Willington Primary School have secured funding to enable the Pre-School Learning Alliance to deliver ‘Learning through Play Sessions’ in our nursery. Parents/carers are invited to join their child to discover how children develop and how different play experiences encourage that development. This week children had fun with paint! As you can see they had a very hands on approach!

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Dr Bike from Sustrans visited the school as part of his on-going activities to encourage/enable children to travel by foot or bike to school. As part of the ‘Bike It’ project in our school children and staff were invited to bring their bike for a FREE bike safety check. A typical check involved pumping up tyres, checking brakes, handlebars, the saddle & pedals. As you can see Rio had plenty of bikes to inspect!

We have all heard this saying and there is certainly a lot of truth behind it! Studies have shown if your child skips breakfast and they are hungry, they are more likely to be tired, moody and irritable at school. He or she will find it harder to concentrate at a time when they are learning lots of new things. Children need a lot of energy to get through a morning of concentrating, learning and playing.

Don’t be tempted to allow your children chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks before school. Not only are these bad for your health, but they will make your child’s blood sugar levels peak quickly before dropping very fast, leaving him or her with a lack of energy and feeling irritable. Providing children with a breakfast that is rich in fibre, proteins and whole grains can hep to boost their attention span, concentration and memory.

If you are really pushed for time and your child is in years 1-6 why not allow your child to attend the breakfast club in school? For 50p per day your child will receive fresh fruit juice, cereal and toast. There is no need to book a place and children can simply drop in between 8:20 and 8:45am.

Sleep plays a significant role in brain development, and it is therefore important for children to get enough sleep as their bodies grow and mature. Lack of sleep makes it much harder for us to concentrate, and we become forgetful, irritable and prone to being clumsy and making mistakes.

How much sleep does my child need?

Between the ages of 5 and 11, your child will need 10-12 hours of sleep a night.

A bedtime routine is the best way to ensure your child gets enough sleep. Devise a routine that lasts 30-40 minutes, and includes a bath and the chance to read a story together. Try not to change this routine. Bedtime is a chance to spend quality time together. At stressful times, such as when your child starts a new class your child will probably get more tired than usual and need more sleep. Limit your child’s use of the internet, games consoles and TV in the hour before they go to bed and ideally don’t allow your child to have them in their bedroom.

Thank you to everyone who submitted entries to our sunflower competition. We are pleased to announce the winner of 2015 is Lois of year 4 who’s plant grew to nearly 12 feet – wow! Congratulations also to the runners-up Brooke from year 4 and Chloe from year 2. The girls have been presented with their prizes in assembly.

As we have had such a great response and so much effort was put into growing the sunflowers we decided all entrants deserved a prize for their hard work. Well done, and we hope you had fun growing your sunflowers. We definitely had fun reviewing your entries!

Our Year 3 children had a fabulous trip to the Botanical Gardens in Durham. As well as looking at the amazing variety of plant life in the different climate zones within the gardens, the children got to handle fossils up to 400 million years old! They saw some impressive specimens such as Frosterley Marble (really a  limestone) which was mined just up the Dale in Frosterley. The fossils show that the area was once under water, forming part of a shallow sea! Because of its decorative value, Frosterley Marble was used for the huge pillars in Durham Cathedral! The children took part in a workshop to identify fossils and investigate soil types – the clay was a particular favourite!

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Today we had four headteachers from our link schools in Zimbabwe visit our school. They loved meeting and talking to our children and answering their questions on schools in Africa. The children discovered that the schools in Zimbabwe had fifty-five pupils in each class with one teacher. They were particularly shocked to hear that the Zimbabwean children start school at 7:30am and don’t finish till 4:30pm! Mrs Johansen will be visiting Zimbabwe in October to work in their schools and strengthen links between our countries.

In September our school joined in with activities organised by Greater Willington Town Council for National Fitness Day to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The children  completed 30 minutes of activities including warm up games, cardiovascular ‘circuit’ exercises and co-ordination based team games.

In this age of TV, internet and games consoles we know how hard it is to keep children physically active but urge you all to keep trying – the benefits far outweigh the effort!

Children who attend our after school nature club have been hard at work. They have completed building their ‘Bug Hotel’ (well a palace really) and they are eagerly awaiting occupants! They created the hotel from recycled materials which were kindly donated by parents and friends of the school.

The completed ‘Bug Hotel’

The children are hoping to attract all sorts of pollinating insects to take up residence in the plush accomodation. As you can see from the photographs they had lot’s of fun working together outside creating the structure and tending to their wildlife garden!

Proud builders

Watering the seedlings

Planting the seedlings

Year 5 took a trip back in time when they visited Beamish   Open Air Museum this week. They have been studying life in the past as part of their curriculum topic. The children had a hands on approach as they experienced how people used to live. They visited the old town then caught a bus which took them to the pit village.

The class took a trip down the mine to discover what life was like for the young miners in the late nineteenth century. Feeling a little apprehensive they put on their hard hats and entered the dark, damp tunnel.

The day finished with a Victorian school lesson. As you can see from their faces the children  were shocked at the harsh punishment the teacher used!

The teacher was very strict and the classroom very different to that of today. I think year 5 will appreciate having Mr Stockill as their teacher now! They had a fantastic day out and returned to school well and truly worn out but excited to continue their class topic.