Year 6 enjoyed learning a new skill of designing and making a cross stitch embroidery for a purpose. It involved a great deal of patience, perseverance and dexterity and was a calm and relaxing activity. The results are definitely worth all of the effort!
All of the children have worked together to recreate the Christmas story and have retold the story in their own words. The children have been very proud of their work that has been showcased and displayed around school.
On Friday 7th December, our Christmas jumper day, Y6A went to Harton Academy to work with Miss Johansson to produce a keyring.
The children used a CAD programme called 2D Design to plan and design their keyring. The design was then sent, by the computer, to the laser cutter, where their keyring was cut by laser for them. The material they used was acrylic as it is strong, but can be melted in order to be cut.
I wonder if any of you will receive the finished product for Christmas!
For our last session before Christmas, and before the stress of practising continues, we enjoyed an after school movie night, celebrating our win at the regional competition.The Puzzlers were comfy on cushions with popcorn and warm chocolates with marshmallows and whipped cream while they watched the Muppets Christmas Carol.
After 3 months of hard work, and (for some) EVERY lunchtime since September, the day finally arrived on December 6th.
Making sure the table is correct.
2 Teams, 1 goal!
Kitted in their lab coats, glasses and bow ties, the Harton Puzzlers travelled to The Word to compete against teams from all over the region – including secondary schools! The first few rounds with the robot were disappointing, as we didn’t score as highly as we would have liked. After their first robot game, the pupils scored technical points, which involved talking about their robot design and strategy. This usually take about 5 minutes, but the boys talked for 10 minutes!
Costumes on and ready!
Chatshow: Blasting Off with the Harton Puzzlers
Message from the ISS
Mike Roscope, the chatshow scientist
The judges trying out our VR Mindfulness idea.
Next the children had 5 minutes for a costume change and got ready for their presentation. After many practises at school, they delivered it perfectly! It was clear, loud and confident. The presentation even included a “live” video call from an astronaut on the International Space Station.
Discussing and sharing ideas with other groups…
…and their teachers.
There was a teamwork task, where the children had to work together effectively in order to complete a Lego building challenge. After lunch, we found out we were in the semi final!
The Puzzlers got through to the semi finals- joint 3rd with St. Gregory’s. They had 2 more chances to prove their robot’s skills. In their second and final attempt, the boys protested to the judges over a ruling – supported by teachers from different schools – and the Puzzlers scraped into the finals with 72 points.
In the finals, the Puzzlers competed against Oakwood Comprehensive School – who kindly offered up their extra attachments, which allowed the Harton to scorecard more points. After three more rounds of the robot game, the Puzzlers’ score got higher and higher with each attempt. The trophy for Robot Table Champion went to the well deserved Oakwood!
And the winners of the Grand prize are….
The Harton Puzzlers!
Every team was awarded at least one trophy, for skills such as teamwork, presentation, tactics and co-operation, but the Harton Puzzlers were delighted to find out that they had won the overall competition! After so much work from our team, there were many tears of happiness and shouts of joy.
The school heating system has been repaired and school is open as normal.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Thank you for your co-operation today.
The heating engineer has been busy all day and we are hopeful that the school will reopen on Tuesday 11th December.
Please keep checking the website for updates.
Years 5 and 6 had a visit from South Shields players Carl Finnigan, Dan Wright and Blair Adams today. They answered the childrens questions about playing football for the club. In addition they gave every child two tickets for the Stalybridge Celtic game on the 15th of December. 10 lucky children will be drawn at random to lead the team out on to the pitch. The captains of the school football teams were also presented with a signed copy of a strip from the club.
Unfortunately, due to the school heating system not working efficiently this morning, we are sending children home at lunchtime.
We apologise for the inconvenience and will update parents with regard to school on Tuesday 11th as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding and patience.
The children attended a special assembly to commemorate the end of the First World War. Year 6 pupils read out some information about the war and acted out a drama, to show the events of the First World War. Our choir were fantastic and made us all cry! Finally, a poem by Year 1 pupils about poppies was read out.
