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.

Shoebox Reminder

Last week, Nick from the Rotary Club came in to tell KS1 and KS2 about the Shoebox scheme which we are operating for the second year running in Shirley Warren. Last year we managed to collect about 50 boxes to send to disadvantaged children overseas through the Rotary Club.
How many do you think we can collect this year?
If you have lost your leaflet, you can collect another one at the office.
Your box needs to be in just before half term.

Green Council at Aldermoor Farm

Today, all the members of Green Council were excited to go to a farm which is very local to us called Aldermoor Farm.

Farmer Richard welcomed us to the farm.

In this photo we are looking at the safety notice on the back of the sign so that we know all of the hazards of a working farm.

Can you think of any hazards there might be on a working farm?


Richard gave us a tour of his farm.

One thing he really wanted us to see was his "savings account".  Here is is in the second photo.

Can you guess what it is?

It really smelt disgusting as you can see from some of our faces!
 
Richard gave everyone some old spinach plants to feed the chickens with.  We found out that the chickens ate them very quickly!

 Our next job was to plant some flowers in front of the runner beans.  After they were planted we had to water them and also water the lettuces and other vegetables which the sprinkler couldn't reach.

We found out that Aldermoor Farm has a natural spring and Richard has made lots of hoses and clever ways to make the water effective throughout the whole of the farm.

Finally, we got to feed the chickens seed. We found out that Aldermoor Farm is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9am to 5pm.  There is a shop and if you want to feed the chickens, you can pay 20p for a bag of feed.  It would be lovely to see many families from Shirley Warren visit the farm and get involved. 

https://www.aldermoorfarm.org.uk/

Clean Air Day 2019

Today at Green Council we decided to raise awareness by making large letters spelling out "Clean Air Day"

As we know it's very important to celebrate the air we breathe in and out, we had a go at Ink Blowing to create our letters.  We all had a great time trying to make patterns and mix the ink.

What do you think?

Have you made any pledges for Clean Air Day?

NSPCC- The Great Reveal

If you have been following the blog, you will have noticed that Shirley Warren recently put on their dancing shoes for a sponsored Danceathon in aid of the NSPCC.

Today, Sharon came in with her decimal point shaped mascot, Buddy, to reveal how much we raised, thank the children and explain what their money would go towards.

She invited the children who had raised the most money to take part in turning over the figures.
Although it's hard to see from the picture, we raised £1,206.47 which was just amazing. You could hear gasps of surprise from children and teachers when the thousands column was revealed!

Thank you to everyone who contributed, especially W in KS1 whose parent set up a Just Giving page which raised a few hundred pounds of that amount.

Green Council talks Road Safety and Reducing Plastics

There are two issues concerning Green Council at the moment, and we worked on them in our meeting today.

First, we are still concerned about road safety and secondly (inspired by class 5D) we want to encourage the school to reduce plastic usage in school.

Here we are making posters and designing little sketches for next Thursday's assembly so that we can let our friends know the very important messages about safety and recycling.

Valentines Day 💓 Shirley Warren has a huge heart!

Last week, two parents from our Shirley Warren family who had experience of Ocean Ward and PICU with their children suggested that we ask children to dress in red (or non uniform) on Valentines Day to support these two charities at Southampton General Hospital.

Today saw a lovely selection of red clothes - lots of Saints kits as well!

We are pleased to announce that the total collection amount was £351.82

Well done Team Shirley Warren

💓

NSPCC- Speak Out, Stay Safe

Today in Green Council we welcomed an outside speaker.
Sharon Kay works for the NSPCC and she came to talk to us about how we can speak out and stay safe.

One Year 6 rep kindly wrote minutes for us, which our Year 5 rep helped to write up.
He says:
* Buddy the speech bubble is their mascot
* the charity was founded 134 years ago
* Children would work at 5 because they would be able to work in mines and go under machines, mainly because they were small.  Some children got hurt and they wouldn't be able to do things they wanted if they got hurt.
* They go to every school and they choose a fundraising event
* Green Council want us all in Shirley Warren to do a danceathon
* Some schools do a conga line around the school but we decided we will try cultural dancing

Sharon is going to give us everything we need to do this and hopefully we will be able to raise a large amount of money for the NSPCC.

Playground Buddy training has begun!

Today, children from Key Stage 2 who applied to be a Playground Buddy started their training.
We have over 20 children who want to help other people, which is really fantastic.

The children started by learning how to greet each other politely and practiced with people they didn't know from other classes.  Then it was time to learn our special song:

We're the playground buddies
And we're here to help you play (yay)
With Shirley Warren caps on
To help you all the way (yay)

Our games are old and new (true)
We can help you (true)

We're the Shirley Warren buddies
here to help today (YAY!)

We are going to sing it to the school in our final presentation assembly.

Finally, the playground buddies also learnt a new game called "Riverbank"
then went out to introduce it to KS2.

They were so excited about it. I'm sure it will be just as exciting for Key Stage 1 next week.

Mrs Williams

PSCO Louis comes to visit

Today we had a special visitor in Green Council, PSCO Louis De’Ath.

The children asked him some questions. Here are some of the answers - I wonder if you can guess what they asked him!

He said he started in 2016 after running a hotel. He works out of Redbridge Fire Station. He helps the community and then tries to fix things. If you have a problem or a worry you can talk to him.

He looks after vulnerable people especially if old people are lost. He also get calls about lost pets.  The last thing he did to help someone was knock on someone’s door because he was going to talk to their neighbour, and they actually did need help with their boiler which he was able to do.

He had some leaflets about road safety which was brilliant because as a Green Council, that is one thing we want to focus on next.

If you see PCSO Louis out and about in the community, don't forget to give him a smile and say hello.

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?

