White Mere Community Primary School

We received some fabulous news recently when we were notified that we had won a prestigious national award. Miss Sykes entered White Mere in a competition in which she detailed our work throughout the year as a Climate Change Lead School. It certainly has been an action packed year! - designing solar powered cars , winning the Nexus 'Pop' smart card competition , creating CDs promoting the message about climate change and taking part in an exhibition at the MetroCentre showcasing our work during National Science and Engineering Week. A cheque for £1000 and a certificate are a great reward for all our hard work !

A group of Y5 pupils were extremely lucky to be chosen to represent White Mere at a Showcase at the MetroCentre recently. Thomas Hepburn Secondary School organised the event to mark the importance of Science and Engineering focusing on the theme of Communication. It was a great way for us to demonstrate the electric cars we had made, along with promoting the message about the global impact of Climate Change, in advance of National Climate Week.

Whilst there, pupils had great fun - learning about DNA using strawberries, using light to investigate morse code and writing secret messages using lemon juice and tealights.
Miss Sykes was extremely proud of them - their behaviour was exemplary and it was great to see so many parents visiting the event also !

Y5 have enjoyed their 'Changing State' topic , which culminated in an action packed day doing fabulous experiments. We are lucky that Doc - a Science expert is keen to visit us so much and brings fantastic resources to help us do lots of practical work. Y5 investigated what would happen if jelly babies were roasted, how salt could be separated from water and how chocolate changes when it melts.

White Mere have now elected a new 'green team' who will be involved with exciting initiatives this year. The Climate Action Team have already monitored the number of recycling bins in the school and encouraged classes to use them more. They hope to work with our caretaker Mr. Rayner in order to monitor what is being recycled in school. A whole school competition was launched last week - pupils need to design a poster to persuade people to care more for our world and reduce carbon emissions. The Climate Action team will decide who wins this competition - no pressure!

Congratulations go to :
Y3 Harry , Leah
Y4 Robyn , Rachael
Y5 Ebony , Lewis
Y6 Aaron , Lauryn

Y5 have been studying the impact of carbon emissions and how the world climate is being affected. They decided to design and make energy efficient cars - powered either by batteries or solar power. A big thank you to Doc who came in to help them with the project - great fun was had by all! Their work will be displayed at the MetroCentre at a Super Science Showcase in March to celebrate National Engineering Week.

Solar power.mp4

White Mere have been going green this week as we have learnt about how changes in climate can affect communities around the world. Our assemblies this week have focussed on places such as Nicaragua , Bangladesh and Mozambique. We learnt about how increased flooding, rises in temperature, along with other extreme weather conditions can be linked to carbon emissions. As a Climate Change Lead School we are considering what we can do to help the situation. A Climate Action Team will be selected by Miss Sykes and will meet regularly to discuss new initiatives.

On Tuesday 7th December, Y5 and Y6 had a great time visiting the Science Centre For Life, in Newcastle, with Mrs.Hutchinson, Miss.Sykes, Mrs.Parry and Mrs.Simm! We started our day with an exciting time on the motion ride! Next we enjoyed a science show all about ice, and then a lecture about 'forces in motion' watching some interesting experiments!!

Woo hoo!Fun on the motion ride!

Fun at the science show!

They called in a pilot to help explain how ice affects planes! Do you recognise him?

The highlight of the day though, was definately ice-skating!! Y5 and Y6 have some fabulous skaters, (although the teachers need a bit more practice!!!) Watch out winter olympics, here we come!!!

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Zoolab. Our visitor brought lots of crrreeeeeepppyy crawlies for us to have a good look at.

We were amazed to see these creatures which were on quite a grand scale. We managed to get our hands on Charlotte the Spider and Millie the Millipede . We were all very brave and touched a lot of the creatures that came to visit us. Miss Snowball even held a cockroach!

We really enjoyed the visit from ZooLabs on Wednesday 10th March.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from ZooLabs where we learned about rainforests and some of the animals that live there!

This half term we are basing our learning around animals.

Reception were involved in planting bulbs which will be shown at Gateshead Flower Show.