Hollesley Primary School

Hollesley School Litter Pick

On Tuesday and Wednesday before the half term holiday Key Stage Two all went out on a big litter pick.

First of all Year 3 and 4 (Turtles) went out on Tuesday afternoon down to Hollesley recreation ground wearing their yellow high-vis jackets, and with their litter picking sticks and plastic bags to fill up with all the rubbish they could find. Within an hour of looking round the area Turtles found only a small amount of rubbish, but were still very determined to find more.

On Wednesday it was Year 5 and 6 (Otters) turn to do some litter picking. This time they went round the back of the school onto the lane where they found a lot of rubbish such as: spray can bottles, empty water bottles, coke cans and lots more plastics but the most random thing we found was a full jar of pickled onions! Ewan from Year 5 said “it’s a bit weird finding lots of pieces of rubbish in these bushes since we live in such a nice area!”

Year 5 and 6 Hockey Trip

On Tuesday 21st May 2019 Year 5 and 6 went to Ipswich High School to take part in a hockey outreach program.

When we arrived we had a talk with the host and we were then sent off to our stations to do the activities they had planned for us. Year 5 went to play some matches and Year 6 went to learn some skills and tricks. Once we had all finished our sessions we went to a little stall outside the sports pitches to get some refreshments. We all got cookies and drinks and they were extremely tasty. Then the groups switched so Year 6 did the games and Year 5 did the skills and tricks.

Then it was finally time to go home so we all collected our belongings and said thank you and good bye and we went back on the mini bus. We all had a fun morning and we enjoyed it very much!

By Imogen and Ellie

The School Farm and Country Fair

On Thursday 25^th April 2019, Year 3 and 4 went to the School Farm and Country Fair at Trinity Park. We have written this with some of the children who went on the trip.

When we arrived we couldn’t wait to get out of the bus because we were so excited and full of energy. First we visited the coastguard stand. Chloe said, “I learnt a lot from them including that if the flag is red then it is not safe to go out to sea, if the flag is orange then it is too windy to go out and if the flag is black and white then there are people surfing so be careful.”

 After that, we climbed on some cars and inflatable boats and of course we were NOT expecting that but it was really fun. Then something really exciting happened - the air ambulance started coming down in the middle of the field and we all got to have a look in it!

Next we went to see the woodcarvers who were working on some projects. Kaison said, “They make cricket bats out of willow trees. We didn’t get to see them but I bet they were really cool!” An awesome fact we learnt is that 70% of the cricket bats that are used around the world are made in England. We also learnt to tell how old a tree is by looking at the rings and markings on them.

Then we went into a big tent with lots of exciting stalls: honey tasting, birds of prey, Sutton Hoo and The Wild Meat Company. Then we saw a MASSIVE model Viking ship and there were people dressed up as Vikings. After that we went on a tractor and trailer ride. It was lots of fun seeing everything while we went around.

Next we went to an arena and watched a shepherd with his sheepdog rounding up some sheep into a pen. We were all tired so were happy when our teacher said it was lunch time!

After that we learned about modern farming and how to lay the seeds with the machines and it was really quite interesting. We also learned about fertiliser and livestock.

Finally we went into a big barn and we got to see lots of animals and their babies. We got to hold some baby ducklings and chicks and they were so cute! We also saw: Beagle puppies, lambs, piglets, calves, kids (baby goats not us), Shire horses and alpacas. Before we left we got to try some delicious sausages!

Our School Trip to London

On Thursday 28^th February 2019, all of class 5/6 woke up very enthusiastically ready to go on the school trip to London! Some were anxious and had a belly full of butterflies and others woke up eager to get going on the train!

After 5/6 (Otters) had a nutritious breakfast they set off to Woodbridge train station and boarded the 8:38 Greater Anglia service to Ipswich station where we had to change for the 9:09 train to London Liverpool Street- we were very lucky on this train because we had reserved seats: some of us even got a table to sit by and play board games.

As we arrived in London, we were astounded at the amazing architecture around us. We had about a 10 minute walk to get to our first destination (The London Museum). On the way there we saw sections of the old city walls that used to surround London. We started to notice some differences between London and Hollesley almost right away: we could not hear any birds tweeting (the noise not the app, Twitter) and we could only see pigeons; the streets were crowded with people and they were moving so fast and no-one was stopping to say hello – unlike in Hollesley, where people always say, “Hello!”; we could smell the reek of air pollution from cars but…… there were also other smells which were a lot nicer with things like Greggs, coffee shops and other food restaurants – whereas in Suffolk our air is a lot cleaner. Some other things we noticed were that in London there were far more police and a lot more beeping of horns and some very different fashions.

