Please remember, if you need any help, advice or
support with ANYTHING, then get in touch.
Gaynor Davison
Laurel Avenue Community Primary School and Nursery
April 2020
When photographs and
emails are sent to school, it
really brightens up the days
of our staff team and I hope
that you have all enjoyed
sharing what so many of
you have been working on
at home. Do look on
Facebook, if you haven’t
already, to see and
celebrate the wonderful fun
that is being had at home.
We are always very happy
to receive your pictures to
share so please keep them
coming. It’s such a
wonderful way to stay in
touch until we can welcome
you all back into school
with open arms.
I’d just like to say a great big THANK YOU to the whole school community.
So many of you have shown a great deal of effort in your home learning,
communicating with teachers and each other and trying your best. I am very
proud of the school. We are missing you all SO much and hope that you are
all doing well at home.
We are experiencing an extraordinary time at the moment and history is being made. Our children are living through history right now.
Over the Easter Holidays is the perfect time to create a
time capsule!
1. A letter or diary
This should be to your future self; include your age, who your
friends are, favourite TV shows, songs and books. Write about
what’s happening in your own words and tell your future self
about how you’re feeling right now. You can also talk about
what you would like to be when you grow up and five things you
want to do when you’re an adult.
2. Get a newspaper - if safe to do so
Cut out articles you think would be
important to look back on, or print out online articles.
3. Include a drawing
Draw a picture of your family.
4. Take some pictures
Print out images taken during the period
you create the capsule and pop them in.
5. Finally, package it all up and lock away
Put everything in a scrapbook, box or some other kind of
package and store it somewhere where you will not come across
it for years to come!
We will get through
this together.
As well as taking part in World Book Day 2020,
all classes took the Big Book Off Challenge
during the week leading up to World Book Day.
Here is a reminder of the challenge.
Why not try and complete it with your family
over the Easter Holiday?
Nursery and Class 1
dressed up and talked
about the characters
in their favourite
stories. Class 1 also
made puppets and
looked at story
settings, using
activities from the
Big Book Off.
Children in Class 2 dressed up either in
nightwear ready for a bed time story or their
favourite book character. They created their
own book covers and worked in groups to learn
about David Armitage - the author of the
Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch.
Class 3 were also up for the Big Book Off
Challenge, working on the activities daily,
including studying book illustrations and
discussing unusual things they noticed. They
focused on the books, ‘A Walk in the Park’ by
Anthony Browne and ‘Where the Forest Meets
the Sea’ by Jeannie Baker to complete their
challenges. They also performed a poem;
‘Bush Fire’ by Jackie Kay. Miss Tosney shared
her favourite Harry Potter extract.
In order to complete the Big Book Off challenge,
Class 4 explored books which were available
for them to read either on Reading Buddy or
in our school library. They listened
to character descriptions from extracts of books
by authors such as JK Rowling and
Roald Dahl and used them to create an
inside/outside character profile which they used to
create their own characters. They also researched
the author Eva Ibbotson and books such as
'The Secret of Platform 13', 'Monster Mission' and
'Journey to the River Sea'. During World Book Day
we shared books we have enjoyed reading,
recommending a variety of good reads from both
fiction and non-fiction genres, dressed in our
character costumes or pyjamas!
If you haven’t
visited our
Facebook yet, why
not go over and like
our page?
Laurel Avenue
Community Primary
School
Keep sending your
pictures, messages
and videos to
laurelavenue@
durhamlearning.net
It’s a great way
to stay in touch
and celebrate your
achievements.
Let’s keep in touch!
This year, for British Science Week, we all becomes Science Detectives!
Nursery and Class 1 looked at footprints. They compared the
sizes and patterns and made prints using water and paint.
Class 1 used their knowledge to solve a ‘crime’. Someone crept
into Class 1 and took their sweets!! However, they left a footprint
behind. The children borrowed and examined shoes belonging to
different staff members in order to compare them to the prints and
so were able to identify Mrs Smith as the culprit.
Mrs Smith!!
Class 2 used chromatography to find out which colours make up
different coloured felt tip pens. All children were science
detectives, making predictions and recording their findings.
Class 3 completed a 'Crumby Chemistry’ Investigation together to
solve the cake sabotage crime. Extra baking powder was added to
the ingredients which ruined the cake! So Class 3 investigated
three different powders (flour, cornflour and baking powder) to
work out which one was the offending baking powder. Children
investigated their physical properties and their chemical reaction
when placed in water and then vinegar in order to solve the crime.
