A huge congratulations to Ruby, Jayden and Phoebe who are our first Word Millionaires this academic year. They have read over a million words since September! Wow! They say they have achieved this for a variety of reasons: they “just love reading” and a love of the Harry Potter books has helped them achieve their goal. They each got a certificate, an engraved trophy and they each got to select a book of their choice for their prize.
Also, well done to Ben who has achieved his “Half Millionaire” award, reading over 500, 000 words.
This term year 5 have been working with Mrs Bushby in a Getting Along Group. Each week we discussed ways to respect and value others. The children enjoyed playing games and carrying out fun activities.
On January 16th, 23 year 5 children took part in the Newcastle Eagles Hoops4Health basketball tournament. The 3 teams took part in a group stage – comprised of 6 teams per group (30 teams in total from 10 different schools).
Each team worked incredibly hard fought for every point!
Harton 1 and 2 go through to the Play-Offs, and had to face each other. With Harton 2 progressing to the final stage of the tournament, only to be beaten by Biddick Hall in a nail-biting match – losing 4:2 (2 baskets to 1).
We could not be more proud of the effort and teamwork they children displayed, and they all left both tired and thrilled with what they achieved that day.
We have introduced a new online learning platform called NumBots. This game is aimed at boosting addition and subtraction skills for all aged children.
Since the success of Times Tables Rockstars in encouraging children to master times table and division fact instant recall, we would like their skills with mental addition and subtraction to be just as good. NumBots will help! More importantly, children in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 can access the games.
All children start at the same place in Story mode, and when they get to a certain stage they will unlock Challenge mode. The idea is that they play little and often, and this will significantly improve their understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts.
The login is exactly the same as the one for Times Tables Rockstars – Key Stage 1 parents should have received parent letters with new login details.
Times Tables Rockstars app and NumBots app are available to download on all android and Apple devices.
Our School Council have been like busy little elves making Positive Vibes Boxes for each class. They can’t wait to share them with their classes in January and explain how to use them. We promote positive mental health and wellbeing at Harton Primary.
Our Year 4,5,and 6 Wellbeing Club were the first to visit our newly planted orchard. We have apple, quince, plum, pear and cherry trees. They are looking forward to more frequent visits to tidy the raised beds and plant seeds.
After months of hard work, the Harton Primary Puzzlers took part in the South Tyneside First Lego League competition – with OpenZone in The Word.
This year’s task was to identify a problem in our local area and design a solution to fix it. We designed at solar powered tram that would travel from the The Word down King Street to the sea front. We thought this idea would:
Make the sea front more accessible to people who could not walk that distance.
Bring in more people to the town – bringing shops back to the town centre.
Lower pollution from less cars being used in the town.
We presented this idea as a new report, with Caitlin and Sophie as hosts and Ruby as the weather girl, and the rest of the Puzzlers being all the experts we spoke to – including a solar panel scientist; a tram engineer from Beamish; a PhD student from Northumbria University; a Nexus worker; and a member of the South Tyneside 365 rejuvenation scheme.
Our interviews with the public of South Shields
Our idea on poster…
…and made from Lego, which ran around that track all day.
The Puzzlers spend the day talking to other teams, finding out about their ideas, helping with robot tasks, practicing their robot challenge and just having a great time!
The excellent judges.
Setting up our area.
Getting our practices in.
Getting our practices in.
Talking to other teams.
Selecting correct program.
Cheeky smile at the table.
Core value task – what famous building are we making?
Core value task – what famous building are we making?
Well deserved lunch.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
Competing in the robot game.
They also had to compete in a robot game; a 2 and half minute challenge to complete as many tasks as possible to score the most points, with 4 highest scoring teams got into the Semi-finals.
The Puzzlers came 3rd in the knock-outs with 215 points. When competing in the Semi finals, they scored 225 – securing their spot in 2nd to progress to the finals. Competing against Oakwood, who were unbelievably talented at the robot game. They set a heavy lead with 300 points in their first of 3 rounds – securing their trophy in the robot game – but the Puzzlers fought in every round, scoring their highest score of the day of 245 points.
Winning the Robot Design Award…
…Athena (on the right), known at the competition as ‘The Beast’
And winning the Champion Award.
Some tears of joy.
We are the champions….
…and we’re off to Bristol!
The trophy ceremony gave the Puzzlers 2 reasons to celebrate! Their robot – Athena, God of Technology – won ‘Best Robot Design’, after being referred to as ‘a beast’ by the judges. After coming 2nd in both the presentation and robot game, and 1st in the robot desgin, the Puzzlers won the overall day – for a 2nd year running – and now have to compete in Bristol in the national competition!
We raised an amazing £470 from the sale of Anti-Bullying Week wristbands and rulers which will enable us to make a donation to the Anti-Bullying Alliance charity. Our Eco-warrior Day raised a fantastic £230!
Our School Council voted to support the WWF, The Woodland Trust and to buy a composter and gardening equipment for our allotment. All of our pupils took part in a vote regarding which endangered animals to sponsor.
We greatly appreciate your generosity in helping us to support our chosen charities.
Congratulations to Morning Nursery, YRB, Y1H, Y2E, Y3L, Y4C, Y5J and Y6F.
The winning classes were delighted with their prizes! They received a class cookery book and will choose a healthy recipe from it to bake with Mrs Seales, our Cook. Delicious!
