Over the past few months the Year Four pupils have been attending Miss Gillie’s drama Club. They used the traditional story of Jack and the Beanstalk and adapted it to a modern version called Jill and the Beanstalk. The children learned a rap and a dance as well as the acting out of the script.

Jill and the Beanstalk was designed to provide the children with a moral dilemma regarding stealing and family issues.

Alongside learning drama conventions, the children also made a backdrop for the set of the stage. This involved painting Jill's garden and the giant's castle. Various props were also made for the play.

The play was then performed to the whole school and teaching staff. A very enjoyable time was had by all!

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the past half term a small group of Reception class pupils have been attending Miss Gillie’s drama Club. They used the traditional story The Gingerbread Man to develop their role-play skills and confidence in speaking and listening.

The children also developed their creative skills by painting a back drop designed for the set of the performance. The backdrop set included the Little old lady and Little old man's kitchen and the countryside that the Gingerbread man ran through.

The play was then performed to Foundation Stage and Key Stage One pupils and teaching staff. Well done to the children for a fantastic performance!

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wardley Primary School has been working in partnership with Heworth Grange Comprehensive School Arts College staff to develop the skills of some of our pupils here at Wardley.

Mrs Park, the art teacher at Heworth, came in one morning per week for six weeks, to work with our gifted and talented artists from Nursery to Year Six. The children looked at and discussed artwork by Henri Matisse, as a stimulus. The children did still life sketches, painted; sponge printed and did collages of various fruit and vegetables, for a Healthy Eating Display now situated in the dining hall.

Mrs Park also worked with all of the Year Two pupils in order to support the children with their transition from the Infants to the Juniors, by producing artwork to be displayed in the Junior Hall. The children looked at multicultural art and used aboriginal style techniques to re-create a map of Wardley.

Thank you to the children and to Mrs Park for their hard work producing the wonderful displays.

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 3 and 4 enjoyed multicultural arts week by looking at and studying Japan. The children studied the geographical and historical aspects of Japan as well as focusing on Japanese customs and culture, through art. The pupils tried Japanese writing, made fans and designed kimonos. This artwork is very attractively displayed in the Junior hall.

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several visits to Laing Art Gallery have been organised throughout this year. Year 1/2, 3/4 and 5 have all been on visits to Laing Art Gallery to develop their artistic skills.

Year 1/2 and 3/4 have been to see an exhibition called Work, Rest and Play at the gallery. The exhibition has a series of artworks by famous artists on the theme of Work, Rest and Play. This visit involved the children looking at and analysing the works of art, hearing stories from a storyteller, developing collage techniques and making props and using them in drama performances.

Year 1/2 photos below:

Year 3/4 photos below:

Year 5 worked on The Bard Take One Picture project in January(further details of which are posted on this website in the Year 5 section).

Everyone had a fantastic time and more visits will be planned for next academic year.

Posted by L.Gillie at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday morning 9.15am-11.15am (Term time only)

Children will be involved in a range of activities and outings

For further information contact Sharon (0191 420 1415) or come along!

Posted by M.Malik at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 4 have had the fantastic opportunity to work with a qualified Rugby coach for the last half term of the school year. Tom has come in every week and taught the children how to play Tag rugby, a simpllified, safer version of the real game. It has been brilliant to see the enthusiasm across the whole year group and the children were sad when the six weeks came to an end.

Nevertheless, it did mean for some that it was tournament time. Fourteen children, in total, represented Wardley at a tournament on Wednesday 11th July 2007 which took place at the Dryden Centre. Our team knew the importance of team spirit and showed great determination on the pitch. However we need to improve on our understanding of passing backwards!! As a result we didn't win but did come a very respectable 4th and the squad have requested that Tag rugby is a sport which will be available in school next year. Hopefully Mr Evans can rope in the professionals again as I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take on the fearsome Y4's at this game!!!!!!!!!

Team talk to assist a win!

Posted by V.Dixon at 03:53 PM | Permalink

Over the past three months, the school has been collecting Sainsburys Active Kids Vouchers. We have collected more than 9000 vouchers. This is a brilliant response. Thankyou to all those children and parents who brought in the vouchers. Your support is invaluable. We will use the vouchers to purchase:
*A basketball net.
*Playground storage unit.
*Hockey sticks and balls.
*CD player.
*Target nets.

Posted by B.Evans at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 3/4 had the perfect weather for Sports Day. We had sun for the spectators but some cloud to ensure our racers didn't get too hot. All children took part in heats and got points for their class for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The competition was fierce and Mrs Dixon's ears were hurting from all the cheering encouragement the competitors were giving their team mates. The whole event was enjoyed and our chief photographer aka Mr Malik took some excellent action shots.

There had to be one winner and Mr Burfield's mighty final win in the Y4 boys relay meant he just pipped Mrs Dixon's class to be champions. Mrs Dixon did not mind as she felt her class were outstanding in team spirit! Miss Shields was also pleased with her class' valiant effort and feels 3rd place was certainly not shameful.

Thanks to all those family members that took the time to come and support the event, the children and staff really appreciated it!

