farewell. The choir sang a few songs from ‘The sound of Music’ including: Edelweiss, Raindrops on Roses and climb Every Mountain. The songs went well and the adults seemed to like them a lot.

The recorder group played some pieces together and these went particularly well. They played a Beethoven –Allegretto symphony, a Gossec – Tambourin and “Any dream will do”. There were solo players and groups which played well known songs such as: When the saints go marching in, spring, edelweiss, walking in the air, toreador, daisy daisy, teddy bears picnic and London’s burning.

There were very few mistakes in the songs to say that they were all very nervous.

Jake played Russian dance music on his guitar and did an extremely good job of it, and Andrew played a very lively piece of music on the piano that was a big!

The violinists also played exceptionally well in all their groups. There were relaxing songs, star wars music and many other different pieces of music.

Summer Fair 2007

2007-07-31T09:46:00.000+01:00

At this year’s summer fair there was a large variety of games and stalls to go on which included a wide range of stalls and games:

Guess the dogs birthday
Tombola
Pluck a duck
Pick a lucky bag

The Puzzling pyramid
Manic Mini Golf
Shoot A Hoop
The Keys Game
Treasure Map
Chinese Chopsticks
Tidily Winkles
Splat The Rat
Super Spins
Perfect Ping Pong

On every game you could win a 1-3 tokens and then you could spend them on the sweet stall. For 1 token you could get 1 small sweet, for 5 tokens you could get a medium size sweet. For 10 tokens you could get a large sweet, for 15 tokens you could get a massive sweet.

Refreshments including hotdogs, burgers, crisps and drinks were served in the dinner hall. Also Vernon Coker, our member the parliament and Jo (of Jo and Twiggy from Trent FM) visited us, tried out the games and Jo read out the raffle ticket winners and presented the prizes.

It was a truly enjoyable for parents and children.

Music Festival 2007

2007-07-31T09:43:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday 18th July 2007 a music festival was held in our school hall. Choirs and instrumentalists performed from Porchester Junior school, Standhill Infant school, Haddon Primary school, Carlton Central Infant school, Carlton Digby School and Westdale Infants as well as us. The Head of Music from the Wheldon School also came.

Everyone from all the schools sang “Downtown” and “Conservation Round” together and each school performed items for the others to enjoy. The performances were very good and interesting to watch. Many different songs were sung including “I Will Survive” and “So Long Farewell” and “Dream Time”.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon for everybody and there were interesting songs and dances from the different schools. Everyone who was there was given a drink and a bookmark to remember the occasion.

Music Concerts 2005/2006

2006-07-25T10:08:00.000+01:00

The choir and musicians have had another busy and successful year.

The Assembly Choir participated in the Chrsitmas pantomime and the full choir performed three carols in our school Carol Service just before we broke up for Christmas.

One of the highlights of the year was in February when the Assembly Choir performed in a charity concert given in aid of Barnardos in the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. We sang a song called I am a small part of the world which fitted the theme of the event particularly well. We also sang a number of songs as part of a massed choir.

It was a great experience singing in such a large hall but the choir made a very good sound and gave an excellent performance - being especially complimented by Douglas Coombes, the well-known composer and conductor who directed the massed choir.

The choir performed some West Indian songs and led our Easter service in the Spring Term and the school year finished with a brilliant concert in which the violinists and orchestra performed a range of pieces, some Year 6 pupils played solos and the choir performed extracts from the musical Mary Poppins.

2006-07-21T09:52:00.000+01:00

During our Bookweek at school this year, we had several authors come to visit us. Read about them and what they did for us below. We also had a theatre group present a play about Charles Dickens.

There were many other special activities in school that week, including a range of art and craft activities. Also, Year 3 and 4 had an opportunity to do some African dancing - you can read about this below too. Thank you to Mrs. Harrison for organising everything.

OUR DAY WITH ANDREW COLLET

Bookweek began on Monday with Andrew Collet doing an assembly where he told us some rhymes which were silly. He was on a stereo system so that the people at the back could hear him (how thoughtful) so when he talked it was amplified. The assembly was 10:30 till 11:30.

He gave the school a book - poems about teachers - and he visited the year 5 classes and helped us make poems that were called “If you’d be my friend I’d”. Then he helped us to make up bits to go after that. He also let the year 5 classes he worked with choose a book of his for the class to keep.

MICHAEL COX

Michael Cox came to Westdale Junior School on Wednesday and took an assembly for book week. He told us about lots of his books he wrote. Some of the books were horror stories, others included Awful Art, Elvis and his Pelvis, and Incredible Internet. He has written lots more.

