WINTER2017

I hope you enjoy looking through the events that have taken place across Mer-rylands, The Willows and Whitmore during the last few months.

It has been a great start to the academic year across all the schools and your on-going engagement is really motivating the staff to do the best for your children.

The Head Boys and Girls (Oliver, Lotte, Rio, Christina, Olivia and Lukas) are representing the schools and our Trust so well – a real credit to us all.

Have a great winter break and I look for-ward to seeing you all in January 2018.

Sean Tobin CEO Berlesduna Academy Trust

Inter-Academy Public Speaking Competition

Congratulations to all the children who took part in the Inter-Academy Public

Speaking Competition. The children were very impressive and

worked hard to answer questions given by the judges. We were very proud of them all.

Special congratulations go to:

Year 3 Merrylands: Joseph C and Erika C, Year 4 Whitmore : Olana and Lexi and

Year 5 The Willows: Nathan V and Isabel N dates on calendar are

Non-Pupil days

Learning at Merrylands Author Study Week

All pupils have been study-ing different authors this week. There have been les-sons on David Walliams, Eileen Browne, Roald Dahl, William Blake, Clive King and others. The children have had the chance to take part in lots of different ac-tivities such as; writing fact-file, biographies and auto-biographies. Some were designing new front covers and inventing new charac-

ters. In music lessons some children were making soundtracks to accompany the books and in History they were creating time-lines of events. Year 1 even made fresh fruit salads after reading Handa’s Surprise!

Year 6 Visit to Southend

Synagogue The children in Year 6 had a trip to Southend Syna-gogue. They learned a lot of interesting facts about Judaism and looked at the main features of the Synagogue: Holy Ark, Torah Scrolls and beautiful stained-glass windows. The children also showed great knowledge and displayed excellent behaviour.

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New School Library

Over the half-term holiday our school library received a well-needed make-over. The aim was to create a calm and creative place for children to access and work in. The furniture has now all been delivered and the children have been visiting the library and using the space for group work.

Year 5 Beowolf Workshop

Year 5 had a visit from some Anglo-Saxon storytellers. The children enjoyed hearing the story of Beowulf retold, especially the gory de-tails of the monster Grendel. They then learnt about Anglo-Saxon weaponry and how villagers defended themselves against Viking invaders. The day concluded with the children working in groups to retell the story of Beowulf in their own words, drawing on what they had found out during the day.

Year 4 Colchester Castle Trip

Year 4 had a fantastic trip to Colchester Castle as part of their topic about The Romans. The children built a Roman Villa, heard stories about the Roman Army whilst sat in the vaults of the castle and studied a wide range of artefacts from Roman times. All the children had a great time and learnt a lot of new facts about this period of history.

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Berlesduna Public Speaking Competi-tion This Wednesday saw the first Berlesduna public speaking competition with children in Years 3, 4 and 5 from our academy schools bat-tling it out for a trophy and the honour of being the best public speakers. Each year group had two children speak-ing on a given question. Year 3: Should we wear uniform to school?, Year 4: Should the summer holidays be shorter?, Year 5: Should we be allowed to 'game' in school. Each child presented themselves well with PowerPoints and speech-es that they had created them-selves. The final decision was difficult but the judges made their choice: Year 3 Winners - Merrylands, Year 4 Winners - Whitmore and Year 5 Win-ners: Willows. The children should be very proud of what they achieved.

Y5/6 Dodgeball Competition @ James Hornsby

On 9th November, after a long walk and a little wait, it all kicked off with us playing in one of the opening games, against Whitmore. The game was fairly open and we managed to hold our own almost until the end of the match, with Mikel getting out only seconds until the final whistle. Our second game against the Willows, started a little slower as they managed to get all the balls from the start however we

Public Speaking Competition @ Phoe-nix Primary School On Wednesday 22nd No-vember, Rebecca and Luca from Year 2 and Amelia and Zak from year 5 took part in a speaking compe-tition at The Phoenix Primary school, Basildon. Year 2 performed a humorous poem about a witch living next door, and Year 5 gave a compelling speech on the effects of time spent using technology. Both Year 2 children received a lovely certificate for their efforts, and Year 5 received silver after coming in second to Greensted. Both groups of children worked incredibly hard in their spare time and should be very proud of their results!

Football Match vs Northlands

On Thursday 16th November, the Year 6 foot-ball team played their first league match against Northlands Primary School. The boys entered the match with the right attitude and energy to tackle their first team who were evi-dently a very skilled team. Not too long into the first half, an own goal was scored by North-lands following a deflection off of Samuel R. As the match preceded the team settled and a fur-ther 4 goals were scored by Ashley B, Samuel R and Cameron O. At full time the final score was 5-1 to Merrylands. Well done Year 6 foot-ball team - brilliant start to the year.!

managed to turn it to a win. During the third game, we held a tight game both teams losing players and gaining them back through catching the throws from the opponents, but in the end we came 3rd in our group. Well done to everyone that took part!

We have had a very busy start to the school year. We have many reasons to be proud of our children and our school, here is a selection of some of the events that we have been a part of:

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Sport at The Willows Primary School and Nursery It has been a busy start to sport at The Willows Primary School and Nursery. Very early on in the Autumn Term a number of clubs were set up for all ages: KS1 Multi-sports, KS2 Girls foot-ball, Netball, Football, KS1 and KS2 Cheerleading, Tag Rugby, Dodgeball, Running, Dance Fit-ness and Badminton. The amount of pupils attending a sports club is very high with each club close to capacity. The Year 5/6 football team have played in 2 tournaments this term (Woodlands and James Hornsby) where they had the opportunity to meet, warm up and question the West Ham Scholarship Squad. They placed 4th out of 19 schools in the James Hornsby tournament. The team have also competed in the Parish Cup first round and trav-elled to Wyburns Primary, Rayleigh. The team have also completed their group stages of the Jim Smith Cup and have travelled to Billericay and Burnham-on-Crouch for matches.

