Newsletter 28th November 2019
News
West Stow Saxon Village
On Wednesday year 1, 2 and 3 visited West Stow Saxon Village for the day. This linked in to our KS1 topic of homes and houses and our KS2 topic of Anglo-Saxons. We had a brilliant day in the museum looking at genuine historical artefacts and in the village looking at Anglo-Saxon houses. We even got to meet an Anglo-Saxon man who explained to us about what it was like to live in an Anglo-Saxon home.
The Cross Home Learning
Great home learning from Congo and Yangtze classes; they have represented The Cross in so many different ways. We have been thinking, ‘Is The Cross a symbol of love or sacrifice?’ Many thanks to parents and carers who have helped the children with their inspiring work.
School Councillors
Congratulations to the new School Councillors you have voted for! They are Reuben, Jasmine, Maisie, Finn, Martha, Callum, Thomas, Ruby, Oscar, Matilda, Lillie-Mae and Hugh. We heard all sorts of great ideas from you, to make our school even better. It’s going to be very exciting, working with you all this year!
Inter-House Maths Challenge
Fantastic News!
We now have winners of our inaugural (first) Inter-House Maths Challenge! It is Cygnus (Blue) House!
With 206 points, they beat Apus House (Red), who had 160 points, followed closely by Aquila (Green) with 148 and Columba (Yellow) with 141.
Four children from each class went through to the Grand Final, each representing their House. Each contestant had a round of mental maths, then a timed round, to write as many answers as they could! The whole school was in the hall to support them, so no pressure!
Daisy, one of the finalists said, ‘I felt a little bit nervous at the start. Then I was happy.‘
Korbyn, another finalist said, ‘The best bit was when we were actually doing the maths!‘
Fressingfield Primary School Viking Day
Tuesday 26th February 2019
There were horned helmets, plaited hair, axes and thick fur coats on display on Tuesday as the children celebrated Viking Day across Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) and took part in a series of hands-on workshops linked to our topic.
There were six workshops in total: longships, runes, jewellery, bread-making, felting and music.
The music workshop was run by Joe Carr, the curator and education director of the Red House in Aldeburgh. The children first explored some genuine historical artefacts, such as a 1000 year old comb, before playing traditional instruments. They created their own music using percussion, panpipe and a lyre – instruments the Vikings would have used themselves.
The longship workshop was an exercise in teamwork and perseverance that resulted in three marvellous models that now decorate the atrium. Each is complete with oars, a sail, Viking shields along both sides and, of course, a dragon on each prow.
In the runes workshop the children learnt about the futhark – the Norse alphabet, then created their own tablets with their own names written using runes.
The Vikings in the jewellery workshop created some beautiful brooches, and pairs of brooches linked with beads that they used to adorn their cloaks and proudly wore for the rest of the day, showing just how wealthy and prestigious they were compared to lesser Vikings!
The bread-making Vikings, led by Mrs Tooley, cooked traditional flat breads using oats rather than wheat flour. The porridge-like flavour of the bread was improved with the addition of lashings of honey and dried fruit pushed into the top of each loaf. We learned that loaves like these would have been carried by Vikings on their incredible exploratory trips across the oceans.
Mrs Stansfeld and Mrs Waring led the felting workshops. The children, starting with the basic raw material of unspun wool, first learnt to card it, then layer it and then bind it using a secret Viking combination of ingredients and techniques. The resulting felt was used to make money pouches or wrist warmers that real Vikings would have been more than familiar with.
Children always learn best when they are completely immersed in what they are doing, so dressing up, while also being great fun, is a fantastic learning experience. This became particularly apparent at the end of the day during the assembly to share all of our achievements with the school; representatives from each group were able to talk eloquently and at length about what they had learned during each workshop –such as that Viking runes were discovered by the god Odin as he hung on Yggdrasil – the world tree – for nine days.
So we offer huge thanks to all the teachers and support staff who prepared these workshops for us – and in particular to Mr Carr – and say a big well done to the children for all that they achieved.
