St Hilda's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School: News

Nursery's Cafe

Nursery children held a sandwich bar cafe on Friday July 10th. We welcomed our guests, and acted as waiters, waitresses, cooks and washer-uppers!

Many thanks to Nursery parents and granparents who came along to enjoy their mid-morning feast.

(Click on photos for added bigness)

More photos from the cafe below...

more Nursery cafe pics!

More photos.

yet more Nursery Cafe pics.

More photos from the big day.

Y5/6 Science morning

Year 5 and 6 spent the morning at Ampleforth College in their Science department.

Mr Thorpe put togther an exciting set of experiments based around 'burning' ending in a very loud demonstration of just how explosive the buring hydrogen and oxygen can be! Imogen bravely lit the mixture using a splint on a long pole and we all covered our ears!

Many thanks to Ampleforth College and especially to Mr. Thorpe.

A Wartime Childhood in Belfast

Class 2 interviewed Mr. Swift to make a radio report. This was part of their project on journalistic writing with Mr. Morgan who used to be a radio producer before he was a teacher.

You can hear this 10 minute report by clicking the square or "Radio report" text below and either saving the mp3 file to your hard disc, or running it using your computer's media player.

To read about some of the evacuees who came to St. Hilda's during the war, click here.

Radio report on childhood during WWII

A Governor on the spot!

As part of Class 2's journalistic writing work, we interviewed Mrs. Shaw to find out about the school governors.

This interview has been lightly edited but has not been packaged as a report. Compare it to the radio report based on our interview with Mr. Swift (see "A Wartime Childhood In Belfast", above).
Notice how the presenters link Mr. Swift's answers together. Compare that to the "question and answer" style of our interview with Mrs. Shaw.

Many thanks to Mrs. Shaw for letting us put her on the spot!

Interview with Mrs. Shaw

Florence Nightingale

Tuesday March 24th 2009

Class 1 showed us how much they had learned about the life and work of Florence Nightingale in their super class assembly. The acting out of the Charge of the Light Brigade was a particularly notable moment thanks to David's resounding call of 'Charge!'. Amy was a calm and kind Florence Nightingale, and thanks particularly to Susie for leading the narration and Hannah for leading the prayer at the end. Everyone really enjoyed preparing for and taking part in the assembly - we love dressing up! - and thanks to all the parents, carers and friends who supported the children.

Mrs Smith, Miss Ellis and Class 1

Willow Weaving

March 11th 2009

The whole school has been busy weaving with willow to enhance the wildlife area of the school. Everyone from Nursery through to Year 6 and the teachers helped design, dig, lug, mulch, plant, bend and weave.

As a result of our efforts, we now have a screening fence around the compost bins, an entrance archway to the decking area and a domed shelter over one corner of the decking.

Many thanks to Mrs. Horsely, Mr. Smith and Mr. Skinner who provided skilled labour and oversight of the sculpture.

Our work on the willow weaving will suport learning in science, literacy and sculpture.

Comments from the children on the day include:

"I enjoyed spreading the bark."
"we had a few problems with the design."
"It was a whole school effort."
"We can weave with willow because it's bendy."
"It needs to be kept watered."
"We need to leave it for the roots to develop."

More photos from the day are in the Galleries page (click here to take a look.)

Nursery took materials down to the compost bins. - click for full size image

Nursery's Marble Run

March 5th 2009
Nursery children had great fun building a HUGE marble run today. We built support towers, used sellotape and parcel tape to attach tubes to each other, and had to work co-operatively to lift tubes into position and fix them in place.

Click below to see a video and click on the photos on the right to see them full size.

Just to reassure everyone... Tyler is heard telling Megan that he had the marble stuck in his mouth - this in fact was his snack (an apple!) - which he was PRETENDING was a marble. No marbles were eaten (nor indeed sucked) during the course of this construction!
Marble run video (2.5MB)

The marble run - click for full size image

From another angle - click for full size image

A cunning corner - click for full size image

Another wibbly bit of the marble run - click for full size image

Snow Report

Class 2 have been learning about journalistic writing with Mr. Morgan this term.

We created a 'vox pops' style section of a news report about snow.

Click to listen to this as an mp3 file

snow_voxpops.mp3

Class 1 - Review of Autumn Term 2008

Class 1 wrote and drew pictures about what they liked best about this term.

