Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Year 1 Engineering Visitor

  Fri 15 Mar 2019 Mrs Harvey

  Year 1 were very lucky to have a visit from James this afternoon, who is an engineer. This enhanced the learning we have completed previously this week in Science week, as we have all had a go at designing, building, making and testing things.

  James then showed us the different types of bridges that have been built, we looked at photographs and designs of them. James had designed and built a beam bridge and a suspension bridge out of cardboard, wood and string. We then tested the bridges with weights. Can you remember which bridge was the strongest and why?

  The children learnt so much and were asking lots of inquisitive questions about bridges and how they are made.

  A huge thank you to James for his time and effort this afternoon. 

• Look at the results of Pots 2 Paint

  Wed 13 Mar 2019 Ms Rogers

  Today Mrs Worgan picked up our children's wonderful  creations from Pots 2 Paint - thank you for doing that. It was an absolute delight seeing our children unwrap them and congratulate each other too. The children had remembered so much about the experience and also the new vocabulary they learned on the day too. As you will see from the pictures below, the children have put so much effort in to these art pieces and they should be so rightly proud of their achievements. I suspect there were some very proud parents tonight when they took them home.

  Thanks also to Stef at Pots 2 Paint for making the event so special for them.

   

  

• Beech Class visits Costello

  Tue 12 Mar 2019 Miss James
  As part of Science Week, Beech Class were lucky enough to visit Costello Secondary School for a science lesson. We undertook a number of exciting science experiments in the Costello labs to test for gases. 

   

  We really enjoyed testing for hydrogen using magnesium and hydrochloric acid. By lighting a wooden splint  we were able to make a squeaky popping sound in the test tube, highlighting the presence of hydrogen. We also felt like 'wizards' when testing for oxygen, as the presence of oxygen caused the glowing splint to relight.

   

  Our science lesson made us excited for future trips to Costello!

  

• Year 5 visit to Queen Mary's College in association with AWE

  Tue 12 Mar 2019

  The children in Year 5 attended an exciting science workshop today hosted by Queen Mary’s College and delivered by AWE. In conjunction with this year’s national Science week focus (Journeys), the children learnt about different journeys throughout space and were able to build and launch their own space rockets. As part of this science experiment, different groups were instructed to add different components to their rockets in order to test which features enhanced their performance and therefore increased the distance that they soared through the air. Other activities included learning interesting new facts about the different planets within our solar system, the reason that we experience day and night and why astronauts need pressurised space suits and aircraft. All the adults were incredibly impressed with the behaviour of the children and how well they represented our school. They were all fully immersed in their activities and took part in their practical learning with wonderful enthusiasm. Well done Year 5!

  Take a look at our pictures to see the exciting activities we took part in today.

  

• Vitacress

  Mon 11 Mar 2019
  Year 2 had a visit from Vitacress today as part of science week. We thought about where various animals live and how likely it would be to see them. We then reenacted a food chain and thought about what would happen if an animal was taken out of the food chain due to pollution. We learnt about the importance of taking care of how we grow things, in order to take care of animals and our world. We all found it very interesting and we thank the people at Vistacress for giving up their time to come and talk to us!

  

• Science week launch

  Mon 11 Mar 2019
  The children had an exciting start to science week this morning as we had a visit from engineers who work at Wood. We were lucky enough to learn all about their roles and we found out that one even works in the army! We watched examples of how electricity works, including how aeroplane turbines generate electricity. The children have lots of exciting science activities planned for the rest of science week, so keep an eye out on the website. 

  

• World Book Day

  Thu 07 Mar 2019 Mrs Osborne
  It was lovely to see so many fantastic World Book Day costumes today, which ranged from Mary Poppins to Mr Stink to Harry Potter to Raj the Shopkeeper! The children enjoyed  taking part in their World Book Day learning such as Maths problems linked certain characters and writing reviews of their favourite stories. Take a look at the photos below to see some of the amazing costumes!

  

• Year 5/6 Netball Tournament

  Wed 06 Mar 2019 Miss O'Hagan

  On Monday 4^th March, nine netball super stars hit the courts at Russell Howard to take part in the first session of the Hampshire Youth Games Netball tournament. The children played against several different schools around Basingstoke and were able to compete with great skill and confidence. For most of our team, it was our very first versatility netball tournament meaning we had to give every position on the court a try! When team members were not playing, they had roles and responsibilities too- time keeping, scoring and centre pass marker! Everyone took this in their stride and tried their best at every rotation. Our team did remarkably well whilst representing our school, winning two games at 6-0! This was down to our superb team work and determination! Miss O’Hagan and Miss Rendall were extremely proud of our netball team because even when the score line wasn’t going our way, we kept fighting and never lost confidence or gave up. It was clear to see excellent growth mindset within each individual on our team. I am extremely honoured and thrilled to say that we made it through to the final stage of Hampshire Youth Games. This is a fantastic achievement, you should all be very proud of yourselves. Thank you for those parents who attended and supported their children. It was lovely to see the pride in your faces too! Thanks to Phil Jeffs for organising this event and to Costello who hosted. I thoroughly enjoyed being there to support them.

   

  

• NSPCC Visits to GBP

  Wed 06 Mar 2019 Misss Lyddon

   

  The NSPCC have been to visit Great Binfields school today. They delivered their Speak Out. Stay Safe. Programme making sure our pupils have the knowledge and understanding to keep safe. It is a Nationwide programme aimed at primary-aged children in the UK. With the help of their friendly mascot Buddy, the team presented an assembly and workshops to our children in the school.

  If you would like any further information about the NSPCC and their programme, including frequently asked questions, you can find it on the NSPCC website.

  

• Pots 2 Paint

  Tue 05 Mar 2019 Mrs Harvey

  Today some of our key stage 2 children went over to Viables craft centre and participated in a ceramic painting session. The children learnt about the temperature at which ceramic is baked at and the importance of glazing it. For example an unglazed mug would allow the tea to drip through because it would still be porous (another new term we learnt today). 

  The children could then choose to decorate a bowl, mug or plate and Steph explained to us a new technique we would be learning today - sgraffito. Sgraffito is a roman term and means to create decoration by scratching through layers.

  First of all everyone had to paint their ceramics with 3 layers of paint and then carefully use a skewer to form their scratching designs. The results achieved were wonderful and we cannot wait to see the final results next Wednesday.

   Not only was this a wonderfully creative and relaxing learning experience. The children truly represented the school magnificently and showed many of our school values.  It was great to see how they were socially interacting with each other, complimenting each others work and displaying such politeness. 

  We were also extremely lucky to be joined on the trip by our Art Governor Mrs Worgan, who is very kindly picking up our finished pieces next week- Thank you!!