Testing!

Hello, everyone, just testing to find out if I have managed to sort the 'comments' problem we had in class. What a glorious day - hope you are enjoying yourselves.

Choosing the winners!

We met the deadline for the media challenge! All the work was complete by Thursday and people began to help select the winners. The whole of the Bell family got involved - the two sons chose the newspaper they thought looked the best. On the other hand, Mr Bell read each story and really liked the one about shortage of water in Africa.

Mrs Bell gave out the final task on Friday morning. Each group had to have a 5 minute discussion on why they should win, then choose a spokesperson who would present their case. Well, what wonderful presentations! They were amazing! The views of the groups were well thought out and excellently expressed. Staff were proud of the way the pupils had conducted themselves - their reflective comments showed maturity.

Miss Akhtar and Mrs Annett revealed the results. Both of them said that the decsions were very difficult as all the results were very good. The Newspaper task was won by the B team whereas the Storyboard was won by the D team. Although there was some disappointed, everybody coped well. The entries were soon posted away to Staffordshire Partnership. We shall keep our fingers crossed!

We moved on with the 'Cinema'. Hannah's mum provided the popcorn, Imaani's DVD (second choice) was useful and Mrs Bell sneaked in some coca-cola. Misha's mum's mini-easter eggs came in useful, as did Mrs Walter's chocolate bars. The film was watched in two halves, and enjoyed by all.

In the afternoon, there was Golden Time and a great 'Good work' assembly that included the Football Team sharing their winning trophy. The Quick Cricket team were also recognised for their hard work on Wednesday.

A wonderful way to finish this half term. Enjoy your week off, everyone!

THE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT!

What an exciting day for Victoria's football team! Mrs Turner took her main team to Eton Park Junior School for a charity football tournament on Thursday 21st May 2009. Fatima was reluctant to go because she has begun to enjoy 'hanging' around with the girls. After a bit of gentle persuasion from Mrs Turner and heavy guilt ridden pressure from Mrs Bell, she made the choice to go along. Well, what a wonderful decision that was! The team drew one match, and WON all the others! It was so lucky for Mrs Bell that she phoned Mrs Turner at 3.45 pm, who said excitedly, "They are in the final!"

Although Mrs Bell was busy, she dashed over to Eton Park, hoping to hear the results. Unfortunately, she took a wrong turn and consequently arrived too late. However, she was in time to see the team being photographed WITH the cup! She was SO PROUD of the team! Mrs Turner and Mrs Bell hugged each other (just like real footballers!). A BRILLIANT FINAL GAME OF THE YEAR! Well done Victoria!

Finished Newspapers!

After a hectic art and games lesson in the morning, the class worked extremely hard to finish off their newspapers. Mrs Bell has been proudly reading some parts to other staff. When Miss Hughes heard one main story, she thought it was a 'cut and paste' cheat from the internet. Mrs Bell reread the article and decided it must be Raheel - he is consistently good at writing. However, the story turned out to be one of Klaudia's masterpieces! Well done, Klaudia. She really has been great this year!

By the end of the afternoon, all four groups has completed their front pages. Mrs Bell went to the office and Mrs Kirkpatrick kindly printed them off in colour. Now the difficult task is choosing the winner.


ALL the work is brilliant - the two news stories show the higher skills in writing. BUT WHICH GROUP worked the best as a TEAM. This has to be taken into account! Mrs Bell asked her son's opinion and he chose Klaudia's group. "Oh.....!" moaned Mrs Bell, "but they argued so much!" She will have to discuss this with Miss Akhtar.



Tomorrow the winners of the storyboard and the newspaper will be chosen. The two entries will be posted off to the Staffordshire Partnership so that they can be judged. It would be great for Victoria Community School if they get through to the final round - this would mean ONE group going to MOD (ministry of defence) in Stafford. Sadly only 6 children can be taken, so one criteria for winning within school HAS TO BE the ability to work as a team - such an important life skill.

Midweek news!

Wednesday and it was back to normal duties for Mrs Bell. At last she could catch up on some of her management jobs!Mrs Kirkpatrick was keen to catch her - she needed to given Mrs Bell £10,000 so that she could share it out with teachers. This money is for teachers to buy teaching resources. They have to spend it wisely so that we give 'good value for money'. Mrs Bell quickly gave out paper work so that teachers can request how much money they need for their subjects.
In the meantime the class worked with Mrs Lerigo on the planning of some Art work. After play, it was back to the Newspaper front pages for the Media challenge. We got the laptops from Mr Rees so that we could begin to put the main story on. The afternoon was also be used for this - we added more in the computer suite and the results are looking good!

Four children from Y6 and four from Y6 went to a cricket tournament after school. Mrs Turner and Mrs Bell were very proud of their efforts. We came 6th out of 8 teams, and had a great time. Aamir was playing for Waterside - They came 2nd and we felt pleased for them.

Meeting for Parents for Coven

On Tuesday, Miss Akhtar and Mrs Bell will be running a meeting about the Outdoor Education Centre. The class will be away for a week, from 15th June 2009. Parents and pupils will find out what to expect when they are there. Some parents can't come in the morning so the meeting will be repeated in the afternoon at 3.30 pm.
If you look at the following weblink, you will get an idea of the types of activities we will do:

http://www.cheslynhay.org.uk/coven/2006/5.html

I hope the pictures from this school help you to understand how much fun we too will have. Ifra has already told Mrs Bell to expect enjoyment from the activities. It will be just like a holiday and AWAY FROM home for a whole week! Wow!

Video StoryBoards - First task

The morning started with Mrs Bell explaining the media challenge project but she had a challenge herself! The De'Ferrers group were going to their new school from 10 am until 12.15. Therefore it was decided that the groups of 6 would be based on future high schools, which left Fatima, Zain and Madasser feeling a little left out! However, this was not the case - they joined in with the De'Ferrers groups as there were less children in those two groups.

By 2pm, when the Abbott Beyne children met their teacher, we had some wonderful story boards. Ecah group had chosen 12 images to write their story. The staff were pleased with how the groups had formed and the way they worked together - this is an excellent life skill. Two of the groups had used extended, complex sentences.Brilliant!

In the computer suite, we looked at examples of Publisher newsletters as our second task is to produce the front page of a newspaper. We will start this on Tuesday - the finished work has to be produced on the computer.

MEDIA challenge

Now that the SATs are over, we can begin to use our skills to new areas of learning. This week, the class will be involved in working in mixed ability groups (different strengths within each group) to write a front page of a newspaper. In addition, they will produce a video story board using a selection of images. This is a really interesting project and by Friday, Mrs Bell will need to select the best results towards a county competition.

"The event is designed to encourage children at Key Stage 2 and 3 levels to participate in a countywide safety competition. This is achieved by inviting schools from around the County to participate in preliminary rounds."

We will start by getting into groups on Monday. As some children will be visiting their High School, we shall have to use that to help get into teams. The week is quite busy, with transistion visits as well as a parent's meeting for Coven. This meeting will give parents and pupils more details about going to the Outdoor Education Centre on June 15th. Miss Akhtar has assured Mrs Bell that she will enjoy this experience.