Hi today we are starting a new school-wide arts project.
This is an art project for all the family to take part in. It will be a record of the unusual times that all families are living through at this time. We hope that it will be enjoyable for everyone And Lots of Families will take part.
Memory Vessels
Memory Vessels have been made throughout history. They can be made out of all sorts of bits and bobs around your home and you can cover any vessel.
I don’t know if you are all aware that last week was supposed to be your opportunity to showcase your learning by completing your SATs papers. A time that many of you were counting down to.
I know that you and your teachers were all working so hard to ensure that you did your very best. SATs have never demonstrated how lovely, caring, hardworking or kind a person is and is not something that measures your happiness or your ambition. Despite this, SATs are part of school life and I know that many of you were set to achieve greatness.
I want to assure you, no matter what, that you will leave Richard Avenue standing tall and proud. Whatever the government’s plans may be for schools and for your transition to your new school, we will support you. We will celebrate everything you can do, have achieved, and will go on to achieve. This is something a SAT paper could never do so please don’t worry about what will happen next.
We will do whatever we can to make your next step as smooth and as worry free as possible. Hopefully, we will be able to give you the send off that you deserve. Until then, we cannot wait to see you all again.
Two teams from Richard Avenue entered the Y5/6 Sunderland Hockey Finals. Both teams played some excellent Hockey. They showed great skill and produced some brilliant team goals. In the end both teams won 2 matches and lost 1 in their group.
When the semi finals were drawn, the Richard Avenue teams were drawn to play each other. Not only would the winning team advance to the final, they would also progress to the Tyne and Wear Finals.
Team 1, with some fantastic goals by Mahian and Miguel, were the winners of the Semi Final match. Unfortunately they were beaten 1-0 in a tight final.
They will now represent our school and Sunderland in the Tyne and Wear Finals, where they will play the best teams from
Sunderland, Newcastle , South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Gateshead.
Over the last few weeks we have been a hive of activity preparing the school for Christmas. This includes the amazing decorations the staff put up around school and all the hard work that has gone into the Christmas productions and performances.
The first performance was by Key Stage 1 who performed ‘The Little Fir Tree’, for teachers, children, parents and carers.
KS1 performing The Little Fir Tree.
KS1 Perform ‘All Alone’ at their Christmas Production, ‘The Little Fir Tree’.
KS1 Perform ‘Hear the Rain’ at their Christmas Production, ‘The Little Fir Tree’.
Later in the week we were treated to EYFS performing their production, ‘Christmas Counts’ during which we heard both amazing singing and the children pulling off some extraordinary dance moves and solos.
EYFS perform Christmas Counts.
EYFS perform ‘Who Can Count the Angels in the Sky’ as part of their Christmas Production.
EYFS perform ‘Christmas Counts for Everyone’ as part of their Christmas Production.
The final production of the week was KS2 performing their Carol Service. A time to bring everyone together we watched some beautiful singing of many Christmas staples.
KS2 performing their Carol Service.
KS2 Performing ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ at their 2019 Christmas Carol Service
Its really been a wonderful and festive last few weeks and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy your holidays everyone.
We recently held a Recycling Week here at school. Our aim was to ensure that the children know:
What is pollution and what link does it have to recycling?
What is recycling and why is it important?
What impact can you have to help our environment?
We did this by carrying out a number of discussions and activities with all the year groups.
Key Stage 1 did such things as looking at the story of the Messy Magpie and how collecting litter ruined her habitat. From this the children had a discussion about the impact of pollution and wrote a poem about 5 ways we can help the Earth. This culminated in an activity to sort through rubbish left in different terrains to see what needed to be recycled and what thrown into the rubbish.
The children separating normal waste from recycling.
Key Stage 2 watched the BBC documentary The Blue Planet, and followed it with a discussion about how waste, including plastic waste is having an extreme negative effect on our planets oceans. They made a poster showing 5 ways to help the Earth and carried out an Environmental Review where they answered check boxes and left comments about how our school meets up to the expectations of the Eco Schools Ten Sustainable Topics.
An example from our Environmental Reviews carried out by the children.
The Year 5 and 6 Tennis team took part in the Sunderland Tennis Finals. They showed great determination in both their tennis www.ciprobuyonline.org matches and in the skills events. After all the points they gained where added together we had beaten everyone else and where named Sunderland Champions.
We started the week with a whole school assembly about Fairtrade and then each year group carried out research into why Fairtrade is important and why we should be supporting it. The children then made posters to encourage people to buy Fairtrade products. Year 2 wrote www.genericpropeciabuyonline.com letters from the point of view of Fairtrade farmers, telling people why Fairtrade helps them and their families. Year 5 and 6 held a discussion on whether we should buy Fairtrade chocolate and the arguments both for and against.
All this work culminated with a display board we have put up in school that displays all aspects of the work we have done throughout the week.
