Wellfield Middle School
21st September 2018
Dear Parents, Carers, Friends and Governors
It is my pleasure to welcome everyone back for another great year at Wellfield Middle School. Our pupils have all returned to school refreshed and ready to learn after their summer break. All the students look extremely smart in their school uniform and are very well prepared for the Autumn Term.
We have had many new starters this September, not only our new year fives but many pupils have joined our school in other year groups. It is our mission to help every child feel welcome, connected and part of the Wellfield family.
This year we have launched our brand new house system. Each child has been placed in either Artemis, Athena, Ares or Apollo house. Merits are awarded regularly for pupils who demonstrate the principles of WE CARE and contribute to the overall total each week for each house. Our new, soon to be launched, website will share the running weekly totals.
This week has been very busy with our extremely well attended open evening. Visitors were highly impressed with our pupil helpers, warm and friendly staff and bright and cheery building. We are very proud of everyone’s contribution at this event.
Miss McElderry also hosted a curriculum afternoon for our year five parents and carers this week. Again this was well attended and the adults went away very impressed with the work our youngest pupils will cover this year.
The new school library is now up and running and looks amazing. Miss Stephenson has managed to create a wonderful reading environment and is still busy spending money on fantastic new books to fill the shelves. We anticipate students can use this as a quiet area for reading at break times as well as sharing stories with class teachers in lessons.
We have a group of KS3 pupils attending the ‘Bring it on’ engineering exhibition at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland on the 4th October. This event will showcase the many exciting engineering businesses and opportunities across the northeast. We aim to inspire, educate and motivate our older pupils to exploring the opportunities available in this field.
Next week we have Mr Whitelaw’s trip to see Wicked at Sunderland Empire and our first group of year 6 pupils will embark on their week long, 2018 adventure to High Borrans.
Lots of exciting opportunities this term and of course we could not provide these without the continued support of our parents and carers. Please communicate any queries with regards to teaching and learning or any other activities in school, through your child’s planner or contact the school office direct so that we can continue to provide and improve our provision.
Many thanks
Susan Winter
House Point Heroes
Year 5
It has been a fantastic few weeks for Year 5 in their brand new school and classrooms. With the amount we have accomplished, it feels longer!
In Topic, we are learning about the Anglo Saxons and have started to receive some amazing pieces of homework, including: shields, long boats, poetry and jewellery. This home learning is helping to brighten up our classrooms and makes them feel like ours!
In English, we are currently reading Michael Morpurgo's version of ‘Beowulf’ and we have spent the week writing persuasive 'battle cry' speeches linked to it. We have performed these battle cries in preparation for our first trip of the year to Cullercoats beach where we will take part in an ‘Anglo Saxon Invasion’.
In Maths, we have focused on Place Value and learning key terms, such as: integer, sequence, ascending, descending and systematically. It has been a hands-on affair looking at the many ways of representing number, for example using counters, drawing bar models, part-whole models and numberlines.
Y5 Curriculum Meeting
We welcomed many parents to our classrooms for a curriculum meeting this week; it was a chance to learn more about what is taught in school and ways to support at home. It proved an ample opportunity to ask questions and start up home/school communications with form teachers.
Parents were very positive about this meeting and we thank you for your support with this and for returning evaluation forms (any more would be gratefully received).
What you found most useful:
Learning more about the English and Maths curriculum
Homework - how much and how often
Use of the diary
Use of the iPads - apps and uses in class
Reading aims at home
Being able to see where my child is based in school
Getting the chance to ask questions and talk to teachers
You also suggested that another session, specifically about the use of iPads and educational apps, would be appreciated.
Thanks to all that attended; the information shared will be sent out electronically early next week to all of our parents/carers. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch about anything if you were unable to attend.
Miss McElderry and Mr Evans
Important dates for your diary
24th September - 5th October - Y6 High Borrans Groups 1 and 2
Tuesday 25th September - Y5 'Anglo-Saxon Beach Invasion' Trip to Cullercoats (9.30-11.30am)
Wednesday 26th September - Wicked, Sunderland Empire
Thursday 4th October - Bring it On Engineering Event
Tuesday 16th October - KS2 Parents' Evening
Wednesday 17th October - KS3 Parents' Evening
HALF TERM 29th October - 4th November
Thursday 8th November - Halloween Disco
Saturday 17th November - Sunday 25th November - Y7 China trip
Key Information and Notices
Clubs
Locker Keys
Thank you.
