June 2006
Friday 30 June 2006
Lightning Visit Strikes Pupils With Reading Bug
When American author and former middle school teacher, Rick Riordan, visited Balsall Common Primary School, he told Upper Key Stage 2 pupils all about his experiences of writing. It took him 14 rewrites of his first novel to get it published.
Rick Riordan's reading of a chapter of his first children's novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief, showed his clever play with Greek mythology and American high school, adding a humorous twist, to bring old tales to a modern audience. These novels will certainly appeal if your idea of fun and excitement is vaporising your demonic maths teacher, or stabbing a Minotaur with its own horn.
You can visit Rick Riordan’s website: http://www.rickriordan.com/children.htm
Listen to Podcast 2
Since BCPS On Air launched its first podcast, there have been over 700 listens on the school wesbite and numerous downloads from the iTunes Music Store.
Podcast 2 is now available, all written, recorded and produced by Year 5 and Year 6 pupils at Balsall Common Primary School. In this current edition you will be able to hear: -
You can listen to BCPS On Air podcasts by clicking on the red BCPS On Air button or by visiting the iTunes Music Store and subscribing to BCPS On Air. The podcasts are free!
Thursday 29 June 2006
Summer Gala Raises Over £6000
The PTA 'World Cup' Summer Gala has raised over £6000! After months of planning and preparation hundreds of people came to the biggest and best Gala Day to date.
This year's Gala had all the usual stalls attractions, such as bouncy castles, football tournament, excellent dancers and an impressive fancy dress parade. In addition there were new features such as the bouncy slide, and fantastic demonstrations from Berkswell Rugby Club and Tae Kwon Do.
Much praise is due to the sporting attitude of Mrs. Baker, Mr. Latham and Mr. Connolly who were voted into the gunge tank for "I'm A Teacher, Get Me Out Of Here!"
The Trade Sales Centre World Cup football competition was outstanding, with a total of 128 girls and boys taking part. Congratulations to Ukraine, who are the World Cup winners. It was especially good to see such a wide range of pupils being able to mix and enjoy playing together with fantastic sportsmanship.
A huge amount of effort and hard work went into organising and running the Gala. Thank you to Trade Sales Centre for sponsoring the event, to all the school staff, PTA committee members, parent and pupil helpers and to everyone who contributed time, money or effort to make the 18th annual Summer Gala such a success.
Click here to view the photographs from Gala Day.
Click here to view the video clips from Gala Day.
Thursday 29 June 2006 Chesshire's Choristers Sing at Symphony Hall Mrs Chesshire and Mrs Hanson accompanied 18 choristers from Year 5 and Year 6 to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. Lead by the dynamic conductor Miss Whitlock, from Solihull Music Service, the girls, dressed in Victorian costume, performed “Cooks Tours” by Alan Simmons with a 500 strong choir from all across Solihull.
Chesshire's Choristers Sing at Symphony Hall
Miss Whitlock’s standards are very high, and demanded a great deal of concentration and musicianship – but the finished performance showed how much effort the choir had put in.
The concert was very well received by an audience of over 2,000 and, despite the heat everyone really enjoyed the occasion. Congratulations to all of the girls involved.
Thursday 22 June 2006
Come to the 18th Annual Summer Gala
World Cup Gala Day (24 June) is fast approaching. The gates and stalls will open at 1.30pm and the Gala King and Queen will lead the fancy dress procession at 2pm. Children wishing to take part in the parade should assemble in the hall by 1.50pm.
The Trade Sales Centre World Cup Quarter Finals and Semi Finals will take place between 2.10pm and 3.30pm. At 3.35pm there will be a keep fit demonstration with Sally Morris, followed by the Football Final. Dance Club will be performing for half an hour at 4pm and the proper World Cup match between Germany and Sweden will be screened live on big screens in the marquee next to the bar and bar-b-q. At 4.30pm the Grand Draw will take place and at 5pm some unlucky teachers will be soaked in the gunge tank!!
The staff will be in their usual position, serving delicious tea and coffee. There will be over 20 stalls and 20 attractions at Gala Day this year.
Come rain or shine, Gala Day will go ahead - we will be moving everything inside school if it rains so please support us. We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday.
Sunday 11 June 2006
Skiing Success at Telford for Third Year Running
Balsall Common Primary School Ski Squad competed at the Telford Ski Centre Slope for the third time and again came back to school with a trophy.
With over 160 entrants in the Schools Race, competition was at a higher standard than previous years, but the squad skied extremely well. Congratulations to the Under 10's Girls Team who were team winners in their category. Balsall Common Primary School would also like to congratulate ex pupils now skiing for the Heart of England School, who also won silverware at the event.
Wednesday 7 June 2006
Lee Carsley Raises Awareness for Down's Syndrome Week
Everton and Republic of Ireland International footballer Lee Carsley visited Balsall Common Primary School to promote Down’s Awareness Week.
Lee and his wife Lou ran a coffee morning in the Atrium to raise money and awareness for the Solihull Down’s Syndrome Support Group, of whom Lee is the patron. Their youngest son, Connor, was born with Down’s Syndrome and is in Year 2 at Balsall Common Primary.
Lee and Lou, along with teachers from the school will be packing shopping at Sainsbury’s in Shirley. The money raised throughout the week will go towards funding speech and language therapy for children with Down’s Syndrome in the borough.
Lee also gave an interview for BCPS On-Air, the school radio station. This will be available to listen to from the school website or from the iTunes Music Store before the end of the month.
