Thursday

This morning I telephoned Mrs West.

Everyone is fine and having a good time.

First I spoke to Alan, one of the centre's teacher leaders. He said our children were all doing excellently. Super behaviour and happy faces.

I could hear the children clearing up the breakfast things chatting excitedly. Today they were setting off in groups for climbing and canoeing and then other activities in the outdoors. The weather seems favourable.

Last night Mrs West reported that everyone was finally asleep after midnight. They were hot and bothered settling down but eventually everyone settled and they were ready for action this morning.

We expect the children home after 2.30 tomorrow.

Regards Mrs Andrews

Wednesday

All the children from the class are safe and sound and altogether in Pentrellyn!

Mrs West rang me to say.....

"We all arrived safely in good time although we got a little bit lost but since then it has been "All systems go". We had a lovely walk this afternoon and on the way back came across a stepping stone bridge and some of us got rather wet as we walked across but it was great fun, there was lots of laughter and everyone had a good time. We were all shattered afterwards but really enjoyed ourselves.

We had showers and got into our pyjamas and are now going to settle down and have a quiet time watching a DVD before hot chocolate and early bed"

No problems reported to me at all and Mrs West will phone the latest news in the morning!

Lots of love from all the children to all their families and remember that Friday and the pile of washing will be here before we know it!

Ring Mr Hill or myself at school in the morning if you wish.

Regards Mrs Andrews

Year 4 visited Felin Puleston as part of our science study of habitats and compared creatures found in pond dipping, river dipping and mini beast woodland hunt. These pictures show the children exploring the river and the top picture when the children were on the bridge over the pond.

You can also see a group of Year 4 under a willow arch looking for information on meadow plants- yet another habitat!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the day and the activities and we were fortunate with the weather.

We also had an extremely interesting talk about predators and prey, with stuffed animals to examine.

The children were very knowledgeable and were an excellent audience throughout. Mrs West reports that she was very very proud of them.

Members of the Royal British Legion came to speak to the children in assembly on Friday and explained their work and also that of Help for Heroes, more recently formed to support the soldiers returning so severely injured from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

We have almost filled a cylindrical collecting box in school with loose change and there is a competition for all children who contribute to guess the amount we collect. The children bring in small amounts of loose change and pick an amount to be recorded on a clip board sheet. Next week when we count the money we will give prizes for the best guesses … the box already weighs more than 7 kilos!

This weekend people all over the country are remembering our heroes by holding a Poppy party (or else raising a toast at some family time) to recognise the bravery and sacrifice our soldiers make. Any money our children raise could be sent in to school and added to our collecting box.

The Royal British Legion was founded 90 years ago to support returning soldiers and their families re build their lives. At Barker's Lane we are thinking of their motto
"Service Not Self".

Every Summer Fair as part of their curriculum, children in Yr5 and Yr6 follow a Design Technology task to plan a stall at the Summer Fair.

The aim of the project has always been to give the children the real life opportunity to engage with the world of work, to understand the process of business thus raise money towards a project which will enhance school life for all our community.

Visit to the World of Work

Courtesy of Mrs. Nicola Matthais Parent Governor, the children visited MBNA Bank on Chester Business Park, Chester.

Following talks on Business Approaches and Marketing in MBNA's lecture theatre the children worked in groups on planning a stall for the Summer Fair.

The children were congratulated by the team on their innovative ideas and excellent behaviour.

In the afternoon, back at school, the children began work on preparation for their stalls.

SEE YOU AT THE FAIR - 5pm 20th May 2011

Our latest E twinning project with schools from Czech Republic, Slovenia, France, Italy and Barker's Lane Community School

Reception have taken part in a festive etwinning project, 'Decorate, Re-create, Celebrate' with schools in the Czech republic, France, Italy and Slovenia. In Barker's Lane everyone in reception made an angel tree decoration. We shared a power point of instructions and photographs of us making angels with our European friends.

During the project reception looked at videos and presentations of our partner schools and their decorations. We commented on each others' work using a blog on the safe etwinning site, we liked the French videos best but our friends in Italy shared the instructions for 6 tree decorations. After viewing the instructions we made our own examples of pop up decorations from France and glitter balls, digital decorations, Santas and stars from Italy.

We decorated the tree in the Hall with all our European decorations including a garland of European flags. It looked fantastic. We videoed the children singing a Welsh carol around the tree which we will share on the etwinning site. (Look out for it next term on this webpage also).