PSQM Award

26th May 2022R Errington

We are delighted and incredibly proud to be one of the 250 that have been awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark which celebrates our commitment to excellence in science teaching and learning. This is a result of the hard work, dedication and cooperation from the whole school community.

The Primary School Quality Mark programme ensures effective leadership of science,
enables schools to work together to share good practice and is supported by professional
development led by local experts. It encourages teacher autonomy and innovation while at
the same time offering a clear framework for development in science subject leadership,
teaching and learning. Schools that achieve PSQM demonstrate commitment and expertise
in science leadership, teaching and learning.

The Primary Science Quality Mark is led by the University of Hertfordshire, Enterprise and
Business Development in collaboration with the Primary Science Teaching Trust. Associate Professor Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said: “There was never a more important time for primary children to have a high-quality science education. The Coronavirus Pandemic has made everyone aware of the impact of science on our daily lives. Primary schools have an important role to ensure that children understand how science works and keeps us healthy and safe. Schools that have achieved a Primary Science Quality Mark have demonstrated a significant commitment to science teaching and learning, even at this challenging time for schools. The profile and quality of science in each awarded school is
very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom,
developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and
skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”

Y5L’s Trip to Scotswood Garden

23rd May 2022S Lovatt

When we arrived at Scotswood Gardens, we gathered under the shelter and discussed the different parts of the life cycle of a flowering plant. We had to match up the definitions by finding our partners, then we put ourselves in order.

After that, we went into the woods and used the natural materials we could find to make models of flowering plants and we labelled the parts.

At Scotswood Garden, they have beehives, so we played True or False with facts about bees. Did you know bees pollinate a lot of the food we eat? We need them to help us grow our crops!

After that, we had a chance to explore the gardens, including the ponds, beehives, willow dome and vegetable gardens. We all had a sticky bee to try and collect pollen from the flowers. It was so peaceful.

After lunch, we had a chance to do some different activities in the woods: den-building using branches and tarpaulins, potion-making in the herb garden, tie-dye using natural materials, and we all got a chance to make a newspaper plant-pot and plant our own sunflower or bean.

We had such a fun day and learnt so much about plants!

Scotswood Gardens

11th May 2022L Forster

When arriving in Scotswood Gardens, we gathered in a circle in the woods. Then we discussed and created actions to the life cycle of a flowering plant.

We then created a giant model of a plant and found pieces to represent the different parts of the flowering plant. After that, we looked around the gardens and found flowering plants to find the different parts on an actual plant.

We then explored the entire gardens to collect pollen – using sticky bees on our fingers. We even found the bee hives that the gardens looks after. There was 50,000 bees in each hive, with one queen that lays 2,000 eggs a day!

After dinner the children were allowed to explore the woods through a variety of activities, such as: den building; clay model making; potion making from the herb garden; mini-beast collecting; and making plant pots to take home a plant.

To end our day, we lay on the ground and listened to the sounds of the forest. The children said they felt ‘calm’ and ‘free’ when working in or listening to the forest.

How living things grow…

28th April 2022Ms A Emmerson

To begin our new topic we have planted sunflower seeds. We are going to water them every day and make sure they have enough sunlight to grow. We cannot wait to observe the changes this half term!

Signs of Spring!

25th March 2022J Twigge

Spring is on its way and to a keen observer, the earliest signs of the changing seasons are everywhere.  Many of us love to watch nature waking after winter.

Spring is a busy time for trees, they are ready to burst into leaves when there’s enough sunlight.

As our season is changing from Winter to Spring, we have been learning about the signs of Spring.

This week we went for a walk around out school grounds to see if we could find any of the signs of Spring.

We saw buds on the trees, bees and butterflies, daffodils blooming and daisies growing.

We saw our first sign of a bumblebees and butterflies, Spring is definitely on its way!

Animals Including Humans

13th March 2022Miss A Samuels

Year 3 have been enjoying their new science topic ‘Animals Including Humans’. This week we have been learning about animals diets and what they eat in order to survive. We learnt that animals can be put into 3 different groups based on the types of food they eat. Some animals are called Carnivores because they only eat meat. Other animals are called Herbivores and they only eat plants. Animals that eat both meat and plants are called Omnivores. We created a venn diagram of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. In groups, we sorted different animals into the 3 groups based on the food they eat. We thoroughly enjoyed our science lesson and we are looking forward to our next science lesson where we will be learning about the different skeleton types!

Microhabitats Y2L.

11th March 2022H Langley

In Science this week, Y2L have been looking at microhabitats. We decided to go on a mini-beast hunt around the school, looking for different microhabitats where living things may be surviving. It was fantastic observing all of the mini-beasts and thinking about why they were suited to their environment.

STEM Family Fun Day

9th March 2022R Errington

Great North Museum: Hancock is hosting a STEM Family Fun Day on Saturday 12th March where you’ll have the chance to meet scientists and engineers as well as take part in a range of different activities. It’s completely free and takes place between 10:30am and 4pm. No booking is required – you can just turn up and have fun!

Activities include:

  • Street Science busking
  • Cell Detectives
  • One Planet’s climate change games
  • Biodiversity Jenga
  • Slime Station
  • Mapping Sand Box
  • Maths Puzzles and Games
  • Earthquake simulator
  • Meet your ancestors’ skulls
  • Chemistry Smells
  • The Tooth about Dentists
  • NIHR Innovation Observatory
  • Maker tables
  • Electrical Engineers

Testing materials

8th March 2022L Forster

Following on from last week’s lesson about material properties, we then explored different materials and tested their properties.

We tested 5 materials from the feely bags for: magnetism, hardness, flexability and transparency – which posed a question of materials being transparent or translucent. Some of the materials were translucent (such as cloth) but the investigation was looking at transparency, so they got a N (for no).