The Year 5/6 Winlaton West Lane Tag Rugby Team had a fantastic afternoon playing a "friendly" tournament against another local school Parkhead Primary School!

Our sincere thanks to all the parents and staff who supported the pupils at this event and to Winlaton RFC for allowing us to use their club facilities.
Also, a huge thankyou to the referees / coaches and The "Little Warriors" ARLFC club

Please check out our REALLY FUNNY photostory of the event - you may recognise some familiar faces!

Click on the link below to continue!

finished photostory to upload to website and ready for viewing.wmv

Year 5/6 had a fabulous trip to Bessie Surtees House!!

As part of our Shakespeare topic this term, we went back in time to the Tudor Era - where we discovered some interesting facts and people along the way... Take a look at our photostory below - try not to laugh!!

Bessie Surtees Adventure with music!.wmv

Key Stage 2 were delighted to welcome one of our music workshop teams today. The theme was Music and the Movies, with songs and music played from a variety of children's and adult films. The children learned about rhythm, dynamics, timbre, pitch, structure and mood and were also treated to another rendition of These Boots Were Made For Walking by the KS2 teachers.

Year 5/6 treated parents, carers and relatives to a musical extravaganza this week. Everyone was a star as they sang and danced their hearts out. Their performances have apparently attracted the attentions of Simon Cowell, who is to take time out from his busy schedule to view a video of the performance. How many of our children will he launch into stardom?

However, rumours that he would headhunt Miss Hamill and Mr Gormley to choreograph and direct the next series of X Factor have disappointingly been proven false.

View some photos from the performance by clicking below.

Primary School Christmas Musical.wmv

On Monday 22nd November, a group of Eco Warriors from West Lane visited Gateshead CLC to design their very own Eco friendly school, in a competition hosted by Open City, the architecture education organisation.

The children were given a series of tasks to complete, using a wide range of computer programs, using designing, drawing and writing skills. So busy and engaged were they, they didn't even ask for a morning break!

Eco comp.wmv

The children were given a series of advice sheets to help them with their designs.

C5 - Light.pdf

D1 - Energy.pdf

D4 - Water.pdf

D3 - Waste.pdf

Children and staff were delighted to welcome Gillian Cross, the acclaimed children's author, to our school on Monday. Best known for the Demon Headmaster series which was also televised, Gillian held workshops with many of the children from Key Stage 2.

Using role play and simple props, like a scarf or a pair of glasses, Gillian stimulated discussion and some excellent writing. Examples of the children's writing will be added to the website over the next few days, so keep your eye out for them appearing.

Check out some other photos of the day:

Cross.wmv

To kick off our fortnight of book activities, children brought in a range of books to swap, which proved to be a popular idea for all age groups. There was a lot of serious haggling before those swaps were made! We will be sure to repeat this enjoyable activity.

Key Stage 2 held their Harvest celebration today, with contributions from all the classes.

Donations are being asked for the Seeds for Africa project, which funds the development of orchards and kitchen gardens to allow children to grow their own food. The school hopes to raise at least £250 for this worthy cause. Please return your envelopes by Friday 5th November.

Harvest 2010.wp3

Take a look at the below photostory to see all the fun things Y5/6 got up to at Clasper Towers adventure playground.
Clasper towers 2010.wmv

Today Year 6 gave a great leavers' performance and I'm sure those of you who attended enjoyed the concert.

Well done to all the Year 6 pupils for their hard work and the fun we had preparing for this special day.

We hope you will benfit as a family from the ideas on the attached leaflet.
C4L_Newsletter_July2010_acc.pdf

lego comp.doc

On Saturday 10th July, the school cycle club went on a cycle ride from Newburn to Wylam, the second of our cycle rides this term. A total of 16 children from Key Stage 2 turned up for the ride, along with a number of brave parents. We stopped at Wylam for a picnic. The weather was great, not that anyone needed any excuse to enjoy an ice cream from the local shop.

Mr Innerdale and Mr Gormley would like to thank all those parents who attended as well as those who helped with lifts. They would also like to thank Alan Barlow from Bike It for his assistance and his vast toolkit!

