Year 5&6 Enterprise Day

On Tuesday morning we had a real treat for  Years 5 & 6- we had a group of business people and some University staff to put on an enterprise day for the children. This was a refreshing change for the older children who had been working so hard towards last week's SATS!

The children had an 'Apprentice' style challenge- to plan, design and market a children's club and present their work to the rest of the class. To make the task even more challenging, the children's club was in France, so the children had to use their French to translate for the posters and marketing materials, and use their Maths skills to convert pounds to Euro for their budget!

The children coped very well with this complex task, and produced some really good work. It was nice to have the business people and academics in school as well.

Year 3 Assembly

We were treated to a real star performance on 

Friday afternoon, as Year 3 put on their Assembly for the Junior classes and parents.

Clearly, a lot of work had gone into preparing the event, and the children shared some of the brilliant work they have done in English, Numeracy, IT, Music and French.

It was really good to see just how much fun learning can be, and also to get a glimpse into the future as to how technology will enhance learning.

The audience were spellbound:

Year 6 SATS

This has been a busy week for our Year 6 children, who have been sitting their SATS in English, Maths and Science. They seem to have done very well and enjoyed it so far!

We have been serving breakfast for them all week as a way of calming them down, making sure they are fully fuelled to get through a busy morning, and also to have an opportunity to talk to their teachers about any last minute revision.

I don't know how much academically they have learnt during these breakfasts, but as a school we have learnt two things:

1. The most popular breakfast cereal amongst Year 6 children at Swaythling is Kellogg's' Cheerios.
2. Mr Parker makes the best toast in the UK!

I'm very grateful to both Mr Parker and Mrs Hurst for helping out to arrange these breakfasts- it has been really popular- 23 out of a possible 27 have attended!

Congratulations to our Sports Coach

We pride ourselves on providing high quality PE here at Swaythling- in fact we have been awarded the PE Mark for providng 2 hours high quality PE every week ahead of the government deadline for this target.

One way we achieve this is through buying in our sports coach, Neil, through Sports4Schools. I am delighted to share with you the news that Neil and his colleagues have just been awarded the Southampton City Council's Quality Mark.

This is very well deserved- the children all enjoy working with Neil (second from the right), and he also runs our Football team, who are performing at an increasingly high level.

Drummer in School

Today is the celebration of the 'Buzzing about Books' project which has been run by Mr Oliver and Mr Mackay. It has been a really great project, and many of the children have much improved attitudes to reading as a result of their involvement of the project.  A highlight of today's celebration was the visit of Paul, a professional drummer, who has run workshoops for all the junior children.

Here are some pictures of Year 4.

Flu Information

It's a worrying time with all the news being about the flu at the moment, but I think we should all be reassured by the fact that there have been no confirmed cases in Hampshire at all, and all those elsewhere in the UK seem to have only mild symptoms and make a good recovery.

Nonetheless, we are taking the threat very seriously, and have stepped up our cleaning routines, and spent some time over the last couple of days teaching the children about good hygiene practices (handwashing, throwing away used tissues etc.). This is the best way to stop the infection spreading.

If people are worried, here are some links for more information:

Health Protection Agency  http://www.hpa.org.uk/

Southampton PCT http://www.southamptonhealth.nhs.uk/

SCC website: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/people/keepingyousafe

Hopefully, in the very near future, we'll all be wondering what all the fuss was about!