The Year 5/6 Netball team played their first friendly matches against Kingswood Primary school. As always, the girls put in their best effort

The Tag Rugby team competed in their first central league matches

where they drew 1-1 against Great Berry and won against Fairhouse. They showed great team-work and skill during these first set of matches. The dodgeball teams competed on Thursday 9th November 2017 and Tuesday 14th November 2017. The teams showed great determination during their matches. The A team did a fantastic job winning 2 out of their 5 matches which placed them 10th overall. The B team played really well and showed us how to work as a team.

and played superbly.

Art at the Willows Primary School and Nursery The Willows Primary and Nursery this term have had the pleasure of an artist working with a select cohort of children from across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 on a number of col-laborative projects. The aim has been to not only improve their artistic skills but also enhance their ability to work effectively in teams and have a greater sense of shared responsibility.

Recent work has looked at poppies and Remembrance, large motifs for the badger and mole halls as well as some large pieces based on the school’s core values.

Future work will involve creating a large Willow tree in The Mole Hall, a mysterious door in the Badger Hall, some excit-ing wall art with the Reception children...and much, much more.

Whilst they have had the opportunity to work with materi-als that they are more naturally comfortable with—such as pencils and paint—they have also been introduced to new working methods. These include printmaking, collage and a multimedia approach and I have been impressed with the children's enthusiasm and pride in the work they have been producing.

I place value in the work that the children produce but also recognise the cathartic nature of art and the importance of the processes they undertake to produce their wonderful pieces. I encourage self reflection and also celebrate their successes which are frequent. I look forward to seeing how

the children develop both socially and ar-tistically in the future.

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Debating at The Wil-lows Primary School and Nursery Congratulations to the Willows Primary School and Nursery De-bating Team who competed in the Academy Trust Debating Competition at Merrylands Pri-mary School on Wednesday 15th

November 2017. The children spent many hours, including their own time, to write a persua-sive speech and create an accom-panying, exciting PowerPoint. They scored points for balance of argument, clarity of speech and enthusiasm, and they definitely did the school proud. A special well done to Nathan V and Isabel M who won their Year 5 category. We are very proud of you. All children had prepared their own presentations (with support from teachers). Without fail, eve-ry child and every school deliv-ered presentations that met the criteria. The children were clear and engaging and spoke knowl-edgably about the subjects. The final choice was difficult, but the judges eventually came to their decision. The winners were:

Year 3 Merrylands, Year 4 Whitmore, Year 5 Willows

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On Thursday 28th September, the Year 6 pupils discovered amazing surpris-es at Danbury Activity Centre. On arrival, we were separated into groups of 10 and were whisked off to begin one of three activities – the options were: aerial trekking, caving, bush craft, vertical obstacle course, and the climbing wall. From our experience, we started off with the climbing wall, with us all trying to reach the top and we succumbed extraordinary heights! Our adults were very proud of us.

After we grouped with our classmates and ate our delicious packed lunch, we travelled far into the site and started our experience of caving. It was dark, cramped and smelly but everybody ventured through every cave, tun-nel and claustrophobic space! It was entertaining when we entered the ball pit.

On 13th November we took part in Anti-Bullying Week with other schools across the country. This year’s theme was ‘All Different All Equal’. The children took part in a variety of activities during the week linked to raising awareness of and developing strategies to deal

with bullying.

Our new Head Boy –Oliver G and Head Girl – Lotte E had their first meeting with the other Head Boys and Girls of Merrylands and The

Willows. They enjoyed their visit to Merrylands and discussed what they wanted to achieve this

year – one of their key targets is to ensure that our school remains clean and litter

free.

Year 1 visited Barleylands Farm in October to learn about how food is grown and used for food and to explore the animals that are there. Every-

one had a wonderful time.

Gardening Club

Our little gardeners have been busy planting flowers around the school. Next week we will be planting lots of bulbs over the KS2 around the new year 6 area. We hope you all enjoy what the children are doing.

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Public Speaking Competition

On Wednesday, Amber S (Beech); Kymani M (Pine); Olanna O (Birch); Lexi D (Ash); Malin T (Olive) and Saleen A (Sycamore) headed off to Merrylands Primary to take part in the Academy’s Public Speaking Competition. The Children (in teams of two) stood in front of a team of judges, which was made up of the three headteachers and Mr Tobin, to give a presentation and answer questions from the judges. All the children gave performances to be proud of. The competition was fierce and results very close. Olanna and Lexi were triumphant in the Year 4 category. Thank you to all the teachers who helped to prepare the children for the day. Also a special thank you to Ms Dayment for all her help and support on the day. Mrs Nicklin

Duxford

Year 5 went to Duxford as part of their World War 2 topic. They thoroughly enjoyed looking at the various artefacts and planes up close!

The children were very well behaved and all came back full of enthusiasm and excited by their Evacuee bag.

Year 3 and 4 Stone Age

Year 3 and 4 had a fantastic Stone Age day, where they immersed themselves in what it would be like to live in the Stone Age. The children had great fun!

Young Mathematician Award 2017

Four Year 6 pupils from Whitmore Primary – Cameron, Myleene, Tobi and Yvonne competed in the Young Mathematician award. The event took place at Lakeside Shopping Mall but there was no time for shopping! They competed against two other schools and were set the challenge (using all four operations +-x/) to do. They were successfully put through to the next round. In the next round they worked hard but were unfortu-nately not successful in gaining a place in the finals. Very well done on your team work and mathematical thinking.