Term Six, Week Seven

They say that all good things must come to an end, and so it was that Year 6 spent their final week at Elham School. And what a week it was, with three splendid performances of Bugsy Malone, a barbecue at Mrs Godden's house, a day of kayaking, paddle boarding and beach games at Folkestone and, to finish the week off, the leavers; service in St Mary's church.

The children put on a fantastic performance of Bugsy Malone, which just got better every day. Everyone gave of their best and we saw some real talent shining through, including actors and singers. There was much splurge involved, especially on the final night and the children enjoyed putting on the traditional skit at the end - this year it focused on all the teachers giving excuses why the were late, with the song being title 'Big Dan's Elham Forest School'!

Much fun was had at the barbecue with the children spending lots of time running around the garden and hiding from each other. Many also enjoyed climbing trees. It was great to see them just being children and enjoying each others' company before they move on to secondary school.

Thursday dawned grey and wet, but that did not deter the children from their beach activities. After all, once they were in their wetsuits (which proved a challenge to put on for some!) it didn't matter if they got wet from the sea of the rain. It was the teachers and parents who were spectating who were wishing for warmth and sunshine. At the end of the day, when offered the choice of an icecream or chips, it was chips that the class chose and very delicious and warming they were too.

And so Friday and the leavers' service came round all too quickly.  As usual, the children enjoyed sharing their favourite memories of Elham School and their 'top tips' for the younger children, as well as singing some of their favourite school songs. There were many tears amongst both the children and their parents, we hope because they have really felt part of the family that is Elham School and were sad to leave.

The day ended with Year 6 having a final splurge fight with the cans left over from Bugsy Malone before saying goodbye to their friends and teachers.

Congratulations go to Lily Andrews for winning the Merit Cup and to Lizzie Wright for winning the Mr Davidson Cup for Endeavour. Well done girls - you both deserved to win and we are very proud of you and, indeed, of all the class.

You have been a super class Year 6 - you have worked hard and done us proud and we wish you all the very best as you move on to your new schools in the Autumn. But for now, just enjoy the summer and remember to keep in touch. We love to hear how you are getting on.

Happy summer holidays everyone! Don't forget the sunscreen!

Term Six, Week Six

And so we come to the penultimate week of Year 6's time at Elham School and, as usual, it has been a very busy one.

Thursday was a very quiet one in Oak Class as half of us were out all day at the Kent County Kwik Cricket finals. Although we did not win (we were up against many much bigger schools than ours) we played wonderfully as a team and enjoyed a great day out. We definitely displayed the 'Team Elham' spirit, even in defeat.

Whilst the Kwik Cricket team were out, the rest of us designed front covers for the Bugsy Malone programmes. Mrs Godden has put each of these on the front covers, so look out for a wide variety of designs when you come to watch our performances.

We also enjoyed our last RE lesson on Thursday in which we discussed what kind of world God would really like to see on Earth. We chose a variety of positive words and each then made our words into a word cloud using the wordart website. This really captured everyone's attention and we created some great designs.  If you would like to have a go yourself, the link to the website is given below.

On Friday morning we had a full KS2 dress rehearsal on Bugsy Malone. Not everything ran to plan, but it was a good effort with some super performances and everyone certainly looked the part. It was also our first attempt at using the splurge guns which was much enjoyed! With a little more practice on Monday morning, we know that 'It will be alright on the night!'

Also on Friday, we had our final session with Mrs Cooper to help prepare us for the transition to secondary school. Those of us who need to wear ties practised tying them, and we then talked about the things which we will need to take to school always, sometimes and never. The lists were very long and prompted much discussion.  Our work with Mrs Cooper has definitely set up us very well for our move in September, and even those of us who are still a little nervous about it, now feel more confident about moving into Year 7. As a farewell gift, Mrs Cooper very kindly gave us each a pack full of useful information, a pencil and rubber and some mini bags of Haribo sweets. 

There is so much to look forward to in our final week at primary school - three performances of Bugsy Malone (not forgetting, of course, the skit at the end of the last night!), a walk and barbecue at Mrs Godden's house, a day of beach games at Folkestone and, perhaps most importantly, the leavers' service on Friday afternoon.  Mums and dads, have your handkerchiefs ready as tears will no doubt be shed.

