Alexandra Primary School
Thirty-eight children have just returned from an action-packed three-day residential trip to Sayers Croft in the heart of the Surrey countryside. On arrival, we were met by our leader, Kate, who showed us our ‘home’ for the next three days – ‘Holmbury.’ After making up beds and unpacking, we had a fire-drill and a chance to look around our surroundings before heading off for lunch. The afternoon’s activities were varied and challenging in different ways – caving (in a fibreglass tunnel network), archery and nature art. Despite some worries about crawling through dark tunnels, everyone gave it a go and came out with a fantastic sense of achievement and having had a lot of fun!
In the evening, we set off for a guided walk through the grounds, listening to the sounds of the night in the countryside and admiring the stars before heading back to the dormitories for hot chocolate and bed-time.
The last day came around all too quickly. The morning was spent pond-dipping – who could believe the incredible variety of creatures found in the water? A final activity showed excellent team skills as children competed to build a giant catapult and shoot their sponges the furthest. Then, back to the dorm for a quick lunch and on to the coach for the journey home with lots of stories to tell!
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On Wednesday 16th October, some of our Year 5 children were fortunate enough to attend a question and answer session with British astronaut Tim Peake at The Science Museum in London to support their learning on Earth and Space this term. It was fascinating to hear him talk first-hand about his experiences on the International Space Station, where he spent 6 months, and the training that he had to go through prior to his mission. While we were there, Tim Peake was also presented with a special award from the Royal Academy of Engineers for his work in promoting engineering across the country. More information on this can be found at https://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2019/october/academy-and-raspberry-pi-celebrate-top-award-for-a
The children should be congratulated on their outstanding behaviour during the trip and they were a credit to APS. Perhaps after this inspirational visit we now have some budding astronauts or engineers amongst us.
On Thursday 10th October, Years 4 and 5 learnt about how to stay safe around lorries. They learnt about where drivers can see and where they can’t, including cycling on the inside. It was interesting to know how long it takes a lorry driver to break and where is safe to cross the road (90 metres, depending on the speed). Using a balloon to demonstrate, the lorry driver showed the children how little speed is needed to run over anything with the huge tyres. They were reminded that getting anything from under a car or lorry is extremely dangerous. The children gained a lot of essential safety information in their sessions which will help them to keep safe when walking or cycling!
Year 5 were lucky to travel to Whittle and Spark in Shepperton for an adventure-packed day of outdoor learning. They learnt how to handle sticks safely to make dens, toasted bread over a fire and identified a whole host of insects and even arachnids! Luckily, the weather was on our side and an unforgettable day was had by all.
The topic for Year One is ‘Moon Zoom’. To celebrate this topic we had ‘Space Day’. The children made their space outfits for homework and had a parade to show them off. They were amazing! There was a winner and a runner up chosen from each class for the most creative ones! These were very difficult to choose! The children spent the day participating in a range of space linked activities including making their own astronauts with moving parts and cooking. We also had a role play room called ‘The space room’ with a range of space linked objects and games. It was wonderful to bring the theme to life! A huge thank you to the children, parents/carers and staff who made this day successful!
Year 2 were very excited to have a visit from Mrs Wellbake, Samuel Pepys’ maid. She had travelled in time all the way from 1666 to come and see us. During her stay she told us lots of details about The Great Fire of London. We found out about how it started, how the fire spread and even how they managed to put it out in the end. Some of Year 2 were lucky enough to dress up at important characters from history, such as Samuel Pepys, the Lord Mayor of London and King Charles II. Back in class we were able to use what we had learnt in our writing and are now working on our own newspaper reports.
On the 14th January, year 4 embarked on a journey: ‘The Orient Express’ to explore their new history topic based on The Shang Dynasty. We were very impressed with the children’s engagement with their learning throughout the day. The children worked with a professional dancer to learn and perform a Lion Dance. It was a treat to see the finished performances at the end of the day! The children also learnt how to write Chinese symbols and used artistic techniques like calligraphy to reproduce these. Year 4 practiced problem solving skills when working together in the ‘Chopsticks challenge’ to pick up different objects using chopsticks in a set time! Overall, it was a very enjoyable day for all.
Well done to
all children who took part in this years Christmas card competition.
All of the teachers found it incredibly hard to pick winners from
the fantastically festive masterpieces. Overall, the year group
winners were:
Year 6, Ariana in 6C
Year 5, Reyhan in 5M
Year 4, Joelin in 4H
Year 3, Gaurav in 3H
Year 2, Shaindhavi in 2B
Year 1, Shivaani in 1TB
Congratulations to all
of our winners!
On Friday 16th
November, ten children from across Year 5, spent the morning at Kingsley
Academy’s annual Primary Maths Challenge. This event is designed for
pupils who enjoy mathematics, with activities that encourage pupils to work in
a team and develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills. Two
teams from Alexandra entered the annual Challenge. For the third year
running, one of our teams came first while the other came forth in a
tightly-fought competition. All the children demonstrated excellent
team-work and problem-solving skills – congratulations!
On the 4th
October 2 representatives from Bradford Swissport Ltd came to school with an artic lorry to teach Lorry awareness/ safety to our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils. They were shown all of the blind spots from a drivers perspective and why they should never crawl under a vehicle to collect a lost ball as well as being given lots of information about height , weight and stopping distances.
We were all amazed to hear that at 30mph the lorry would need the length of a football pitch to stop safely.
All of the children had the opportunity to climb up into the cab of the lorry and see first hand how restricted the drivers view really is.
Thank you to all the parents for supporting children in making their costumes for Roman Day!
The day was a huge success and the children had a great time.
Their favourite activities included making Roman shields and trying Roman food!