Click here for pictures and comments by Phebe, Leon, Susie and Amy
Click here for pictures and comments by Hannah, Bethany, David and Matthew

Class 2's Review of the Term - Autumn 2008

December 17th 2008.
Class 2 looked at a variety of this term's activities and wrote up some highlights for the website.

Class 2’s Café

On Friday 12th December 2008, we had an extremely busy café! It wasn’t fun. I had to serve - it was tough. People were asking for two soups then when I gave them it they said they ordered one! The coffees that they ordered took ages to come. I had to remind Mrs. Sturdy about the coffees!

When people ordered they talked in a whisper voice, so it was hard for me to work out what they said. It appeared too busy for me and Cecilia. But the amount of money we took was FANTASTIC! At the end, I had to work out how much we had made and Mrs.D and I were the only ones to know until she told us how much profit we had made.

The café was really hectic and hard but it was worth it.

By Connor Kerrigan

What We Did for Sports:

Josh and Hovingham School did a basketball tournament against other schools including Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and St. Ben’s and we were the only team to not lose! Josh and Molly did a sports leadership course and did lots of games like football, dogdeball and flipping cones.

By Molly Hutchinson and Josh Casey

The Pantomime.

On Thursday the 11th of December we went to the pantomime. The pantomime was fun and it was in Harrogate. The pantomime we saw was Cinderella . Harrogate was very busy. The pantomime is a fun place to go. Leon thinks it’s fun because of the ghost and the ghost was running behind the people and because the ugly sisters are fun to watch.

By Faye Thornton and Georgie Wardall

Class 2 Science
This term in science class 2 have been learning about the digestive system. We learnt that the epiglottis covers the trachea so your food goes into the oesophagus, where the peristalsis carries the food into the stomach. We also learnt that the brain is the start of the digestive system.

By Imogen Morgan

Art and DT

We did Andy Warhol prints in art by painting and drawing. We made paper chains by drawing and colouring then sticking. We made chocolate boxes by drawing around templates and cutting out.

By Simon Hogg & Callum Smith-Hay

Literacy in Class 2
This term class 2 have been doing imaginary stories and instructions.

Here is the start of my imaginary story.
One day far into the future there was an island called Mannicca. The island was a famous island because the kindest monsters on earth lived there called the yarmaths.

We were also doing instructions. One of our instructions was like if a person had never made a box before. We wrote instructions for that.

By Ciara Smith-Hay

Music.

Near Christmas at St. Hilda’s school we had a music teacher called Mrs.Gross. She made us do a piece of music and a song to go with it. She also taught us how to use instruments so we could do the music while we sung the song.

We also had another music teacher. He was Mr. Wiliamson. He brought untuned instruments. They were called African drums.

By Rebecca Kerrigan

St. Hilda's very own Christmas Cards!

Our very own Christmas cards are now available from the school office and Nursery! We are selling them to raise money for school funds at £4 per pack of 8 (including envelopes).

The design on the cards is the stained glass nativity which Class 2 made last year with Mr. Morgan as an art project.

Key to characters and artists:

Top row: Angel by Sarah Jones; Star by Georgie Wardell; Angel by Imogen Morgan

2nd row: Horse by Faye Thornton; Mary by Milly Morgan; Jesus by Cecilia Morgan;
Joseph by Molly Hutchinson; Cow by Rebecca Kerrigan.

3rd row: Lamb by Matthew Lathlean; Shepherd by Jed Taylor-Brown; Shepherd by Mr. Morgan and Faye Thornton

Bottom row: "Light of" by Connor Kerrigan; King by Simon Hogg; King by Amy Taylor;
King by Joshua Casey; "the World" by James Casey.

Our card design - click for full size image

While Shepherds Watched...

Nursery made sheep pictures for calendars.
I love their expressions!

Any caption suggestions to Mr. Morgan please - the best will be posted here.

Somewhere on a hill near Bethlehem... or Ampleforth? - click for full size image

St. Hilda's Radio Show - July 2008

The website club have been working hard to put together a new show. Download to hear our five minute programme in which you can learn how to play the cornet, who discovered the tomb of King Tut, the history of Hovingham school's guinea pig, and hear Mrs. Skinner's first recorded interview for St. Hilda's.

Click to download or to play the mp3 file using your computer's media player software.

St Hilda's Radio Show July 2008

Nursery's bridges

Nursery children have been building lots of bridges. You can see a Powerpoint slideshow of some of them by clicking below.

Bridges!

OFSTED report

St. Hilda's was visited by an OFSTED inspector in June. More details here.

