January 2018

Children in reception class are taking part in a ‘Make a Difference Campaign’ The campaign is a child led project that supports children in identifying, researching and addressing a concern that they want to do something about by developing awareness, fundraising or taking direct action. After much discussion the class identified four things, helping the elderly, helping other children, helping the homeless and providing food for food banks. This week they held a ballot just like grownups do when deciding on a Prime Minister! There was a tie between elderly and children in the community. Another ballot was held and with 17 votes to 12 children was the most popular. Over the next few weeks the class will be thinking about how to help children in the community who don’t have much to do after school or on weekends. Well done reception.

October 2017

Children in reception class have been learning about night and day. They had some special visitors in the form of nocturnal animals. Children began their nocturnal journey by reading the book ‘Owl Babies’ and were   fascinated when a real owl came to see them! Children were able to stroke and hold the animals. Evie said “There were mice and they crawled everywhere!” and Finley couldn’t believe that the lizards tail fell off when it was scared! As you can see children had a wonderful time, not so sure the snake was a hit with everyone though!

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September 2017

Parents and carers of our new reception children were invited into the classroom to experience and enjoy our learning environment with their child. The children had great fun showing their parents around their classroom and letting them know what they get up to in school each day! From painting, modelling, building creations, writing to playing in the sand everyone had a fantastic time. The sessions are also a great way for families to meet each other, have a chat in a relaxed atmosphere and get ideas on how they can support their child’s learning from the Early Years staff. Miss McCartney would like to thank everyone who  attended and said “I think this is the best turnout yet! I am looking forward to the next one!”

It is always a special day when we welcome our new  reception children to their first day at Willington Primary School and this year was no different. Looking very smart in their crisp new uniforms, the children have had a fantastic first week. Despite the inevitable first nerves, everyone seemed really excited about starting reception class and new friendships are   already being forged. All the staff are looking forward to seeing them develop in the years ahead.

Sculpture of the Roman Colosseum

Children used wire to to create the circular shape of the Colosseum, then used mod roc to create the shape of the walls. We cut two doors for the ‘life’ and ‘death’ entrances. children then painted on their designs.

Trip to Binchester Roman Fort

To start our Roman topic we visited Binchester Roman Fort to experience Roman times. The class explored the impressive remains of a Roman bath house and they walked in the footsteps of soldiers around the remains of the Commander’s House. They became archaeologists and excavated earth to find Roman artefacts, had a chance to dress as Roman soldiers, designed mosaics and made clay pots.

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Sculpture Week

As part of sculpture week, year 5 created their favorite dinosaurs. We made the sculptures from wire, tinfoil, padding and mod roc. Finally we painted our dinosaurs. We had to mix the paint to create accurate colors and we also used sponging to create the texture of the skin.

Lead Mining

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Year 5 have started their topic on the Victorians. They went lead mining in the classroom for paper clips – the coloured ones being the lead! They were shocked when they found out pay day was only twice a year and some got more money than others depending on how much lead was found. They spent their earnings from a miners 1864 shopping list.

Visit this section of our website to see what year 6 have been up to!

Willington’s Hero

Year 6 had a visit by archivists from the Durham County Council Record Office and Durham Light Inventory on Thursday 25th January. The class became historical researchers for the day to find out about the life and achievements of George Burdon McKean (a soldier, born in Willington, who won the Victoria Cross in World War 1). It is the hundredth anniversary of his courageous act in April and he will be commemorated with a flagstone outside the library here in Willington. The children were lucky enough to  examine a range of historical artifacts and sources. They even had to wear gloves to help   preserve these fascinating objects. The class had a fantastic day and they learned a lot from what was a thoroughly enjoyable experience

Sculpture Week

We were very proud to see our Mayan coil pots on display in the school’s sculpture exhibition. Lot’s of parents and relatives came to view our creations.

Safety Carousel 2017

Year 6 attended a multi-agency safety event at The Work place this week which was organised by Durham Fire and Rescue Service. We were 1 of 168 schools taking part. The event provided an interactive way of teaching young people to become aware of their personal safety and give advice about how to react responsibly in dangerous situations. They also inform all of those who took part about wider safety matters to help create a safer  community environment.  It provides young   people with the life skills to keep themselves and others safe in the future. The fire service along with other agencies ran fun activities to promote safety. Other agencies involved in this year’s event were Durham County Council – Road Safety, Durham Constabulary – Cyber bullying, Northern Power Grid –   Electricity safety,  Northern Gas Networks – Gas Safety and RNLI – Water safety.

