communication

Year 2 went along to ‘Call of the Wild’ to see mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and insects. They loved seeing the animals up close and learning facts. The coach was also a highlight!

I loved entering my office at the end of Tuesday to find a group of excited and proud children with bronze medals. They had attended a girl’s football tournament and loved every second.

On Wednesday we held a drumming workshop with drummer, Jeff Rich who has played with; Stretch, Def Leppard and Status Quo from 1985 to 2000. The masterclass in drumming and percussion was enjoyed by KS2 with audience participation, demonstration and the history of drums. It was enjoyed by all and an inspiration to our musicians, particularly our drummers.

Children also attended rehearsal for the Junior Music Festival and are excited for June 14th, hitting the stage at the Cliffs Pavilion.

Year six thoroughly enjoyed their science fair. They demonstrated a wealth of knowledge and scientific skills from the planning stage to the big event. They tried and tested their experiments with each other. I loved seeing their work and giving some a try. Thank you to the magnet team for my prize.

Year 3 engaged in a problem-solving task – think, think, think! They considered the problem; the chicken, grain and the fox and how to cross the river. Their ideas were put to the test using images, drama and discussion. Would the chicken get eaten? Would the grain be eaten? I loved joining in the session, especially playing the role of the ‘chicken’. Their second challenge, ‘coloured jars’ led to a group of children coming to me every lunch time with further challenges. I loved their praise and encouragement to support my improvement. Why not look at the problems at home and give them a go!

The PTA held their chocolate stall selling ‘Wonkalicious’ bars and five were found by Thursday evening, five to go! Thank you to the PTA for a fun way to raise money.

Thank you to Mr Dunne for arranging the book Fair. There was a buzz in the hall over the week with book purchases and children keen to read their new books over the half term break.

The week has been filled with celebration or achievements inside and outside the academy. Children have been sharing work, extra homework projects, awards, trophies and experiences. This also included Miss Wise completing the ‘Moonlight walk’ across London from 11:30pm to 8am, covering 26.2 miles and raising money and awareness for breast cancer.

Please continue to support attendance in the final half term. We aim to finish the year to meet target and ensure that attendance at Darlinghurst is good. This also includes punctuality. In support, our attendance officer will be working with families with regular lateness and patterns of absence. This will continue as a focus for the next academic year to support settling and a positive start to the new year.

Finally, thank you for engaging in recent surveys and we will be sending final surveys next term. Your parental voice is valued and supports us in our self-evaluation and evidence for Ofsted. We have worked hard to make Darlinghurst what it is and continue to shape the academy to be even better. This has been achieved by working together and our strong community. Thank you.

We love that past children return to Darlinghurst to visit or for their work experience. Mr Felton was over the moon that this week all five work experience students were past PE stars. It is great to discover that they continue their love of sports and learning in secondary and that they want to experience teaching as part of their career development.

We couldn’t waste a photo opportunity. Unfortunately, one student had left before we could grab the camera!

We reminded ourselves of the importance of showing kindness and acceptance as families come in all shapes and sizes. The children in year 2 and 3 showed confidence as they shared and explained how their personal objects represented their family. The children loved learning about their classmates and asked questions in a thoughtful way.

Tiny Tiddlers was filled with warmth and laughter during their session where parents and carers made Tiny Tiddler fish plates and started preparing Father’s Day cards for the special men in their lives.

The Rockpool created a beautiful family portrait which has gone into the reception family album. The children loved sharing this with people around the school taking pride in their work and confidently talking about who is who.

RE

In Year 5, this half term our topic in RE has been focused around ‘What is it like to be a Muslim in Britain Today?’ With that in mind Year 5 had the wonderful opportunity of a visit from Mrs Lee’s sister, Mrs Sheikh.

Mrs Sheikh visited both classes and she explained a little bit about herself and growing up in the local community. She discussed the importance of Islam in her life and compared it to a ‘learning journey’ in much the same way as the children are currently on.

Once Mrs Sheikh had told us about Islam and her faith she showed us some items that she uses daily; these were the Qu’ran, a prayer mat and prayer beads.

Following on from Mrs Sheikh’s talk, she then gave the children the opportunity to ask many questions about Islam and what it was like to be a Muslim in Britain. Some of the questions included…’Why are you a Muslim?’, ‘How many times a day do you pray and for how long?’ and ‘What is difficult about being a Muslim?’

The children did us proud in how they listened to Mrs Sheikh and the thoughtful questions that they asked.

On behalf of Year 5 and Darlinghurst, Thank you Mrs Sheikh.

Learning & Life Skills

During ‘Learning and Life Skills’ this week, year three had to ‘Think, Think, Think’ to solve some logic problems. The children where all determined to succeed and showed resilience when most of them had to try multiple times to find a solution that worked. The first problem they had to solve was:

After many successes with this problem the children then tackled the colours in a jar.

Year three would like to challenge you and your families to take part in our problem solving activities.

Year 3 trip to Colchester

Last Friday, Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed a trip to Colchester Zoo. After a smooth coach journey, we arrived in time to enjoy a snack before exploring the exhibits. The children were incredibly excited and enthusiastic about the animals they saw. There were so interesting things to see. We were treated to a cheetah chasing after a bird, a giraffe up close and the orangutans swinging and playing outside. We had also booked a session about lifecycles which saw our children sharing their superior knowledge and correctly matching eggs to animals. It was a hot and exhausting day but also very memorable. We know the children will remember this trip for years to come!

“This is the best day ever – I don’t want it to end!” – Noah

“My favourite animal was the lion. He was sleeping” – Nathan

“I went to sleep on the coach on the way home because I was so tired” – Frankie

“The best bit was when we saw the cheetah chasing the bird” - Leena

Year 2 trip to Call of the Wild

This week, Year 2 visited Call of the Wild Zoo in South Woodham Ferrers. We explored the zoo, looking for clues about the animals’ habitats. We also heard from zookeepers, Amy and Ben, about how some animals have specifically adapted to live in their environment. Fortunately, we managed to miss the rain whilst we were eating lunch, and the animals were easy to spot in their enclosures during the afternoon sun. The children loved seeing the small African Penguins waddling around their pool, watching the meerkats being fed and witnessing Herbert the armadillo perform in one of his first demonstrations. We had a lovely day out and even some over-zealous goats didn’t spoil our fun.

Year 6 trip to the Tower of London

Last Monday, year 6 enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Tower of London. We enjoyed seeing the Crown Jewels, walking the battlements and exploring the White Tower as well as seeing the ravens and models of the menagerie. The weather was kind to us and the sun shone all day. After all the hard work of SATs, it was lovely to relax and enjoy a day out as a year group.

PE

Quad Kid Athletics

Our Year 2 Quad kids squad were in action at the end of last week in a competition at Garons park. They all represented the academy amazingly, demonstrating all of our school values when throwing, jumping and running their way around the days events. Each and every one of them tried their hardest in what turned out to be a very competitive day.

Well done to all involved.

Girls Football Festival

On Tuesday, some of our Year 4 girls represented the academy in a football skills festival at ‘Shooters’ in Epping. They were all very excited on the way there and did not let the horrible weather dampen their spirits. During the afternoon they had to complete a carousel of football skills events, scoring points along the way. At the end of the event, our team finished in third place and all received a lovely bronze medal each. As always our children represented our academy brilliantly and we are very proud of them all.