Noye's Fludde

Noye's Fludde (pronounced "Noah's Flood") is an opera by Benjamin Britten. St. Hilda's and Hovingham chose a handful of their best singers to represent the schools in a community production of this opera, hosted at St. Martin's Ampleforth by Ampleforth College Music Department in partnership with the North Yorkshire County Music Service.

The production involved professional singers and players together with instrumentalists and singers from North Yorkshire schools.

Our pupils excelled themselves. The quality of both their singing and behavious was commented upon by the staff running the production.

Mr. Morgan also featured in the production as assistant conductor and animal wrangler.

The photo shows St. Hilda's and Hovingham's rather tired animals beside the ark after the production. They smiled a lot more earlier in the day, honest!

Tired animals - click for full size image

Scarborough beach visit, June 17th 2008

Class 1, together with Hovingham children, really enjoyed visiting the seaside. We looked at the types of building, the life boat, how people used the seaside and of course paddled and made sandcastles!

Quotes:
'I liked jumping over the waves'
'I liked getting wet in the sea'
'I've found a baby bird's feather for the top of my sandcastle'
'This is my best ice lolly ever!'

As you can see from the photos, Barnaby and Bernadette Bear joined us for the day and Mrs. Caddy's wore a high visibility jacket which could probably have been seen from outer space.

Off to the beach - click for full size image

On the beach - click for full size image

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! - click for full size image

School Sunday - June 15th 2008

School Sunday - lovely camera shake, Mr. M! - click for full size image

This lovely service was well supported by members of the local community, pupils, parents and staff of St. Hilda's School, Governors and members of Ryedale Christian Council.

Led by Mrs Lee, the children enjoyed using percussion to accompany the singing, and led the prayers of intercession.

Jim Rose presented the school with a new tabletop cross for the school hall which will be used to provide a focal point for our daily acts of worship. The previous hall cross remains in use in the Nursery classroom as a reminder of the Christian ethos which lies at the centre of school life.

The Vicar gave an uplifting message based on the verse 'The child grew big and strong and full of wisdom'. His message included the following words:

'Children at St. Hilda's School are growing all the time - having fun and discovering new talents - art, music, CDT, new stories to read and write, maths, science - visits to interesting places. Because it is a Church school, and has been since 1833, our children are prepared for the next stage of their education in a Christian environment - a place where every child matters - a place where the love of God and of neighbour are lived as a reality. So be proud of our School - be thankful that we have a team of dedicated teachers, teaching assistants, bursar, cook and caretaker - every member of the team matters. As Vicar and Chair of Governors at our School, I can tell you that our School is going from strength to strength - look at the wonderful displays after the service. Thank you children, Mrs Skinner and the whole team - God Bless you all.' Father Michael

Countryside Day - June 12th 2008

Years 5 and 6 visited the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate for a Countryside Day with their counterparts at Hovingham.
Many thanks to Ryedale Show and the Great Yorkshire Show committee for paying for this visit.

Photos can be viewed by downloading or opening any or all of the 4 files below. You will need Adobe Acrobat (or a similar pdf reader) to view the files.

Photos from Harrogate - 1
Photos from Harrogate - 2
Photos from Harrogate - 3
Photos from Harrogate - 4

The Great Yorkshire Showground - click for full size image

Bradford Mosque Visit - June 4th 2008

Class 2 visited a mosque and The Bombay Stores in Bradford.

Mrs. Drinkwater says of the visit: "The serenity of the mosque was amazing and the peace surrounding the cultures and religion of Islam was felt by all. Our whistle stop tour of The Bombay Stores was fantastic."

Photos Photos

Bombay Stores - click for full size image

Barnabas Day, May 21st 2008

Lisa Debney, a trained dancer and workshop leader for the Barnabas Bible Reading Fellowship project, spent the day at St. Hilda's school.

St. Hilda's Nursery children, and the infant classes from St. Hilda's and Hovingham explored the seven days of Creation to help answer the question 'Who am I?'.

The juniors used games and freeze-frame groupwork to explore 'understanding ourselves and respecting other people'.

The day was fantastic. All the children loved the music, movement and drama. Their comments during the workshops included:
'I like the pink square when God rested'
'It's important to have this rest day because you might get big bags under your eyes'
'Then God made the mud so the plants could grow'

Our thanks to the Ryedale Churches who sponsored this RE day.

