Twas the week before Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the school

Not a maths book was stirring, not even Earl's tools

For two weeks in December Mr. Hale says “Stay away!”

For he hopes everyone has a safe holiday.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Avonmore library’s singing angels

On the 16^th of December at 2:30, year 5 will be visiting Avonmore Library to sing Christmas carols for the visiting community. They will sing Silent Night, Let it Snow, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Jingle Bells. They hope all the people will enjoy their sweet singing.

I'm dreaming of a white performance in Avonmore

KS1 and KS2 are having a white performance and to stop the confusion, this blog is here to help you. All the dates and times that you need are here so you can’t miss this one!

KS1’s Nativity performance: Tuesday 16^th at 14:00pm (2:00pm) and Wednesday 17^th at 9:20am

KS2’s White performance: Wednesday 17^th at 18:00pm (6:00pm) and Thursday 18^th at 9:20am

And remember all children who are going to sing in the KS2 performances must arrive at school no earlier than 5:45pm and no later than 6:00pm. Don’t be late!

Lights! Camera! Action!

The Christmas tree

Earlier this month Avonmore’s Christmas tree arrived.  To decorate it each class made a decoration.  This year’s theme was white.  In year 6, students made snowflakes and year 5 made pom poms.  I think the Christmas tree is very well decorated and looking festive!

The best tree ever

A Little Local Stroll

On the 19^th of November, year 5 had a stroll around Avonmore’s local area to investigate what kind of transport would create the least pollution. We started by observing the traffic on Hammersmith Road. We were curious about how many cars there were. We discovered cars were the most popular means of transport at that time. We all thought about how much pollution the cars were making. For instance, if all of us came by car, we will create more pollution than if we all took the same bus. The most environmentally friendly way to come to school is to walk because it creates no pollution. I certainly wish people try to think carefully about how they come to school. 

Does Avonmore have a religion?

This is a question we explored. If it did, what would it be like? What would be its values and pillars? We began questioning this after one of the blogs a student wrote wondered what it would be like if Avonmore had a religion. The bloggers brainstormed and discussed this. Here we present ‘The Six Towers of the Avonmorisable Religion’:

1.     You have to be polite at all times.

2.     You need to work hard and do the most amount of learning possible.

3.     You always have to persevere in everything you do.

4.     You must try to attend school every day – every day counts.

5.     You have to be honest and not tell lies otherwise no-one will believe you.

6.     You must always help your peers if they are in need.

What do you think of the Avonmore ‘Towers’? 

Can you think of another important value for Avonmore? 

The War Memorial Museum

On the 14^th of November, year 6 went to the War Memorial Museum.  There was lots of war artefacts and it was quite fun and I personally liked the trip. We saw an Allpress family tribute. Most of the Allpress boys went to the war, however, none of them died because of the war.  In fact, Harry (one of the boys) is still alive. The father of the Allpress family did not have to go to war because his job was so important: he was a railway driver. That was an important job because he was the person in charge of getting things in and out of the country. It was an amazing day out, despite the pouring rain, as I learned how limited hot water was during the war. In bathtubs there were red lines to show the maximum amount of hot water that was allowed. 

Remembrance Day

Since last week classes has been making poppies to remember all the people that died in the war and are in wars now.  The year 6s helped younger classes make their poppies. We have put our poppies all around the playground and in the foyer. We had our two minute silence in the playground today. It touched us all. We took this time to remember all of those who fought for us and to reflect on how lucky we are to live our lives with such freedom.  Also, in the foyer we made a memorial to commemorate those who served in World War I, 100 years ago. 

Our memorial in the foyer. 

The Avonmore poppy field. 

Making tiles!

During RE week, years 1 to 6 were decorating their own tiles about their religion or something special to them such as family, friends, toys or even their national flag (if they don’t have a religion or they can’t write about something special to them). We used a special type of tile paint to decorate the tiles. But we weren’t allowed to mix the paint because it has chemicals in it that isn't meant for mixing. When we finished them we will hang them around the school like a mural. 

Terrific tiles!

Poppies

This week year 6 have been selling poppies and poppy merchandise for charity.  We have been doing this to commemorate the past wars and people in wars now. I don’t know how much we’ve made but I’m sure it’ll be a lot.  So everyone please buy something because it’s going to a good cause.