The Great Shirley Warren Switch Off

Have you seen the poster outside the school about the Shirley Warren Switch off?

Zaki from the Environment Centre kindly came in and told us about it.

It is happening tomorrow, Friday, from 4-6pm at the Action Centre (church), 117 Warren Crescent,  just near the school.
There will be prizes including torches and a multi cooker.
The event is free to attend so anyone can come along.
There will be inflatables and a slow-cooked meal which is also free.
There will be energy companies there giving advice too, and a parent session from 2-4pm.

At 5.30pm all the prizes will be given and there will be a big switch off with glow sticks.
Nearly 100 people went last year, so please come along and make this year's session even better.

At Shirley Warren Primary and Nursery School we do care about the environment and we hope you will join in too.

For more information please click here:
http://www.shirleywarren.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SWWT-BigSwitchOff-Info-pack.pdf

Playground Markings have been completed!

Did you notice anything different about the look of the bottom playground when you came back from our half term holiday?

We finally saw the playground markings refreshed after we fundraised for Mr Kelly's 50th birthday and we were given a donation by Capita. As you can see, the snakes and ladders game goes all the way up to 100 again.

We hope there will be lots of happy playtimes at Shirley Warren, even though the wintery weather is coming.

Rotary Shoebox Collection at Shirley Warren

In our school, we are proud that we try and help other people and this was the first year we have tried making shoebox gifts for disadvantaged children for the Rotary Club.

Thank you so much to all who generously filled a shoebox, and we will definitely be taking part next year.  Even though it is so early to be thinking about Christmas, we know the boxes have a long way to go before they reach their destination and we hope the children will enjoy what we have packed.

Here is a picture of some of the boxes, ready to be collected by the Rotary Club.

Green Council start their Playground Project

Today, Green Council met for a very important job.

As well as looking at our Class Books and following our agenda, the main activity was to label the new playground equipment.

We wrote SWPNS on the footballs and other playtime equipment. 

We are going to tell our friends in class to look after them and use them carefully.

What do you like playing with in the playground?

Harvest Festival at Shirley Warren

This week our whole school has been collecting food for Basics Bank, which is run by Southampton City Mission and Matt came in to lead an assembly for KS1 and one for KS2. 

We had a lot of fun with a visual story Matt told us from the Bible about the farmer planting the seed in different kinds of ground. Some of it landed on rocky ground and didn't grow.

Other seeds did a little bit better. But the best seeds in the good ground produced a good crop. 

Matt told us that when we give to others we are like the seed planted in good soil. The funniest bit was when Miss Lott dressed up as a crow and "ate" some of the seeds.

We are glad to be a generous school and hope our donations will help many families in the city who don't have enough food.

We support Water Aid

Earlier in the year, Tony from Water Aid came to speak to Green Council about how many people around the world don't have enough water to stay healthy. he challenged us to raise money for Water Aid.  we asked Costco to donate some cups so we could fill them with water and make some money but instead they gave us a cheque for £50 for Water Aid.

Last week, Tony came in to be presented with the cheque. He had the opportunity to share more about Water Aid with every class in Key Stage 2, so we all have more awareness of Global Issues around water.

Here is the cheque Costco sent.

PCSO Visit to Green Council

Today, PSCO Louis De'Ath came to tell us about his job.

He works at Redbridge Fire Station.
We thought that the police arrest people, give warnings, investigate and help at car accidents.
We found out that most importantly, they help people!

Louis is a PCSO. A Police Community Support Officer. If you are lost and you see him, he can help you.  He wants to make sure everyone is OK.  He showed us his special radio.  He likes cycling along Warren Avenue.

He said the biggest thing we can do to help the police is to talk to them! Tell someone you trust if something is happening that isn't right. Just like in school, we need to talk to each other to help everyone be safe.

Sometimes he has to check if there are children playing safely, and he reminded us to take care on the roads and look both ways. We are going to remind our class how to stay safe.

If you see PCSO Louis around, will you give him a smile or a wave?

Clean Air at Shirley Warren

Today, Jean MacGrory from My Journey at Hampshire County Council came to talk to us about Clean Air at Shirley Warren.

We learnt that pollution is bad for the environment, for example by factories and burning fossil fuels.  Southampton is in the top 5 worst cities in the UK for pollution.
Cars are one of the worst way in which our city is polluted.
We found out that we can do things like walk or cycle to school and have plants around the house.
We need to share with our families that we need to be thinking about using our cars less if possible.
Jean told us all about Clean Air Day on 21st of June. It's a Thursday but you could go after school and there are things for children to do until 7pm.

She also left leaflets with clean air advice, including a new app to help asthma and people with breathing problems find out what their air quality is like.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about Clean Air and how we can help, you can ask Mrs Williams, the Green Council leader.

Water Aid Speaker comes to Green Council

Today Tony Ridley come to speak to Green Council about Water Aid.

Mrs Williams made notes so that the Green Council reps can share with their classes the information he gave. This blog is a good way of sharing information.

Tony worked for HSBC and they supported the Water Aid charity and let him talk about it to local groups. He is now retired, but still does talks for Water Aid. He told us:
* 884 million (that's 884,000,000) people had no access to safe water in 2011, the figure now is only 650 million!
* Children often get diseases and may miss school as they have to get water.
*900 children under 5 die every day from very very bad tummy bugs.
* You can only go 3 days without water.
* In the UK people use on average 150 litres a day. In Africa they use 10 litres a day.
* 2.3 billion (that's 2,300,000,000) people don't have access to a toilet. That's about 30% of the world.
* Water Aid works with local people to provide sustainable solutions.  Here is a picture of some of the things they do.


We are going to raise some money for Water Aid charity and will make plans for that at our next Green Council meeting.