Mayan Coil Pots!

Year 6 have had a great time during art week designing and creating Mayan coil pots!

Mayan Cuisine

As part of year 6 autumn topic children in the blue team have been busy cooking up some Mayan cuisine for the rest of the class (flatbread, fresh guacamole, fresh salsa and chilli hot chocolate!)

Student Council Elections

Year 6 have been holding elections  for two student council representatives. Interested children produced manifestos and presented them to the class. All children had wonderful ideas and we are pleased to announce the Year 6 representatives are Lana and Rebecca.

A Christmas Journey

We were invited by the Methodist Church to watch their Christmas Journey on 5th December. The children visited a series of tents, each representing a key scene from the nativity. The scenes were wonderfully creative, consisting of actors in costume retelling each section of the story. The children and staff returned to school with huge smiles on their faces after experiencing such an enjoyable learning journey. We are very grateful to the organisers for putting on such a wonderful event.

Sculpture Week

As part of the schools sculpture week we have enjoyed looking at the work of famous sculptors for example, Alexander Calder and Henry Moore . This inspired us to make our very own sculptures.

The Bug Club!

Children in year 2 have discovered our Bug Club reading scheme and have been practicing logging in. Each child has been allocated three books to start. The  Bug Club is a finely-levelled reading scheme, which ensures that all children can find books at exactly the right level for them. What’s more, there are online versions for every printed title and a personalised website for each child.

Children in nursery have started the new school year with an ‘All About Me’ topic. They have had great fun expressing their artistic skills by painting a self portrait and describing what they see.

Charlotte said “I got blue eyes, they are light blue. I got a mouth and eyebrows too!. I’m doing my hair like Rapunzel”.

Luke said “ Two eyes and two ears”.

At Willington Primary School we have a reading programme called Bug Club.

What is Bug Club? 

Bug Club is a finely-levelled reading scheme, which ensures that all children can find books at exactly the right level for them. What’s more, there are online versions for every printed title and a personalised website for each child.

Using the online reading world

If you have access to an internet connection, your child can enjoy reading Bug Club books online as well as in print. Each child has a unique homepage and can log into it by following these steps:

1. Go to www.activelearnprimary.co.uk

Please note: We strongly recommend using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers with Active Learn. If you prefer to use Internet Explorer, please check you have at least IE9 in order for everything to work as it should.

2 .Enter the login details (as provided on your child’s Bug Club mark)

3. Your child’s homepage will appear.

Reading a book online

We allocate books to your child according to their reading levels. These books will appear in the ‘My Stuff’ area of their personal homepages.

Throughout the books there are quiz questions for your child to complete. To answer a question, just click on the bug icon. Your child does not need to finish all the quiz questions in one sitting and can come back to the book later.

When your child has finished all the quiz questions in a book, your child will earn ‘ActiveLearn Coins’. By reading more books, your child will earn enough coins to ‘buy’ a reward in one of the many reward schemes.

The answers to the quiz questions will be sent back to our teacher site so that we can see how your child is progressing. We will also be able to assign more books for your child to read if the virtual book bag is running low.

When your child has finished a book, it will move to ‘My Library’. Children can read these books again if they want to, or they can choose new books from ‘My Stuff’.

Getting Involved

Sharing reading

Until they are fluent readers, younger children will benefit from reading aloud to you as often as possible. When sharing a book with your child, try to take opportunities to talk about the book – before, during and after reading.

Before reading: look at the book cover and talk about your child’s expectations. Is the book likely to be fiction or non-fiction? Have you read other books together about these characters or by this author? What does your child think the book is going to be about?

While reading: support your child when unknown words need tackling: you can sound them out, split them into syllables, or identify suffixes and prefixes. Remind your child to listen to the words while reading them, to make sure that they make sense. Have a ‘meaning check’ every now and again to ensure your child understands the text.

After reading: talk about the book. What was it about? Did it match your child’s expectations? Ask questions beginning with the words how and why to check that your child has been able to read between the lines. Ask whether anything seemed puzzling. Then ask your child to explain what the best and worst bits of the book were, and why.

Need help?

If your child is having trouble using the pupil world, help can be found in the Help Section of ActiveLearn Primary (in the top right-hand corner of the website).

New Parent Information

Bug Club Troubleshooting Guide

Information for Parents

Previous Years Records of Governor’s Attendance

You can view previous years attendance here.

KEY
✓   – Attended meeting
A/A   – Apologies sent and accepted by meeting
N   – Did not attend
X  – Not a member of the committee

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2015-2016