Lost Property
It wouldn't be a Wellfield newsletter without a lost property reminder. So here we go:
All lost property is placed in the boxes in the reception area. Pupils should be encouraged to look there for any missing items. Parents/carers are welcome to look themselves before or after school. Unfortunately, we do not have enough space to store items indefinitely, so any unnamed items unclaimed at the end of each term will be disposed of. Please make sure that everything is marked with the pupil's full name. Already this term there are over 20 unnamed school sweatshirts in lost property.
Thank you.
Mrs Pattinson
First Lego League Club, Key Stage 3.
We will be running a First Lego League club on Monday evenings from 3:30 - 4:30pm.
FIRST LEGO League challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. During the INTO ORBIT season, teams will choose and solve a real-world problem in the Project. They will also build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. Throughout their experience, teams will operate under the FIRST signature set of Core Values, celebrating discovery, teamwork, and Gracious Professionalism®
We will be entering a team into our regional competition at the SAGE, on 29-30 January 2019.
Interested, Key Stage 3 pupils, should speak to Mrs Stephenson, ICT Technician.
French Apps
In order to support our pupils in their language learning it is useful to "play" with the language; set out below are the resources available to help them do so with new vocabulary and phrases.
Linguascope is a language learning app that all children with iPads have installed; it is also used in class to reinforce learning through games such as pairs, noughts & crosses and matching exercises. All children have the password written in their planners. When we move to a different topic, I let them know where they can find the materials.
Quizlet is a vocab learning app which we will be pushing out to all pupils through their iPads in the next week or so. Each class will be given a link for each pupil to sign up to for their topic area. It is a much more fun way to learn vocabulary and a leader-board enables us to celebrate the most practiced and the most effective pupil per topic, per half term!
Thank you for your support in encouraging this at home.
Mrs Vincent
Excellence
Maths in Key Stage Three
Here are some examples of the super work that pupils have produced.
Mrs Kemp
Print-Making
Year 8 have enjoyed some active lessons learning printmaking techniques. The outcomes are very exciting and successful. Well done Year 8!
Art Clubs:
Year 7 and 8 Art Club Monday's after school.
Year 5 and 6 Art Club Tuesday lunchtimes.
Miss Whillis
Villainous Victorians
We used this knowledge as inspiration to recreate scenes from that special day. Watch this space for you diary entries linked to this.
Year 6 have also started the new year with enthusiasm and have begun to read the novel “Street Child”.
Last Tuesday, we explored the characters in chapter 2 with some drama and freeze frames. We had to use our body language and facial expressions to show what they were feeling. This will help us with our writing later in the week.
Miss Stephenson
Talented Artists
Ella's Locks - Gone to a Good Cause!
What an incredible thing to do Ella; well done!
Congratulations!
Stupendous Swimming
On Sunday I went down to South Shields to compete in a competition with my swimming club Tynemouth; this competition was called the junior league and there was 49 events. This competition is a little different to other competition because it’s a mix between 9-11 years old. We won by 16 points and in three weeks time I will be competing in Blackpool.
Ella Darlington
Sport
Girls Football Training
KS2 Boys' Football Training
Alongside the girls’ football training, the boys training also began this week, proving to be very popular with over 40 boys turning up from Years 5 and 6. The training highlighted some amazing talent from the boys, some great team-work and brilliant attitudes. Year 5 and 6 training is on every Monday 3:30-4:30, all welcome to come along and enjoy! #TeamWellfield
Y7 Great North Run Sprint Competition
Wellfield took part in their first competition this year, which was the GNR Year 7 sprint competition. The tournament was a contest to find the quickest sprinters from a selection of schools. The winning students then participated in the final just prior to the Great North Run. Our students did amazingly well, especially as it was the first time our school had entered this competition. We managed to get 4 students through to a very tough semi-final. All of our students did superb and we even met some Olympians! Well done! #TeamWellfield
Y5 Athletics Club
Our Year 5 athletics club is back up and running. A great first session with some sprints, jumps and hurdles involved. The future is bright for this sporting year group with some incredibly quick sprinters! #TeamWellfield
Netball Club
Netball club, always very popular, started this week. All ages and genders can come along and enjoy. Mrs Gordon is in high-demand with well over 30 students taking part in developing their techniques and game play ready to participate in the up-and-coming netball tournaments #TeamWellfield
Trampolining Club
Another hugely popular after school club, KS3 trampolining began this week. We focussed on the basics of creating a routine and what a routine involves. Next week, we will be looking at competition routines and making our skills neater. Every Monday 3:30-4:30. #TeamWellfield
Mr Burns