Denby Dove Telegraph

March 2016

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We have really been working hard since

Christmas and have had great fun! Take

a look inside and see all the activities that

have gone on in school. There are even

more activities and photos on our website.

www.denbyfree.derbyshire.sch.uk

Balanceability

The Sparrows have started doing

Balanceability this term with Mrs Foulke.

For the first session parents, acting

Sergeant PC Neil Hopwell and Senior

Traffic Manager Rob Bounds joined us.

The class loved the sessions which have

already built up their core strength and

balancing skills.

We finished these sessions in the second

half term with all sparrows able to glide

and balance well. This has really helped

in the classroom with other activities.

Parents have sent in photographs of their

child riding bikes without stabilizers!

Well done Sparrows a fantastic

achievement.

Maths Week

We started our eventful week with a visit

from The Happy Puzzle Company. All the

children were challenged to work in teams

and solve puzzles and challenges. They

didn’t even know they were doing maths!

Sparrows

The Sparrows had a great time during

maths week. We made squares, watches,

measured Gruffalos footprints, went

Gruffalo hunting and raised money by

inviting the parents to a Gruffalo Café.

Many thanks to the Parents who sent in

pictures of maths activities from home.

You’re more than welcome to visit and see

our scrapbook from the week.

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Doves

For Maths Mania week we made and sold keyrings for 50p, domino biscuits for 20p and lots of dice games. Our total was £68.53. We gave ¼ of the money to Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Syrian refugees. Then we bought lots of thinking games which are really fun.

The children enjoying Enterprise morning.

The Dove’s children enjoy the Enterprise

morning, and below playing thinking

games

Owls

The children in Owl’s class made some

brilliant stationery products to sell for their

Enterprise activity. The children went

shopping to source the raw materials and

then made the chosen products. The sale

was very popular and they sold out of

goods!

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Eagles

Happy Puzzle Company

On the 18th of January, a happy puzzle

company came in to talk to the children

about how to solve fun math puzzles. One

of the games we played included having a

lot of focus, trying to keep penguins on a

wobbling ice burg [plastic!]. We had a go

at some different challenges working as a

team, we all had great fun.

After school on Monday afternoon, the

company set up a little shop for parents

and children to buy puzzles and gadgets.

By Maisie C and Annie M, Eagles

We all really enjoyed Maths Week!

Book Week

We had a fantastic Book Week,

celebrating words, books and

reading.

S for Sparrows – Can you spot the

fancy dress starting with the letter S?

The children in Sparrow’s class brought in

their favourite books to share. The

children love books and reading and had a

great week doing lots of activities based

around their favourite stories.

Doves

On Bookweek we had to dress up as

something beginning with D. Some

people dressed as a dalmation, Dorothy,

Darth Vadar, dancer, donkey, dog, Denby,

Disco Dancing Diva and Duck. Lucas won

the contest for the best creation with D for

Duck. All his family made it with him. It

was yellow and orange. Josh B won the

poster of his favourite book, it was Mr

Men. For our Sponsored Spell we had

lots of words to learn. We needed to get

15/15. We all did really well.

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Owls

In Owl’s class we dressed up as

something beginning with ‘O’. We had

some very creative outfits!

Overall the Sponsored Spell raised over

£1200. This was a fantastic achievement

and we would like to thank you all for your

support. The money will be used to

refurbish our library and improve our

range of books for the school.

We sold over £400 worth of books at the

Book Sale that took place over Book

Week. From this we receive £186 in

commission, which has allowed each

class teacher to choose a selection of

books to boost their reading corners!

Olympian visit

GB skeleton athlete Jor’dan McIntosh slid

into Denby Free to tell us about her life as

an athlete. She showed us a video of her

riding a skeleton sled, where she reached

speeds of up to 80mph. The children also

got to inspect and try on some of her hi-

tech kit. She explained how she was

selected for the GB skeleton team and

answered lots of enthusiastic questions.

So watch this space for future Denby Free

Winter Olympians.

Nancy B, Jay G, Scarlet C and Jor’dan

Disco time!

In January Denby Free had an amazing

disco. It was all organised by the school

council to raise money for the school. We

had Gaz’s disco, dance battles and goody

bags. Thanks again to the school council

and the Friends of Denby.

By Rebekah, Eagles

African music

On Monday 14th March in the afternoon a

man called David, who had been to study

African drumming in Gambia, came to visit

our school to teach the Eagles Class

some African drumming.

David taught us how to play the drums, he

even taught us some African singing and

dancing. It was lots of fun and after we

had been practicing for a few hours we

showed our wonderful drumming to the

Eagles parents.

Everyone really enjoyed the experience!

By Evie K, Eagles

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John Flamsteed Science Afternoon

The Year 6 children went to visit John

Flamsteed Secondary School on

Wednesday. They had a brilliant time

watching a play about murdering. We also

did some forensic science, working out

how to find the murderer by taking finger

prints and looking at different materials

though a microscope. All the Year 6’s had

a fantastic time!

By Anjali

Netball

On a Monday after school some of us do

training for netball with Miss Hunt. We

firstly start off with a warm up and we all

start on the yellow line. We then practise

our shooting and we play a fun game like

killer, lastly we pick teams and positions

then we get in to a game or two. We have

so much fun.

By Libby. B, Eagles

Owl’s performance

On the 22 of March the Owls performed

the Easter production called the Easter

Praise. It took us about 3 to 4 weeks to

rehearse and there are 11 songs in it. We

also had to sort out quite a few costumes

for the crowd. There were quite a few

solos, like Mary’s song

By Gracie

Year 1 and 2 Village Walks

We went on a walk around Denby and

saw Maisie’s house. Then we went to see

the maze and had a little play around the

maze. On our walk we followed a map,

using our map reading skills.

Spanish Tapas Restaurant

On the 3rd of March in the afternoon all

the children in owls class got a shock

because the classroom had changed into

a Spanish tapas restaurant. Miss Hunt and

Julie (the helper) were the waiters and Mrs

Marshall was head chef. Miss Simpson

showed us how to make non-alcoholic

sangria. We tried lots of different foods

that afternoon they included: Paella,

Olives, Churros and Manchego cheese.

Everyone really enjoyed all that afternoon!

By Saul Rushton, Owls

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Easter Celebrations

We spent our last day celebrating Easter

and spring. Collective Worship in church

showed the parents the hard work each

class had done preparing for Easter. With

being in during Holy week the children

could tell the story of Jesus on the right

day.

Sparrows made donkeys and decorated a

cross. In church they sang a lovely song

with actions too.

Doves made stained glass windows

inspired by the Easter story and after

looking at the windows in St Marys

Church. They recited a poem entitled

EASTER.

Eagles read The Breakfast on the Beach

from the Children’s Bible and explained

how God and Jesus will always forgive us

when we sorry for our sins.

Celebrating

After collective worship we spent the

morning making rice crispy cakes with

eggs on and hot cross buns. The

afternoon will be fun eating them.

Happy Easter from all at Denby Free School

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