Children in reception class had some feathery visitors this week as part of their curriculum theme on pets and animals. Miss McCartney thought the best way to learn about birds was to see them up close, so a falconer visited the class with his birds. Not only did the children learn about the birds, each child had an opportunity to handle them too. The children were amazed however as you can see some were slightly apprehensive about our feathered friends!

Mrs Johansen our year 2 teacher is visiting Zimbabwe along with teachers from other schools in the area to strengthen links between our countries. She has been working with the children as well as seeing their teaching methods. She has particularly enjoyed joining in with the music lesson. A fantastic effort Mrs Johansen!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzwqGBt3Adc&w=420&h=315]

Mrs Johansen is sending us daily bulletins about the experiences she is having in Zimbabwe . As you can see from the photographs below she has visited three schools and taken part in a school assembly with 1,200 pupils! She is having an amazing time meeting all the dedicated teachers and wonderful children in the Zimbabwean schools. We are hoping to arrange a Skype session between schools whilst Mrs Johansen is there but this is just the start of the links between our schools. We hope that through the links our children will gain a greater understanding of other countries and learn to celebrate and respect the differences between cultures.

As part of reception class curriculum theme this term they have been learning all about pets! Scales ‘n’ Tails visited on Wednesday and brough a variety of animals for a fun hands on session on learning about the animals and how to care for them. On Thursday ‘Spike’ Mrs Allison’s turtle visited and on Friday Miss McCartney brought her very tiny and cuddly kittens Izzy and Billy to school. As you can see from the photographs the children have had a fabulous week and so have the staff!

Children in year 6 have been learning all about microbes. They studied the differences between bacteria, viruses and fungi. Using magnified photographs of actual microbes, they made life-like models using plasticine. But children made some disturbing discoveries. Did you know Staphylococcus aureus can cause skin infections, respiratory infections and food poisoning? However not all are harmful for example Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of yeast. It is perhaps the most useful yeast, having been instrumental to winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times.

Children in year 3 visited Bowes Museum to take part in a Stone Age workshop as part of their autumn topic. The class discovered and handled a variety of prehistoric artefacts which were 3,500 years old! They particularly enjoyed re-creating their own clay pots inspired by Bronze Age beakers.

A theatre group sponsored by Northumbrian Water visited our school last week to perform the show Little Green Riding Hood. The production was about the importance of being green and not wasting water. Mr Wolf kept leaving taps on and wasting water but the hero Little Green Riding Hood jumped into action aided by her Granny to teach Mr Wolf how to be good and save water! The children had a fantastic time shouting and booing at Mr Wolf and laughing at Jack Sprat!

Children in year 5 brought their science lesson to life this week. They learnt about pollination. The class was divided into flowers and bees. The flowers had a glove which was their stigma and a bowl as an anther containing the pollen. The pollen particles were ping pong balls with Velcro attached. The bees visited the flowers, collecting pollen from the anther before going to another flower where they deposited the pollen onto the stigma as they flew through their imaginary garden. As you can see the children had great fun recreating the process.

Year 2 had a fun introduction to railway history when they visited the National Railway Museum in Shildon . Children learned about some of the museum’s most exciting exhibits and had a chance to climb aboard the footplate of locomotives as well as discovering their history and how they operate. Children also got their hands on a number of different railway objects including: a fireman’s shovel, a guard’s whistle, a pocket watch, and more. They discovered who these objects belonged to and how they helped them do their job.

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!