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 !

Y6 arrived back at school to some great news - they had won the Enterprise challenge - the whole school competition organised at the end of the Summer Term! They raised a staggering £206 ,beating all competition out of sight. They thoroughly enjoyed selling their Climate Change CD's and marketing them throughout the school and to the wider community.

Y5 were able to transport everyone to the wonderful world of Oz recently for their Carnival performance. They danced their way towards the Emerald City ,accompanied by a medley of songs - from the uptempo 'Follow The Yellow Brickroad,' the heart rending 'If I Only Had A Brain,' through to the uplifting finale 'Merry Old Land Of Oz.' Well done everyone!

Y5 and Y6 performed brilliantly during a recent tag rugby tournament held at Joseph Swann School organised by Gateshead Thunder. Both teams came in the top three of the tournament narrowly missing out on playing each other in the final by the slimmest of margins - 1 try. Y6 as runners up progress to the regional finals held at Gateshead Stadium. Miss Sykes was extremely proud of both teams as they demonstrated excellent sportsmanship - a big thankyou to the Captains who were master tacticians - William & Lewis !

We had a brilliant time during Eco week recently. Y1 and Y2 created amazing robots from materials that could be recycled whilst Y5 created models that represented global warming which they demonstrated to the rest of the school in assemblies.

The school also enjoyed listening to Y5's songs about Climate Change throughout the week.

Well done to my fantastic class, for working so hard in preparation for their SATs. They were so focused in every test and should be very proud of themselves!So on Monday we went to the metrocentre for bowling and pizza, as a very well deserved reward!

The boys ready to bowl!!

Mr.Hudson took the game very seriously!!!

Then after a hard morning of bowling, time for pizza and ice-cream at Pizza Express!!Yum!

We had a great last day of term - with activities all linked to the forthcoming Royal Wedding. Y5 plotted the course of the wedding procession using grid references in maths - we'll be able to recognise some of the land marks mentioned as the big event unfolds - I wonder how many you know ?

Red white blue.mp4

Well done to all pupils and staff for their efforts in this years boiled egg competition.

Take a look at the winners - we are sure you will see why they won!!

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 !

Congratulations go to Jack and Alex for winning the White Mere X Factor ! They sang sensationally without musical backing I might add - showing great confidence and professionalism. The standard was so high in Y5 with lots of people keen to join in. Stars of the future - I wonder what Simon Cowell would think ?

A huge congratulations go to four pupils in Y6 - Aaron, Millie, William & Benjamin who triumphed in a Gifted and Talented Maths competition recently ! The event was hosted at Wardley Primary school - they faced teams from Bill Quay and Wardley and by all accounts it was extremely close. It was fantastic to find out they had won - even though at first they tried to convince Y6 and Miss Sykes that they hadn't - but we weren't fooled! They received some lovely prizes and were able to explain what had taken place in Celebration assembly on Friday - cue huge cheers all round - Well done !!!!!!!

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.

Our school will be featuring in 'The Evening Chronicle' on Thursday 17th February. Y5's have certainly been busy as budding reporters and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Get ready to learn about all the exciting things happening throughout school at the moment.

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!!!

The glamour of Hollywood found its way to Heworth Golf Club for the Y6 prom. Entering like movie stars in their limos, there followeda star studded walk down the red carpet before entering the main event.

Congratulations go to the Prom King and Queen and all other award winners on the night.

Y6 had a fantastic time recently at Robinwood activity centre near Alston, Cumbria. They spent three action packed days doing activities including the awe inspiring Giant Swing, jaw dropping trapeze and death defying zip wire ! Great fun was had by all and 23 very tired children along with teachers Miss Gillis and Miss Sykes returned exhausted to school.

What a great turnout for Sports day this year. The children have been practicing hard and really enjoyed it. Thank you to all of you who turned out to support us. We really enjoyed a suprise visit from Mr Skilbeck too, it was great to see you sir!

Who enjoyed the Carnival? We all did and we were delighted by the turn out of parents, carers, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, friends - you name it they were here! We have taken millions (well maybe just hundreds) of photographs - here are just a few but watch this space for more.

Thank you to all of the children, staff and parents who made the afternoon so enjoyable and we will do it all again next year!

Congratulations to 'Starstruck Ideas' who won our 'Apprentice style' challenge at the Summer Fayre. They managed to raise a staggering £28.45 in their 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' game ! I'm sure Lord Sugar would approve of their business acumen.

Y6 enjoyed performing their Mexican dance at the Carnival last week - despite a few sombreros being blown away by the wind! The music was 'Hot! Hot' Hot!' as was the weather !

Come and join us at our amazing Summer Fayre and carnival. It will sure be a blast !
From football shootouts to magic boxes it couldn't be any better. Everyone's certain to be a winner when playing the Y6 games - enjoyment guaranteed ! Which game is the best ? - you decide.....

Future West End Stars - surely !
Congratulations to all of Y6 for a fabulous performance last night ! It was a truly tremendous effort by all involved. A huge thank you goes to Heworth Drama Department , especially Mr Welch and Mr Robinson. We're anticipating the arrival of a DVD of the show soon .

Please remember school will be closed for the Local and General Elections on Thursday 6th May 2010 and will re-open on Friday 7th May 2010 at 8.45am (or 8.15am for Breakfast Club).

A huge congatulations and big thank you to our fantastic swim team, for their excellent efforts representing our school at the Felling, swimming gala last Thursday! It was a fun and exciting night, as our girls swam to victory, winning 3rd place overall, out of the fourteen schools taking part!

There was also individual success as Amy Kyle from Y5 won silver in the 25m breaststroke and Rachael Dodds Y5 won bronze in the 25m backstroke. Well done!

Thanks again to our super swim team, who were...

Rachael Dodds Y5, Amy Kyle Y5, Sophie List Y5, Georgia Durham Y5, Laura Kelly Y5, Lauryn Slater Y5, Leianne Reay Y5 and Zoe Forster Y6!

Y5 had a fabulous day dressed as their favourite book character for world book day!
They even had a new teacher 'Miss. Honey' for the day!

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!

On 19th March 2010 the children at White Mere Community Primary School took part in a Hula-Hoopathon. The children were sponsored to raise money for Sports Relief. The Hula Hooping event was an amazing success with a grand total of over £800 being raised for Sports Relief.

A big Thank You to all those involved!

A truly memorable encounter!

Y6 are busy preparing for their version of 'The Dracula Rock Show' in collaboration with Heworth Grange. The show will take place after S.A.T.s and is set to be a truly memorable event for all those involved ! Be prepared to see spectacular dance moves as you journey through a world populated by zombies and vampires - Can Inspector Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the series of mysterious crimes that occur in Dewsberry or will they fail with disastrous consequences ?

The Show will take place on Wednesday 26th May.