Wearing  a poppy helps to remember the soldiers who have died. 

Houses of Parliament

Such a great experience!

On Monday 3^rd of November, year 6 went to the Houses of Parliament. We went there as we are studying law and how you need to behave in public. We also visited the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Main Lobby. We very much enjoyed the trip!

RE fun

From the 29^th September to the 3^rd October we had a wonderfully good RE week. Everyone went on a trip to various places of worship, from a beautiful Islam Mosque to a Sikh Gurdwara. All these places of worship were amazing. Some classes invented their own religions. Imagine an Avonmorisable religion, funny! It was a sad ending when the week finished but we learned a lot.

A Buddhist temple in Wimbledon.

Chelsea talk

Last week, a woman who works at Chelsea Football Club, visited the year 6s to talk about the Chelsea Football team a long time ago. We learned that in Chelsea’s first ever football match both Chelsea and their opponents turned up wearing blue and white kits, so Chelsea had to borrow Charlton’s athletic kit! We looked at artefacts then and now and we had to describe them.  Overall, it was a great experience for the whole class!

Such interesting artefacts! 

The Royal Albert Hall

On Monday 13^th October we went to The Royal Albert Hall. We departed at 9:45 a.m. and then walked to the bus station. It was a very long journey to get to The Royal Albert Hall and we almost became late but we got there in the nick of time. When we disembarked the bus we walked to the hall and Miss Jewers told us to walk in sensibly because there were many other classes there. Many people performed and they used many different types of instruments like percussion, wind and string. But I thought the best part of the trip was when the Blue Peter presenter called Barney Harwood presented it. It was amazing!

Being escorted into the grand hall.

A most magnificent view. 

Football day!!!

On the 10^th of October year 6 went to football. The girls have really improved and so have the boys.  Our coach says the girls have improved more than the boys, but we all know that’s not true (I’m obviously a boy!)  The score for the boys were 1-0 (because of a silly goal) and the girls’ score was 0-0! 

Dahlicious Dress up Day

Two weeks ago we had a special dress up day called Roald Dahl Day.  It was to raise money for Roald Dahl’s children’s charity. Sadly, Roald Dahl isn’t alive to see all of our fabulous costumes but I bet he would be proud if he could see all of us out in the playground when we paraded in the top playground! We looked stunning in our costumes which included: The Twits, Charlie (from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory), Fantastic Mr Fox, The Witches, Danny The Champion of the World and Matilda.   
                                                 



                                                   

Very Dahlicious costumes, indeed! 

African Dance

On the 10^th of October, Avonmore welcomed a person from the Sports & Fitness Program which encourages young people to be athletic and healthy in mind and body. Year 6 learned some African dance moves and enjoyed it, well I did anyway.  I really think it got the blood pumping and it was something fun to learn. 

Dance:African style!

 

Football

Everybody that is on the year 6 football team are very excited for this afternoon. We have a football match against Sullivan Primary School. We have been training for two weeks so we hope that all of our hard work pays off. Go team!

Bute House

       On Wednesday 8^th July year 5 went to Bute House to sing six different songs.  The songs were: Eye of the tiger, Clown, Fix you, Danny boy and Respect.  Six different schools came and personally I think we sang the best. Some parents and adults who went to the event with us even had tears of joy in their eyes. We felt very proud!

Year 6 Visits Fulham

Following our workshop, Fulham has kindly taken us on a tour around their stadium! We were shown the dressing rooms (Fulham has cheekily made theirs more convenient), the stadium and Craven Cottage, a listed building next to the stadium. We also were lucky enough to sit in the managers’ seats! The trip to the stadium was educational and exciting, definitely one of my favourites!

No Sports Day Today

Unfortunately, the weathers of doom has struck us and made us cancel Sports Day for the second time. The next date has not been confirmed yet we are all hoping there will be a further date.

The Fulham Workshop!

For the past 3 weeks there has been a visitor talking to Yr. 6 about what it’s like to be a manager in a football club!  There are many different managers such as: a retail manager, a finance manager, a catering manager, a marketing manager and a hospitality manager. We have learned how difficult it is to be a part of a football community. We made our own inventions for people to buy! Some of our ideas were a football thermos or a brand new football camera case! Overall, everyone had a wonderful time and it was a fun experience!

