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together Everyone Achieves More

Walter Evans CE Primary School

www.walterevans.derby.sch.uk email us at - admin@walterevans.derby.sch.uk

Tel. 01332 557139

Newsletter – May 2016

Here we are at the end of another half term, and as normal it’s been a busy one! Well done to all the children who have done their SAT’s this half term, the sensible and calm way you approached them was a testament to your maturity, and a sign of what capable, tenacious and brilliant individuals you are! We wish everyone a great half term holiday, whatever you have planned, and look forward to welcoming you all back for the last few weeks of the school year.

Dates for your Diary

Monday 6th

June – Back to School

14th

June – Year 1/2 visit to Skegness

24th

June – Picnic for the Queen

30th

June – PTFA Meeting, 8pm in school

1st

July – PTFA Coffee morning, 9am in school

Upcoming INSET DAYS –

Wednesday 7th September 2016 Monday 31st October 2016

IT Update

The school would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your tremendous fund raising support during our recent ICT event. Altogether the event raised a total of over £3000. With such an amazing amount the school has already purchased a full license for Textease; this program enables the children to code, data log, animate, and create robotic sequences of commands. Examples of what this program will achieve can be found on the Textease Studio RM education website. The initial activities that the children have already completed using this program have been very successful. The school will also be purchasing….. Bee Bots – to be used across the school Cameras – foundation stage Software to support music technology. Again, may we thank everyone for your generous contributions and your continued support of Walter Evans CE Primary School.

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Nursery news How many legs does a spider have? Just ask the nursery children, who are now spider experts. We have made spiders from clay and junk materials to take home and hide in the bath! Our attention has now turned to snails and we have been studying how they move and what they like to eat. We have kept them away from our vegetable patch as we are expecting a bumper crop once the weather warms up a bit.

Reception News We have had a Dizzy Dinosaur Half term! We have learnt all about the different dinosaurs, what they ate, where they lived, and what they looked like. Thank you to all the Dads who came along to our Dads and Dinosaurs afternoon too, it was great to see so many of you! On the last Wednesday of half term, we held another of our popular Grandparents Lunches, which was well attended. In fact, with one set of Grandparents coming all the way from South Wales, the fame of our roast dinners is spreading!

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KS1 have really enjoyed the topic Land Ahoy. We have looked at Cruise liners on our way to Australia. All the children enjoyed drinking cocktails on the Cruise. Once we arrived at Australia we found out about Captain Cook. The children thought the ship biscuits were disgusting! Then we looked at different pirates and Sea Songs. Finally we ended the topic by looking at Francis Drake. The children acted out the daring events of the Spanish Armada using water pistols and powder paint.

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This half term has been very exciting as we have continued our study on Mountains. We have been working really hard and gearing up to our parent's afternoon, held on Thursday, where we showcased some of our wonderful work. Class SM/ER have also been lucky enough to have a golf professional teach us golf which was fantastic. The whole of the year group have also been learning some new and challenging songs so that we can take part in a singing session at the cathedral after half term along with other schools!

During May Year 6 sat their KS2 national tests. We're extremely proud of their hard work leading up to these, and we know that everyone tried their hardest and did their best. Well done Year 6! Away from tests we have continued finding out fascinating information about the human heart, culminating in creating a biography of Dr William Harvey, a pioneer in understanding how the circulatory system works, and a great awareness day for BHF on Thursday.

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The children have produced some absolutely fantastic creative homework this half term - please feel free to come and see it displayed in the Year 5/6 block!

Thanks to your continued support of our Friday School shop, these are some of the books we have purchased recently.

Cancer Research Fun Run Thanks to the families who took part in the recent 3k Fun Run in support of Cancer Research, you raised a fantastic £153 for the charity! Well done and thank you to all involved in raising money for this great cause, close to our School’s heart.

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Sporting Round up The football league drew to a close on Monday with a game at home against William Gilbert. The team put in a great performance and were ahead at times. Throughout the season everyone who has been involved in the team have always played great football and it has been lovely hearing them be so supportive of each other. A credit to the school! Thanks to all our parents who have helped with lifts and support.