Nursery - Barnabas Day 1 of 2

Nursery joined in the fun. We especially enjoyed using Lisa's big streamers and hiding under the table...

Nursery - Barnabas Day. 2 of 2

More Barnabas Day photos

More photos from our Barnabas Day.

(Click on them to see them bigger!)

May 19th 2008 - Nursery visited Class 1 and Class 2

As part of our transition arrangements, Nursery are starting to visit Class 1 and Class 2 from time to time.

We joined them today for part of a school assembly in which everybody went to look at each other's classrooms.

You can see some of the things we looked at by clicking on the pdf document below.

Nursery went with Class 1 to look at Class 2.pdf

Ryedale Folk Museum, May 16th 2008

Class 1 joined forces with their Hovingham friends to visit the Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton-le-Hole today.

It was an excellent visit. The children enjoyed hands-on experiences including wash day using a posser, dolly, mangle and scrub board.

The household chores Victorian-style included beating carpets and making beds. Everyone enjoyed making and eating toast - including Miss Ellis!

Click on the photos to see bigger versions of them.

More Ryedale Folk Museum Photos

Click on the photos to see bigger versions of them.

Bewerley Park Visit, April 2008

Here are somephotos from our residential trip with Hovingham School to Bewerley Park.

More photos can be seen by clicking on the pdf files below and downloading or viewing it using Adobe Acrobat (or a similar pdf reader).

What the children gained from the visit:
All the children said they strongly agreed that the experience had been excellent.
Their comments included:
- improved my confidence in myself
- it made me feel good when other people helped me
- it helped us work as a team
- it made me feel proud when I managed something I thought I couldn't do.

Many children recounted specific instances when other children had helped them and encouraged them during activities.

The children achieved their target from the last Outdoor Centre visit (improved listening) and after discussion set their own target for the next similar visit: improve organisation.

The children were complimented by a member of staff from another school on their teamwork (they won the bronze and silver awards), and by their Bewerley Park tutor on being a pleasure to work with.

Photos from Bewerley Park visit - click to download
More photos
And more

Meanwhile, back at school...

April 25th 2008
While many children from St Hilda's and Hovingham schools were away at Bewerley Park, everyone else came together for a week learning about healthy living.

You can see photos of some of the things we have been doing by opening or downloading the pdf document below. You will need Adobe Acrobat (or a similar pdf reader) to view it.

Photos of some of our activities this week:

Mrs. Wood and Her Big Red Tractor Visit Nursery

April 17th 2008
Mrs. Wood brought her 1950s vintage tractor onto the school playing field for nursery to have a look at and to sit upon.
Nursery are looking at all sorts of things which move this half term.

Nursery, Mrs. Wood and the tractor. - click for full size image

Kit and Leo driving together. - click for full size image

Alfie helped Mr. Morgan drive the tractor. - click for full size image

Harry shows Bethany the controls. - click for full size image

more tractor photos

Tractor photos III

The rest of the school had a look too! - click for full size image

Class 1 joined with Hovingham to look at toys

On Thursday March 13th, Class 1 popped over to join Hovingham School's Class 1 to share our work on toys from the past.

Mrs Brown told us the story of the toy dog 'Doddy' arriving in the post from Canada in a parcel and his adventures. She described many toys and games she used to play when she was young. We decorated 'hi-li' bats, skipped, used hula hoops and spinning tops and looked at old teddys and dolls. The Hovingham and St. Hilda's children enjoyed playing and learning together inside and out during the afternoon.

Thank you to the children and staff of Hovingham School for their hospitality!

Listening to Mrs Brown. - click for full size image

Making our 'hi-li' bats - click for full size image

Amy well on the way to finishing hers - click for full size image

Moira Robson

January 18th 2008

I am writing with great sadness to tell you that Mrs Moira Robson, our wonderful Nursery Teacher, died quite unexpectedly last Wednesday. She was a much loved member of staff who gave herself unstintingly and will be greatly missed by both children and adults in our school family.

The children, particularly those in the Nursery, are bound to be unsettled by this tragic news. The Staff and Governors have made sure that the Nursery runs as normally as possible. During half term Mrs Skinner has been in touch with the Local Education Authority and we can reassure you that the continuity of teaching will be maintained in accordance with the high standards set by Mrs Robson.

All of us offer our sympathy to Mrs Robson’s family. If you need to talk to us about any concerns regarding your child, we are, as always, ready to listen.

(Father Michael Cartwright – Chair of Governors)

How We Use Our Senses

Class 1 have been thinking about how we use our five senses every day around school.

