Green Council and voting at Shirley Warren.

Today Green Council had a very important job - to vote for one child in Key Stage 1 and one in Key Stage 2 who would be the Good Egg. Good Egg is an award which is presented by the governors to two children who have been consistently kind and helpful throughout the term.

Earlier in the week, every class noninated children they thought could be the Good Egg and then the class had a vote. Mrs Williams helped the KS1 children see what it was like to write on a voting slip, put it in the "ballot box" and take out votes and count them. We learnt lots of words to do with voting like "majority".

Parliament Week is a charity which supports schools to learn about the process of voting in a democracy and they sent us resources for Parliamt Week this year, which was in November. We were a bit late, but with the General Election yesterday it was a good time to learn about what happens.

Here we are after the voting.
The winners will be announced in the final assembly.

Discussing Elections at Shirley Warren

Today we had a visit from our new councillor, Sally Spicer, who is also a governor.

She told us that she got elected for the Labour Party for the city council. She is looking after an area which is called Redbridge Ward which is Millbrook, Maybush and Lordshill.

We had questions to ask her:
Why did you want to be a councillor?
I like helping people and I want to make the area better for people.

I want the park to be better in Millkbrook, there is going to be a big new park in Mansel Park.
Another passion is housing, I want more council houses.
We can't always do the things we want to do because we don't have lots of money.
I am on committees like the licencing committee.
There is a new Lidl being built so I have been working on that and residents are happy they have a different shop to go to as well as Tesco and Sainsburys.
Recently a bus stop that elderly residents use was stopped so Sally has sent lots of emails to try and change this. Here is a photo.

What did you study in school?
I wasn't political, I wanted to look after children.  There isn't a criteria when you want to be a candidate: I had to say I wanted to help people and I got chosen by my party.

Why did you want to be part of it?
I feel we need people to do good things in the city.

How do you help people?
Sometimes they phone me and I've got a website.

Are you happy about what you're doing?
Yes, I work at the hospital so I do this in my spare time.

How hard was it?
Quite hard because you have to convince people you are best for the job.

Are you having a good time with your work?
Yes, it's very rewarding and I have done things like help keep the swimming pool open.

What was one of the easiest things?
Getting the hedges cut along Romsey Road.

And the hardest?
Oaklands Pool

Democracy - Good Egg

In Shirley Warren, we know and understand the British Value of democracy.
This is where everyone has a say and we use a vote to show what the majority have chosen.

In our school, we have an award called the Good Egg, which is presented to one child in Key Stage 1 and one in Key Stage 2 at the end of every term. The child is someone who is shows kindness, respect and support as voted by their peers.

This is how the process works. 
First, children nominate someone in their class, with reasons why that child is a good egg.
Second, the class have a vote and the winning name is sent to our Green Council meeting.
Finally, Green council have the difficult task of listening to the descriptions of all of these amazing pupils and voting on the ones the governor will present the award to.

We keep that name a secret until the end of term assembly.
Today Green Council will vote for Autumn 2018's Good Egg.
If you were going to nominate someone in your class, who would it be and why?

Nurture Quality Mark Award

It was a proud day here at Shirley Warren Primary as Councellor Paffey presented the Nurture team with the 'Marjory Boxall Quality Award' in recognition of meeting the quality standards mark for our Nurture Provision.  This is a great achievement for Mrs Bedwell, Miss Allen and SENCo Mrs Dinnage who have worked hard to gain this award.  We would like to thank representatives from the Nurture Network who accompanied Councellor Paffey.

Bike Event at The Hub

Exciting news! The bike tickets have been collected throughout the year by children who have been at school every day in a week. The box with the tickets in had to get bigger and bigger as more tickets were collected. Last week, the assembly came when the winner was drawn. She then went to The Hub to be measured for her bike and choose the colour and the accessories that she wanted. What a lucky girl she is!

Safer Internet Day

I dropped in to see Year 4 who were making e-safety posters and writing 'pledges' - some terrific ideas and work. Then had a chance to attend the e-safety assembly demonstrating the work everyone has done across the school on this important part of life!

Chris Thomas
Governor

Art and Maths Day!

On Thursday, we had a very exciting day! We got told that it was Maths and Art day. We had to look at a painting by Kandinsky that had lots of different polygons and shapes within it. We talked about the painting and how interesting it was, some of us saw a sun and a moon in the picture. Miss Smith had found what she thought was a boat so we all got to look for it! Then we went to the ICT suite to make our own pictures inspired by what we had seen in Kandinsky's painting. Later we got to draw them on paper and use watercolours to paint them. We had a lovely afternoon painting and we all thought it was great fun! Well done Y3S, you are all super talented artists!

Year enjoy Art and Maths Day

For this special day, we looked at the artist Auguste Herbin. His art work features colourful 2D shapes. We looked at his pictures and labelled the 2D shapes we could see. We then planned our own pictures in the Style of Herbin and labelled the 2D shapes we wanted to use. Our challenge was to use the faces of 3D shapes to draw our 2D shapes. Can you see the shapes in our final paintings?

Send My Friend to School Day

Today in assembly Shirley Warren presented their research about the "Send My Friend to school" campaign. Some parents and governors came to support our learning.

We got into groups and we researched about the countries we were given and about their education lifestyle and before that we wrote down what we thought we should keep in the Rights Respecting School charter.

Year 2's display board showing what we would do if we were World Leaders. Year 6 made 3d World Leaders.

One of our students quotes about if they were a World Leader

Our school received a certificate from Send My Friend to School Campaign 

Shirley Warren felt very strongly about this campaign that they will carry on helping in the future.

By K in Year 6

Governor's View of French Day

"French day at Shirley Warren

I was very lucky to spend the afternoon with RG and RS who had learnt the French for 'hello', 'goodbye' and 'thank you', where France is and what the French flag looks like. 