Bike clubs for Year 5/6 and Year 3/4 will start again in September and, following the success of this term's bike rides, another bike ride will be arranged for all our club members.

Enjoy riding your bike this summer and remember to always wear your helmet.

Key Stage 2 children enjoyed a week of cycling activities last week. 35 children showed off their skills. There was a time trial event, also mountain biking, sprint and team races. There was also a cycling event during KS2 Sports Day. Here the children were able to demonstrate how they had tested their abilities and their bikes!

After the team races, times for the various events were added up. Following independent verification, Ryan Jones was declared the winner in the Y5/6 classification, with his brother Sam also proving the victor in Y3/4.

All times are posted up on the Tour de France noticeboard outside Room 9.

More photos can be found on the noticeboard.

This week Year 5/6 researched the Parisian Haute Couture fashion houses of Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Yves saint Laurent and Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Then they created haute couture outfits inspired by these fashion houses using only newspaper, plastic bags and scraps of material.

As the outfits were of such high quality, the children got the chance to model their final pieces to the rest of Year 5/6, in the first ever WWL fashion show

Take a look at the below photostory, to see what they produced.

haute couture 2010.wmv

The sun came out for us, and so did the people, and that resulted in a fantastic Summer Fayre on Wednesday 16th June.

There was a really good turn out from the community as a whole and the atmosphere was fantastic.

As part of our Viva La France topic, Y5/6 AT took part in a team building exercise.

The aim of the activity was to see which group could build the tallest free standing Eiffel Tower using only card, arts straws and cellotape.

They had only 1 hour 30 minutes to complete the task.

Have a look at the photographs to see how they got on.

Year 5/6AT's class assembly was about France.

It was a great performance by the class in front of the school and parents.

They were brilliant!

Here are a few words from the children about their assembly

Studying at university isn't like studying at school or college, but do you know what it's really like? Well Year 6 got that opportunity today when they became apprentice students at Newcastle University as part of the ASC (Apprentice Students on Campus) event.

The Lions of Zulu Land visited our school and we just loved watching their very energetic dances and listening to their wonderful songs during the one hour performance at the beginning of the day.

After the dancing, the 'Lions' came into all of our classrooms and taught us some of their dance moves,

South African songs

and about their language and culture.

At the end of the day, the whole school came back together again and we got the chance to demonstrate some of our new found skills.

What did you think about the Spring Term reward? Please leave your comments below.

Today Year 5/6 attended a Gamelan Music workshop at the Dryden Centre. Everyone enjoyed this new musical experience.

Yesterday, 60 Key Stage 2 children tried their hand at making clippy mats from recycled material.

It was a tricky skill to master but some excellent artwork was produced.

Did you enjoy the clippy mat workshop? What skills did you learn? Share your 'comments' below.

Yesterday Y5/6 received a fire safety talk from members of the Tyne and Wear Fire Service.

The children learnt about the job of a fire-fighter, about fire safety at home and at school and what to do should they ever discover a fire.

They were all given fire safety activity packs and some even got the chance to dress up as fire-fighter!

Did you enjoy the fire safety talk? What important messages did you learn? Share your 'comments' below.

On Wednesday morning, the Music Workshop Team came to Winlaton West Lane Primary to play music and sing songs with Key Stage 2 about France.

We all enjoyed it and some children got the chance to play instruments and do other activities.

Take a look at the Photostory produced by Y5/6 children to find out more about what we got up to.

(sorry File not added yet)

At Winlaton West Lane Primary School we take E-Safety very seriously.

Check out the links below, games and further support about how to keep safe online.

Please take the time to look through this information and discuss it with your child. This will help to re-inforce what they learn in school about using the internet safely.

Last week Year 5/6 visited the Great North Museum as part of their topic work.

Take a look below at this photostory to see what Year 5/6 got up to on their recent trip to Thornley Woods
Thornley Woods 2009.wmv

On 21st October, Year 5/6 took part in the Park Life event at the Dryden Centre.

It was organised by Gateshead Education Business Links Service as a way to introducing the children to the outcomes of Every Child Matters, the principles of enterprise learning, personal thinking and learning skills.

Take a look at the photostory of the event, to see some of the things the children got up to at the event.

