Well done kS1 and KS2 children who performed on stage at the sage. The dance festival was a huge success and the children were fantsatic!!!

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.

PhotoStory1 music workshop.wp3

Parents of low income families can apply for a grant to acquire a free home computer with free Internet connection for a year. There are a limited number of grants that parents may apply for. These will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Parents who think they are elegible (Free school meals, job-seekers allowance, income support etc.) can phone 0333 200 1004 for an application pack.

The new National Family Week 2010 website is now LIVE at www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk. Here you will find even more updates, information and resources to help you plan and prepare for The Week.

Make your Family Week Picnic a GIGANTIC occasion!

The National Family Week headquarters have come up with ideas to make your picnic even more fun. Why not produce a giant form of some type of picnic food? This will add a fun, quirky angle to your event and draw families along and could be a fundraising exercise with the money going to a local charity.

More Record-Breaking Fun in 2010
Join this year's Guinness World Record attempt for the largest three-legged race as part of the Family Week Sports Day.

Family Week Story Time

Following its success in 2009, the Wednesday of National Family Week (2nd June 2010) will once again be the Family Week Story Time. We are encouraging storytelling in all its forms - any story, any time, anywhere!

New supporting partners

Monday 31st May
Family Week Picnic
On the Bank Holiday Monday families across the country will be enjoying fresh air and good food. There will be 9 flagship Family Week Picnics and up to a thousand smaller events run by not-for-profit partners.

Tuesday 1st June
Family Week Film Day
A national celebration of film, encouraging families to watch a film together either at the cinema or at home. Why not host a screening of your own?

Wednesday 2nd June
Family Week Story Time
We'll be encouraging families to share a story, anytime, any place, anyhow! It's a great opportunity to showcase storytelling events in a variety of formats, throughout the day.

Thursday 3rd June
Family Week Road Trip
Families will be encouraged to get out and see the UK. To explore and experience just some of the things that makes this country so special. Tourist attractions and beauty spots can open up their doors offering free entry and a range of activities to create a fun day out for all the family.

Friday 4th June
Family Week House Party
Thousands of families will be holding a house party on the Friday of National Family Week. As an organisation why not organise a party too? It can be as big or as small as you like. The theme could tie in with a celebration that is already happening or just be used as an excuse to have a party.

Saturday 5th June
Family Week Sports Day
There will be 9 flagship Family Week Sports Days as well as thousands of smaller sports days happening across the country, encouraging families to get out and active. Why not host a sports day of your own?

As it is Online Safety week next week, Gateshead CLC are running a parents information session for KS1/KS2 pupils.

The session aims to inform parents of the dangers of using the internet and how they can protect their child.

The session only lasts an hour and will run from 5pm to 6pm.

To find out more or to book a place please contact Janine Brookes at Gateshead CLC Tel (0191) 460 2900. Fax (0191) 460 2900. E-Mail: jbrookes@ictgateshead.org

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

Rachel Atkinson and Amanda Tweedy came in to share with the children of Winlaton West Lane, the fantastic work that this charity has done to raise money for children's hospitals in the North East. The children and staff of Winlaton West Lane were presented with a baton to inspire us to think of fun and silly ways we could raise money for this valuable charity.
Amanda Tweedy is a reception Mum and made her son Nathan very happy indeed when she came in to Reception to host a poster competition with Rachel. Any ideas for fundraising activities will be warmly welcomed!

Sainsbury's Sport Relief Mile
Sunday 21 March, Saltwell Park from 10.30 hours

The Sainsbury's Sport Relief Mile is taking place in Gateshead's Saltwell Park on Sunday 21st March 2010 and is set to be another huge event.

Milers from both sides of the Tyne will be able to come together and rise to the challenge whilst taking in the surroundings of this beautiful Victorian park.
How far you go at the Gateshead Mile is up to you. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just fancy a fun day out, there's a challenge to suit you.
Choose between 1, 3 or 6 Miles, and bring your friends and family along to join in the fun.
Don't miss out, enter the Gateshead Mile now at www.sportrelief.com or call 0300 123 5070!
www.sportrelief.com

For further information please contact Sport Relief 0300 123 5070

We would like to participate in the second Really Good School Dinner appeal this year.
10p is enough to buy a school meal in the World Food Programme's Appeal and helps to guarantee an education for some of the poorest children in the world. Without this help, many children have to stay at home and work to feed themselves.

As the world's largest humanitarian aid agency, the World Food Programme provides school meals for 22 million children in some 70 countries. It relies entirely on donations to continue its vital work.
Can you spare 10p each day to help feed a child in another part of the world ? 50p will feed a child for a week, only £2.00 to feed a child for a month. Please will you send your donations into school from Monday, 1st February 2010 to Friday, 5th February 2010 inclusive in an envelope marked 'The Really Good School Dinner'. Thank you.
Please follow the link to see if West Lane can fill the virtual dining room with the school lunches that we are able to purchase.

http://www.getreal.uk.com/really-good-school-dinner.html

Thank you

A great opporunity for Super Dads to be involved in activities with their children for seven weeks on a Saturday morning in Gateshead. The start date is Saturday, 13th February 2010. Please see the attached document for further details.

