Education Site

Just a quick message to let you all know that the Year 6 children and all of the staff have arrived safely in London and are currently enjoying themselves at the Science Museum! We hope they all have a fantastic time!!!

On Friday 29 January the children of St Augustine's came to school in fancy dress or their own clothes to raise money for the victims of the eartquake in Haiti. Children in Year 3 and Year 3/4 also brought cakes to sell. Overall £660 and counting has been raised, which is a magnificent total! Thank you to all of the children and parents for this super effort!

On the first day of the new term the children got all wrapped up for some fun in the snow! Take a look at some of the photos...

All of the children at St. Augustine's, from nursery to year 6, had a fantastic, fun-filled day on the last Monday of term. The children enjoyed discos, party games, Christmas crafts and a party food feast. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this day such a success!

You may remember that last year all the children in school were asked to submit a piece of writing to be included in our very own book.

Well...the time has come for the book to be released!

The book, titled 'We are Writers', will be available to view and order at the book fair which will run from Monday 16th November to Thursday 19th November before and after school in the hall. As well as providing a fantastic memento of your child's work, each book sold will raise funds to buy books for our new school library.

If you wish to find out more you can visit the We Are Writers website at www.wearewriters.com.

We look forward to hearing your comments!

'The two Steves', children's authors, Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore will be joining us on November 18, 2009 for a fun filled day of workshops for all of the children in Key Stage 2 as part of the Northern Children's book festival. Gateshead Library service will be providing us with a range of books written by the two Steves so that the children will be familiar with their writing before the big event however if you can get hold of any of their books beforehand that would be super!

Books will also be available for the children to buy at lunchtime on the 18th and 19th of November. If they would like their book signed by either of the Steves they must be bought on the 18th. The books cost either £4.99 or £5.99.

Happy reading!

This is a small collection of Year 5's work based upon the Renoir painting 'The Umbrellas'.

We all brought our own umbrellas into school and took close up photographs of them. Using these photos we practised sketching the shapes of umbrellas.

We used our umbrellas to try and make really interesting shadows on the ground.

We took photos of the shadows we were making.

We used colour wheels to choose colours we thought would really stand out against our black shadows.

After the backgrounds of our paintings were dry we painted our shadows black. We think they look great!

In our Maths lessons we looked at the shapes we could see in the Eiffel Tower which was constructed at around the time of the painting for the Universal Exhibition in 1889.

We could see it was made from structurally strong triangles and we had a go at making some of our own strong towers.

We used an editing website to experiment with changing effects on our photos and printed our favourites.

These edited photos were then used to inspire our own work.

We looked closely at what the people in the painting were wearing. We especially liked the little giris dress. We decided to create clay models and decorate them.

We painted splashes onto canvas. We decided that in stormy weather the sky is very dark, so mixed blues with black and white.

We used a range of plastic materials and wire to create 3D splashes.

We created miniature umbrellas using wire. We twisted wires together and curved them to make the handle then used more wires to create the shape of the top of an umbrella.

As part of our take one picture project, our class expeimented with the use of shadows in photography. Creating different images using umbrellas, different backgrounds and ourselves

We were just about to start practising for our Nativity so Miss Dunsire had to snap us quickly. It didn't matter though because we were sitting in such straight lines on the carpet listening to Mr McVittie that she barely even had to move us!

Years 5 and 6 took part in a Science Easter egg hunt and had a great time searching for clues around school, learning about reversible and irreversible changes and eventually eating chocolate eggs (the hard work was worth it in the end!)

Year 5 attended a Singing Festival at Cardinal Hume Catholic School on Thursday 5th March 2009.

With so many schools taking part it was important we remembered which line we were in. Other schools included; St. Peter's, St. Alban's and St. Anne's.

Ros Flint led the musical celebration while singing, playing the keyboards and conducting!

With an hour to go before the big performance we had a food break to make sure we had plenty of energy to sing our best!

Years 5 and 6 held a wonderful candle-lit carol service in St Augustine's Church to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. The service involved singing, readings and drama; it was a wonderful start to the Christmas season!