Park Life event 2009.wmv

On Monday 23rd November West Lane put 2 teams into the local basketball tournament at Hookergate School. Both teams played 4 league games each with the B team winning 1, drawing 1 and losing 2 and the A team winning all their matches and coming top of their league [scoring a record 39 baskets in the process].The A team therefore got through to the final where they played a very exciting and high quality match which unfortunately they lost 2-1 in extra time. Nevertheless everyone had a wonderful afternoon representing the school very well as usual. For a list of the players, results and scorers see extended entry.
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In June this year, Y5/6PG were extremely pleased to welcome their French pen pals from Baho, near Perpignan, in the south east of France. We had a varied and enjoyable few days of activities and made some very good friends.

Click on the link below to see a series of photos of the visit (may take a little while to upload).

Y5/6PG are hoping to make a return visit to Baho in May 2010.

French visit.wmv

Curriculum letter Autumn.pub

Want to know which areas of the curriculum are being covered in Y5/6 this term? Then look no further!

Needs Publisher 2003 to open.

Every year Film Education organises a nationwide film festival called National Schools Film Week. It is the biggest event of its kind in the World with 400,000 children watching over 200 films at 2,300 screenings in 560 locations throughout the UK!

As Year 5/6 is currently focusing on film based narratives, we took the opportunity to take part in this festival. Year 5/6 visited the Odeon cinema where they watched Bolt and Bridge to Terabithia.

Everyone really enjoyed both films and they provided plenty of discussion and opportunities for follow up work. It also highlighted just how much can be gained from being together and having fun outside of the classroom setting.

Between 14th-16th October, Winlaton West Lane made their annual trip to Robinwood Activity Centre, just outside Alston in Cumbria. The children were very excited, since they had heard such wonderful reports about it from previous year groups, and they were not disappointed.

Robinwood photostory.wmv

All the hard work put in by Year 6 pupils and staff finally paid off yesterday when Year 6 entertained family and friends with their end of year production called School Daze.

To round off our science work, today we took part in the Great Plant Hunt at Sunderland Musuem and Winter Garden.

Sunny skies ensured we all had fun at our annual Summer Fayre.

This half term Year 5/6AT worked with Claire Sotow to create cushions for everyone to use in the outdoor classroom.

Last night the red carpet was laid out for pupils at Winlaton West Lane as they arrived in style in a fleet of limos for the Y6 Prom.

The school entrance and upper school hall were given a Hollywood makeover for the Oscars themed bash.

The children looked fantastic in their beautiful gowns and formal suits and wouldn't have looked out of place at any star-studded Hollywood event.

Check out the photostory of the nights events.
Year 6 Prom 2009.wmv

Over the past few days in Year 5/6AT we have been thinking about the marks that we leave on our planet.

SATs Guide
http://www.satsguide.co.uk
A website that contains how-to's on nearly every subject and tips that will help you improve your score and make studying for SATS enjoyable.

ICT Teachers
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm
The ICT Teachers site has lots of KS2 SATs practice questions.

BBC Bitesize
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/
Resources from the BBC covering English, Maths and Science.

Woodlands Junior School
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/
Includes sample questions taken from past Key Stage 2 SATs papers, as well as a whole host of interactive tests/quizzes.

Science Essentials
http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/essentials/science/index.shtml
Find out loads more about science by investigating the three areas: Choose Life, Material World and Get Physical.

KS2 Maths Tutor
http://www.legend.yorks.com/~calverms/contents.htm
Shape, Space and Measures revision.

Spell It
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/activities_y5/activity1.shtml
Interactive online activities and printable resources which teach spelling strategies, rules and patterns.

On Friday, our Year 5 team of James, Adam, Eleasha & Megan took part in a Lego Robotics heat at Heworth CLC.

Today Year 5 made the most of the beautiful spring day by creating poetry inspired by their springtime surroundings.

They spent time outdoors and every child was encouraged to take a digital photo of a verdant symbol of the season.

On Monday, Lynne from Gateshead CLC visited Winlaton West Lane Primary. Lynne carried out an e-safety talk with each year group to reinforce how to get the most from the internet and stay safe whilst doing so.

