We are extremely proud to announce that the school has achieved the Artsmark Silver award for our high level of provision to the arts. By gaining the Artsmark Silver award, the school has shown it's commitment to the wider development of pupils and teachers and to raising the profile of it's arts provision both within the school and the local community.

The arts cover the four artforms of art, drama, dance and music. Over the last couple of years, we have been developing and increasing the provision we offer to the children through organising a range of activities to enrich and broaden the curriculum, such as visits to arts organisations, artists coming in to school, various competitions, and events within school.

The awards ceremony was held at the Northern Stage in Newcastle and it was a fun filled event, with music and dance performances from various schools around the North East. Heather Seymour and Adam McIntyre accompanied Miss Gillie and Mr Malik to collect the award and to celebrate the achievement.

Thank you to all of the staff and pupils at Wardley for their hard work and dedication to the arts.

Posted by L.Gillie at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ian, a tennis coach, has come into school and has provided us with 6 weeks of highly skilled coaching. We have done a range of basic skills which have taught us how to control a ball with more confidence.

The Ian showed us how to use the ball with our racket to get used to holding it correctly.

Continue reading "Tennis coaching" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of our Science learning this half term, we have been learning about different habitats. Mr Scott challenged the whole phase to choose a species and create an informative piece of writing on it.

We were also lucky to have a visitor, Rebecca, from the Hancock Museum who brought stuffed animals for us to examine to see how they are suited to their habitats to inspire the children even more.

Continue reading "Super Science Projects" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fruity Friday is a charity fundraiser created by Cancer Research to raise the awareness of how vital fruit is in our diet as a strategy to fight against cancer.

Back in February, the School Council decided they wanted to raise money for a worthwhile cause and as cancer is something that appears to be a disease that can always be linked to someone you know, they decided this was a good cause.

A letter was sent out asking for a donation and School promised to make the afternoon all about fruit. The kitchen bought star fruit as a special fruity lunchtime treat and across each phase, a variety of different activities were completed. Furthermore, all classes entered the Fruity Superhero Competition. Have a look below at the class winners who have been entered into the national competition as well as some of the fruity fun we got up to!

We managed to raise £184.00, so thank you to all those who contributed!

Continue reading "Fruity Friday 16th May 2008" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Year 4/5 football team were joint winners of the Felling Schools Year 5 Football tournament. Having qualified for the finals last winter, the team competed with Oakfield, South Street and Harlow Green for the trophy.

In the opening match, Karl Young scored a great goal to give the team a one-nil win against Harlow Green. We then had two goalless draws with Oakfield and South Street. After all the matches were played, the team finished first, level on points and goal difference with Oakfield Primary.

Mr Scott and Mr Evans were extremely pleased with the children’s efforts. Mr Scott was particularly delighted with captain Aidan Willis, who showed great pace, strength and maturity in defence. He also identified goalkeeper Nathan Barnes for special praise, as he kept three clean sheets. He was also outstanding on the rare occasion he was called upon to make a save. The children have been fantastic all season and will hopefully continue to progress next year.

The teaching staff at Wardley would like to thank the parents for their continued support. Without their lifts to the competition, the children would not be able to participate in so many events.

Posted by B.Evans at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The staff and children have taken part in an exciting festive project to design and make their own professionally finished Christmas card. Each year group has chosen a different theme, designed their work and then sent it away to be professionally made. Along with their design on the front, the card also featured each child's full name and school name on the back. The school has made a small sum of money from this project which will be spent on further developing the arts provision within school.

Posted by L.Gillie at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 3/4's latest Geography topic was all about investigating the local environment and seeing what can impact this. We started in the classroom to discover how Wardley effects the rest of our country. As discovered using the internet, although Wardley is only small, we still need to play our part in encouraging people to reuse, recycle and replace the resources that the environment provides for us.

Continue reading "Improving the Environment" »

Posted by C.Shields at 05:18 PM | Permalink

Key Stage One and Foundation Stage children have enjoyed a fantastic arts themed week based around the continent of Africa.

