Category

2021-2022

COVID Update 26th Nov 2021

28th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

Please see the attached letter from South Tyneside Council regarding temporary COVID measures in November 2021.

COVID-19 Measures in Schools

Thank you for continuing to review your measures over the past few weeks. We are pleased to see that the case rates in school aged children have nearly halved since our last update and our overall case rates are coming down.

It’s important to note that the overall rates are reducing slowly and although they are not as low as they were at the start of September, we feel that the measures can be relaxed from next week until the end of term, unless an urgent situation arises.

We are advising that schools continue to take a sensible and cautious approach, and if you reach an outbreak situation in the coming weeks, we will be happy to work with you and your school staff to consider whether increased measures need to be stood up for a limited time. These measures will be based on your risk assessment and could include switching to alternative arrangements for Christmas events you may have planned such as virtual nativity plays etc. so that schools, pupils, and parents/carers can still enjoy these occasions. The recent Secretary of State for Education letter emphasised the need for control measures such as testing, and the vaccine offer which I know you all are actively promoting which will help to maximise school attendance and limit disruption as much as possible. You may also wish to still ask staff members and secondary school pupils to continue wearing their face coverings in congested areas, especially when moving around the buildings, and on public or shared transport to and from schools.

If you are holding events in school or inviting external visitors, you may want to ask them to do a Lateral Flow Test ahead of their visit and wear a face covering on arrival and during the event.

Other measures could include sanitising hands on entering the school, keeping the hall well ventilated and spacing people out as much as possible.

The vaccination offer is an important measure and pupils aged 12-15 who may not have taken up the offer previously as well as any parents /carers can still book their Covid vaccine online Book your vaccine https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/book-or-manage-a-1st-or-2nd-dose-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination/ or via 119.

Please also remember to place your order for Lateral Flow Tests well in advance of the holidays.

We will continue to monitor and review the data over the coming weeks and into the New Year and will refresh the advice once schools return for the new term.

Once again, thank you for your continued efforts and we hope you have a Merry Christmas and a well-earned rest over the festive period.

Kind regards,

Tom Hall
Director of Public Health

Beverley Scanlon
Head of Learning and Early Help

Download (PDF, 108KB)

Year 3 tennis lessons

26th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 3 are thoroughly enjoying learning how to play tennis in PE this half term.

Today the children practiced their underarm throwing, catching and forehand strokes techniques.

They worked together in pairs using a range of equipment to develop their skills (cones, sponge balls and tennis racquets). They had to throw the ball underarm and let it bounce in front of their partner before hitting it back. The partner had to be ready with the racquet, holding it with two hands remembering the correct grip.

The children developed their hand-eye co-ordination, footwork and continued to worked well in teams. They thoroughly enjoy tennis, getting better and better each week. It’s also lovely to see a bit of healthy competition.

Baking bread

25th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

Class 3 have been learning about where food comes from this week. We learnt about wheat and how it is harvested and made into flour. We then made some delicious bread buns, they were yummy!

Year 6 Residential to Thurston (15th-19th Nov 2021)

20th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 6 children have enjoyed their residential trip to Thurston this week where they took part in lots of adventurous outdoor activities. They had a very busy time, but lots of fun!

Children In Need 2021

19th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

On Friday 19th November, at West Boldon we celebrated Children in Need in style! Children were able to come to school in their sportswear and took part in lots of different activities in the classes to recognise the day.

Reception children learned all about Children in Need and why it is important, before taking part in the Joe Wicks Live Lesson.

Reception children learning about Children in Need

In Year 1, the children enjoyed creating some split-pin Pudseys and they also took part in the Joe Wicks Live Lesson for Children in Need!

Year 1 children's crafts for Children in Need

Year 1 taking part in the Joe Wicks Live Lesson

Here are Year 2 children in their Children in Need costumes and sports wear!

Year 3 looked fabulous in their sports-wear today too!

Year 3 children also completed a Pudsey draw along, where the had to follow the instructions carefully to draw the perfect Pudsey.

Year 3 children taking part in the Pudsey draw along

Year 4 also joined in with Joe Wicks live which was a lot of fun but quite hard work! They then had a competition to design a new bandana for Pudsey which was judged by Mr McCormack, Mrs Buck and Mrs Bingham. Millie’s design was chosen as the winner. Well done, Millie!

Year 4 taking part in Joe Wicks live workout

Mrs Garr and Mr McCormack judging the bandanas

Year 5 coloured in and decorated some Pudsey bears with some important messages – We are all equal, we are all the same.

Year 6 created some posters for their outdoor classroom doors to give passers by information on Children in Need and why it is so important to donate.

Year 6 with their Children in Need posters

Anti-Bullying Week 2021

19th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

At West Boldon we celebrated Anti-Bullying Week during the week 15th-19th November 2021.

This year’s theme is ‘One Kind Word’. Kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last year has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us.

Our children were able to come to school wearing odd socks on Monday 15th November to recognise and celebrate all of our individual differences.

Year 1's odd socks for Anti Bullying Week

Year 2's odd socks for Anti Bullying Week

Each year group took part in a different activity throughout the week to recognise and understand the importance of Anti-Bullying Week.

As part of Year 3’s lesson they made notes of some ideas of ways they could show kindness and respect to one another:

“smile at people”
“play with them”
“you can keep an eye out for them”
“tell them a joke”

Year 3's ideas to be kinder to one another

Year 5 also showed their understanding of what bullying is. Here are their ideas:

Aerial views using Kapla blocks

19th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

As part of Class 3’s Dimensions Geography work, the children learned about aerial views and used Google Maps to see the school from above. They used the Kapla blocks to build an aerial view of our classroom. Some children then drew how their bedroom would look from above.

Fundraise and Recycle!

18th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

You may have noticed the new clothing container on school grounds.

We have signed up to the ‘Fundraise and Recycle Ltd’ scheme in a bid to reduce waste, recycle and reuse unloved clothing and goods. Our school will then earn money for every full container.

Please make use of this facility, bring in your unwanted clothing (but still in decent condition) and help us fundraise for our school at the same time!

Factors and Prime Numbers

18th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 5 have been learning about factors and prime numbers in Maths. They have learnt that a factor is a number that divides into another number exactly and without leaving a remainder. They also now understand that a prime number only has two factors – the number itself and 1.

Year 5 children working to find factors using counters

Maths Week England

13th November 2021Miss K. Wilkinson

As a school we recognised Maths Week England this week, with each year group completing a different maths challenge. Here are some things we got up to…

Class 4 enjoyed our Maths Week Challenge this week. The children had to create three robots and use the vocabulary big, bigger, biggest to describe them. Some of the children extended their own learning by adding the length of the robots legs, body and head together. It was a tricky task to add three numbers together so they chose to use numicon to help them

Class 4's maths work for Maths Week England

During maths week Class 3 took on the challenge of seeing how many different ways we could sort the houses. The children were really good at grouping the houses and talking about the similarities and differences. Some children even recorded their findings in a list.

Year 3 and 4 recognised Maths Week by taking part in a Times Table Rockstars Competition. They were able to play for 1 hour a day to earn points. The children loved the competitive element and we have some fantastic mathematicians in Lower Key Stage 2!

At the end of the week, the scores were totalled and below are the leaderboards for the pupil totals (top 10 players) and the class totals. Well done to all of the children who took part!

As part of Maths Week England, Year 6 have taken part in fun maths activities all week. We have participated in the daily challenges and worked in groups to solve some ‘magic maths’, where we learnt the magic of number through cards. Great fun was had on Mangahigh as we took part in a live lesson on geometric properties.