On Wednesday Nurses from the County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust Bill, Tracy and Melissa came in to school to demonstrate how to restart the heart.  The Owl class children all took part in how to deal with a casualty (Resuscitation Annie), from making sure the area is safe to doing chest compression’s.  The nurses also brought along a training defibrillator and demonstrated how one is used.  They all learnt the steps to deal with a choking incident and dressed up in medial clothing.

A special thank you to Bill, Tracey and Melissa for coming out to school to teach the children such valuable life skills.

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Well done to our newly elected School Councillors, they all produced an excellent presentation to there classes on why people should vote for them.

On Thursday the children enjoyed a ‘Mad Scientist Lunch’ prepared my our fabulous cook Karen.  The children had sausages and colour changing mash, and delicious buns with fun toppings.  Our next themed lunch is our Halloween Lunch on 22nd October, we are all looking forward to a ‘Spooktacular Lunch’

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We enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Bowes Museum. We took part in some exciting some workshops and also completed the lego trail. The children in KS2  spent time in the Lego exhibition building some brilliant models.  In their workshop they then made models which were  programmed to move using  Lego Wedo  and the ipads. They made cars which they raced in the picture gallery. The children in KS1 also enjoyed the lego exhibition and trail as well as finding out more about the illustrator Nick Sharratt in the Pirates, Pants and Wellyphants exhibition. They took part in a storytelling and arts and crafts workshop where they made some amazing pirate hats.  No visit to the Bowes Museum would be complete without seeing the Silver Swan. We returned to school having thoroughly enjoyed our day.

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Everyone at Woodland hopes you have had a lovely summer. We have had a great first few weeks back at school and the children are enjoying being in their new classes and seeing all of their friends.  Our new starters have settled in well and are already getting used to the school day.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been very busy in school and we thought it would be lovely to share some of the activities and events that the children and families have enjoyed!

Sports Day and Summer Fair

Although it was a wet day, that didn’t stop us having fun on sports day on Tuesday 9^th July. This year we organised a carousel or fun activities relating to our topic ‘Me, Our World and Beyond’. We had a rocket launch (foam javelin), One Giant Leap (long jump), Tim Peake Challenge (Obstacles with space costumes!) and Asteroid Attack (target).

We plan to hold the races on the field next week, then we can add up the scores and find out how our teams got on. Will the champions be Team Saturn, Neptune, Mercury or Venus?

Following the sports activities, we enjoyed some brilliant summer fair stalls including Play Your Cards Right’, lolly sticks, Guess the sweets in the jar, odds and evens boats, Treasure Map. There were also some yummy treats to buy!

Athletics Festival

Last Wednesday Year 5 and 6 went to Staindrop Academy to take part in an Athletics Afternoon with other local schools. We had the opportunity to try shot-put, javelin, discus, long jump and 800m and then participated in 100m, 200m, 400m and relay races with the other schools. We were the smallest school there but we were definitely the most determined! Mrs O’Brien said that she had never felt as proud of Woodland for their teamwork, sportsmanship and sheer determination to compete.

Brass Festival at Butterknowle

We all enjoyed a sunny afternoon at Butterknowle Primary listening to Brass Reel a Scottish Bass Band.  We loved dancing to the Ceilidh music and learning some dances together.

Campfire Family Night

Last Friday we had a great night of activities and games organised by Rob and Abi from the Kingsway Centre, the children started fires with a flint and toasted marshmallows and made bread on a campfire.  We had a lovely supper of pizza and hot dogs and then enjoyed some fun team games, it got very competitive and that was just the adults!

Summer Disco

The children had a great time at the disco on Tuesday night, it was a lovely way to celebrate the end of a fantastic school year and say goodbye to our Year 6’s.

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17 of our pupils from years 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed 3 action packed days on residential at East Barnby outdoor centre near Whitby.

Our first activity had everyone puzzling how to complete the task until we realised that team work was the way forward – and that was just making the beds!

The second challenge was equally difficult- putting on wetsuits but having succeeded we were set up for the short drive to Sands End and body boarding.

It was like being in a washing machine spin cycle as the waves took us gracefully (?) to the shore.

That evening we joined our friends from Frosterley toasting marshmallows and singing songs around the campfire.

With some sleep we were up promptly on Thursday for a big cooked breakfast to give us plenty of energy for our canoeing trip. Again lots of teamwork was needed to in load the canoes and raft them together to make them more stable. Everyone soon got the hang of making the boats go where we wanted. The only wobbly moment was when the teachers’ boat almost went in negotiating the weir that separated the tidal part of the river. Sandwiches were enjoyed on ‘duck island ‘ before paddling downstream under a bridge whilst the steam train chugged above, then under a massive Victorian viaduct until we arrived in Whitby harbour.

An amazing trip.

We had our session sledging on the ski slope that evening. Water sprinklers and washing up liquid meant speed was not a problem.

Our last morning saw us back on the beach. The steep path down to Saltwick Bay was rewarded by great rock pooling and fossil hunting. Lots of crabs and a fossilised dinosaur footprint were amongst the highlights.

We had all the ingredients for a great residential- superb weather, amazing activities and fantastic children.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible.

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We went to Woodland church on the 4th of July. We went there to find a pew, a font, a Bible, a Bishop’s chair, a cross, candles and an altar. We found all of them! Then Joan the Church warden showed us the collection plate and she rang the bell.  Later we drew a picture of the whole church.

By Fred

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As part of the Young Citizens Make a Difference Challenge-Go Givers, Year 5 & 6 have been thinking about what issue means the most to them. They decided that Rural Isolation was the cause that they want to raise awareness about and they attended and event on Wednesday at Durham and did a fantastic presentation.  Well done everyone!

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On Wednesday 12th June we went on a whole school trip to Newcastle.

After an eventful journey Squirrel class arrived at the Discovery Museum. Jenny showed us around and explained about how transport had changed over time. Then we went to the secret classroom to make air powered moving vehicles. After lunch we explored the science maze and visited the shop.

Owl class went to The Centre for Life in Newcastle on the same day. We enjoyed a day of Space related activities including a simulator, a space science show and a workshop about going into space. In the workshop we looked at how astronauts operate in space and how difficult it is work in a spacesuit.

We got the chance to operate robotic arms to move objects, wear astronaut’s gloves and even find out how absorbent an astronaut’s maximum absorbency garment is!…..(that’s a nappy to you and me)

The day was complete following a play on lots or arcade video games and a visit to the gift shop.

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