Keeping in Touch May 2020
Thank you to pupils, parents and staff that have sent in photographs and messages for the keeping in touch film - we hope that you enjoy it! Thank you to Fischy Music, who kindly agreed to the use of their song. To view the film, just click the link below:
A Different Sort of Easter April 2020
Year 5 & 6 pupils have been busy writing recounts of their Easter holiday during the lockdown. They make really interesting reading, enhanced by the emojis that they were invited to include. Great work everyone!
We hope that you enjoy the recounts. To read them, please use the links below:
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Photography Competition April 2020
Well done to all pupils that took part in the Easter holiday photography competition, ‘Swaledale in Spring, 2020’. Brenda Price, Chair of Governors, judged the competition and we are delighted to announce the winner is Millie with her photograph ‘Dark Side of the Daffodil’. In 2nd place, Sophia’s photograph ‘The Floating Rainbow’ was also highly commended. Thank you to everyone for taking part.
Easter Holiday Ideas April 2020
With every family based at home this Easter, we thought it might be useful to share some optional non academic activities, competitions, resources and ideas to keep everyone busy. I'll post an idea here every weekday over the holiday.
Idea 10 - LEGO Challenge
Idea 9 - Art
Explore your creative side with these art ideas. A pdf version of the ideas is available here.
Idea 8 - Learn to Juggle
Learning to juggle is challenging at first, but with a little determination can be rewarding and fun. As you make progress, you'll develop your hand eye coordination and will have a great sense of achievement. It's a bit like learning your times tables - if you stick at it, you'll get better and better.
1. Find something to juggle with. Beanbags work well. You can make these if you don't have any. Medium sized potatoes work well too. Tennis balls are okay.
2. With your hands shoulder width apart, perhaps a little wider, throw one bean bag in an arc from hand to hand. Spend ages doing this. Try not to look at your hands too much. Watch the bean bag at the top of its arc instead.
3. Practise scooping. As you catch the bean bag, absorb the impact, dip your hand and then bring it closer to the centre of your body before throwing it back to the other hand. The bean bag should make a figure of eight pattern on its side as it travels from hand to hand.
4. Include a second bean bag. Take a bean bag in each hand. When bean bag A reaches the top of its arc, throw bean bag B. Don't just pass it to the other hand - throw it in an arc just like you've been doing for ages. Do this for a long time too.
5. To juggle three bean bags, start with two in one hand and one in the other. If you're right handed, start with two in your right hand. Throw from the hand with two bean bags first. When the first bean bag reaches the top of its arc, throw the second from your other hand. When the second bean bag reaches the top of its arc, throw the third. By now the bean bags are probably all on the floor! Once you've worked out what to do, and understand when and where the bean bags need to go, it just takes practice to get it working.
There's a really useful juggling film on the CBBC website.
Idea 7 - Engineering and Science Challenges
The James Dyson Foundation has 44 fantastic engineering and science challenges that are great for children. Get started by visiting the website, where you can watch films of some of the activities. You can also view all of the challenge cards here.
There's a range of tasks that will suit different ages and interests. Adult supervision is recommended for all of the projects.
Idea 6 - Build a Board Game
Have a go at making your own board game. Follow these simple steps:
1. Use a template or design your own.
2. Decide how players will progress along the board. Rolling a dice works well.
3. Choose extra challenges along the way. Players could receive an extra go, or move forwards one space, or go back to the start depending on where they land. You could colour in the spaces on the board so that players know what to do. A key might help if you do this.
4. If you want to make it more complicated, you could include chance cards that players use if they land on a certain space.
5. Decide how players will get to the finish and win. Will they need to get the right score on a dice?
6. Decorate the board and make it look good.
7. Finally, give it a try!
Idea 5 - Easter Treasure Hunt
Try setting up an Easter egg hunt at home this weekend. You'll need to decide where the trail is going to start and end and leave clues along the way. There are some great clues available from BBC Good Food. Alternatively, you could draw a map, either for the whole route or for one or two steps of the trail. You could even try making an authentic treasure map by dyeing the paper with tea bags. Have fun everyone!
Idea 4 - Easter Baking
There are some great ideas for Easter baking on the BBC Good Food website.
There's a really easy way to make Easter chicks. If you're after something a bit trickier, there are loads of Easter cake recipes and if you're running low on flour, you could try one of the flourless Easter dessert recipes. To find even more options, you can type Easter in the search facility.