Orienteering This year, alongside our sports coach Jo Webb, we have been developing orienteering skills in PE. Maps of the school ground have been drawn up and children across the school have been learning to develop their map reading and orienteering skills, in fun ways.

In April, Derby City School Sports Partnership (as part of ‘Your School Games’ initiative) offered the fantastic opportunity for us to take a group of year 3/4 to Darley Park to compete in an orienteering competition against other schools in the area. The children worked systematically to read a map of the park to find different markers. The children worked really well as a team and we ended up achieving a grand total of 160 points, well done to all that took part!

Kwik Cricket

The cricket season for primary schools began this month, with Walter Evans year 5/6 attending the first qualifying competition for the City Finals. Walter Evans played two matches, which they won convincingly, displaying very good cricketing technique, team work and fair play. They finished top of their group and now progress to the City Finals, to be held on 7th July 2016. Good luck!

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Netball League

This half term, the netball league has been in full swing. Walter Evans has played against seven schools so far and it has been lovely to watch the girls and boys grow in confidence; improve their netballing skills; and display great team work. To date, we have won four games, drawn one and lost two. We are currently in fourth position (out of ten schools), with two matches to play. Well done everyone.

Club Links

If your child is interested in any of these sports, the following clubs are available:

Allestree Netball Club (Woodlands Community School) : 07595295230

Darley Abbey Cricket Club (Darley Park) : 07968503104

Derby Athletics Club (Moorways) : 01332 290679

Whole school Picnic

To celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday and the 40 year Anniversary of Walter Evans School, we are planning to hold a family picnic after school on Friday 24th June. Please look out for further information after the half term holidays, and join us if you can. Let’s hope for some sunshine too!

Internet Safety Campaign

You still have chance to win a Kindle Fire by entering our Safer Internet competition. We have two up for grabs, one pink, and one blue. Quiz sheets are available from the school office, priced at £1, and entries must be returned by Wednesday 8th June. Winners will be announced on Friday 10th June.

St Matthew’s are holding a grand prize draw to raise money for the Church, with tickets available from the school office from Monday 6th June. The star prize is a week long stay in a four bedroom villa in Lanzarote, with many other great prizes to win too. The draw will take place on 10th July at the St Matthew’s Church Barbeque.

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Next PTFA Meetings – Thursday 30th June, 8-9pm and Friday 1st July 9-10am, in school In response to the great turn out for the last PTFA Coffee morning, we have decided to have another! In order to ensure that as many people who want to come have chance to attend, we will be holding an evening meeting followed by a coffee morning the next day, and hope that you’ll join us for one if you can. As before, younger siblings are very welcome to come along to the coffee morning – milk, biscuits and toys provided! Recent spending Thanks to your approval, we have been able to order six new outdoor tables for lunch time and outdoor work and play. Two of the tables have games tops, with draughts/playtown/snakes and ladders tops, so will be useful for break times too. Following (extensive!) research, these have been found for significantly less than originally thought, at £2,490. May Fair Our PTFA Hawaiian themed May Fayre, held on Friday 20th May 2016, was a huge success thanks to

the wonderful support from our children, parents/carers and staff.

We are delighted to announce that the magnificent sum of £3,334.12 was raised during the event

which will go towards further enriching the learning and development opportunities at our school for

our pupils. A huge thank you to our Treasurer, Mike Nelson, and his wife Mandy, who spent the

evening counting!

It was great to see so many of you supporting the event and enjoying the evening and the stalls /

activities that had been so carefully planned and organised. We were so grateful (and lucky!) that the

weather remained on our side for the entire evening too.

The surf simulator was extremely

popular along with the bouncy

castle and of course - Splat the

Teacher! We were very grateful to

Mr Bird, Mr Bennett, Mr

Aanonson, Mr Adamson, Mr

Morris, Mr Cripwell and Mr

McBeth for agreeing to take part

in the activity and for being such

good sports! It was clear to see

that all the children (and spectator parents and fellow staff!) also enjoyed looking on. We are

delighted to have captured just a few snaps to remind us of the fun we had!

