Disco Mania

Friday night was Disco night at Cholsey Primary School last week. There was bling, glow sticks, popular tunes (courtesy of Mr Mayer) and a lot of funky dance moves. Thank you to the wonderful PTA and entourage of helpers for making it happen.

Chess Champions

On Monday, we had our first ever Cholsey chess tournament against Manor School and won with a respectable 66 points to Manor's 35. Mr Green, who runs the chess club was very impressed with the conduct of all the players and they should be very proud of themselves.

Connecting Classrooms

What did you do during February half term?  I was given the opportunity to represent Cholsey School at a Connecting Classrooms seminar in Amman, Jordan run by the British Council.  The opportunity arose following our OPEN critical thinking training.  I travelled to Jordan together with 19 other teachers from around the UK.  We met up with a similar number of teachers from the MENA area (Middle East & North Africa).  During the course of the five days I learnt so much about the political situation in the Middle East, about the plight of Palestinian refugees, about the culture of the MENA region and about teaching in special schools in England and the problems faced by teachers in Scotland and in Northern Ireland, particularly since Stormont hasn’t sat for 12 months.

The main purpose of the visit was to establish a connection between Cholsey Primary School and Sukhneh Prep Girls School in Zarqa – a village on the outskirts of Amman.  The school is run by UNRWA for Palestinian refugees.  Half of the day the building houses a boys’ school and the other half of the day it is a girls’ school.  The partner teacher and I collaborated to plan a programme of work, to be undertaken by both schools.  The programme is called “Knowing Me Knowing You”.  Through this project we aim to gain a better awareness of the lives of the two schools and our families, our similarities and our differences.  Topics covered are our villages, our families, our school uniforms, and food.  We will share our thoughts and ideas through the wonder of the internet.

This is a very exciting project which I will hope to share with you via the school website and blog.  We hope that this will be the start of a long and fruitful collaboration between the two schools.

Mrs Crickmore

Hogwarts- Watch out!

Foundation created potions on Tuesday as part of Science week! There were fizzes - sadly no bangs! But, they did use  liquids of different densities to create layers in a jar!

Food Glorious food

Foundation were treated to a visit by Adam Curtis who talked to the children about senses, colour blindness and how something tastes if you hold your nose and don't breathe. Try it!

The children then tasted various liquids to see if they could tell whether it was sweet or sour. Finally - which chocolate tasted best. Which do you think?

Bird Watching in 3/4

During this term a small group of children have been taking part in the Big School’s Bird Watch by the RSPB. The children spent an hour observing the birds seen on the school’s grounds before analysing the data and submitting it to the competition. We are still waiting on the results, so hopefully we may receive some good news soon! The children really enjoyed the project and are keen to take part in it again next year. Here are some pictures from the project.

‘Flying High’ at RAF Benson

Year 6 have had an interesting day at Benson Airbase where they have taken part in various activities including: a maths challenge to work out how to get teachers and books to flooded villages; climbing aboard a Puma helicopter; looking inside a Chinook; weather-related work with the Met Office; exploring survival equipment; a PT session with an obstacle course and a healthy eating discussion; and looking at food ration packs for those out on exercise.
“I was fascinated to discover how much weight the chinook could lift!” - Maggie.
“I enjoyed the PT session and I learned that the intestines are 6 metres long!” – Luka.
“I loved moving the pulleys in DT!” – Imogen.
“Twenty people could in the 10 man survival dinghy and still have room!” – Megan.
Email from Flight Sergeant Cassidy: “May I start by thanking the staff and students of Cholsey Primary School for making your visit to RAF Benson earlier today such a pleasure to be involved in, the good behaviour and engaged attitude of your pupils are a credit to the school.”
Well done, Year 6!

Rugby Success!

Congratulations to our Year 5/6 Tag Rugby Team!

The team participated in the Wallingford Partnership tournament last week and came 2nd place. This means they can now qualify for the County Finals.

Swimming Gala Success

Congratulations to our Year 5/6 Swimming Team! 

Both teams have progressed through to the ESSA regional finals in Guildford. The teams swam amazingly well coming first and second in all heats and finals. 

Year 5/6 Football Success

The year 5/6 team played really well in their first football tournament. We are pleased to announce that we made it to the semi-finals and finished in third place. Well done to all of the children who took part.

Spring Music Concert

Another amazing range of musical talent was enjoyed at the Cholsey School Spring Concert.
A massive thank you to all of the music teachers, the PTA for the bar and donations towards a new drum kit and Mrs McKeown for the brilliant pictures.