If you want to, send a photograph of your finished treats, or any of the other activities this week, to: headteacher@rg-schools.org.uk and I'll post it here alongside the ideas.
Idea 3 - Running or Circuits
We know that daily exercise is really important for our wellbeing. Today's idea is to design either a running activity or a circuit of exercises. You could do this in your garden or as part of your daily exercise.
Running activity
Work out where you are going to run and set out your course. You could use cones, plant pots, trees or jumpers to mark out the route. If you want to keep it simple, just place two markers that you have to run around. You may find it more interesting to create a more complicated course. Once it's set up, there's a few ways that you can use it. Use a stopwatch to find how long it takes to complete your course. How long does it take to complete 10 laps of the course? Can you improve your time each day? How many laps can you complete in 5 minutes? Who is the fastest in your family?
Circuits
To add some variety, you could include some other exercises in your route around the garden. Choose some stations where you will do the challenges. You could include star jumps, balances, jumping side to side, and hopping. You could use these challenge cards to help you to plan your activities.
Idea 2 - 50 Things to Do
The National Trust has a brilliant list of activities, called '50 things to do before you're 11¾'. Some of you will have seen the list before, but now is a great time to either reconnect with it or get started. Lots of the activities can be completed at home, but please note that some of them won't be possible at this time.
The activities are available on the National Trust website. There's also a handy pdf version of the list here.
Idea 1 - Photography Competition
All pupils are invited to take part in a photography competition titled 'Swaledale in Spring, 2020'.
With a title like this, there's lots of scope for creativity. You could take a photograph of flowers in your garden, of lambs at your farm, a Swaledale landscape or of the street without many people or cars. These are just ideas - it's up to you!
- You can use any type of camera.
- You must take the photograph yourself.
- Stay safe. Please follow the government guidance on social distancing; you could take your photograph at home or when taking your daily exercise.
- Entries must be sent by email to headteacher@rg-schools.org.uk. They will be displayed here on the school website. I will include your first name, along with a title for your photograph, if you have one.
- The closing date and time is Friday 17th April, at 5pm, when the photographs will be judged by Brenda Price, Chair of Governors. The winning photograph will be announced the following week.
Stay safe and well... March 2020
World Book Day March 2020
As part of World Book Day celebrations, pupils enjoyed a series of assemblies that explored the favourite books of both teachers and visitors to school and, on Thursday, dressed up as a character from their favourite book and shared this with their class. Earlier in the week, a group of pupils visited the libraries in Richmond and Catterick. They explored how the books are organised, found out about the wider resources available and enjoyed reading time with a good book. Click below to find out more.
Skipping February 2020
KS1 children enjoyed the cluster skipping event at Catterick Leisure Centre this week. It was a fun event which encouraged the children to keep going and always try their best.
Netball January 2020
5 pupils from KS2 – George, Kiran, Ruby, Milly and Annabelle – played so well in an autumn term cluster netball event that they qualified for the next level of competition, the Level 2 Richmondshire Area Final. For this second round, they were joined by Alex and Alice, who made a great contribution to the team. They didn’t win but did play very well and were a credit to the school.
Christmas Dinner December 2019
At both schools today, pupils, staff and governors enjoyed a super Christmas Dinner. Thank you to our school cooks, Mrs Hodgson and Miss Smith, for preparing the meal!
Christmas Fair December 2019
Thank you to everyone that supported our Christmas Fair last week. The pupils' stalls were excellent, with a great variety of items to buy.
At the harvest service earlier this term, pupils shared their research and thoughts on the work of All We Can, the Methodist Church Relief and Development Fund, and their work to support a community in Ethiopia to plant potatoes and ensure a sustainable harvest. In recent years at Christmas we have worked with the Wensleydale Rotary Club as part of their Enterprise Challenge. We raised £320 that will be shared equally between the two charities.
PE at the MUGA November 2019
We've been using the MUGA in Reeth for KS2 PE lessons this half term. Pupils have really benefitted from the increased space and the excellent facilities available there.
Democracy November 2019
We've been learning about democracy, voting and elections in our assemblies this week.
Fell Running October 2019
The fell running club has been out after school on Fridays this half term. We've explored local paths and bridleways and been to the top of Calver Hill twice. Click on the photo below to watch a short film.