After the assembly classes 6C, 5CB, 6J, 5PB had the chance to ask him questions and we could buy some of his books. He mostly talked about himself, telling us what he used to be. (He used to be a teacher.)

“WHAT THE DICKENS!”

On Friday 9th June 2006, S&P theatre group performed a play for the whole school called “What the Dickens!”. It was about a mouse, Arthur, and a crazy scientist who travelled back to Victorian times using their new experiment, a time machine.

It started off with a small mouse being transported back to the time of Charles dickens (around the time of Queen Victoria). When Arthur (the mouse) discovers the world of the famous author he becomes entranced and insists on seeing short snippets of many famous plays.

The actor playing Charles Dickens acted as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. The Ghost of Christmas Present came to see him. He showed how Scrooge could be having fun at Christmas instead of being a mardy old man. The next visitor was The Ghost of Christmas Future. He showed Scrooge that people would hate him when he was dead. Scrooge realised that he had been evil and became kind.

After that, Charles became the man wearing a stripy costume in Great Expectations. The man in the stripy suit grabbed hold of Pip and ordered him to bring him food and drink. Pip did as he was told and brought him the things he needed. When he grew up, he received some money in an envelope from the man he did a favour for. One day, he and his friend Smike tried to run away from the place that they worked at. It was unsuccessful and they ended up getting into much trouble.

I thoroughly enjoyed the play and I think that everyone else did too. A pupil at Westdale Junior School said that the play was very entertaining and she would love to see it again.

ROB GEE’S VISIT DURING BOOK WEEK

Rob Gee visited our school to give a presentation of his performance poems.

His poems were fabulous! He puts actions to them and made them really humorous . In lesson time he taught us how to write a poem together called ‘How to make a best friend’. We all practiced and performed the poem and actions very well.

We found him very helpful and funny and we really enjoyed him teaching us. All in all we thought he was great and very talented and we all hope he could visit us again very soon.

AFRICAN DANCING

In Arts Week, Years 3 and 4 did African dancing with a lady called Bemma. She told us about African people who were shipped over to the Caribbean to be slaves. She said that the slaves lived in huts and were very jealous of their owners, who lived in big, posh mansions. So, on their one and only holiday, they made cardboard mansions and danced with them.

We did an African warm-up which was very funny and we were all laughing by the end. Then we started to do some Caribbean dancing. That had us all laughing too. It was great fun and afterwards we all were worn out!

Sporting success in 2005

2005-07-28T09:58:00.000+01:00

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.

Music Concert 2005

2005-07-20T13:57:00.000+01:00

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.

Dare Graduation

2005-05-31T10:04:00.000+01:00

The DARE graduation ceremony was a super occasion. All the Year 5 pupils, who had worked so hard on their DARE course learning to say no to drugs and violence, received certificates from the Mayor of Gedling.

Before the presentations, the children had taken part in short plays or explained aspects of the course to family, friends and the year 6 pupils who were in the audience for the graduation.

Easter Egg Competition

2005-05-04T10:00:00.000+01:00

Great imagination was shown in the Easter Egg Competition this year. Everyone taking part earned a small prize and it was great to see them brightening up the entrance hall in the week before our Easter holidays.

Christmas Pantomime 2004

2004-12-21T20:10:00.000Z

The school play, a version of the Cinderella story, was performed on 14th and 15th December at Westdale Junior School by years 5 and 6 as their Christmas concert. Altogether there were four performances with two different casts of children.

The concert featured Year 6 pupils in the major roles with everyone in years five and six participating in the singing. The Assembly Choir also preformed one excellent song to introduce the performance.

The pantomime was not the traditional version of the Cinderella story, but was a funny comedy version which made the audience laugh a lot.

The Fairy Godmother turns up to try to help Cinderella, but her spells do not work properly. Buttons arranges for her to go to the ball but the Fairy Godmother cannot magic up a coach and horses so Buttons has to give Cinders a piggy back to the ball. The Prince falls in love with Cinders but, the story also had a twist which made it more interesting. It all ends up with the Prince marring an ugly sister instead of Cinderella!

"I thought the performance was excellent and the singing was also brilliant!" remarked member of audience.