You may find the following website useful as it compliments the talk that the children received from Lynne.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Last week, Year 5/6 travelled back to the year 160AD when they visited Arbeia Roman Fort.

Over the past few weeks, Year 5 / 6AT have been working hard to collect pots, tubs and yoghurt pots and eventually all their recycling efforts have come to fruition.

As part of our link with Heworth CLC, Year 5 / 6 has had to opportunity to use Apple laptops over the past month. They created cartoon strips using a program called Comic Life and produced music using Garageband.

Take a look at some of the work they produced.

With a crash of drums and a flash of light Joseph and the rest of the cast entertained parents and staff alike at the Year 6 leavers' assembly.

A big thank you to all the parents and pupils who supported Year 5/6 at the Leavers' Fayre and throughout Kidz n Biz week.

"Death shall come on swift wings to him that toucheth the tomb of Pharaoh."

So reads a totally imaginary inscription supposedly in the tomb of Tutankhamen. This is one of a number of curses that Year 5/6 AT looked at when finding out about Ancient Egyptian curses. The children enjoyed reading the curses so much that they decided to have a go at writing their own.

Read the curses if you dare!

Click to open curse

Every Tuesday lunchtime, for the past half term, a number of Year 6 girls have been meeting up to take part in the Computer Club 4 Girls (CC4G).

Mr Gormley has been teaching at West Lane for 8 years. He currently teaches in Year 5/6.

Today Y5/6 received an unexpected visit from the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service. Paul and Lenny from the local Fire Service took time out of their busy schedule to give a talk about fire safety. Amongst other things they discussed the triangle of fire and ran through the procedures for staying safe in the event of a fire.

Below are some of the comments that Y5/6 made about what they had learnt during this talk.

Click to view pupils comments about the fire safety talk

In addition to sponsoring Mr Magoo, Y6/5JS have just bought a herd of goats and a community tap to help children in other countries. This is part of their application for the Impetus Award and will provide children who are not as fortunate as themselves, with clean water to drink and a form of income to help raise them out of poverty.

The children would like to say a huge thank you for all the support they had to raise the funds via their table top sale.

We will update you on the outcome of the Impetus Award application in the summer term.

The Fab Food Funhouse took West Lane by storm on the 5th March 2008. Key Stage 2 children learned about healthy eating and exercise through versions of popular TV games such as Play Your Cards Right and the Packed Lunch Tucker Trial. Mr Sweeney and Carol the Calculator hosted the show which was packed with fun, information and lots and lots of audience participation.

The girls swimming team almost completed a clean sweep of the gold medals at the Blaydon Schools swimming gala held at Felling Pool on Tuesday 11th March. The boys team swam well too but without medal success.

More details and comments from the swimmers to follow. Keep checking for updates!

Whilst Year 5 and 6 classes were learning about Shakespeare and what it was like for people in Tudor times, we decided to make a power point to express what we have learned. This is an example of a good Shakespeare power point.

click to view powerpoint presentation

By Sophie Y6 AT & Megan Y6 JS

In Y5/6 AT maths, we have been carrying out maths investigations that are related to our school.

Before half term Miss Taylor asked us to think of a question that we could investigate and that could help to make our school even better.

This term Y5/6AT have being studying the works of a selection of famous French artist. So far they have concentrated on Henri Matisse and Georges Seurat.

This term Miss Taylor’s English group have been busy exploring and performing poetry.

They spent time reading and evaluating a range of poems before moving onto creating their own. They decided that Homer Simpson was a great subject for their poems and had lots of fun thinking up verses to describe his favourite pastime – eating.

The children then worked in small groups to plan, organise and create a poetry presentation of their Homer Simpson poem. They then used actions and sound effects to enhance their poem’s meaning.

Miss Taylor captured the performances on camera . Make sure you check the website over the next few days and you will be able to view the videos of the young poets in action.

Year 6/5 JS are currently working on obtaining the Impetus Award. This looks at human rights, in particular the rights of children. We have researched human rights and discussed the issues that arose. The children were very surprised to find that they had rights and decided to do something about it - hence Mr Magoo.

Y6JS are due to visit Thornley Woods on Tuesday, 31st October 2006.