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A huge thank you must go out to our wonderful kitchen staff Debi, Shelley and Rachel who agreed to

do all the cooking for the event, and to Debi’s husband Niall, who spent the evening washing up.

Without their commitment and dedication we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the wonderful hot

food that was cooked and provided for us.

Thanks too, to the Year 6 pupils who did an excellent job in organising and running their stalls. We

would also like to thank everyone for their generosity and kind contributions to the May Fayre overall

and to all those bakers out there! The cake / cookie contributions were amazing and everything

looked delicious!

Well done to all the competition winners listed below - if you haven't yet collected your prize then

please do so from the school office.

Colouring competition winners:

Nursery: Eleanor Davis

Reception: Damon Lloyd

Year 1/2: James Little

Year 3/4: Ava-Lily Carlin

Year 5/6: Erica Gauler

Best decorated Hawaiian themed cake: Phil Cunliffe

Best Hawaiian dressed child: Megan Chung, Alicia Day,

Florence Day

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Guess how many Maltesers in the jar: Lauren Payne

Guess the name of the Teddy: Daniel Wright

Raffle draw:

1st M Moore

2nd

Dave Ball

3rd

Martinez family

4th

Lucie Glenny

5th

Meredith family

6th

Tom Hunt

7th

Kerry Bennett

8th

Sophie

9th

Clare Lambert

10th

Erica Gauler

11th

Vickie Walters

Mad Hatter’s Summer Ball, Saturday 16th July, 7pm – 1am Booking forms for the Summer Ball are available now, check your book bags! This year the Ball will be held at Derby Cricket Ground. Tables will seat 10 or 12, and smaller groups can be grouped together. Tickets are priced at £42, which will include dinner and all the evenings’ entertainment. If you or your company are able to donate an auction prize, please get in touch with school or organisers Sally Frost and Tanya Marsden.

Baking Stars Well done to the bakers in Year 1 and 2, who raised £35 for the WWF, and to the Year 3/4’s, who raised £61.65 for the Guide Dog’s Association on the last day of half term.

Thought for the Month from Sandra Hinds (School Chaplain)

Be still and know that I am God.

In the busyness of life, it can be hard to be still. In that quiet moment, we might hear the encouragement we need. ‘Peace be Still’ when you need strength and help, let go and rest in God your refuge and help.

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Derby Book Festival

3 –11 June 2016

The second Derby Book Festival includes an exciting range of book related events and

activities for children and families, many of them free or with a small charge. You can find full

details at http://www.derbybookfestival.co.uk/whats-on/

from Friday 27 May to Sunday 12 June – visit the FREE Children’s Book Trail in

Sadlergate and the Strand Arcade. Pick up a quiz sheet from any of the participating

shops and match the children’s book characters in the windows with the shop. Return

quiz sheets to White Stuff to be entered into a prize draw to win book tokens.

Saturday 4 June from 10am – 4pm Bringing Books to Life FREE event in the Market Place on with lots of special events and activities including storytelling, cartoon drawing, mural painting, theatre shows, Book Swap and lots more

Friday 3 June - Family Friday: Shadows and Shapes, Derby Museum & Art Gallery from 10 – 11.30am, The Doodle Dance Show, Déda Theatre at 11.30am and 2.30pm

Saturday 4 June: o Storytelling at intu Derby, FREE event from 11am – 4pm (every 30 minutes) o Make It Sessions, Derby Museum & Art Gallery, FREE event 11am – 3pm o Andy Cope & Spydog, QUAD at 11.30am £6/£4 o Andy Cope: The Art of Being a Brilliant Teenager, QUAD, 1.45pm £5 o Children’s Illustration Workshops, QUAD £5, 10.15am o Get Creative! Illustration Workshops for Teenagers, 3pm

Sunday 5 June – Augustus and His Smile theatre performance, Derby Museum & Art Gallery, 12.30pm & 2.30pm £5

Friday 10 June – The Adventures of Walter Lemonface, Derby Theatre, 11am & 2pm £10/£7

Saturday 11 June, Chloe Inkpen, 10.30am FREE event Mickleover Library