Arrival at Pendrell Hall

It was 4pm, and all the children were buzzing with excitement waiting for the bus to arrive. Just as Mrs Bell thought she'd have to ring the bus company, the coach arrived! Everybody went over to get their cases in the boot and ready for the off. The bus driver had a map route but seemed unsure of his destination so a quick photocopy of the directions and some discussion took place. Mrs Bell felt sure the driver would get everyone there safely and quickly, even though he said,"See you there at midnight!"

Luckily, it was nowhere near midnight when the full party was gathered together and comparing bathroom size! This was the boys! Mrs Bell was nearly speechless when Wil cheered at the thought of sharing her 'bigger' bathroom. There are limits, Wil!

Dinner was in a beautiful room, where two long tables were laid for the party. Fish and chips!Yummy! You should have seen the size of the puddings! David Evans assured us all that there were NO calories in any of the foods we were eating. We were all so relieved!

After dinner we had some wonderful games. There was much laughter and hilarity as we got to know each other better. Very soon it was time for story. Mrs Hunter produced a big box of chocolates to share. Then, Mrs Bell spoiled all the fun by saying it was bedtime! (She really only wanted to get to the bar!)

Everyone slept soundly, some dozed off sooner than others! There were star points and chocolates to be won by the person/s who went to sleep first. The decision is too hard, so it's star points all round!

ICT in school

Today's session (16th March 2007) began with all the parents being given a map from Mrs Hunter with the directions to Pendrell Hall. Although we are all travelling by bus, the rest of the family are meeting us for Mothering Sunday lunch and will need to know how to get there, and back again. We discussed agenda for the evening. All the children will be leaving at 2.30pm so that they can change before we catch the bus at 4pm.

This was followed by an ICT lesson. First we looked at the class Blog. It made interesting reading. Mrs Bell insisted on everyone commenting on one of the pages so far. This was to show parents how children can word-process and also how important it is to be honset in a polite way.The children then went on to sending an e-mail to some-one. Emilia's Grandma learned a lot about using the computer from Emilia.

After this the children were all keen to have another go on the Crystal Rainforest simulation game that we are using in our unit of work this half term. Al too soon it was time to pack away the laptops and have a quick biscuit before saying 'bye' to parents.

Mrs Bell reminded all the children it was important to remember over the weekend that they were still part of William Shrewsbury School and to be on their best behaviour. With a buzz of excitement, pupils returned to their maths sets.

Later this evening, we will be having a meal, some rules and regulations and games. Mrs Bell and Mrs Hunter, with the help of Miss Painter have collected a lot of resources for the weekend. It should be fun.

Maths learning and Teaching

Today, 9th March saw the parents meeting up for a mathematical session. Mrs Bell began by explaining how an Interactive Whiteboard in each of the classes has enhanced learning in all subjects. However, as there was no interactive whiteboard in the large study room, we managed with the old fashioned board and pens!
Before the pupils came for the lesson,the adults looked at the agenda for next week's residential at Pendrell Hall. The coach has been booked for 4 o'clock so everyone will need to be at school at that point. If it is convenient and parents want to take up the option, pupils may leave at 2.30 to get ready. The activities are all scheduled in, a clothing list has been given out and all we need to do is look forward!

After this quick chat, the pupils arrived for the maths lesson. As always we started by counting. The warm up activity was to make 2 and 3 digit numbers with the digits given. Mrs Bell explained the need to use 'Thinking Skills' to ensure that all possible answers had been found and that time was used efficiently. As the learning objective was quickly achieved, the group managed to move onto 4 digit numbers too. Beth used her logical thinking to work out how many 3 and 4 digit numbers we could make. Well done, Beth.

The main lesson was to use and apply mathematical knowledge to solving real life word problems. After talking through the steps of problem solving, the children worked with their parents to deal with the questions. Children in the higher set recorded beautifully, and worked out the answer to the first word problem. However, they needed reminding to use what they already knew to be more efficient. This reminder and the challenge to complete as many as possible got them working much faster! Some excellent speaking and listening went on during the session. James is a real star; he has made so much progress. His mum was heard to say, "Oh, alright, you do it your way." Good idea mum, as James has a number of different strategies that he uses for different types of activities.
There were different operations needed to solve the word problems as Mrs Bell wanted to share how children think with the parents. She thinks the lesson was very successful. Next week, we shall use laptops to look at the Pendrell Hall website and have a go at writing up the Blog as a group. That same evening we shall go for the residential family learning.