Harvest Festival 2004

2004-10-31T20:44:00.000Z

Lots of parents, relatives and friends came to our harvest service on 6th October. All the year groups presented interesting contributions. Year 6 told us about the situation of people in poorer countries who do not get a fair price for the goods that they grow and the Fair-trade scheme. Year 3 recited a poem and sang an autumn song and Year 4 presented a harvest alphabet. Year 5 reminded us of all the different sorts of workers (apart from farmers) who play their part in helping to put the food on our plates. We sang several of our favourite harvest songs and, near the end of the service, Revd. Williams spoke to us.

Six-a-side football tournament

2004-10-31T20:40:00.000Z

The footballers had a good start to the season in the area six-a-side football competition. Our team played a series of matches in a league of four teams to win its way through to the six-a-side finals.

The team had some more good matches in the finals, but didn't make it through to the semi-finals.

2002/2003 news

2003-07-19T20:45:00.000+01:00

HARVEST FESTIVAL AT WESTDALE

For our harvest service, most of the children brought in some food for the display and to give away to old people after the service. The display was really great and colourful.

Every class did something different for the service. Year 6 did a really cool poem, Year 5 told the story of Johnny Apple Seed and also read poems. Year 4 performed the story of the great big turnip and Year 3 presented the tale of the Little Red Hen.

We sang lots of harvest songs including Lord of the Harvest, Autumn Days and, to top all that, Reverend Phil Williams came and taught the Royal Potato song.

KINGSWOOD 2002

In October lots of our Year 6 children went to Kingswood. Kingswood is an exciting activity centre for children where they can get to do these activities:

Quadbikes
Archery
Climbing
Orienteering
Fencing
Outdoor Initiatives
Flash (computer sessions)

Fencing and quadbikes were especially popular activities and lots of people surprised themselves by getting to the top of the climbing wall.

The Flash computer sessions were also very good. The task was to position a small toy then photograph it with the computer. The toy was then slightly repositioned and photographed again. This was done many times to create a kind of "stop-animation" movie when all the frames were put together to make an animated film.

At Kingswood the children sleep in dormitories that have bunk beds. No food or drink is allowed at any time in the dormitories and there are room inspections every morning. Points are awarded for tidy beds and clean floors. The children in the dormitory which gets the most points are awarded a prize.

The food at Kingswood was very good. Tea was the favourite meal with chicken and chips being very popular. There was lots of choice at breakfast but we had to get up at 7 o'clock in order to be ready for breakfast at 8 am.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

In the last week before the Christmas holidays, everyone had a Christmas party. The classes in Years 3 and 4 had their party on one day and Years 5 and 6 had their party on the next afternoon.

At the party there was loads of fun. First we played some party games including musical statues, "bring me", pass the parcel, bus stops and the chocolate game (where you have to roll a 6 on a dice, then put on gloves and try to cut off a piece of chocolate using a knife but wearing a pair of gloves – VERY hard).

All the children had to bring food which we shared at the end of the party.

CHILDREN IN NEED

On Friday 15th November 2002, the staff and pupils at Westdale Junior School supported the BBC Children in Need appeal. We had a non-uniform day and we brought in a donation of money if we did not want to wear our school uniform on that day. We raised over £200 from about 220 pupils in our school.

JIGSAW THEATRE GROUP VISIT

One of the special events this term was a visit to the school of the Jigsaw Theatre Group. The school day started off normally with registration but there was no assembly because the theatre group were setting up their props in the hall. The children went into the hall at half past nine, the time they usually come out of assembly, and sat down ready for the play. At the beginning, two women actors came out dressed in yellow togas and introduced the story – “The Trojan Horse”.

They had a screen behind which they could change their clothes because they were the only actresses in the play. It was a funny retelling of the story because one of the actresses had to be the beautiful Queen Helen (but she looked pretty ugly) and said to the other actress, “I don’t feel beautiful”. So the other one said, “Well, try to act beautiful!”

The play carried on with the real Trojan Horse story but with funny bits to make it more interesting. For example, the wooden horse, which is meant to be about sixty feet high was only a young child’s toy horse in this play!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the play even though they knew the ancient Greek story well already.

SPORTS NEWS

This has been a very good year for sport at Westdale.

The football team began the year well by winning through to the finals day of the 5 aside tournament. They worked had all year with Mr Gregory and after Christmas had some very good results and earned the school its best position in the league for many years. Some of the Year 6 girls also attended a special girls’ football event in the summer term.

Mr Bannister has run a cricket and a rugby club this term. These have been very successful and some of the older children have been to represent our school in cricket and rugby festivals. This is the first time for a long time that our school has been involved in these sports and both teams did extremely well for our first attempts.