Outside Chance Workshop

Seeing as Year 6 are going to need a lot more responsibility and guidance now they’re moving on to secondary school, Ian and his colleague from the ‘Outside Chance’ workshop recently came over and taught us about every detail of gangs, arrests, crimes and joint enterprise. He told us that joint enterprise is when a gang commits a crime as a group, or even when a gang witnesses a gang member committing a crime. I definitely learned a lot, even when it got a bit scary! The workshop definitely made me feel more confident about making the right decisions, though. 

Bute house Choir Festival

This week year 5 had a special music teacher come in to teach us some new songs and help us learn the lyrics to 6 different songs.  There are several schools involved in this event.  We are competing to see which school stands out the most because of their outstanding singing abilities.  There are no prizes, unfortunately, for the winner, however, whoever wins will gain loads of confidence, especially when performing in front of loads of people. We are attending this event on Tuesday 8^th July 2014. We are very busy practicing.     

Practicing For the End of the Year Concert!

Everyone in school is currently practicing for the end of the year concert. Yes, it is coming very quickly. It may have been a quick year for some people! We Year 6 are nearly going to say goodbye! The theme is summer. The songs have been chosen, however, we will only share them with you in two weeks!

Year 2 get a taste of India

On Wednesday 18^th of June, a student’s mum and I came to Year 2 to show facts about India. The student’s mom came to show Year 2 how to wear a sari. The students found it fascinating. They learned many facts like that a sari is 5 meters long! Even though it was a girl’s dress, some boys were eager to wear it! They also got to try an Indian sweet called ludo. I showed Year 2 a South Indian instrument called Mridagam. Everyone was shocked and impressed because my fingers were moving very fast. The  students had many questions. Some of them were: how do you move your fingers so fast? Or when did you start learning it? Overall, everyone found it fun and they have learned many fascinating facts about India.

Avonmore's Got Talent 2014!

 “…And the winner is…”  The suspense has ended as Avonmore’s Got Talent 2014 has arrived! It was a real joy to see our incredibly talented students bravely get on stage and preform in front of a crowd. After an amazing performance, the judges made the extremely difficult decision of selecting three- well, four- of the best contestants to win the contest. In first place, a Year 5 student awed the audience with her astonishing piano playing. There were tears here and there when a Year 4 sang Frozen’s ‘Let It Go’ and a Year 5 sang ‘Castle on a Cloud’ from Les Misérables, so they were tied at second place. Finally, a hilarious duo in Year 1 preformed a comedy routine of jokes, putting them in third place. We are all impressed at the school’s great effort and wish that everyone could win. 

Avonmore’s Got Talent Auditions

For the last couple of weeks children from Avonmore have been taking part in auditions to go through to the final competition which will be held on Wednesday 25^th June. Some children have been singing, dancing, doing magic, telling jokes and rapping but remember that’s just what some children have done. Only two people from each class can go through to the finals and I auditioned!

The School Gardens

A big thank you to all the families who have donated flowers to plant in the gardens already.  It is already looking lovely and colourful. Miss Clement

What a beautiful variety of flowers!

Welcome to Avonmore Beach!

The library has been refurbished and it’s time to hit the waves! After a long period of suspense, the library’s makeover has been unveiled, revealing a beautiful, seaside-themed room, complete with shells, fish and seagulls (all fake of course)! Blogging is a lot more fun and peaceful in this room now, and it’s very tempting to ask for ice cream to set off the theme. Feel welcome to come and have a peer. Oh, don’t forget to get your beach clothes on (not swimming costumes though) on Friday the 13^th next week- there will be a beach party! To celebrate the making of the room, we will have a mufti day- you don’t want to miss it!

Sometimes it seems a bit too real!