Posted by V.Dixon at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wardley recently hosted its second hugely successful art exhibition.
The event involved every single child in the school creating their own piece of artwork to display in the exhibition. This allowed all of our budding young artists to showcase their artistic and creative flair!

The children created their art work on a canvas using a variety of different media- paint, chalks, crayons, etc. This was then framed and displayed in the junior hall over the two days that the exhibition ran for.

Parents were invited in order to view and potentially purchase their children’s artwork. The event proved to be hugely successful in terms of celebrating children’s artistic achievements and raising money for the school's art fund.
An enjoyable time was had by all!

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A questionnaire was provided to parents and carers to find out what their feelings were about the educational experience provided at Wardley Primary.

Dear parents/carers,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your co-operation in completing the parent/carer questionnaire. We had 112 responses in total, and considering parents have more than one child in school, this should be over a 50% response rate. We have become aware that questionnaires did not go out to parents of children in the nursery, which was an error and will be corrected next year.

The analysis of results show that for a lot of aspects the majority of parents are happy with what the school is doing. The majority of statements have over 90% positive agreement with the lowest agreement being 81%.

I would also like to thank parents for the positive comments that have been made. I have shared these with the staff who are heartened to know that their hard work and dedication is recognised.

Attached is a summary of the results. I have noted all the comments parents/carers have made and have made a response to each. Although there weren’t a great number of comments from the 112 responses, it was clear that each one had been expressed because of genuine concern and therefore they have all been taken very seriously.

It is clear from the results that parents have some concerns about particular areas and as a school this has been an extremely valuable experience for drawing some of these issues out.

The school will be looking to make improvements in light of your responses some immediately and others during next academic year.

Although this exercise is very valuable, if over the coming year you have any issues or concerns, please feel free to raise them with the staff, or make an appointment to meet with myself or Mrs Howe (Deputy Head Teacher). The parent questionnaire will be an annual exercise but I would rather deal with matters as they arise where possible. Don’t feel you have to wait for a questionnaire.

Yours sincerely,

Mr M. Malik
HEAD TEACHER

Analysis of Responses

Posted by M.Malik at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wardley Primary School has had their School Travel Plan authorised by the DSCF and will receive a substantial grant that will enable the school to purchase a cycle storage unit so that pupils will be able to cycle to school. More details about this to follow.

Posted by B.Evans at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mr Shackleton and Mr Evans have tried to bring a bit of Brazil to Wardley. A small selection of children from Year Two up to Year Six have been fine tuning their soccer skills with a Brazilian game called Futebol de Salão.

Futebol de Salão is a 5-a-side version of football of South American origin that is played with a smaller (size 2), heavier (465g) ball that has virtually no bounce (10%). The game became very popular in Brazil where players such as Pele, Rivelino, Zico right through to Juninho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo were brought up first playing Futebol de Salão before moving on to conventional football.

Each week, the children have used Heworth Comprehensive School’s facilities. They have been learning new tricks to help them get the ball into the air and to beat players. The children have made masses of progress over the summer term and it is hoped the club shall continue next year. To celebrate the end of the club's first year, a presentation ceremony took place. The children were awarded certificates depending on how many moves and tricks they had acquired of the course of the club.

Here are a few pictures of some of the Gold certificate winners, who could demonstrate all the tricks they had gained whilst at the club.

Posted by B.Evans at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The annual Key Stage One Wardley Sports Day was held on Wednesday 11th July 2007. A fantastic time was had by the children, parents and all staff. There were seven different races: Running, Skipping, Hopping, Jumping, Quoits Balance, Bean Bag Balance and Through the hoop. After the seven competitive races, the Red team came out winners. It was an extremely close competition with the Red team only taking the lead with two races to go. The children were all very enthusiastic and brilliantly behaved.
1. Red 28 points
2. Yellow 23 points
3. Green 22 points
4. Blue 11 points

Red team captain presented with the trophy by Mr Malik.

Once the team event had finished, we held races for the fastest boy and girl runners in each year group.

Winner of girl year one race: Casey Bencito
Winner of boy year one race: Oliver Barnett
Winner of girl year two race: Rachel Bushell
Winner of boy year two race: Drew Hodgson

Posted by B.Evans at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In early July, the Year One and Two classes carried out a presentation of their fruit and vegetables topic. The aim of the presentation was to show to the parents how fruit and vegetables are an important part of a balanced diet and how fruit and vegetables can be great fun. The children sang a healthy eating song and then acted out a drama based on characters from a balanced diet, for example, Terri Tomato and Barry Burger. The children then took on the roles of teachers and led the parents through a series of activities. These included:
*Sorting packed lunch items into healthy and unhealthy.
*Creating a fruit salad that appeals to children.
*Creating a piece of fruit and vegetable art.
*Blind folded exotic fruit tasting.

This a piece of vegetable art work created by one of the parents.

This is one of the parent's designs for a fruit salad that would be appealling to a young child.

One of the children with their mum showing off their art work.

Two children checking whether the parents have sorted the healthy and unhealthy together.