We were met by a lady (who was called Maggie) as we entered The Museum of London, and she led us to the space where we would have our lunch. Then we collected our work packs and pencils and headed off to the exhibits. There were so many things to do and learn about: grave stones from rich Londoners, interactive games and even a miniature sculpture of St Pauls!

After we had looked at all the fantastic exhibits we sadly had to make our way to the underground once again!

When we got off the underground we took a walk to the Science Museum. Within minutes we were inside, dropping our bags off and heading upstairs (there were hundreds) to the Wonderlab. When we got there we sat down so our guide could tell us the rules. When we got into the actual Wonderlab we all spread out to look at different activities that we could do. There were lots of things to do: friction slides, spinning scale models of planets, magic mirror oval, heat cameras, pressure smoke machine and so many more! We learnt all about electricity and there was a big machine that created indoor lightning. Lawrence exclaimed, “The lightning thing was sick (cool)!” However Chloe disagreed, she thought, “It was just too loud!” It was, though, highly educational and fun, we learnt a lot and got to complete lots of hands on activities around forces, sound and light.

We finished the afternoon off in the Space Gallery. We explored the space-craft, space-suits and other items to discover that when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, capsules need special coating to withstand the immense heat created when it hits the thicker air because of friction. We discovered why astronauts need specially designed cooling systems in their underwear, and what happens if their suits get ripped. Did you know that after 15 seconds in Space without your suit, you’d be unconscious? We learnt about Helen Sharman, (the first British astronaut) and of course more about the Moon landings and the Apollo missions.

The day was over all too quickly though, and after a quick (and we mean quick) trek across the Underground, we were safely on board the 16:08 to Ipswich and on the way to tell our families all about our amazing day in London.

On Monday 5^th February 2019 some students from years 5/6 went to Inspire Sports Centre to play a basketball tournament against several other Suffolk schools.

We all had to go straight from home to the sports centre without going to school first, unless you were one of the people who were being taken to the competition by the school teachers. If you were one of those people then you had to get to school really early for the teachers to then pick you up and be on their way.

When we got there we found out that it wasn’t possible for us to win the competition as we had to have five girls and five boys to be able to win, yet we had 9 boys and 1 girl and that one girl just so happened to be me (Imogen), but we played anyway just for fun and it turned out that I scored a goal and we also won a match!

The first match was not the best and we didn’t score; not even one goal. The second match was a lot better, as during the first half we scored 1 goal and in the next match we scored 7 goals so we were all very pleased about that. Unfortunately, the third match was against a school called Britannia and they are a very big school with very good players so they won, but we all had lots of fun and enjoyed ourselves when we were there. We interviewed a couple of the players to see what they thought about the tournament, Harry said that it was, “…fun…” and that he enjoyed it very much, to which Max added, “It was super cool and very challenging!”

By Imogen and Ellie

For an afternoon each week for the past few weeks, year 5/6 have been visited by OneLife Suffolk. OneLife is an organisation which has been set up to help people to live healthier lives.

On the first week we were told by our teacher that we were going to have a visitor, but we didn’t know who it was going to be! When they got here they wanted to get to know us and how much we know about our bodies. We were split into groups to draw a body and all the important things inside it such as: the heart, the lungs and the stomach!  After we did that our OneLife teacher let us show our drawings to the class and explain about one of the important body parts we had drawn.

The following week we learnt about different foods and drinks that were healthy and unhealthy. First we went into the hall and our OneLife teacher set out a large pie chart that was called ‘The Eat Well Guide’. It had different sections of all the food groups such as: fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy! We were then set into groups of four and were given a card with a picture of some food on it. We then had to run and drop it onto the correct food group. Then the teacher told us whether we had put the cards in the correct group and she explained about all of the different food groups.

The most recent time OneLife came in, they explained about unhealthy foods that you shouldn’t eat too much of, and how much sugar you should have in a day. If you are 4-6 years of age you should have no more than the equivalent of 5 sugar cubes a day, if you are 7-10 years you should have no more than 6 sugar cubes a day and if you are 11 and upwards you should have no more than 7 sugar cubes a day! We looked at different foods and drinks and found out how much sugar was in them.

Over all the OneLife experience has been very fun and interesting so far, and we can’t wait to find out what is next in store for us!

Intro

Wow! It is a new term and a new year for our school and we are really excited to see what is in store for us this year! Some of us have been making New Year’s resolutions in assemblies and in our own classes. Do you have a New Year’s resolution?                                                                                                                                                                

Woodland trust

Hollesley School has been kindly donated some trees and hedges by the Woodland Trust to plant in our school field to further improve our environment. Since we have been given our new trees we have been taking good care of each and every one of them. Each class has planted some trees, and gardening club have planted lots! The trees are getting on very well and are soon going to look beautiful in our school field. We are hoping to make our school even more environmentally friendly and a happy place for young minds to use their imagination.

