William Barcroft does Nativity!

This week our production club put on their own version of Barcroft does Nativity. The club have worked extremely hard- staying late after school to put on a hilarious musical. These children have a real talent for theatre and had many of their parents (and teachers!) in tears at their excellent performance. The play was about a grumpy teacher, fed up with Christmas, and forced to put on the school’s annual nativity play. His   love of Christmas is reignited when Hollywood come to see his play! He is supported by the slightly unprofessional and bubbly teaching assistant, Mr Poppy. Children learnt songs such as Nazareth and Sparkle and Shine and even brought the Christmas magic when singing “One Night, One Moment” under candlelight. Children even developed their improvisation skills with each other too. A huge well done to our production club who, year on year, make us extremely proud and impress us with their unbelievable talents. A big thank you to our parents who attended too and for supporting your children learn their lines and songs!

Welcome to our Autumn Learning Showcase

This week, we invited parents into school to our Autumn Term Learning Showcases. Each year group shared their learning this term – our learning looking at in English, Reading, Maths, Science and Topic. We then shared our books (with tea and biscuits too!) and parents were able to see our learning in action. We’re very proud to show our books and the parents couldn’t believe all the fabulous things we’d been doing!

On Friday 8th December, we enjoyed our Christmas party day! The children looked fantastic in their jumpers, there were lots of sparkles! Staff and children then celebrated with a delicious Christmas dinner, made by our fabulous Mellors’ staff. This was definitely our best Christmas dinner yet! The festive fun didn’t stop there! The afternoon was filled with a Christmas disco! The children enjoyed party games, dancing and singing with their friends. We saw lots of great dance moves – from the children and staff too! We then played party games in our classes with pass the parcel, musical chairs and musical statues! It was a fabulous day all round, we certainly celebrated!

Children in Need

We have raised an amazing amount for Children In Need – £352.82 to be exact!  Thank you to everyone that donated!

Pupil governors helped sell cookies made by the lovely Donna (Mellors) along with her team at break time to help raise funds for Children In Need as well as wearing ‘spotacular’ clothes for the day!

Maths Challenge

On Wednesday 15^th November, we held the very first Maths Challenge of the year! The children were at the ready with their mathematical heads on, ready to battle it out to be crowned the Maths Challenge Champions for the Autumn term! There was some excellent teamwork on display and some even better mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills!

The winners this term were 5HS with a fantastic score of 250 points the runners up were 3C with 240 points. Well done to everyone! Next term our focus for the maths challenge will be on measures…

Remembrance Day

On Friday 10th November, WBJS remembered those who served for our country during the war for ‘Remembrance Day’.  There were lots of respectful discussions, beautiful art work and a 2-minute silence. Our pupil governors sold poppies and there were lots of children and adults proudly displaying them on their jumpers.

Reading theme week

We enjoyed a whole-school reading theme week – The Wind in the Willows! On Tuesday 7^th November, The Image Musical Theatre Company paid us a visit and we absolutely loved their performance with Ratty, Mole and Toad! Our children were even chosen to take part in the performance! They were brilliant: we definitely have some young, budding actors and actresses! In whole class reading, each year group focused on The Wind in the Willows, discussing impressions of the characters, vocabulary and developing our deductive skills.

Some of our year 6 children visited Healing Secondary School to attend a careers fair. The children really enjoyed speaking to local colleges, universities and other professionals. The children learnt all about the different paths they could take once they leave school, inspiring them with what they could be!

Year 6 had a great trip to the Holocaust Centre. We looked at life through the perspective of a Jewish family during Hitler’s reign and WW2. The children enjoyed looking at the traditional living room of a Jewish family. We followed the life of Leo – a 10-year-old Jewish boy living through World War 2. The children delved deeper into the changes to Jewish lives including Jewish children at school. The children even had an opportunity to interview a World War 2 survivor.

The children were moved when visiting the Jewish memorial – they were able to rest a stone on the memorial pile, remembering the Jewish children that were killed during World War 2.

The staff praised the children for their insightful questions and respectful attitudes.

Our careers day was a fantastic event! We had visitors in school from a range of careers – this was a great opportunity to ask questions and find out more about what jobs there are. The children were very intrigued to find out what ‘a day in the life’ looks like in each job! The children finished the day feeling inspired about their future prospects and excited about what they had learnt.

Year 3 had a fabulous day on Careers Day! We thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of our special visitors in the hall and were able to ask these specialists lots of fabulous questions about their jobs such as what they enjoyed about their job and how they got their job. We enjoyed finding out about our teachers and their career paths. We also were able to research a range of different jobs that were related to some of our favourite subjects at school. It was inspiring to find out about the enormous range of careers that are available that people have!

Year 4 enjoyed their sessions during careers day. We came up with some brilliant questions to ask our visitors and really enjoyed experiencing a wide range of job roles. Once we had finished in the hall, we had some interesting discussions about qualifications and what you need to do to be qualified for certain job roles. We enjoyed watching some ‘day in the life’ videos. We got to see a day in the life of a doctor, a footballer, a vet and many more! We had some great debates about which jobs are more demanding time wise, and which jobs may be easier than others.

Year 5 have asked some fantastic questions to the visitors who came in and it has inspired them with all the potential future careers they could have. The pupils have then researched different jobs and created a PowerPoint all about their future dream jobs and what skills they need and the career path to take to achieve this. They have then used this knowledge to make a future career path mind map.

Year 6 focused on our career options and future paths. We first discussed our dream jobs and the jobs we could see ourselves in while looking at our skills and qualities too. We researched a range of different roles in which would suit these qualities or talents. The children researched the career paths needed, training required and how long the training requirements would be, where in which they could achieve these qualifications whether it be college, university or through apprenticeships. The children then took part in some mock interviews where in which we discussed other qualities such as time management, punctuality and team work.