British Science Week 2023

Stokes Wood was abuzz with excitement for British Science Week. With this year’s scientific celebration having the theme ‘Connections’, it was only fair that we invited parents to join their children’s science lessons.

Pupils in our Nursery enjoyed exploring the world through a range of activities, including observing fossils in a sand tray, playing minibeast bingo, completing lifecycle puzzles and experimenting with different materials.

Also finding out all about lifecycles, children in Reception made their own cocoons. As well as that, they investigated forces by playing with magnets, weights and objects floating in water.

In Year 1, pupils observed plants under magnifying glasses, tested the strength of a bridge by adding weights, identified different groups of animals and investigated the properties of materials by making cornflour slime.

Investigating food chains, pupils in Year 2 learned that plants need the sun’s energy to grow and, in turn, animals need plants to survive on Earth. Children completed food chains, drew minibeasts and observed seeds under digital microscopes.

Demonstrating excellent teamwork and knowledge about the conditions that plants need to grow healthily, the Year 3s planted sunflower seeds. Over the coming weeks, they will be observing their plants very carefully – with fingers crossed for a sunny future!

The young scientists in Year 4 made connections with their learning in geography when they researched volcanoes and earthquakes. Making a simple seismometer, pupils learned that sound needs a medium - gas, liquid or solid - to travel through. Meanwhile, in another class, the children investigated sound with a range of activities using different resources, including ear gongs, string telephones and tuning forks.

British Science Week in Year 5 really lifted off with an investigation of forces. Making rockets and flying them, teams of budding engineers earned points for how high and far their rocket travelled. The best-looking rockets earned bonus points too!

Having investigated one form of energy (light) earlier in the year, the bright sparks in Year 6 connected their learning to another form of energy – electricity. Making circuits, they found out that a complete loop was needed to make the electricity flow.

Please click on photo to see a slideshow of all the activities:

Cost of Living Crisis

East Midlands Today report on how we are helpng in the Cost of Living Crisis.

Please click the link below:

https://youtu.be/2NQ9Yh2bowk

Christmas HAF club

What an amazing time 100 children had over 4 days in the Christmas holiday! The HAF club is funded by the DFE/Government and children can attend free or at a highly subsidised price. As you can see children take part in a range of activities including sports not pictured here. Samworth Brothers provided Christmas gifts and the cardboard boxes they arrived in provided hours of fun for den building!
Thank you to staff for working at the club.

Ice Skating

Year 3, 4 and 5 pupils had the opportunity to go ice-skating again this year. It is a difficult activity but despite continually falling over and getting wet, most children mastered balancing and skating to a lesser or greater degree. Well done…you need to be a Resilient Ryan to succeed in this activity!

Christmas dinner

About 400 children had Christmas dinner this year with all the trimmings as well as crackers. As you can see everyone helped out with serving the delicious food.

Christmas Fayre

It was lovely to be able to hold this family event again after 3 years. The Year 6 pupils worked really hard and made £475 for the school enrichment activity fund. As you can see children, mums, dads and staff really enjoyed the afternoon.

Vardy book signing

Mrs Gadsby and 2 Year 6 boys attended the Jamie and Becky Vardy book signing. They all received a signed book which is a story about having aspiration, being yourself and not giving up on your dream. Mrs Gadsby will be telling the story in her new year assembly.

KS1 pupils sing at Abbey House Care Home

The Key Stage 1 children walked down to Abbey House Care Home in the cold and snow to sing to the old ladies and gentlemen. The older generation were inside in the warm, but they really enjoyed the children’s beautiful singing and smiling faces. When it began to snow it made it even more perfect!

Science Open Evening

This was a wonderful occasion which showed off our pupils, staff, governors and families at their best. The school was buzzing. Pupils and their families could take part in science activities across the school, which was great fun as well as great learning. In addition, the gym club pupils showed off their skills and there was an opportunity to try out our lovely school lunches, drink hot chocolate whilst reading about science topics and test our physical and problem solving skills.
Our community policemen also supported our event.

Remembrance Parade

The whole school paraded around the school to present their poppy wreathes at the Peace Garden. The children in Y5 also made individual poppies from buttons which you can see in some of the pictures.
It was lovely to have members of the whole school community present: pupils, staff, parents and governors. Thank you to Mr Hill who played the Last Post throughout.
We remember all those who have given their lives across the world so that we can live freely.

Kick out Racism

6 Stokes Wood pupils were given a last minute invitation to attend a Kick out Racism event at the Leicester City King Power Stadium. As you can see there were some top players there. The children met Ashleigh Plumtre from the Ladies team, Patson Dacca from the men’s team and Wes Morgan the winning captain of the Premier League in 2016.
More important was the message that there is NO ROOM FOR RACISM ANYWHERE. We are a NO OUTSIDERS school. Everybody is welcome at Stokes Wood Primary School, whatever their race, culture, religion, gender and disability.
See further links below:
On Thursday 13th October, LCitC held an event at King Power Stadium celebrating Black History Month and supporting the Premier Leagues No Room for Racism (NRFR) Campaign. We saw 8 Partner Schools attend the event bringing together more than 40 participants from across our Premier League Inspires, Premier League Primary Stars and UEFA Goals programmes, where they took part in workshops exploring Black Heroes and Allyship.
 
Players present and past took part in a panel discussion and Q and A with Patson Daka, Ashleigh Plumptre, Chituru Odunze, Wes Morgan and Iffy Onuora, Head of Race and Equality from the Premier League all in attendance.
 
It was an insightful afternoon full of learning and listening. Participants also took time to create NFRR pledges to take back to their schools and action in the coming months.
 
Below are links covering the event.
 
https://www.premierleague.com/news/2863247
 
https://www.lcfc.com/tv/2863861/black-history-month-event-at-leicester-city
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj8ExIODJe7/?hl=en
 
Patson Daka: My dad died watching Chelsea – I think of him every time I play | Sport | The Times