Have a great weekend everybody and come in on fresh on Monday ready to give some great performances of Bugsy Malone.

Term Six, Week Five

Well, what a fantastic, energetic sporting week we have had!  Forthe first time ever at Elham, we have enjoyed a full week of sports, rather than just one sports' day, thanks to the team from High 5 who organised an amazing variety of sports and activities for us to try throughout the week. We enjoyed them all - dodgeball, tag rugby, scooter racing, archery tag, pedal cart racing and even a tug of war - despite a few injuries along the way!

The whole week culminated on sports' day on Friday when we worked in our teams to earn points at various activities such as basketball goal scoring, archery and completing laps in pedal cars, before moving to the track for the more traditional sprint races. These were followed by the mums' race (running with cones on their heads) and the dads' wheelbarrow race, which were hotly contested as always.  At the end of the morning we found out which team had earnt the most points throughout the week and Fire were announced the winners. However, it has to be said that everyone tried their very best all week. After sports day, we were able to enjoy a picnic on the field with our families.

Big congratulations go to the following cup-winners:

Boys' Sport Cup - Lucas Turney

Girls' Sports Cup (Cowling cup) - Emma Clayton and Kinberley Dann (joint winners)

Danny Norton Cup for Football - Tom Robinson

All-round Sportsperson Cup - Toby Dodd

Oak Class was very quiet on Thursday as everyone was out visiting their new schools. This was a great opportunity to get a taste of what Year 7 will be like and everyone reported back that they had a good day. The lunches in particular were very well received.

Term Six, Week Four

Another week has just flown by - it is almost unbelievable that Year 6 only have three more weeks left here at Elham School, and what busy weeks they promise to be with Sports Week this week, beach games and a BBQ, and of course, the KS2 production of Bugsy Malone in our final week of the term.

Returning to this week though, on Thursday we were joined in the morning by our governor for MFL, Amanda Honey. She was here to observe French lessons across KS2 and was very happy to see all the children engaged and motivated in learning a second language. In Oak Class we learnt how to ask and reply to questions about which musical instruments we play/do not play.

Thursday afternoon was rather special as we had our annual music concert where each class had the opportunity to showcase what they had learnt with Karen Hickman throughout the year. As well as  this, children who learn a musical instrument individually had the opportunity to demonstrate their talent.  We certainly do have some very talented musicians in the school and a special mention must be made of Lucas, Jenny and Sophie who were all brave enough to stand up in front of the whole school and perform. Well done to you all.  As a class, Year 6 showed how proficient they had become at drumming in addition to playing a variety of instruments such as keyboards, xylophones and recorders in a group piece. There are photos of us in action below.

On Friday, we enjoyed an amazing day out at Kent Police Headquarters in Maidstone. There was so much to see and do that we couldn't possibly get round it all, but some of our highlights of the day were:

*Being locked in a custody cell and in the back of a police van

*Having our fingerprints taken and put in a keyring

*Watching demonstrations of police and search and rescue dogs, and of civil disobedience procedures (including real petrol bombs!)

*Trying on a variety of police uniforms

*Sitting in police cars and on police motorbikes

*Learning how to keep safe and playing video games in the Cyber Bus tent

*Learning the dangers of alcohol and drugs - including wearing 'drunk' goggles and trying to get a key in a door

*Looking inside an ambulance and trying our hand at CPR on a dummy

Again, there are lots of photos below showing what a great day out we enjoyed.

Next week is Sports Week, so please make sure you have your full PE kit in school every day.

Term Six, Week Three

It's been a week of sunshine and showers, but luckily the weather looks set fair for our Roald Dahl-themed school fete tomorrow. As they say in French 'Venez nombreux' (Lots of people please come) and bring plenty of spending money with you - there promises to be a wide variety of things to do and delicious things to eat.

Our rehearsals for Bugsy Malone are progressing well.  Everyone now knows their lines and we are getting used to acting with our props and changing the scenery. It's still a little rough and ready, but give us a couple more weeks and it will be as slick as anything! (Fingers crossed!)