Posted by B.Evans at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 1/2 went on an educational visit to South Shields Beach. Despite the terrible weather conditions, we had a wonderful day learning all about this famous north east holiday resort. The children were set with the task of writing an information sheet for a tourist who had not visited South Shields. The trip enabled all the children to gather information and knowledge of the seaside.

We saw a chalet were people can stay on the beach front for a few days.

From South Shields beach, it was possible to see Tynemouth Priory.

On the end of the pier, there was a lighthouse to warn ships, particulary at night and on a foggy day, of the rocks near to the South Shields coastline.

After lunch, we built sandcastles and played a variety of beach games.

Each class in Year One and Two created an information sheet.

Bethany Kendell - Year 2

Matthew Bell - Year 1

Ben Frizzell - Year 1

Posted by B.Evans at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wardley had three different nominations for the Gateshead Young Sports Achievers Awards 2007. The Year 5/6 Kwik Cricket team were nominated after another successful season, where they retained the Gateshead Schools Kwik Cricket trophy for a third year in a row. Two individual nomination were made. Kaley Kennedy was nominated for her positive attitude and commitment to P.E and athletics club. Jessica Kirtley was nominated for her excellent all round sporting ability.

The awards ceremony took place at Gateshead Leisure Centre, with hundreds of young people from all across Gateshead in attendance. Unfortunately, the final awards went to children from other schools. We remain extremely proud of the wonderful sporting achievements of the nominated children at Wardley and hope to have even more nominations at the awards ceremony next year.

Posted by B.Evans at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pupils from Year One, Year Three and Year Six have been learning about dance with Mrs Riches. They have had the opportunity to practise new steps, foucs on pattern work and perform simple dances. The pupils level of commitment was very pleasing and their behaviour at the club was outstanding. Some of the pupils had the opportunity to represent the school in the Gateshead Schools' Dance Festival held at Gateshead Lesiure Centre in March. This not only enabled the children to perfrom their ribbon dance but gave them the chance to watch the other children's presentation.

Posted by E.Riches at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the past year children from years 1, 2 and 5 have been finding out more about other religions by coming to the art club. Year 5 children looked at art associated with the Hindu festival of Diwali. They made rangoli patterns using chalks and collage materials. Children also looked at designs on hand patterns called mehndi patterns. They created their own work using pens and paint.
Year 1 and 2 children studied Jewish artefacts associated with Shabbat. Children handled the artefacts and looked at the patterns. They were inspired to make representations of a Kiddush cup and a challah loaf cover. You can see the fantastic work on display beside the infant hall.

Posted by E.Riches at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Wednesday 14th March 2007, Gateshead Leisure Centre played host to the Dance Festival. It was a wonderful event, with schools performing dances based on the themes of slavery or patterns. Wardley perfomed a pattern dance using coloured ribbons to the track 'Dancing in the Moonlight'. The dance included lots of partner work to enable the year six pupils to support the year one pupils and help them overcome any nerves! All the team perfomed very well and their behaviour at the event was outstanding.

The Year Six Dancers were

Michael, Hinna, Steven, Jessica, Paige, Georgia C, Georgia R, Lauren, Charlotte, Helena and Beckie.

The Year One Dancers were

Curtis, Evan, Jordan, Oliver, Jordan D, Ryan, Shannon, Daisy, Matthew, Fern, Harry, Amy, Samantha, Tamara, Sean and Leonie.

Posted by E.Riches at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout the year staff and puplls have had great fun attending a wide range of sports clubs. Pupils have had the opportunity to refine and develop their skills and many have represented the school in tournaments. Mr Evans and Mrs Riches would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for giving up their time to provide these clubs and praise the pupils for their sporting achievements. Well done.

This year's clubs include: Dance, Martial Arts, Tennis, Girl's football, Hockey, Cricket, Boy's football, Basketball, Country Dancing, Running, Gymnastics, Athletics, Rugby, Folebol De Salao, Swimming and Base Club.

Posted by E.Riches at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mrs Dixon's Maths class were set the challenge of coming up with a way to find out which jewellery would be most likely to sell at the Summer Fayre. First they measured the circumference of different body parts for the whole class so we could get an idea of sizes.
The children chose a sensible method to record their results as shown with Owen and Barry's work

Then they examined repeating patterns to have a better idea when designing their own styles.

The children had to work out how many beads would be needed for 1 item, 10 items and 25 items using their multiplication skills and then choose a sensible colour combination using a systematic method so they didn't repeat any.

Once all this data was collected, each group had to create suitable questions to find out personal preferences. Mrs Dixon had the hard job to choose the best questions from all groups and create a questionnaire to ask each class in the school.

We collated all the answers onto one questionnaire. The children recorded the results in a way they thought was best using bar charts. It helped us see quickly which options were the most popular and alternative options if these weren't available.

Finally we used these to buy the most suitable materials from www.beadservice.co.uk, after Debbie from the company, gave us inside information about the best equipment.

Keep watching this space to find out what we made!

Posted by V.Dixon at 02:42 PM | Permalink