Western Community Primary School

Another wonderful year at Western is drawing to a close. We hope you enjoy reading all about the fantastic adventures that have been going on across the last few weeks. We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of the children for their hard work across this academic year and for all the kindness, joy and enthusiasm shown.

We thank the staff for another magnificent year of dedication and care, and for going the extra mile in countless ways to ensure our children have the best possible experience of school.

Thank you very much to our brilliant team of governors who have worked with real passion across the year and to all involved with Friends of Western. The time you give and the work you do is hugely appreciated.

Last but not least, we thank you all of YOU - our families, parents and carers. We feel privileged to work within this community and proud of what we achieve together for the children.

Our Year six children leave us today to begin their new adventures in secondary school. They have been a particularly lovely year group and are very special to all of us. We very much hope they will pop in over the autumn to show off their new uniforms and let us know how they are getting on in their new schools. We all wish them lots of luck.

We wish you all a happy and healthy summer break and will be very excited to see you all back in school on Wednesday 7th September.

What an exciting and busy half term we have had in nursery! Over the past few weeks we have had ten very cute and very messy chicks spending time with us. We completed chick training before their arrival which was so much fun. The children had the best time watching them hatch and have been really interested in how fast the chicks have grown.

We competed in our sports day and the children were amazing despite the strong wind. We are so proud of each and every one of them!

How are your children already coming to the end of their first year at school? This year has flown by. It is true what they say 'time flies when you are having fun' and we have certainly had a lot of fun. This half term the children have been learning about animal life cycles, I'm sure you have all heard about the chicks that hatched last week. The children adore them and they will soon be off to their forever home on Mrs Berries allotment. As part of this learning the children have been thinking about growing up and about their transition into Key Stage 1. Everybody is very excited to have a new classroom and a new outdoor area in which to learn. The children have visited their new classrooms and have met their new teachers. They have also been supporting the nursery children with their transition into Reception. This week RDL and RCH showed the nursery children around their outdoor area and helped them explore the resources on offer. The Reception children took their supportive role very seriously and we were very proud of how grown up they were. Your children are ready to fly the Early Years' nest and continue their journey through school. We love each and every one of them and wish them well.

We would like to thank the amazing team from SAGE who came to school last week and worked their hearts out to give our outdoor area a well needed makeover. Gary Charlton, one of our school governors and 22 amazing volunteers from SAGE turned up in force to paint, sweep, clean, create and fix up our beloved outdoor learning area. Their hard work was very much appreciated by the children and they could not believe the transformation in just one day.

Lots of our work over the past few weeks has been in preparation for our ‘celebration of the sea’ festival. We have been learning about the coast in geography and reading and writing non chronological reports in literacy. We started the work with a visit from Captain Raggybeard who showed us and told us about the fascinating animal life found in a rockpool.

We used what we have learnt to write our own non-chronological reports about limpets and hermit crabs. We then collated these into a class poster which North Tyneside Council have said they will print at the coast - please look out for them!

In addition to this we have created beach themed pieces of art, poetry and posters to encourage people to look after our beautiful coastline.

The festival involved us showing our work to our siblings and other children in school. We were really proud to show them our work and to work with them to create more posters to spread the word about looking after our World further.

Sewing

The children have blown us away with the sewing skills they have been practising for our DT project this term. They have been making their own hand puppets and we have been wowed by their original designs. The children researched their project, made initial designs and practised sewing on a button. We used our resilience to thread a needle and create a running stitch to attach two pieces together. We can’t wait to show you!

Trip to Wallsend Park

The children had a really successful end to their project by litter picking in Wallsend Park at the end of last term. The park warden was so happy to see us and told us how important and vital our job was to keeping the park clean and safe for others to use. We couldn’t believe what the litter we found! The children collected lots of bags and were rightly proud of their achievements. Year 2 were keen to share what they had done and we are sure they can tell you lots about the project!

The Great Fire of London

Year 2 have been engrossed by our current history topic the ‘Tale of Two Fires’. Lots of the children knew about The Great Fire of London but were surprised to find out there was a Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead. Once more the children have fully engaged in their learning and have asked some really important questions to find out more. The children have really impressed us with their knowledge so come and ask us more about it!

