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 !

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!

Huge congratulations go to Abbie from Y5 who has recently won a prestigious competition organised by Nexus. The task was to use ICT to design a new 'pop' card - a 'smart card' that encourages people to use public transport more frequently. She beat over 200 entries from the region and won a fantastic I Pod touch along with £350 of free travel for the school.This is a super way for us to encourage people to reduce their carbon emissions and consequently address the climate change issue.

Whitemere raised lots of money for charity on Red Nose Day. We had a competition to see who could eat the most malteasers. The record in our class was 22...wow!
watch our video below:

red nose day.mp4

We also held an X factor competition and it's official, we definitely have the X factor!
watch the video below to see:

x factor video.mp4

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

Year 3 celebrated chinese new year by tasting new and exciting chinese food.
Please watch the video to see what we got upto.

chinese pics video.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.

Our latest Ofsted Inspection has now been published online.

White Mere Community Primary School Jan 2011.pdf

We have been informed that OFSTED will be visiting school on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th January and we would love to share your views about our school. Please make sure your parent questionnaires are returned to school on Monday!

Due to the expected bad weather, the children won't be walking across to the church this year for their carol service on Friday 17th December. We have asked the vicar to come to school to do a service with the children and staff instead.

Unfortunately this means that parents will not be able to come this year because we cannot accomodate all of our parents in the hall at the same time.

Sorry for any dissapontment.

School is open for pupils as usual.

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!!!

With a great deal of regret we must inform parents that the pantomime trip planned for this afternoon is cancelled. The bus company has informed me that two of the buses brakes have re-frozen and this could cause us to skid. I am not prepared to put our children at any risk what so ever so feel it is best to cancel our trip. We have had reports that the metro is also ceasing service due to an incident where frozen cables have damaged cabs with passengers on board. Some bus services have also been cancelled due to frozen brakes therefore I am asking parents to collect their children from 1pm to allow our staff safe travel home.

Thank you for your understanding, Mrs Howe

Sorry but Lamesley Childcare is closed for breakfast this morning. They will contact parents directly when a decision is made for afterschool club.

School is open to pupils on Thursday 2nd December.

Please keep checking our school website for updates.

We would like to confirm that school will be open as usual on Wednesday 1st December.

Lamesley Childcare have just confirmed that they will also be open for breakfast from 7.30am. Their contact number is 07540222091 should you need it.

Don't forget your wellies and warm clothes!!!!

We apologise for any inconvenience but we will remain closed on Tuesday 30th November due to the severe weather. This also applies to Lamsley childcare. Please keep checking our website for updates.

Sorry to inform you but due to there being a lack of staff and the surrounding roads being unpassable the school is closed for today. Please keep checking our website for further updates.

Sorry Lamsley is closed for breakfast this morning. We cannot make a decision on whether the school is open as of 8.15am. We will inform you as soon as we know ourselves.

For your information school is open today, Thursday 25th November - Dont forget your wellies!

The whole school joined in a water fight to see off the 2009/2010 academic year. And what a year it has been. Thank you to everyone who has supported the school and a big thank you to the children who have made this year so enjoyable. Have a wonderful summer!

I would just like to say a huge, huge, huge thank you to Y5 pupils and parents, for my wonderful 'wedding' surprise this morning! My gifts, cards and balloons were absolutely lovely and I am so touched by the thought, it was a gorgeous surprise and has made me even more excited to get married!Thanks for making my last school day as
Miss. Mcdonald so, so lovely!! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and I can't wait to fill my new honeymoon album with lots of pics!

Thanks again! See you all in September!

Love Miss. McDonald soon to be Mrs. Hutchinson! Woo hoo!

Me and my girls, in my Minnie Mouse hen doo veil!

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!

To help celebrate Miss McDonalds up and coming nuptials, the White Mere team had a wonderful weekend away in Belfast.

We wish Miss McDonald and Mr Hutchinson the best of luck for the wedding and hope they don't change their mind as we are looking forward to welcoming Miss McDonald back as Mrs Hutchinson in September!

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!

We are pleased to say school will be open as usual on Monday 14th June.

See you all on Monday!

Due to the unforeseen circumstances with the water leak in school, our Coffee Afternoon is to be postponed until a later date. You will be notified of the new date as soon as possible.

Due to the water leak in school all afterschool clubs are suspended from Wednesday 9th June until further notice. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

Due to a water leak in the KS2 end of school, school is closed for Years 4, 5 and 6 pupils Wed 9th, Thurs 10th and Fri 11th. School will re-open for them on Monday 14th June. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes but are working hard to get things back to normal as soon as possible.

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).

We are pleased to say Mrs Hulbert has returned to school after her maternity leave. She will be covering the teachers Planning, Preperation and Assessment time and will be working with all classes. We are really glad to have you back.

Also a huge congratulations to Miss Budd who was happily married in the Easter holidays. We all wish Mr and Mrs Short a very happy life together.

The School Newspaper Club have rolled out the very first issue of W. M. Express - an exciting new newspaper packed with gossip, class information, reviews, sport, puzzles and even a comic. I would like to thank Ryan, Olivia, Ross, Zoe, Ellie, Kate, Katherine, Beth, Milly and Lewis for their very hard work on getting our first issue to press and I am really looking forward to the new ideas they have for the next issue.

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!

Last week the whole school entered the yearly art competition for Gateshead in Bloom. Each class painted flowers from specific months and we sent a selection off to be judged! You can see our entries in Saltwell Park this Sunday 29th March. I hope we win a trophy!!

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

Can you recognise any of Y6's favourite book characters ?

On Wednesday 3rd March, Year 5 were chefs for the morning and had a fabulous time learning how to cook a healthy and extremely tasty meal! Cooking for life chef Nick taught Y5 pupils how to prepare and cook a chicken stir-fry safely. You can still smell the food now!! Yum Yum!!

Chefs at the ready!!!

We were joined by other Reception classes from local schools to watch The Jungle Book show.

To celebrate World Book Day Reception were involved with the whole school dress up day where we dressed up as a character out of our favourite book.

Come and see what fun we got up to throughout the week.

Making use of the slushy snow last week, Reception enjoyed creating some snow art. Come and see what we come up with.

Unfortunately Pancake Day fell in February half term so Reception made pancakes a week late at school.

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

Before Christmas Reception and Key Stage One visited Down at the Farm's Winter Wonderland.

Dawn and Dora visited us to talk about how to be safe outside in the dark and also how to be safe when we are out and about.