You can download our Powerpoint show about this below. Hannah, Susie and Mr. Morgan narrated it.

Senses_Feb2008.ppt

Radio St Hilda's - Episode II

Class 1 enjoyed a joint visit with Class 1 from Hovingham School to Park Grove School in York.

You can listen to the 15 minute or so radio programme we made during our visit by downloading the mp3 file below (and either saving it to your computer, ipod or mp3 player, or playing it using your computer's media player).

Listen out for Park Grove's Year 6s playing the African Drums and find out about the beavers' house, what was on top of The Reindeer, our walk in York and our observations about Park Grove School and York.

More photos over in the Galleries ->
Visit to Park Grove School, York, Jan 29th 2008

Park Grove School - click for full size image

York Minster - click for full size image

Having a go on the drums - click for full size image

Off for a walk to the Minster - click for full size image

Class 2's Eden Camp visit

Photos from Class 2's joint trip with Hovingham School to Eden Camp can be seen on the Galleries page.

Click the Galleries link on the right to see them.

School Council News

'St. Hilda's School with the Nursery are trying to raise money for new apparatus for our outdoor playground and other things. We are planning fundraisers in the New Year.' by James

'There are six pupil representatives on the School Council - Milly, Faye, James, Josh, Connor and Rebecca. Everyone has different jobs such as Representative for the Nursery. We plan to meet regularly and discuss ways to make positive changes in the School. All ideas welcomed!'
Mrs. Smith

A Happy Event

Class 1 were very pleased to be joined by Rev'd. Sue Greenwood, our local Methodist minister this week.
She and Mrs Smith showed us what happens at a baptism service.

Merry Christmas!

Our window as it now appears in Holy Cross Church, Gilling. - click for full size image

Class 2 made a stained glass nativity in Art with Mr. Morgan. Each panel features a character or image from the Christmas story.
If you want to see it in person it will be on display throughout the Christmas period across the choir screen at the front of Holy Cross Church in Gilling. It can be seen during the daytime when the church is open (approx. 10am to 4pm) or at Gilling Carol Service on Friday December 21st at 7pm.

Key to characters and artists:

Top row: Angel by Sarah Jones; Star by Georgie Wardell; Angel by Imogen Morgan

2nd row: Horse by Faye Thornton; Mary by Milly Morgan; Jesus by Cecilia Morgan;
Joseph by Molly Hutchinson; Cow by Rebecca Kerrigan.

3rd row: Lamb by Matthew Lathlean; Shepherd by Jed Taylor-Brown; Shepherd by Mr. Morgan and Faye Thornton

Bottom row: "Light of" by Connor Kerrigan; King by Simon Hogg; King by Amy Taylor;
King by Joshua Casey; "the World" by James Casey.

Class 2 Wizards

Mrs. Julia Kershaw has been supporting Class 2's DT work this half term.
They have been practicing their needlework and design skills by making witches and wizards.
They have been lurking around Class 2 for a little while and are due to fly home any day now...

Wizards and Witches - click for full size image

Class 1 at Helmsley Fire Station

Class 1 visited Helmsley Fire Station as part of our RE project about people who help us.

Many thanks to firefighter Gavin Crusher for showing us all the things firefighters use to help people and for letting us hear the Woo-woos!

Our fire crew! - click for full size image

Firefighter Amy lets rip with the hose... - click for full size image

The fire engine - click for full size image

Pumpkin Pickers!

Class 1 harvested one of the pumpkins the gardening club had planted earlier in the year in our school vegetable garden.

In literacy we are making up our own story based on "The Enormous Turnip": "The Massive Pumpkin".

Our three pumpkins. - click for full size image

They pulled and they pulled and they pulled... - click for full size image

In the end, Mr. Morgan cut the pumpkin stalk. - click for full size image

St Hilda's Radio Show, Episode 1 May 2007

During the Summer Term, the Website Club has met to record and edit a radio show for you to download.

Simply click on the link below. When prompted, we suggest you Save the file to your hard disc. This can then be transferred onto your ipod or other mp3 player, or simply listened to on your computer using Windows Media Player or similar software.

We hope you enjoy listening!

The editors of the St. Hilda's Radio show were the Website Club: Sarah Jones, Simon Hogg, Imogen Morgan and Susie Morgan.

Download the May 2007 show (somewhere just over 2MB)

Listen to us! - click for full size image

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