Science Investigation

Today (2nd March 2007) eight pupils and parents from 3B met in the large study room for the first curriculum workshop. Mrs Bell explained the methods of a Science investigation to the parents and how she would run this session. As soon as the children joined the group, the learning objectives and success criteria were shared. Our investigation was to find the strongest paper towel from a selection of four. Children and parents discussed what strongest meant and then felt the papers to predict which might absorb the most water.

A child noted that the word 'absorbed' was also a word we use in our Building Learning Power methods. Well noticed! More talking was done on how we might test the papers. Mrs Bell had taken in some resources and she made some suggestions. Fair testing was talked about before a quick recording exercise. Two of the four paper towels were predicted as being the most absorbent. Our task was to prove this theory.

Parent and children worked together, dropping coloured water onto to the paper towel to find out how many drops it would take before it leaked through. We were amazed to find that all the papers appeared to be very absorbent! As time was whizzing by, we decided to look and talk about the data collected so far. The results were interesting and perhaps not all that accurate. We talked about reasons behind this.

The plenary was to see how much of each paper would be absorbed by 5ml of water. This seemed to be a fairer test. The group were left thinking about how they might record these findings. Due to the fact this was only a one hour lesson, the full investigation was not completed. However, children went back to their maths lesson, claiming to have had a wonderful science lesson. Parents, too enjoyed helping and watching their children. Mrs Pearson said, "I did not realise my son was so confident."

Mrs Bell was left feeling proud of her class. Well done, everyone!

Family Learning in 3B, February 2007

After attending a Family Learning Conference, Mrs Bell was very excited at the thought of taking some of her Year 3 pupils and parents to a residential adult college for Family learning activities. She discussed it with her head, Mrs Hunter who was also keen on the idea. Upon further research she found there was not going to be any funding available for our school! Disappointed but not to be put off, she did a quick costing exercise and then put the suggestion forward to the Home School Partnership Committee. They found the idea very interesting but on reflection felt it was too expensive. The cost for one adult and child at the adult college would be enough to take the whole family away for the weekend.
Mrs Bell was very disappointed but planned the 'normal' Family Learning for her class for the Spring term. Parents would get the opportunity to become involved in a series of curriculum workshops with their children. William Shrewsbury Primary School in Stretton, Burton-on-Trent offer this for at least two year groups annually and they are always very successful and popular.
Just before Christmas, Mrs Hunter was told about an opportunity to bid for some funds from Staffordshire for a residential family learning weekend. Remembering Mrs Bell's eagerness to do this, she immediately filled in the paperwork and HOORAY, the school were SUCCESSFUL! There was great excitement and some urgent planning to sort out.Two of the venues were too busy to fit us in, but David Evans from Pendrell Hall, Nr Wolverhampton gave us a choice of two weekends in March. The only date to really suit the school was March 16th, the weekend of Mothering Sunday. We decided to go for it.

Letters were sent to 3B. From the thirty one children, ten were interested but sadly two dropped out for unavoidable reasons. The maximum number was ten, so eight was not a problem at all. On Friday 23rd March, the group met in the large study and discussed the weekend. Should we go for one or both nights, should we stay for Sunday lunch as it was Mothering Sunday, how shall we get there, what does the place look like? All these thoughts were whizzing in our minds but everyone agreed that it had to be both nights. Excitedly, we looked at the website of Pendrell Hall. It looked great and the images of the building made us look forward to the weekend.
Decisions were made with the help of pupils, parents and teacher. Mrs Hunter and Mrs Bell will visit Pendrell Hall on Wednesday to discuss activities with David Evans. The office will ring coach companies to find out the cost of a coach. Next Friday the first curriculum workshop will be science, but the first session was considered very successful.
Look out for next week's science results!