Since Easter the rounders club, run by Mr Jennings and Mrs Gartside, has met every Tuesday. By going to this club, we have become good enough to compete in matches against other schools around the area. All of the children that attend rounders have learnt all of the skills of how to score rounders and get people out.

On Tuesday 17th June, 10 of the rounders club people went to a rally against 3 other schools. We drew one match, lost one and won one! We were invited to another rally on the 25th June, at Jesse Boot Primary School. Fortunately, the weather stayed sunny and dry. This time the results were positive. We won all three of our matches!

Christmas 2002

2002-12-23T20:51:00.000Z

This Christmas Years 3 and 4, together with the choir produced a presentation called Christmas around the World. There were songs and information about the way Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world including India, China, Africa, Hawai'i and in mainland Europe. Through the concert the nativity story was acted out.

The entrance hall was beautifully decorated this year.

The Christmas party for Years 3 and 4 was on the last Wednesday of term and the party for Years 5 and 6 was the day afterwards. We had music, party games and tea at the end of the day.

On the day before the parties, lots of children from the choir went to sing carols with the residents of St. Andrew's House.

Gedling Road Safety Quiz 2002

2002-06-25T21:19:00.000+01:00

A team of 8 pupils (and 2 reserves) from Westdale Junior School were victorious in the Gedling Road Safety Finals at County Hall, West Bridgford this summer.

The pupils arrived at approximately 7 p.m. feeling very nervous and excited. While the parents gathered into the hall where the quiz was going to take place, the children were taken into a large room where activity books and rosettes were waiting for them. After about 15 minutes the teams were taken by their leaders into the main hall ready for the quiz to begin.

At first there was a practice question just to show the teams what to do. There were five rounds of four questions and these were answered by holding up A, B or C cards. (For example, one of the questions was: What is pollution? A: a member of parliament B: something that is good for us or C: a bad substance that is in the air. You would then obviously put up card C and the team scorer would count up the scores.)

When the last round ended, the pupils were taken by their leaders into the room with activity books for refreshments. After about twenty minutes the children came back into the main hall where Westdale found out that they had won. The children were given a prize each and we were presented with a silver cup.

Our victory meant that Westdale went through to the county Road Safety Final. On this occasion, a team of twelve children competed against other area winners from across the county. This event took place at the Sutton-in-Ashfield and the Westdale team received great support from friends and family. The team did extremely well again, coming in second place for the second year running.

News from our School Newsletter 2000/2001

2001-07-27T20:54:00.000+01:00

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.

Summer Fair 2001

2001-07-05T21:18:00.000+01:00

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.

Summer Fair 2001

2001-06-24T03:17:00.000+01:00

Everybody had a super time at Westdale Sports Day on the afternoon of Friday 20th July. After terrible weather earlier in the week (when parts of Nottingham had a month's rain in a single day), Mr Stephenson chose a perfect afternoon for our sports.

The whole school took part in eighteen different activities such as "egg and spoon", relay sack race, football dribbling and netball shooting. The sports all took place on the field in front of the soon-to-be-closed Arnold and Carlton College.

There were twenty teams with about twelve children (from all age groups) in each team. Adult helpers explained the games and wrote down all the scores as the teams rotated round the activities. Each team also had two rest periods (including a welcome drink).

At the end of the event the winners this year were the Black Panthers team. They said, "We are very pleased to have won and surprised! It was a great afternoon."

Our Summer Fair was very successful again this year, raising over £900. The Summer Fair took place at Westdale Junior School on the morning of Saturday 23rd June.

In the school hall there was a cake stall, book stall, toy stall, wine or water game and a white elephant stall. There were also cakes, drinks and ice-pops on sale in the Dining Hall. In the playground outside there were many small games designed and made by Year 6 pupils. They included games like Dunk the Dolly, Magic Magnet, Match the Socks Up and Splat the Rat. The games took a lot of time and effort but it was well worth it - an amazing £200 was raised by year 6 games alone. With most games costing only 5p a go, this means that there were approaching 40 paying customers per minute during the course of the morning!

The purpose of the event was to raise money for school (and to have fun). The money is being used to refurbish the computer room.

News from our School Newsletter, 1999/2000

2000-07-25T20:57:00.000+01:00

Football Team, Rounders Team and cricket

The Rounders and Football Team

The football season started off with a five-a-side tournament at Stanhope Primary School. We won two games out of four, just missing out on qualification for the next round. We had quite a few league and cup matches but, unfortunately, despite some good performances, we did not add to our winning record!

