Harton Primary Puzzlers in the Gazette

1st April 2020L Forster

To celebrate the work the Harton Primary Puzzlers put into their First Lego League project, the local Newspaper the Shields Gazette wrote an article about them.

Read about our success at the Regional competition below.

School children to compete in national Lego League competition with design of solar-powered tram for King Street

A team of primary school children from South Shields will put their skills to the test in the final of the national Lego League competition this weekend.

By Sarah Sinclair
Friday, 21st February 2020, 11:45 am
Updated
Harton Primary School pupils with their design.

Pupils from Years 5 and 6 at Harton Primary School won the First Lego League competition at a regional tournament held at The Word in South Shields in December 2019.

Now Caitlin Kerr, Chloe Hill, Ruby Bird and Evie Wardale, Daniel Allen, Electra Myers, Daniel Jack and Sophie Mustafa – aka the Harton Primary Puzzlers – will travel to Bristol to represent the region in the finals.

The competition will take place at the University of West England (UWE) on Saturday, February 22 with the Puzzlers going up against more than 70 teams from around the country.

The Harton Primary Puzzlers are through to the national Lego League competition

This will be the second time the Year 6 students have made it this far, after successfully reaching the finals last year – but a first for Caitlin, Chloe, Ruby and Evie.

The international Lego League competition sees students research real-world problems such as food safety, recycling or energy. They then design and build a robot, using Lego Mindstorms technology, and compete on a table-top playing field.

The team took their inspiration from some of the issues facing their hometown for this year’s theme ‘city shapers’.

They designed an eco-friendly, solar-powered tram to travel down King Street and help tackle traffic congestion in the area.

The children reached out to a range of experts for advice and support, including Nexus, the solar panel company PowerRoll and South Tyneside Council.

They will now present their idea to a panel of judges at the finals, as well as completing other Lego tasks on the day.

Team coach and Year 5 teacher Lee Forster commented: “The children have worked really hard all year- giving up many of their playtimes to practise both the robot game and the presentation. It’s been great to see them so motivated and working together.”

Harton Primary headteacher, Karen Ratcliffe added: “This competition has given our pupils the opportunity to think like engineers and scientists and I am extremely proud of their achievements in winning the overall competition.”

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/education/school-children-compete-national-lego-league-competition-design-solar-powered-tram-king-street-1886216

Digital Leaders – App age restrictions – Spring term

1st April 2020L Forster

Each class in year 4,5 and 6 has been designated a ‘Digital Leader’ who’s job it is to identify popular used apps within each class and help inform everyone – children, teachers and parents – of the guidelines or purposes of the apps being used.

Working in year groups, they completed a survey with each class to see which apps are used the most and asking the children what they think the minimum age each app. They then found out the correct answer and informed each class – as well as the parents using MarvellousMe.

Here is each year groups top 3 for Spring:

Year 4

App Estimated Age Actual Age limit
Roblox Between 3+ and 13 years old 13 years old
TicTok Between 10 and 14 years old 13 years old
WhatsApp 8 years old 16 years old

Year 5

App Estimated Age Actual Age limit
YouTube 6 years old 18 years old (13 with permission)
TicTok Between 12 and 14 years old 13 years old
Roblox Between 7 and 10 years old 13 years old

Year 6

App Estimated Age Actual Age limit
SnapChat Between 11 and 16 years old 13 years old
Instagram Between 12 and 17 years old 13 years old
Youtube Between 10 and 18 years old 18 years old (13 with permission)

The Digital Leaders will be conducting these and other surveys throughout the year.

Art and Design in Years 4, 5 and 6

31st March 2020S Robson

French artist Henri Matisse inspired us to ‘paint with scissors’ in Year 4. Year 6 were also creating their own version of Matisse’s ‘Beasts of the Sea’. We also looked at a ‘real’ painting copied from one of his earlier works ‘ Woman Reading’ 1920. Year 5 used their knowledge of The Ancient Greeks from their English and History lessons, to design a Greek pot calendar, and then made a pot from clay. The Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani had a particular style, and we replicated his style in our self portraits in Year 6. We have lots of talented artists too!

National Literacy Trust- Family Zone resources for parents and carers

27th March 2020P Mullea

Morning everyone,

We hope that you are well and finding things to keep you busy during these unusual times.

We wanted to share with you all a fantastic resource created by The National Literacy Trust for families to support with home learning. As Harton Primary is a ‘Puffin World of Stories’ school, we have been invited to use The Family Zone. This website has been designed with you in mind and gives a range of activity suggestions, online resources and things to keep your children busy (and learning).

Simply follow the link  below and select the age range of you child to find out more!

https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/

 

 

Coronavirus Update – Closure to Almost All Pupils

19th March 2020M Noble

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

 

Following on from my last update, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday until further notice.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories. Please contact school by telephone 0191 4562150 or email [email protected] giving your child’s name and class if you think your child will be attending school from Monday. We’ll be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this does apply to.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.

Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is by ‘Marvellous Me’ and the school website.

 

What we’ll continue doing while your child is at home

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn.

You should have received a pack of work (if not it is available to collect in school)

Staff will be in regular contact via ‘Marvellous Me’ and please check the school website regularly.

If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this, with support from a scheme that the government has just announced.

 

What we won’t be able to go ahead with

School trips

After school clubs

Any SATs or other planned assessments

 

This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please don’t hesitate to do so via the school office, [email protected]

 

And remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.

 

K Ratcliffe

Head Teacher

Year 5 Trip to OpenZone@the Word

2nd March 2020L Forster

On 2nd March, 5F spent the day with OpenZone at The Word.

They prepared for their trip by rehearsing scripts that they delivered in the TV studio in front of a green screen. The topic of their video was ‘Amazing Space’ – with each group covering a different aspect of space, from planets to early rockets to the future of space travel.

Here is the final product:

When not recording in front of the green screen, the children made animations using coding on Scratch3.

To end the afternoon, they worked in pairs to solve a digital escape room – solving lots of puzzles, many of which involved maths and reasoning.

Harton Primary Puzzlers – First Lego League England and Wales Final in Bristol

26th February 2020L Forster

In the middle of our half term, the Harton Primary Puzzlers met at Newcastle Airport – excited for their trip to Bristol for the First Lego League England and Wales Final.

Athena being x-rayed

Tea in the departure lounge

Boarding the plane

All smiles…

…for take off.

On Saturday the 22nd of February, we set off the University of West England to the competition, setting up our information board at table 50 in the pit.

After the opening ceremony, we had to quickly change into our costumes to give deliver the best and last presentation on our idea for a solar powered tram to help boost interest in South Shields town centre. After than we had to run to the Robot Game table for our first of three attempts to score as many points as possible. Lets watch:

The day was full of interesting activities, on top of the usual Core Values, Robot Design discussion and practice tables for the robot game. The teams spoke to other teams, interviewed by the IET team and, of course, had lunch.

Opening ceremony

Team photo

Interviews – some serious…

…some not so serious.

Lunch!

In the practice pits…

…between games.

With all our practices over, our last robot game was on table 1, with all the cameras on us. Below is the live stream of our last game (If time link doesn’t work, time is 4:42:20):

On the final tables we came 20th, out of 66 teams. But with teams with joint scores, we had the 13th highest score on the day! The Harton Primary Puzzlers worked their socks off, did themselves (and their teachers) proud, and had a great day!

Photo booth medal photo.

Team photo