Over the last couple of weeks Mrs Godden has taught us how to use a spreadsheet, so now we using these to help design our own theme parks, by keeping track of how much we are spending, how much revenue we will receive and, ultimately, how much profit we will make. We are all really excited to be working on this project (in pairs). There are prizes for the best theme park design, best logo design and for the pair which makes the most profit. So far we have designs for theme parks with names such as Dr Who Land, Thrill Island, Sugar Rush, Fantasy World and Space World. We will be designing a logo for our park and creating an advert for it too.

On Friday, we enjoyed our third session on transition with Mrs Cooper. This week we discussed bullying and school rules. We were given school diaries from different secondary schools and asked to find some of the rules printed within them. We then shared a rule with the class and discussed it. Mrs Cooper is going to give us a booklet on bullying from the Kidscape website (www.kidscape.org.uk).

PLEASE NOTE THAT SPELLINGS WILL BE TESTED ON THURSDAY NEXT WEEK AS WE ARE OUT ON A TRIP TO KENT POLICE HEADQUARTERS ON FRIDAY.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

conceal
masculine
feminine
parachute
extraordinary

Beta

tenterhooks
wearisome
trustworthy
aggressive
coincide

Gamma

argumentative
territorial
apparatus
convalescent
excruciating

Term Six, Week Two

Congratulations must go this week to our Kwik Cricket team ( Adele, Toby, Tom, Sammy, Emma, Ollie, Harry, Ned, Jack and Lucas) who won all three of there matches (and scoring so highly they almost beat the schools' record) and are now through to the Shepway finals. Let's hope they triumph there as well and bring home the winners' trophy to Elham School.

As well as rehearsing for Bugsy Malone this week, we got to help Mrs Vincent with production of some of the props, in particular, as pair to old-fashioned pay phones. Look out for them when you come to a performance. Almost all the scenery is created by Mrs Vincent (some of it in her own time). We are so lucky to have someone so talented at art to help up get the staging right and we are all very grateful to her for the time and effort she spends to make our production as wonderful as it can be.

On Friday we began work on our Theme Park Maths projects. In pairs, we will be designing and running theme parks to find out who can make the most profit. We were really motivated to get on with this and it was one of our quietest Friday afternoons for quite some time! If you have time over the weekend, you could design a logo for your park. Mrs Godden will then scan these so that you will have a .jpeg file of your logo to import into documents (for example, when you design an advert for your theme park using Publisher).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Term Six, Week One

So, we have finally arrived at our last term at Elham School. It is set to be a very busy and exciting time, with the KS2 production of Bugsy Malone and trips to the beach and Kent Police Headquarters.

Rehearsals for the play started in earnest this week and it was very pleasing to see how many of the children are near-perfect with their lines already. On Tuesday, we were visited by Ian from KIC Theatre and he worked with us on our characterisation and acting skills, which was not only fun and engaging, but also very useful to us at this stage of our rehearsals. Mr Elgar kindly put up the stage for us this week, so we had our first rehearsal using it on Friday morning. No-one has fallen off it yet, but we have a long way to go with making sure everyone knows when to come on and off, and how to act once they are on stage. This will certainly come with practice and we can all look forward to a professional production which will offer lots of fun and laughter.

Amongst other things this week, Mrs Short taught us about the effects of alcohol on the human body and we then wrote a fact file about it. If you would like to see some of the areas we learnt about, have a look at the presentation below.

In PE, this term's focus is on athletics, in preparation for sports day. In today's assembly, Mr File told us we would be having a whole sports week, with really fun activities and the opportunity to win points each day  towards our house totals at the end of sports day. 

Thursday saw our governor's visiting to observe us in our RE lessons. We welcomed Mrs Brazier into our class, where she joined in with us working in small groups to look at the effect the resurrection has had on different people such as C S Lewis, Gandhi, St Paul and Richard Dawkins (a prominent atheist). She seemed to enjoy our lesson, but perhaps not as much as the previous one in Acorns Class where she had taken part in a re-telling of the story of Noah's Arc with the children as the animals!

Have a great weekend and take a little time to make sure you are word-perfect with your lines for Monday please.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

grabbed
beginning
silence
million
advertise

Beta

echoed
disappeared
effortless
generally
smudged

Gamma

illuminated
apprehensive
disqualify
lettuce
education