Greek Week

In Geography week, Yr 6 has been learning about Greece! Everyone had great time learning about the Greek country! First we made Greek pots to sell for money! The entire process took about 4 hours! We also made Greek flags using painted tiles.  We also went to a Greek restaurant in Westfield named The Real Greek. At the Greek Restaurant everyone had a great time! First they gave us tiny slices of pita bread with dips. Personally, I liked the pita bread with hummus. Delicious! Next, they gave us a large slice of pita bread. It was kind of shaped like a pizza! Anyways, they gave us some ingredients to create a pita bread pizza. We were allowed to put as much as we want from the ingredients that they gave us.  Some of us made ours very cheesy and some of us made ours very healthy. Overall, we found it a fun experience and we also know how to say “Goodbye” in Greek! Αντίο!

Natural History Museum

A short while ago, year 2 went to the Natural History Museum. They travelled there by bus. When they got there they went to the lowest floor and put their packed lunches and coats on pegs.  They then went to the second floor and saw the flying fox bat, bumble bee bat and the vampire bat. They went there to learn about nocturnal animals. After that they went to the first floor where they saw a person dressed as a wizard! They sat down to listen to learn more about nocturnal animals after that they went to go and see real but stuffed bats. What a fantastic day!        

New Staff Additions!

After Mrs McCabe has moved and Miss O’ Sullivan’s maternity leave, Avonmore have new staff again! The new reception teacher, Miss McCarthy, is very impressed with the student’s behaviour so far. I asked her what her first impressions from the first week were, and she said that the children are very happy and the staff are very friendly (the new deputy head, Miss Graham, agreed!). Next, I asked Miss McCarthy what she was looking forward to while she was teaching here, and she said that it would be learning with the children. Miss Graham added that she liked it when the children said ‘Good Morning’ to her and that it was great how hard everyone was working in the first week back (The Year 1 students accidentally called her Miss Crayon!). She was looking forward to meeting more students and parents. Also, she is having her first governors’ meeting! Avonmore has enjoyed welcoming Miss McCarthy and Miss Graham.

Geography week!

In the last week before half term all the classes did Geography week. Geography week is when each class was given a country to study to make a presentation. My class was given the country Mexico.  We studied and we discovered a lot of great things about Mexico.  We visited a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca. We also made guacamole.  The ingredients are: avocado, salt, tomatoes (optional), lemon juice and coriander.  We sold dream catchers. And the best of all is that we had fun learning! What a fantastic week!       

Writing Chinese characters

Making Chinese food

Visiting The Real Greek 

School library redecoration

All through the half term builders have been in, working on our school library. Whatever is behind the door is a mystery at the moment as the windows are covered with paper (which really adds to the excitement!).  All the children are excited about this new redecoration and can’t wait to find out what it will look like. The library should be finished by next week!

Optional SATs

This week every class have been working hard for SATs coming up. All of the teachers and children are feeling the pressure. Students have been advised to practice and study so they can get the best grades they can. Good luck everyone for next week !

Farewell…

Mrs McCabe has been working for a very long time at Avonmore Primary School, but alas everyone has to leave and this is her time. Before she left, I managed to give her a quick interview. I asked her what her favourite memories were. She said, “There was good and bad times. The good times were when my Year 2 class in 2010 (also known as us in 2010) sang ‘Look for the Silver Lining’ in the sharing assembly. And when we had tea time with the parents. Those were very memorable moments.” After when I asked her on her bad moments she said, “The bad moment was when Mr Hale was in New Zealand and Mrs Mathews and I were in charge. At lunchtime the fire alarm went off. I was panicking so much because I didn’t know what to do. It was funny and scary!” Later I asked her if she will miss Avonmore Primary School. She said “Yes I will. I have made lots of friends and they will be missed.” Finally, I asked her if she will come back soon. She replied, “I will be back to only visit. Alas, I will not be back to work.” After 9 years of work Mrs McCabe will have to leave and we will all miss her. Goodbye, Mrs McCabe!

Cow’s eye view

 

Our new additions to the school, the cows from nursery, have come in to our blogging session to post their experiences at Avonmore! We hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Day 1:

I am so tired today and I haven’t had a chance to sleep because Miss Cotten has been in the library all day so I couldn’t sleep under the cabinet. At lunch I snuck into the year 5s classroom and I had a look at all their work and I ate one by accident! Hopefully soon enough Miss Cotten will leave for the day because I’m so tired. Good night everyone. Love Daisy.