Brize Norton Primary School

COMMUNITY BREAKFAST 2012

18th APRIL 2012

On 18th April we held our annual BIG breakfast. Once again this was a great success with breakfast shared by families and friends, including the Over 60s, WI and Parish Council . Tammy cooked a wonderful breakfast of bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, eggs and beans. Others preferred the continental option enjoying crossiants, cereal, yoghurt, fruit and toast. Some went for both! See more pictures here.

CLASS 3 TRIP TO ROVES FARMS

13th MARCH 2012

Class 3 have enjoyed a day at Roves Farm investigating how the framer is involved in a solar and wind power scheme. They had a great day out! Read more here  and see more photos here.

GREEN FLAG REVALIDATION 2012

5th MARCH 2012

On Monday 5th March we were visited by an Eco-schools assessor to assess us against the Green Flag standard. Following a morning in school talking with the eco-team and looking at evidence, the assessor decided to revalidate or green flag. She looked very closely at our work overall number of areas including energy conservation, waste management, bio-diversity, global partnerships and transport. The assessor was particularly impressed with how we have embedded eco themes within the curriculum. This award lasts for two years. Thank you to Miss Kerr and the eco-team

LIVING EGGS PROJECT

6th MARCH 2012

As part of our 'How are we responsible for our world?' theme, Class 1 have been taking part in the 'Living Eggs' project. On Tuesday 6th March we had an incubator and eggs delivered and by Wednesday we already had six chicks hatching. It was amazing for the children to watch. The children are now going to help look after them for the next fortnight before they are returned. Read more at www.livingeggs.co.uk

STORYTELLER

1ST MARCH 2012

On Thursday 1st March Adam Gullain, a storyteller, visited our school. In assembly, Adam told us one of his stories, The Hatmaker and the Chimps, it was very funny. During the day Adam told each class a different story using music and actions - he made them very exciting! We had to draw a story map in seven minutes and then used our maps to retell the story using the HEAR-MAP-STEP-SPEAK storytelling technique. By the end of the day we were all bursting to write the stories. See more photos here.

BOOK AND DRAMA WEEK 2012

27TH FEBRUARY 2012

On Monday 27th February we all came to school dressed as our favourite book characters. This marked the start of our book and drama week to celebrate World Book Day. Later in the week we are looking forward to a visit from a storyteller.

CLASS 1 HOME SWEET HOME

23 FEBRUARY 2012

On Thursday 23rd February, Class 1 visited the environmental education centre at Sutton Courtney to learn all about habitats. The children enjoyed bug hunting and pond dipping. They found out all about how pond habitats are formed. See more photos here

CLASS 2 ECO-WARRIOR DAY

23 FEBRUARY 2012

On Thursday Class 2 visited Sutton Courtney Environmental Education Centre to learn all about waste. It was great day out and the children discovered how rubbish can be reused or recycled and most importantly how we can reduce the amount of waste we produce. See more photos here.

THE TINDERBOX - NATIONAL STORYTELLING WEEK

This term we have been practising the art of storytelling to help improve our writing. To celebrate National Storytelling Week, we all looked at the Hans Christian Andersen classic, 'The Tinderbox'. Mrs Cox told the story in assembly and we then create story maps to help with our own retelling. Each class focused on retelling the story at an appropriate level. Over a fortnight we carried out many fun activities to get to know the characters and the plot of the story. We finished by working on innovating part of the story and sharing our own versions in an end of week assembly. See more photos here.

CAROL CONCERT 2011

On Wednesday 14th December we held our final Christmas event with a carol service at the church. We were joined by parents, family and friends to celebrate the story of Christmas with readings and carols. We enjoyed the brass band play Jingle Bells, children playing the violins and Aurea playing the clarinet. See more photos here.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH 2011

On 13th December we enjoyed our whole school Christmas dinner with staff, governors and volunteers. After lunch we had a special visitor, Father Christmas. We must have all been on the 'good' list because he came with presents for everyone. See more photos here.

CHRISTMAS PLAYS 2011

REMEMBRANCE 2011

WHOLE SCHOOL TOPIC - HEROES

31 OCTOBER 2011

This term we have started a whole school 'Heroes'. Our topic started with a dressing up day with children taking part in a range of creative activities in mixed age groups. The topic will last three weeks and will focus on different aspects dependent on the age of the children. For example the children in Class 1 are going to focus on people who help us, Class 2 will be looking at the qualities of superheroes, while children in Class 3 and 4 will be looking at heroes past and present, inspirational leaders and people who have made a difference to the way we live our lives. See more photos of our launch day here.

HARVEST FESTIVAL

28TH SEPTEMBER 2011

This term we celebrated Harvest Festival at St Britius Church. In class the children have been learning about different aspects of harvest in our own locality, country and across the world. The children shared their work in church and sang beautifully. Once again the school community has supported 'The Porch' homeless shelter in Oxford. Thank you for all your donations.  

WELCOME BACK

SEPTEMBER 2011

As we start a new term the children are already excited by the learning opportunities presented in class. New topics have started with excitement and teachers have been busy listening to the children's enquiry questions.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING PAINTING

NOVEMBER 2010 (revised)

See more photo here.

This term we have been working on an exciting whole school topic, 'The Case of the Missing Painting'.  After half term the children returned to school to discover that a painting was missing from our Vincent van Gogh bedroom (The Room at Arles). We were very quickly visited by PC McCarthy who set the children their first challenge as detectives to find out who lived in the room and which painting was missing.

The children eagerly set to work researching facts about Vincent van Gogh, to use in their writing. In art the children worked on colour mixing and tried to replicate the style of van Gogh. The children used their observational features to paint self-portraits. By the end of the week the children had discovered that the missing painting was a self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh himself. PC McCarthy was very impressed.

The second challenge given to the children was to work out who had taken the painting. This was introduced by a forensic expert. All members of staff were suspects and were under close scrutiny by the children. The children carried out surveys and many science investigations to eliminate many of the suspects. This also required Class 4 children to visit Burford Secondary School to use the science laboratory, to distil soup amongst other things.

On Tuesday 23rd November, the children in Class 4 revealed who had stolen the painting. It was the boiler engineer! During the day a mystery parcel was found at the front door, marked urgent. Unwrapping the parcel, the children discovered that the missing painting had been returned with a message from the culprit.

The topic has been enjoyed by all children and even the parents have not been able to stop talking about who took the painting!