Thirty-six children have played in the school rounders team this year. We have participated in three Rounders Rallies, two at Jesse Boot Primary School and one at Seagrave Primary School. At each rally we played a series of rounders matches against different schools. The games began at about four o'clock and finished just before six o'clock in the evening. Altogether we played ten games against teams from other schools. Westdale won eight of these and lost just two.

Cricket for Year 6

In January 2000, year 6 had cricket lessons from three coaches from Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. In the first week they were taught how to hit a straight drive. A straight drive is when you hit the ball straight past the bowler to the boundary. In the second week they were taught how to throw and bowl properly, to stand in the right position and also how to catch. They were taught how to catch high and low balls without breaking their fingers. At the end of the lesson they had a relay race, where they had to bowl at the stumps, and if they hit the stumps they scored ten points! In the final week they had a test on what they had learned in the previous two weeks. Everyone in Year 6 who took part in the cricket passed the test. They received a postcard with Chris, Dave and a couple of other coaches on it. They also received a certificate signed by the coaches.

Kingswood

This year, many of the Year 6 children went to Kingswood in Norfolk and had a brilliant time.

We slept in small dormitories with bunk beds, an open cupboard, a mirror, a desk, a chair and a storage crate each. The girls and boys were on different floors of the house called Washington. All the dormitories in Washington were named after areas in America (including Manhattan, New Mexico and Bronx).

At Kingswood we did lots of different activities. The most popular activity was aeroball. This is like netball on a trampoline. Climbing and quad bikes involved a lot of dressing up! Both activities needed a lot of safety equipment but it was fun to climb and ride the bikes and it was also fun watching our friends have a go. Everyone tried archery and a range of different problem solving tasks including getting the whole team across a gap using two narrow planks. Orienteering was another problem-solving activity. We had to use map-reading skills to complete a course and find letters hidden around the Kingswood campus.

We had three sessions of ICT in which everyone had a computer to themselves. We used a digital camera to take a picture of ourselves and then we wrote a biography to go with it. In another session we used the computer to control a Lego Technic car.

On Saturday evening we all watched a film, Tarzan, in the Kingswood cinema. It was action right from the start, there were lots of funny parts and it was quite emotional. On the last morning we had swimming. First we swam and then the lifeguards organised a game which was a cross between netball and swimming.

You can see how many different, exciting activities there are to do at Kingswood. The children loved it. The food was excellent and we hope that next year's Year 6 have a great time like we did.

Music and Concerts

We had two main concerts during the year. Years 5 and 6 gave a Christmas Carol Service in St. James' Parish Church at the end of the Christmas term. Appropriately, to mark the beginning of the year 2000, the music and readings looked back at how the celebration of Christmas, and Christmas music in particular, had developed through the second millennium. As well as readings and songs from Years 5 and 6, the choir sang three items.

Christmas was a busy period for the choir. It began in November when they accepted an invitation to sing at the civic ceremony at Mapperley when the Mayor of Gelding switched on the Christmas lights. There was a large attendance and choir and recorder group performed beautifully. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good! It drizzled for most of the afternoon and, as soon as the musicians had finished playing, there was a downpour. Everyone got soaked!

In December, in addition to the Carol Service, the choir sang to the Westdale Lunch Club for the elderly and went carol singing to St. Andrew's House, a local old people's home.

The summer saw our annual music concert. There were lots of super solos and duets performed by Year 5 and 6 musicians. The orchestra and violins played many different sorts of pieces and the Fiddling for Fun group performed. The choir presented excerpts from a musical about the life of Christopher Columbus. They arranged dances for each of the songs and provided a back-drop and all the props. The Assembly Choir sang two ABBA songs.

Y3 Cinema Visit

On 10th July Year 3 went to the city centre on the bus to see Thomas and the Magical Railroad at the Odeon Cinema. The film begins with Lady (a steam engine) and Diesel a bad engine chasing each other. Lady crashes and Diesel falls into the water. Many people try to help Lady but no one was successful until Thomas, the hero, fetches some magic coal for Lady from the Island of Sodor. The film was enjoyed by most of Year 3 and one of the best parts is when Diesel falls off the bridge.

Friends of Westdale family disco

The friends of Westdale disco took place in late October. It was a very good evening for both the adults and the children. There was music from the 1960's through to the 1990's so everyone heard their favourites. There was fancy dress, lots of dancing and a little Karioke! The DJ was very good and he played many of our requests. There was also a raffle with lots of prizes.

Thank you to all the Friends of Westdale for organising this event.