This week, the children revisited and consolidated their learning about Easter. To celebrate, they listened carefully to an Easter story, developing their understanding of the celebration and its meaning. Following this, the children took part in a creative activity where they designed and made their own bunny headbands, showing enthusiasm and imagination throughout.
Our Year 1/2 classrooms were buzzing with creativity this week as we welcomed the team from Open Zone for a hands-on workshop in the world of digital animation. The children stepped into the roles of directors, animators, and coders, discovering that with a little bit of technology, they can bring almost anything to life!
The session began with the magic of ChatterKids, where the children learned how to give a voice to their favorite teddy bears and drawings. By simply drawing a line for a mouth and recording their own voices, they saw firsthand how digital tools can transform a static image into a talking character.
As their confidence grew, so did their stories. Using Puppet Pals, the children moved into the world of digital puppetry. They experimented with:
The highlight for many was the introduction to ScratchJr. This wasn’t just about moving pictures; it was the children’s first foray into the world of computational thinking. By snapping together colorful coding blocks, they learned how to “program” their characters to move, jump, and interact.
It was wonderful to see the resilience on display as the children “debugged” their code—figuring out exactly which block was needed to make their character finish a race or perform a dance.
The best part? The creative journey doesn’t have to end at the school gates. The apps used—ChatterKids, Puppet Pals, and ScratchJr—are all free to download on most tablets and iPads.
We encourage you to ask your children to show you what they’ve learned. Whether it’s making a piece of fruit talk or coding a mini-adventure, the skills they practiced today are the building blocks of the digital future.
This week we have been linking our science learning with our literacy texts “How to Care for Baby Chicks” and “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.”
The children explored how birds build and care for their nests. We were very lucky to look closely at a real bird’s nest found in our school grounds, discussing what materials birds might use and why their nests need to be strong and safe.
Using what we had learned, the children worked together to plan and design their own bird nests. They collected natural materials from outside and also used art resources to carefully build a nest that would keep baby chicks safe.
There were some fantastic discussions about:
• which materials would be strongest
• how birds keep their eggs warm
• how to protect a nest from the weather
Tomorrow we will test our nests to see if they can withstand wind and rain — just like a real nest would need to!
The children have shown brilliant teamwork, creativity and scientific thinking. We can’t wait to see which nests survive our weather test!
This week in Year 4 the children completed another Commando Joes session. The children continued their learning about the adventurer Kira Salak. This week’s mission challenged them to work in teams to transport their documents, water and a gorilla safely across the border into Kenya, protecting them from poachers. The children had to show resilience, communicate silently, and guide their whole team across the course — even with one member blindfolded. They worked brilliantly and rose to the challenge with determination and teamwork.
What an incredible day we’ve had celebrating World Book Day at West Boldon Primary! Our school has been filled with amazing characters from the wonderful world of books, and we have been blown away by the creativity and effort that has gone into the costumes. The children – and staff! – all look absolutely fantastic. From classic storybook characters to modern favourites, it has truly brought our love of reading to life across the school.
As part of today’s fantastic World Book Day celebrations, Mandy and her amazing catering team also created a truly magical Alice in Wonderland-themed lunch for all of our children! The dining hall was transformed into a wonderful Wonderland feast, and the food looked absolutely unbelievable. From the creative presentation to the delicious treats on offer, it was a lunchtime our children will definitely remember!
In the afternoon, celebrations moved outdoors to our fantastic fire pit area, where the children enjoyed a truly special reading experience. Wrapped up in the fresh air, they toasted marshmallows over the fire while chatting with friends about their favourite stories and characters.
The children also had the chance to relax with a delicious hot chocolate while spending time reading their books together — the perfect way to celebrate a day dedicated to the joy of reading.
Days like today are a brilliant reminder of just how important reading is. Reading opens the door to imagination, builds vocabulary, develops creativity and allows children to explore new worlds, ideas and adventures. Encouraging a love of books at a young age helps set children up with skills that will benefit them for life.
A huge well done to everyone for making such a fantastic effort today, and thank you to our families for helping create such brilliant costumes. We hope today inspires even more children to pick up a book and discover their next great story!
As part of Careers Week, we were thrilled to welcome the education team from Nissan into school today!
The children learned all about the enormous Nissan factory — including an amazing fact that really blew their minds… You could fit the Metrocentre inside the Nissan factory 20 times over!
We also discovered that the factory employs 6,000 people alongside 6,000 robots, and the children asked some brilliant questions about:
– How long it takes to assemble a car
– How many cars are made each day
– How many are produced in a year
After learning that 2,000 cars are made every day, the children put their maths skills to work, using mental maths to calculate how many cars the factory could produce in a year — fantastic problem-solving on show!
To finish the session, the children were set a design challenge to create a car of the future… thankfully using LEGO rather than real machinery!
A huge thank you to Robyn at the Nissan education team for an inspiring and eye-opening visit
The children in Class 5 put their oracy skills into action during a thoughtful discussion and debate this week. The class explored the importance of each of the Ten Commandments and worked together to decide which they felt were the most important.
Pupils worked in small groups to share their opinions, listen carefully to the views of others and respectfully challenge different ideas. They showed fantastic communication skills as they explained their reasoning, justified their choices and considered different perspectives.
Once each group had discussed their ideas, the class came together to debate and agree on an order of importance. It was wonderful to see the children thinking deeply, supporting their arguments with clear reasoning and demonstrating such maturity in their discussions.
Activities like this help to develop confidence in speaking, active listening and critical thinking — all key skills that support learning across the curriculum.
Well done Class 5 for such thoughtful and respectful debating!
This week in our Giving Project after-school club, our KS2 children took a little break from making gifts for others to celebrate the upcoming International Women’s Day – fixing each other’s crowns!
The children decorated beautiful crowns and filled them with kind compliments for one another. It was a lovely opportunity to build each other up, share positive words, and remind each other just how special they all are.
Sometimes the best way to spread kindness is to start by lifting up the people around us — and our children did exactly that.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Our Year 1/2 children have been discovering the lives of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, and King Charles. They loved finding out what makes a king or queen special, the important jobs they do, and how they help people in the community.
It was wonderful to see their curiosity and thoughtful ideas about kindness, leadership, and responsibility – just like real-life royals!
We had a very special guest in Year 6 today! Steve from the Job Centre dropped by to talk to our pupils about employability and the world of work.
While “employability” might sound like a big word for primary school, Steve was absolutely blown away by our students. As they worked through the session, it became clear that our Year 6s aren’t just learning these skills for the future—they are already using them every single day.
Identifying that our children possess these skills:
– Communication & Teamwork: Essential for every group project.
– Resilience & Calm Under Pressure: Showing grit when things get tough!
– Problem Solving: Finding creative solutions in and out of the classroom.
– Leadership & Support: Helping one another reach their goals.
From meeting tight deadlines to showing incredible enthusiasm, our pupils proved they have exactly what it takes to succeed in whatever path they choose.
A huge thank you to Steve for inspiring our children and helping them see the amazing value in the skills they already possess. We couldn’t be prouder of their maturity and insight!
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