May 2006
Friday 12 May 2006
Balsall Common Primary Launch Podcast
Balsall Common Primary is proud to announce that the school’s first podcast is available to listen to online or download. Podcasts are short, free broadcasts that you can download on to your computer. You can listen to them there and then, or upload them onto your iPod or other MP3 player and listen to them on the go. BCPS On Air podcasts are enhanced, which means the audio is accompanied by photographs.
Podcasts are becoming so popular due to the iPod and use of the iTunes music store. There are thousands of podcasts available, from a vast amount of amateur shows to The Guardian and Radio 1.
Pupils at Balsall Common Primary School have worked hard over the last few weeks to produce the first of many monthly podcasts. In addition to the fun and enjoyment the pupils gain from making podcasts they have developed and improved many skills and techniques across the curriculum: -
Literacy Skills- script writing, researching, questioning techniques, speaking and listening;
ICT Skills- using GarageBand software on Apple computers to record, edit and produce their audio into a radio-style broadcast and then adding photographs to enhance the podcast;
Team Work- valuing the opinions and work of others, working to deadlines, being innovative, motivated, dedicated and confident.
You can listen to BCPS On Air podcasts online at the school website by clicking on the red BCPS On Air button. You will need to download and install the free Quicktime plugin to play the podcast online. This can be downloaded from the Apple website: www.apple.com/quicktime.
Users of iTunes are able to subscribe to the podcast, either by clicking on the Subscribe button on the BCPS On Air page on the school website, or by searching for BCPS On Air at the iTunes Music Store. iTunes is also available free of charge from www.apple.com/itunes/download. This way, you can download the podcast to your computer and listen to it whenever you like!!
Friendship Friday for Save the Children
Next week Balsall Common Primary School will be raising money for Save the Children by selling 'Friendship Fun' wristbands for £1 each. Friday 19 May is 'Friendship Friday' when children are encouraged to appreciate the fun we all share with our friends.
Unfortunately, we are only able to have 200 bands from Save the Children, as there are so many schools taking part; so these will be sold on a first come first served basis. They will be on sale in the Studio (for Key Stage 2) and the Atrium (for Foundation and Key Stage 1) during playtimes next week.
Wednesday 10 May 2006
Doodle4Google Drawing Competition
'Doodle 4 Google - My Britain' is a nationwide design competition open to the UK's 10 million school children. Young people are being invited to design a Google doodle explaining what it means to be British today. The winning doodle, which will be displayed on the Google UK homepage for 24 hours, will be seen by around 18 million people. An expert panel of judges will select Regional Winners to make up a shortlist of thirty doodles. The British public will vote to choose their favourite design in each age group and Google's Original Doodler, Dennis Hwang, will then choose one National Winner. In addition to having their artwork displayed to millions, the National Winner will be flown to Google's HQ, the Googleplex in California, where they will help Dennis to design a doodle. This website contains everything schools need to know about the competition including sample Google logos.
Weather, food...landscapes, landmarks...cultural diversity and sporting triumphs, anthems and songs… celebrities and politicians, art and culture… There has been a great deal of public debate over what it means to be British today. 'Doodle 4 Google - My Britain' gives young people the opportunity to express their views using creativity and imagination. There are no right or wrong answers; each design will represent a unique vision of life in Britain. Therefore, although our judging panel may be the “experts”, we are asking the British public to choose the Google doodles that best celebrate their life in Britain today.
The entry deadline nationally is 14 July 2006, with the overall winner being announced in November. Therefore the school deadline is Monday 10 July. Please hand your entries into Miss Critchley so the teachers can choose the best four entries to represent the school.
Doodle4Google school pack.pdf This is the school pack download, which contains information about the competition, Google templates for you to use, example Google Doodles from the Google’s original doodler and last year’s winning Google Doodle.
Wednesday 3 May 2006
Year 2 Fly Off to Majorca!
Year 2 pupils have been “on holiday” to Majorca as part of their entry point to their ‘Holidays- Places People Go’ topic.
Pupils from the three Year 2 classes came to school with their suitcases packed, to find the school hall had been turned into an airport. They checked in for the flight using passports made in class and after being checked by security guards with metal detectors, they waited in the departures lounge with their reading books.
The teachers had set another area of the hall out as an aircraft to accommodate the 90 pupils, who were very surprised to find a real pilot and air stewardess had come to role-play being on a BMI Baby flight from Balsall Common to Palma!!
Captain Ted O’Connell welcomed the passengers onto his aircraft and talked to the children about his career as a pilot and the jobs he has to do before, during and after every flight. Cabin manager Michelle Allen performed the in-flight safety announcement (where all the children looked under their seats for the life jackets!) and handed out drinks and fruit after the pilot had informed the pupils at what height they were flying at!
In the afternoon pupils changed from their travelling clothes into the beachwear they had packed in their suitcases. They put sun tan lotion on and looked cool in their sunglasses. The Key Stage 1 playground was transformed into a Palma resort with paddling pools, sand pits and gazebos, with Frisbees and beach balls to play with. Fortunately the weather was perfect, with clear blue skies and hot sunshine, meaning the children could really sunbathe and pretend they were on holiday.
The holiday finished with an ice-cream for all the children along with a goodie bag from BMI Baby. The pupils all agreed that they had had a wonderful day at school and also learnt a lot about going on holiday.
The Year 2 staff would like to thank Ted and Michelle for making the entry point so realistic and worthwhile and also for giving an interview to the school radio station, BCPS On Air, which will be hear on a forthcoming podcast.
Click here for the photo album of the day.
Click here for flight information.
April 2006
Sunday 2 April 2006
Skiing Success at the Ackers
Balsall
