As previously referred to, the Junior School Summer Production was a huge success.  The children were superb and a real credit to their parents.  You must be very proud of their magnificent performances.  Please look out for a selection of photographs that will be on view very soon outside the school office. 

At the same time, we have been able to fundraise in aid of Haven House Children’s Hospice.  The retiring collections were added to the sale of “Golden Ticket Chocolate Bars” and the total amount raised is £517.74.  Thank you so much for your never ending generosity in aid of this good cause.

The children also thoroughly enjoyed hunting for the five golden tickets.  So far, only two prizes have been claimed so, if your child has found a golden ticket, please do let us know.  The lucky winners so far are Sophie (Year 4 Allen) and Ishika (Upper Kindergarten Thomas).

As you are no doubt aware, the children were invited to take part in a sponsored Big Bean Challenge in aid of Barnardo’s.  They brought home a seed which they planted and watered with a challenge of helping it grow as big as possible.  This morning, we held a special assembly with children in each class showing their tallest and smallest beans.  The overall winner with the tallest bean shoot was Amrit Chahil in Lower Kindergarten.  Well done to all the children who put their “green fingers” to the test and special congratulations to Amrit for tending to your bean so well.  All pupils who participated were entered into a raffle and the winner, Harrison received a big cuddly teddy bear.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored this project and we hope the children enjoyed the experience.  We are delighted to announce that we have raised £3039.60 in aid of this very worthy children's charity.

This year we decided to run an inter-house speech competition for Key Stages 1 and 2 and this will become an annual event.  There were four representatives from each year group – one from each house – and the speakers read to our assembly on Wednesday 12th May.  Points were awarded by our judge, Mr. Goodman.  All the speakers received a certificate with the winning team, Beech, being awarded with our new House Speech Competition Cup.  Well done to all the entrants for performing so well and with such confidence.  Congratulations to the winning house, Beech.

Well done to all the children and let’s see if you can retain the cup next year …..!

Thank you to all the parents who helped create some magnificent Easter bonnets at the end of last term for our school Easter Parade.  The children very proudly marched throughout the school and the grounds, displaying their impressive creations to one and all.  It was a most fitting celebration for the time of year and we hope the children enjoyed it as much as the staff did!

In mid-March we celebrated Science Week at school.  The theme has been “Down to Earth”.  Many classes have been making and flying rockets – thanks to FOCHS for the compressed air launcher!  It’s brilliant.  Years 3 and 5 went to GSK Harlow for volcano workshops.  They were taught about how volcanoes occur and where they appear, then made a paper model with a chemical volcano.  Much fun was had by all!  Year 6 followed on with a solids, liquids and gases demonstration on Friday morning.  Very thrilling!  A big thank you to Mrs. Sankey for arranging such interesting and informative sessions for our children. 

Thursday afternoon saw the visit of the Kinetic Theatre Group.  Pupils from Transition through to year 6 saw “Robin & The Withering Wood” which informed the children all about food chains and was much enjoyed by them all.    This was provided by FOCHS and our thanks again to the Parents Association for providing such a valuable and worthwhile treat.

Eruptions by Emma, Year 3
Children from year 3 went to GSK in Harlow for a science workshop.  It was all about volcanoes.  We talked about them and how they erupted.  We got to do an experiment to make a volcano of our own.  We used some vinegar which had turned red with some food colouring.  We got some baking powder and had to put four little spoonfuls of it in a plastic cup and poured the vinegar in it.  It all erupted all over the tray!  It was a fantastic trip and we would like to say a big thank you to Mrs. Keef.

The Oak-Tree Group Music and Dance Festival was held on Thursday 4th March 2010 at Chingford Assembly Hall, Station Road, Chingford at 6.45pm.  This was the first ever co-ordinated music and dance event involving all three Oak-Tree Schools.

The programme included a variety of vocal and instrumental items, such as ‘Drop in the Ocean’ by Kashif/Stilgoe, ‘Do-re-mi’ from the Sound of Music and ‘I can see clearly now’ by Johnny Nash.
A group of Normanhurst pupils performed a dance to ‘America’ from West Side Story, Coopersale entertained the audience with a country and western dance to ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ and Oaklands performed their dramatic dance entry for the British Red Cross Dance for Life competition, to be held later in the summer term, to music by Michael Jackson.
The second half brought all 3 schools together in a large choral arrangement of ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’.
The evening was a huge success, and great fun for both the participants and the audience.

Mrs. Sankey very kindly came to see our year 1 children on Thursday to put them through their paces with her “Body Assault Course”. They had to complete an assault course, collect bones and make a skeleton. They then had to name the bones and the final activity was to put the organs onto a tunic worn by another child. The children thoroughly enjoyed this session and impressed Mrs. Sankey with their scientific knowledge to date.

We very much appreciate Mrs. Sankey bringing her expertise into our school and we send our grateful thanks to her.

On 2nd January, 2010, year 4 went on a trip to St. Alban’s Museum because Romans are our topic and so are the Celts.  When we got there after a 40 minute coach ride, we watched a video.  After we looked at the Roman clothes like the helmet, sword and also the metal armour.  I was impressed by the huge mosaics which had lovely patterns like people and animals.  After we went into a section which had pots, pans and also coins.  What you had to do was get a gold or silver crayon and put a piece of paper on the 3D coin with an emperor on then go over with the crayon rubbing the pattern.  After we went into a food section which would tell you what they ate or what they used to make it with.  Later on we went through a Roman villa with a man doing writing on a waxed  wooden book with a wooden stylus.  Next we saw the kitchen with a woman cutting vegetables and also there were rats everywhere.  After that we saw a man in a coffin and he had spotless teeth.  Later on we went into a white hypocaust building with a huge mosaic on the floor.  Then we went into a café to have lunch and we had a roll, crisps, fruit, a drink and a chocolate bar.  Then we went back on the coach and we all really enjoyed ourselves.