The week was planned and designed in order to enable the children to gain an insight into different cultures and customs of the African people. The children learned about the geography of the continent, foods, animals, clothing and jewellery, music, singing and dance, as well as the different forms of African artwork.

Read on to find out more about our visiting artists for the week, see more photos and find out more about the types of activities that took place.

Continue reading "African Arts Week- A Huge Success!" »

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

Week 1 of the Summer term started off bouyantly when Year 3 multi-skilled their way to victory. The entire year group showed their excellent team spirit when they got split up into 5 teams to make it more interesting when other schools were unable to attend. Whitemere demonstrated great skills alongside our teams but were just not quite as effective as our winning team who beat them by 52 points.

Continue reading "Wow skills! Year 3 outskill Whitemere" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 03:56 PM | Permalink

To coincide with the Easter celebrations at Wardley, we ran a whole school competition for the second year running. Every child in the school took part in the competition, which involved the design and decoration of a hard boiled egg.
The children were encouraged to use their own creativity and imagination when designing and making their egg and we had a wide selection of ideas. These included: animals, cartoon characters, birds, insects and people.
Also back by popular demand was a staff egg competition: Miss Gardner’s Grouch won, followed by Mr Shackleton and Mr Arthur’s joint chicken and egg design.
There was a 1st place and two runner up prizes per year group, which was a delicious chocolate egg-Mmm!
Well done to everyone at Wardley Primary for taking part!

Posted by L.Gillie at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Northumbria in Bloom
Children’s Painting Competition

Gateshead Council is once again hosting the above competition. Year's One, three and four took part this year. Year One could paint a flower from any chosen month and we chose to paint pansies, which flower in July. Year's three and four were restricted to the months of March, July or November.

The children painted Poppies to coincide with November Remembrance Day and also Cornflowers, which flower in July. Judging will take place at Saltwell Park on Saturday 17th March 2007 at 11am. The winning entries will feature in the next Northumbria in Bloom Calendar.

Good luck to those pupils who entered!

Posted by L.Gillie at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During our Design and Technology topic, Sandwich Snacks, the children have enhanced their knowledge and understanding about what is needed to create a healthy sandwich. As a result, the children have now developed further their knowledge of the 5 different food groups, the importance of hygiene, the correct methods to use when slicing, grating and cutting and how combining ingredients isn't as easy as mums, dads, grandmas and grandads make it out to be if the creation is to be a healthy one!

Continue reading "Year 3/4's Healthy Sandwich Presentations" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Mrs Scott, a dance teacher knows how to dance to lots of music, including upbeat music. She has come to school every Tuesday afternoon to help us learn new dance skills.

Continue reading "Year 3/4c have been taught some skills of Street Dancing" »

Posted by V.Dixon at 02:09 PM | Permalink

To celebrate the launch of the 2006 Christmas Stamp issued this month, the Royal Mail have given pupils in the north of England the chance to win a computer or digital camera for their school. The stamps, which feature traditional Christmas images, are the 40th set of Christmas Stamps issued in the UK. They depict a snowman, Father Christmas, a reindeer and a Christmas tree.

Year Three and Four children took part in this wonderful art and design competition. Unfortunately, only one design was allowed to be chosen for the whole school. It was a difficult decision with so many excellent creations. After much deliberation, the design chosen was by Emily Terry. (See chosen design above)

We await the results with much interest and thank all those children who took part.

Miss Gillie (Art Co-ordinator)

Posted by B.Evans at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Year 3/4 went to Segedunum to enrich their historical understanding of the Roman Period as well as develop ideas for historical stories. The children completed activities around the site to enable them to retain information that would be useful back in school.

Continue reading "Roman Adventures at Segedunum" »

Posted by C.Shields at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

On Thursday 19th November pupils in Year One to Six took part in a Tennis Fun Day. Local coach, Jonathan Newton, worked with each class teaching a range of basic tennis skills. The focus of the session was to develop the pupils’ racket skills while promoting fun and enjoyment through a range of games. Jonathan is continuing to work closely with the school by providing weekly tennis lessons with pupils throughout Key Stage 2.

Should your child be interested in attending local tennis clubs please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Riches for telephone numbers of local coaches.

Posted by E.Riches at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)