Sports Day

It was great to have all of the families all together again, enjoying sports day. We know you'll agree that the children had so much fun and we were so impressed by their team spirit. The support and encouragement you give to the children really helped them to perform at their very best. They had been working very hard in PE to develop their skills in athletics and sports day was a fantastic opportunity to show these skills off.

Oliver

What can we say? The children were incredibly excited to reveal all their hard work to their loved ones at home. The children thoroughly enjoyed the learning about the story of Oliver and having the opportunity to showcase their efforts. The songs have become a firm favourite within our classrooms.

Scratch Art

The children used tools to scratch a pattern they had designed into polystyrene. Their design was based on an abstract of their invented journey story. They then used stamping ink to created a repeated pattern. We were so proud of our final design and we even invited Mrs Patterson (the school art lead) to come and see our amazing art work.

Sports Day Spectacular

It was fantastic this year to be able to welcome families back to watch out sports day. The weather was fantastic and the children had a wonderful time. They enjoyed all of the events, especially those which the parents joined in with too. It was lovely to celebrate some special awards for the sprinting and sportsmanship in each of the Year 4 classes. Well done everyone!

Vex Code Go Competition

Throughout this term, Year 4 have been working in mixed groups between the classes to design, build and program a robot to complete a range of missions. There were 4 different missions of increasing difficulty and the teams scored points for each element of a mission which was completed successfully. The children showed great teamwork, resilience, logic and problem-solving to do this and we even had a prize for the winning robot. Well done Codey team!

Super skippers!

It has been such a busy summer term and some of Year 4 represented the school at a skipping festival. The children were fabulous and performed brilliantly. They particularly loved seeing children from other schools after so long! We won many Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards and the whole team can be so proud of their efforts! What a great afternoon we all had.

The Year 4 team would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the children and families in Year 4. It has been a fantastic year with so many amazing things going on. The children have worked exceptionally hard, had some great achievements. and lots of fun along the way! From all of the team, have a wonderful summer break.

This term has been an exciting one for Year 5. We were lucky enough to go to Newcastle Federation's Nucastle centre in the city centre. We took part in several sporting activities which tested our skill and stamina. As well as this, we got hands on with the Sphero programmable robot balls and had a great time. It was a superb day, enjoyed by everyone. In other news, we have been hard at work on our community project. We decided to base this on our local history topic and created mosaics of important local landmarks. These are to be displayed in the Forum so be sure to go and see them over the holidays!

Year 6 have had a busy final few weeks at Western! We started the half term with an overnight trip to Beamish, where we experienced life as Victorian students. We enjoyed campfires, trips down the mine and taking part in Victorian lessons with some very strict teachers! After our trip to Beamish, we really enjoyed working with Bigfoot and putting together our summer spectacular, Oliver. The children worked as part of a fantastic team to create their own dialogue and action and took great responsibility for the direction of the show. We all used our courage to perform in front of a live audience and the children really appreciated all of the positive feedback that they received. As part of the Year 6 farewell to Western, we spent time creating an amazing Leavers' Celebration assembly for our families. It was important for us to reflect on our time at Western but also to look forward to the future and where our careers may take us twenty years from now! We were also keen to say thank you to our biggest supporters...you! Have a brilliant summer and best of luck to everyone as they move on to their new school.

We would like to say a huge thanks to our sponsors First Class Supply, Mowbray Sports and Corporate Clothing for their generosity in funding our fabulous Year 6 Leavers hoodies. A fantastic gift before they fly the nest on the next part of their educational journey.

We think you all look amazing!

The Eco Council have been working very hard over the last few weeks thinking about ‘Biodiversity’ as our theme for learning about forests. As part of this we have been conducting tree surveys to find out about the types of trees we have amongst our school grounds, designing posters to explain how different plants are pollinated and ways of seed dispersal and looking for different animal habitats. We have also been looking at ways to encourage different species with Year 6 designing and making their own ‘Mini Bug Hotel’ in the forest area. In addition to this, we have also introduced another new project thinking about energy and climate change by producing some posters to help school and homes reduce their usage. We will be focusing more on ‘energy’ and the effects it has on our environment in the Autumn term.