The New Bike Shed

Our school is currently raising money towards a new bike shed which we will have for students who cycle to school to store their bikes in. We are hopefully going to do lots more cake sales, competitions and other events to raise money towards the bike shed! The Friends committee are helping us by holding some fundraising events. We have raised quite a lot of money so far but still need a bit more so any suggestions for fundraising ideas would be appreciated. These fundraising ideas are partly thought of and discussed by the school council. We also have a suggestion box for any ideas from other children for the school council to discuss.  

We hope you had a very happy Christmas and Happy New Year from us both!

Ellie and Imogen

On the Monday 19^th of November 2018 all of class 5/6 went on a residential to Norfolk Lakes.

We arrived at the site at around 2:00 pm, got all of our bags out of the bus and instantly got a short tour around the main building. After we settled into our dorm, and got ready for our first activity.

We were split into two groups of nine with a mixture of year 5’s and 6’s. Group 4 went caving (it was man-made) and group 5 went orienteering. It was so much fun.

In the evening of the first day group 4 went to do low ropes which is an obstacle course that you don’t need a harness for you just need a partner that you trust.

The next day, we went kayaking for the whole morning and we were FREEZING! But we managed to survive! It was fun though. We had to play lots of games and at the end we did a big half a circle around the lake. After that we split up again and group 4 did blind trial which is where we put blind folds on and held onto each other’s shoulders and follow each other around a course and group 5 did archery.

After that we came back together in our dorms and got ready for our next activity. In the evening we went into the dinner hall and split into four groups for a quiz.

The next day we woke up bright and early and group 4 got ready to do obstacle course and group 5 five got ready to do the blind trail. We then had a rest in our dorms as we were all very tired but then, of course, we had another activity so we all got ready and went to meet our instructor ready to go to our next activity.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to giant stand up paddle boarding and we all went on the paddle boards. Around 10 people fit on each board. We all got on the paddle boards and raced each other to the end of the lake. Lauren said, “It was so fun I really enjoyed it!” Sam said, “We were all a bit nervous from the kayaks since we got really cold but the paddle boarding wasn’t bad at all!”

After a fantastic giant paddle boarding experience we all went to dinner and then played team games - dodgeball, football and cricket.

The next day we went to meet our instructors for the next activity. One of the groups went on a lake walk and saw 4 herons and 3 swans. Our instructor said that it was amazing how many herons we saw because herons rarely get seen around Norfolk Lakes!

The other group went to camp crafts to learn how to build a tent and make hot chocolate out of a survival kit. Soon after camp craft and the lake walk the whole class met each other in the main hall. One group of people did climbing and the other did fencing. When we did climbing some people could climb all the way up the climbing wall. Naham said, “I climbed all the way to the top and it was really cool!” Fencing was really fun and we learnt how to fence properly. After that we were ready to sleep the whole night through and where excited to go home the next day! We had a great time.

As a school, we are taking part, with some other local schools, in the 2018 Peninsula Poppy Project. This is a community project to commemorate one hundred years since the end of World War 1. Last school year in July, to launch the project, the whole of Hollesley, Bawdsey and Sandlings schools met on our school field to have a photo taken. We were all given sheets of coloured card to hold above our heads. Then, in groups, we were taken group by group to go and sit in certain places. At last, when we were all in our places, it was time for a drone to come and take the picture from above our heads! We were all told to stand up and put our piece of card above our heads in a certain way so that the picture looked right. We all had absolutely no idea what it was going to turn out as! After about one million (exaggerating) photos we had finally finished the photo taking. It turned out that by holding up our sheets of card we had created a huge picture of a poppy.

As well as taking part in the Peninsula Poppy Project, Year 5 and 6 are also learning about World War 1 in more detail as our topic for this half term. On 13^th September year five and six went to Landguard Fort. Firstly when we arrived, a tour guide came to introduce himself. After he had introduced himself we set off into the fort. It was absolutely huge. He led us to a room to put our coats and bags in, then we followed him to a look out. It was so amazing, our whole class could see over to the docks. Glory said “I think it was a very pretty view!”

After we looked at the docks we finally walked back to settle down for lunch. Everyone had a lovely lunch and we were very excited to move on to the next activity. Mr Patterson led us down to the beach to watch an enormous container ship coming into the port. When we saw it we were amazed at how big it was and how many containers were on it. Mr Patterson told us to draw a picture of the docks. The whole class did lovely drawings and then we finally went home.

By Ellie and Imogen