Assembly at the end of the day gave us all the chance to see the wonderful work that the whole school had done.

Tres bien."

Alice Hodges

School Governor

Bastille Day en ecole

"I was in Year 3R and learnt my numbers, body part, colours and combing body part and colours. We were creating monsters and we could say that they had 3 multi-coloured hands. It was with great relief that I discovered that my French had not completely escaped me. It was great fun watching the children's faces when they found out that they were drawing monsters with two noses. A most enjoyable and educational morning."

Chris Thomas
School Governor

Final Day at Stubbington!

Here are the photos from our final day. We played Stubbington fox where the children got to be foxes and the teachers were farmers and had to try and catch the pesky foxes (this is why they had stamps all over them when they got home). The children then packed and had their final lunch.

Enterprise Fayre at Shirley Warren

On Friday, each class set up their stalls to raise money money for their chosen charity. They made goods to sell and designed a game for people to play. The Friends of Shirley Warren had their own stall too! The weather was fantastic and there was a great turn out of customers buying all of our amazing products. We are waiting to see how much money we raised, but we are all sure (and proud) that we raised lots of money for charities that range in countries and purposes linked to our Rights. Here are some pictures of the afternoon.

Stubbington: Day 4

Yesterday morning the children walked down to the beach and made their own rock pools. They went down the beach to find critters to put into their rock pools, they found crabs, winkles, the common whelk and anemones! It was great fun and all of the children found something to add in. (I think they enjoyed paddling in the water with their wellies). They searched for fossils and sharks teeth, then had a sandcastle competition in their groups. In the afternoon we went pond dipping and found animals and bugs, they caught great waterboat, dragonfly nymphs, fish and even a newt. We then went to do some earthwalks, where the children had to use their senses to explore the conservation area. In the evening we competed in our houses at the Stubbington 'S Factor', the lucky owls won! We then had a film night when we got back to our dormitories. The children are excited to come home today!

Stubbington: Day 3

We have had a very busy third day. The children (and staff) are starting to become very very tired! Last night we went out to the Hide and were extremely lucky to see three badgers and 3 foxes, the foxes came really close to us and we got some great pictures. This morning we went to collect our mammal hotels to see whether we had any visitors. We had a baby bank vole and a male adult bank vole. We learnt all about the adaptation of the vole and the mouse. This afternoon the children took part in the much awaited Earthquake activity. They had a fantastic time and only a couple of the children got wet! This evening after dinner the children took part in Stubbington Murder, where they had to find out who had murdered Deadly Demon! 08/07/15

Stubbington: Day 2 part 2

This afternoon the children went into the Stubbington conservation area to search for signs and tracks of the animals. They managed to spot some paw prints, quite a few holes that animals live in and even some droppings! Year 5 then made some small mammal hotels, where they will hopefully be able to catch some animals to observe and learn about tomorrow. They are very excited as we are all off to The Hide to see if we will be lucky enough to see some badgers or foxes! 07/07/15

More Woodmill fun!

Year 6 at Woodmill

The Year 6 children are at Woodmill! Accompanied by Miss Lott, Miss Jones, Mrs Cook, Ged (a school governor) and Mr Fairbank, the Year 6 started their camping adventure. This involved a meal all together, playing ball games and a dusk walk (where we spotted a deer). We sat around a camp fire and toasted marshmallows and then got ourselves sorted for bed. The night was cold and some sleep was had. Here are some photos of what has happened so far.

The Stubbington Study Centre Trip

I have long understood the power of Outdoor Education: Done well, it can provide a platform from which both children and adults can grow. Experiences gained can have far reaching effects, and provide memories that can last a lifetime. Therefore its importance should never be underestimated. This is why I believe that residential trips such as the Stubbington Study Centre offered at Shirley Warren are a MUST experience that every child should have access to.

I had the pleasure of spending sometime there this summer passed with children that then were Y5. When I arrived, the main sound that filled the air was that of excited children running about, some with clipboards some without obviously engaged in different challenges that had been set. From a well-organised schedule the children get to participate in a variety of different activities throughout the week ranging from: studying pond life; setting mammal hotels which, if successful, enable the children to take a closer look at nature; beach combing; shelter building to name but a few! All designed to facilitate learning, teamwork and fun. One of the activities I particularly enjoyed watching was the ‘Earthquake Challenge’ getting the children to negotiate, lead their team, share ideas, help individual team members, then self-evaluate their efforts as a team at the end of each stage before they could move on to the next stage, which for me was wonderful to witness.

There was adequate free time when the children could play, make new friends or strengthen existing friendships from shared experiences. Surprise visitors added an extra element of excitement for the children, the outdoor experience is a great leveler; try the plank walk! To top it all off the final evening I witnessed the ‘S’ Factor, Stubbington’s own singing competition which the children had been practicing for all week- so captivating were the performances it was difficult to maintain dry eyes, 'amazing' is the only word suitable to describe such an event.

There was evidence a common thread ran through the whole experience for the children whilst at the centre, Teamwork, Respect and Responsibility. The whole experience created at the Centre is all skilfully managed with appropriate boundaries maintained not only by the centre staff but also by the dedicated teaching staff at Shirley Warren who give up valuable time with their family and friends to help facilitate such a wonderful experience for the children must not go unmentioned. May I personally applaud such dedication on behalf of the Governors at Shirley Warren.

I look forward to visiting the next generation of adventures at the Stubbington Study Centre this coming year.

                                                                      Ged Hayes-Gerrard                                                                                                                                    (thecyclingbear)

Cake Sale

The 'Friends Of Shirley Warren' were raising money by having another brilliant cake sale. Here are some of the entries, including the winners. Make me feel hungry just looking ta some these delicious creations.