In June 2022, Our wellbeing and values ambassadors were kindly invited by the ESH group to take part in a wellbeing arts project. This involved decorating stones with positive messages about wellbeing and mental health – each stone decorated uniquely by the children. The stones were then transported to the new Hadrian Health Centre in Wallsend to be on display in the health Centre’s wellbeing garden for all visitors, patients and staff to see.

Our ambassadors took this opportunity very seriously and were proud to be able to part of

promoting positive wellbeing in the Wallsend Community.

Our wellbeing and values ambassadors would like to say a big THANK YOU to Kate at the ESH group (the company responsible for building the health centre) for inviting us to be part of such an important project.

Please look out for the lovely decorated stones if you do visit the Hadrian Health Centre!

On the back of the wellbeing arts project- our wellbeing and values ambassadors decided they wanted to do something similar for pupils and staff at Western. It was decided that we would decorate sun catchers (of different styles) and then leave them around school (outside and inside) for everyone to be able to look at and admire. It is hoped the sun catchers will bring a little smile to your day in and around Western. Please look out for the sun catchers around our school next time you when you visit us! l ☺

Our year 1-5 wellbeing and values ambassadors:

LEGO have created new online resources for parent/carers and their children to explore online safety and digital wellbeing. They have some excellent resources- online stories, games, hint and tips and more.

For further information please visit the LEGO website at: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/sustainability/children/buildandtalk/

The government has published a green paper on the future of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system and is undertaking a public consultation on the green paper’s proposals.

Supporting resources:

There are resources available to help you understand the proposals on GOV.UK, including:

A British Sign Language (BSL) version of the green paper

An easy-read version of the green paper summary

A guide to help children and young people with SEND or those in alternative provision

Read the SEND review: right support, right place, right time and send us your views.

Why your views matter

The government is committed to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those in alternative provision. We want to work with children, young people, parents, carers and those who advocate and work with them, as well as local and national system leaders, to achieve this ambition.

We encourage you to reflect on the proposals set out in this green paper and respond to our consultation. Together, we can ensure every child and young person with SEND and those in alternative provision can thrive and be well prepared for adult life.

Please follow this link for further information :

https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-review-division/send-review-2022/

We are delighted to announce that we have teamed up with North Tyneside Libraries once again to deliver 2 x 4 day holiday programmes!

Please see below and attached for all the info you need!

Please hurry as spaces will fill up very quickly!

Wallsend Library

Tuesday 2nd – Friday 5th August for 5-8 year olds

11:30 – 3:30

An action packed week with Bigfoot Arts Education, including drama, singing, dancing, cooking, making sculptures, trips to the park and a chance for parents and carers to watch a show back event of everything that has been achieved at the end of the week,

To Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/372737968297

Whitley Bay Customer First Centre

Monday 8th August – Thursday 11th August for 9 – 13 year olds

12:30 – 4:30

An action packed week with Bigfoot Arts Education, including DJing, Graffiti Art, Drama, Upcycling costumes, beach and park trips...and loads more!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/372755641157

What a fantastic evening full of glitz, glamour and lovely treats. There were two finalists from Western at the North Tyneside Learning Trust Star Awards held at St James' Park. Mrs Hockey and Miss Dixon felt so proud to share a wonderful evening celebrating with Nell, Eddie and their families. Both children were absolute stars and were thrilled to receive some super treats. In true rockstar style Eddie beat stiff competition from children in secondary school to be crowned the overall winner in his Inspiration award category. We are all bursting with pride for both children and their families. We are hoping for as many nominations as possible next year, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the Star awards.

Email: western.office@ntlp.org.uk
Website: westerncommunityprimary.org.uk
Location: Rutland Road, Wallsend, UK
Phone: 0191 263 0202
Twitter: @westernprimary