Today Owl Class have been out in the village litter picking. We borrowed all the equipment from Durham County Council as part of Litter Free Durham’s Big Spring Clean. We were kitted out with high vis jackets, rubber gloves, bag holders and litter grabbers. As well as tidying the school site, we visited the church grounds, the play park, the shop and village hall. On our way we also picked up any litter we saw on the verges.

We collected 4 bags of rubbish and thought everything looked much tidier when we had finished. The children enjoyed being out and about doing something to help their community.

We had an enjoyable Celebration of Learning Day last Wednesday, with lots of families joining us to find out more about what their children have been learning this term. Each classroom had activities and workshops linked to our Ingenious Inventions theme which the children ran for their parents and visitors.

While all that was happening, in the hall we had our very own Dragon’s Den. The panel consisted of Mr Welsby, responsible for the money at The Bowes Museum, Mrs Lee, expert in the school environment, and Mrs Carr. Two teams of children from each class, chosen by their classmates, made presentations about their inventions and ‘pitched’ to the dragons. The standard was very high and the Dragons had a difficult job choosing the winning designs. The teams won a prize for their class as well as individual rewards for taking part.

All the panellists were impressed by the ingenious ideas, the quality of the designs and how well the children explained and ‘sold’ their inventions!

Last Friday was Sports Relief Day and Woodland School were proud to do their bit to raise money for other children. As well as coming dressed in their own sporty clothes, the children and parents took part in an hour long Dance-a-thon, enjoyed a delicious smoothie made on the Smoothie bike and were given a Sports Relief wristband.

Thanks to the School Council and the Playleaders who, with support from Mrs Bentley and Mrs O’Brien, planned and ran a fantastic day for the children.

We raised an amazing £108! Well done to everyone and thank you to everyone who sent in a donation.

The Y4, Y5 and Y6 children had a very busy and exciting time at Robinwood last week. We took part in an amazing 15 activities and everyone rose to all the challenges, with lots of us trying out new activities and developing new skills. The children worked as a team and supported each other brilliantly.

The leaders and teachers from other schools commented on our lovely children with their great manners and excellent attitude. We are very proud of all of them!

 We had a wonderful World Book Day last week with everyone, children and staff, dressed as characters from their favourite books. We had lots of reading themed activities and workshops and rounded off the day by welcoming families in to school to hear all about the children’s costumes and why they had chosen them. Woodland children love to read and really enjoy listening to stories, so it was fantastic to celebrate this with a special day!

On Tuesday we had a VIP visitor at Woodland School – B-4 the Galaxy’s Most Friendly Robot!  Danny Hunt kindly brought him to visit all the children at Woodland and they were absolutely amazed!

Standing at 8 ft tall, B-4 is a fully animated, walking and talking robot. The children watch B-4 dance, sing and perform. The children helped Danny with some routine maintenance.   When Zak went to sort the back of it out it made some very rude noises!!  The children were in hysterics.  We would like to thank Danny and Steph for bringing B4 to visit Woodland Primary School.

We had a fabulous Mother’s Day Lunch in school on Thursday, the children were joined by mums and grandmas for a delicious meal and a lovely social time.  It was great that so many of you could join us and the children were absolutely thrilled.  Thank you for all your kind comments.  Special thanks to Carol and Linzi in the kitchen for producing such a wonderful meal for all to enjoy.

As part of our Ingenious Inventions topic we are learning about the development of the railways in our area, so on Tuesday the whole of Woodland School went on a trip to Locomotion at Shildon.

The children had a fabulous day completing trails, taking part in workshops and even being train drivers and firemen on the Black 5 engine! Not only did the children have a fabulous day and learn lots, they have all been writing fantastic recounts of their visit.

Here are a few photographs from our visit and look out for some of the children’s writing about their day!

On Wednesday the 10th February 2016 we had a Lego day IT WAS VERY VERY VERY VERY GOOD!!!    The workshop was led by John from Electro City and he was really good at explaining how things worked and helping us make our designs.

Squirrel Class and Year 2 were building houses with lights in and made lots of different buildings which they put together to make a town which lit up!

After lunch Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 were thinking about how to make things move in Lego and we built a fairground. We were using gears and motors to make our models work. Also we were extending our ideas every step of the way.

Harry, Evan and Joseph C