Superdad Flyer actual.doc

If you as a family enjoy drama activities you might be interested in this family drama learning opportunity at Beamish during February half term.

family drama a5.doc

Christmas cards are not just for Christmas thanks to recycling boxes at all libraries, the Civic Centre main reception plus receptions at Shearlegs Road and Park Road. Cards can be recycled until end of January and will be donated to the Woodlands Trust. As well as cards the Civic Centre (only) will also take batteries. Marks and Spencer's, WH Smiths and TK Maxx will all have recycling points in store across Gateshead and the North East.
Keep on recycling.
Thank you

There is a forthcoming Kids n Cash course beginning at the Blaydon Winlaton Children's Centre. Please would you contact the Cetnre directly to book yourself a place on the course. Thank you for your help with this matter.

School will be open as usual travel conditions permitting on Friday, 8th January 2010. If possible, it would be really helpful if children could have a change of footwear with their wellingtons. Thank you for your help.

Please note unless there is a heavy downpour of snow tonight then school will be open as normal on Friday, 8th January 2010. A text message will be sent to you to confirm the course of action we take in the morning.

Thank you for your understanding during these difficult weather conditions.

6th January 2010. School Closed due to adverse weather conditions.

We hope the children enjoy 'snow' work!

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

Well done to everyone who came into school wearing something spotty on Friday 20th November. You helped to raise £263.87 for Children in Need.

Every year our school does something for Children in Need. This year we are dressing up in spotty clothing. The money goes to children everywhere who need help for all different reasons. Watch out for photos and more info coming soon.

As part of our book week activities, KS2 children visited the nursery, reception and the KS1 classes to share some reading time.

Class reading exchange.wmv

We hope you will feel able to use the menu for reference purposes to book your child's school meal from November 2nd onwards.
You are welcome to come into school to sample the meals at any time. Please telephone the school office to book a lunch time appointment.
Thank you
School meals A1 poster Sept 20091.pdf

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

Breakfast and biking seem to go well together!

Bike it breakfast.wmv

Christmas Lunch this year is on Thursday 10th December. See attached flier.Xmas Dinner.doc

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

Last Wednesday, 6th October, parents and children from West Lane cycled to school to take part in the the "bling your bike and have a breakfast" initiative. Over 20 children came to school with their bikes decorated in a variety of imaginative ways to make them more visible now the nights are drawing in.They then had a delicious breakfast provided by Alan Barlow our "Bike it" representative. Alan then had the difficult task of choosing the most brilliantly blinged bike. He eventually chose Liam Jobling and Connor McDonald. So congratulations boys, but also well done to everyone who turned up .

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

Earlier this term, West Lane's rugby team won the "Wooden Spoon " tag rugby event at The Newcastle Falcon's rugby ground. As a rerward for their success they qualified to play during the half time interval of the Newcastle versus Bath Guiness Premiership match at Kingston Park. Although we lost [as did the Falcon's!] it was a great experience to play on the same pitch as the professionals in front of several thousand spectators! For a more detailed account of the day written by team members, see extended entry.

We hope our pupils will be able to take advantage of the free swimming in Gateshead. Please see the further information attached. Download file

A range of different characters were made in this year's competitions.

The standard of decorating continues to be very high and the judging ever more difficult.

Yesterday Jimmy the ExpoChef visited Winlaton West Lane.

Jimmy provided a morning of cookery demonstrations which aimed at giving the children the confidence to cook with healthy food.

Most children got the opportunity to try new and unusual foods and at the end of the workshop, each child was provided with a recipe booklet with ideas on how to create simple, nutritious meals and snacks.

As you can see from the photographs, West Lane pupils had great fun today in the snow & they all have their fingers crossed for more snow tomorrow.

On Friday 14th November, the school entered into the spirit of the day and non-uniform and hats were worn by both teachers and pupils!

As you can see, there was an amazing range of hats - which one do you like best?

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.

This year West Lane decided to slightly change the format of our Sports Day. Inspired by the fact that 2008 is an Olympic year, we decided to split the children into 6 countries U.S.A, Russia, Brazil, Australia and of course China and Great Britain.
We also split the sports days into key stage 1 and 2, with the carousel events in the morning being slightly more Olympic orientated [ie more traditional field events]. The afternoon’s competitive events were well supported by parents and culminated in the exciting finals of the relay and long-distance runs. In addition the Friends of West Lane provided refreshments and raised some money for the school. Everybody appeared to have a great time as the weather stayed fine and the school is very grateful to everyone who helped in whatever way they could.
After everyone's score was totalled up the overall winners by a very narrow margin were the Samba sportsman from Brazil. For a full set of results see extended link.

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.

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

We just love to dress up as our favourite book characters. Do you recognise any of the characters?

Winlaton West Lane are planning to hold a 'French Week' during the week beginning 31st March 2008. Children will have a chance to find out more about France, taste French food, sing French songs and play games from France. This is only a small selection of the exciting activities the children will have an opportunity to experience.

Watch this space!

The first Friday of each month in our school is know as 'Penny Friday'. This is an opportunity for classes to total up the loose change that they have collected in their collection boxes in their classroom. The class with the greatest amount of money on Penny Friday earns for themselves an extra play time at a time of their class teacher's choosing.