Class 4 become forensic scientists for the week and examined
fingerprints. They learnt about the different styles of markings -
loops, arches and whorls - and used these to solve a fictional
crime. They collected their own fingerprints and examined them by
enlarging them on balloons.
Dino Maths
Class 4 enjoyed a day of Dino Maths exploration, investigation
and fun with a workshop in school from
The Centre for Life.
The day began using
timelines to gain an insight
into the periods of history we
were about to investigate
and where they sit in the
history of the world.
We were all surprised to find out how many dinosaurs
lived at completely different times.
During the day we had opportunities to examine and
investigate fossils, including real ones, from a variety
of dinosaurs, such as teeth, claws and footprints.
We measured and used scaling maths to calculate sizes
of dinosaurs and had great fun making our own fossils.
It was a wonderful experience!
From Nursery children to Year 6, we all took part to do
our bit to raise money for Sport Relief 2020. Each class
either jogged, ran, walked, skipped or even hopped the
equivalent distance of a marathon - 26 miles!
Some of us managed to do laps of the yard whilst the
bad weather meant others did laps of the hall.
Thank you for all of your kind donations.
In March, Class 2 enjoyed a Multi-Sports session,
taking part in many varied sports and games.
e.g. hurdling, sprinting and agility games.
Class 1 really developed their skills at an
Infant Agility Festival held in March.
Easter Craft Competition Winners
Our Chair of Governors, Ann Elliott
judged the competition, which she
found very difficult as there were
so many brilliant and varied entries!
Congratulations to Kaiden for your
amazing entry! You have won £20
Tesco Voucher. Well done!
Third place was awarded
to Charlie and his Edible
Easter Garden and
fabulous Easter hat!
Well done, you have won
£15 Tesco Voucher!
Second place was awarded to
Sophie and her Eggtraterrestrail.
Well done, you have won
£15 Tesco Voucher!
Mrs Elliott found it so difficult to pick the winners
that we have decided to award four more prizes who
will win £10 Tesco vouchers each.
Congratulations to
Avika
Logan
Lilly-Mai
Imogen
We’ll have to
order these
vouchers so
they’ll be in the
post as soon as
they arrive.
It’s time to celebrate the work and
fun that you are all having at home.
Please keep sending your pictures
and messages to
Breakfast Club continues to be a great success.
We would not be able to offer this free club without the
sponsorship from Greggs and of course without the brilliant
support from our dedicated volunteers!
A huge thank you to all our brilliant Breakfast Club
volunteers. You all do an amazing job!
Special thanks go to…
Helen Blakey, Jessica Cottrell, Ellen Cottrell,
Claire Linfoot, June Nichol, Tracy Pickering,
Tracy Salmon and Nichola Watkinson.
Friends of Laurel Avenue Society
A huge thank you to all of our fabulous Friends of Laurel Avenue Society
for everything they do to raise money for school. A big thank you to our families also for all your support in attending the events. We recently bought new lockers and an amazing time line with money raised. They have arrived and are a massive hit with everyone!
Our fabulous time line is now proudly displayed in the newly decorated porch
area, looking brilliant above our new lockers. It’s amazing how much can be
stored in these lockers. Children’s belongings are now super tidy and safe!
We have ten new tablets to use
alongside our iPads. Logging on
to do our Big Maths timed
tests takes no time, which
means more time for teaching
and learning. We’re hoping to
get more tablets next term.
We have brand new sapphire chairs in our Learning Lab.
The central bench area between Classes 3 and 4 was removed
to create a new working area with this lime green theme.
Each week, children who achieve 100% attendance have the opportunity to win a
stationery prize of their choice. Congratulations to:
Olly-Joe Saliha
Evie-Mae
Star Pupils These children have been selected this half term to be
Stars by their teachers for many different reasons, including excellent work
and effort during lessons, as well as being kind and considerate to others.
Nursery: Rosie, Zara and Imogen
Class 1: Jack, Myla-Mai and Hamoodi
Class 2: Blakley-Joe, Finley and Callum
Class 3: Emily, Jayden and Mohanad
Class 4: Jay, Teagan-Leigh and Darcie
Ms Davison: Callum, Nathan and Tom
Home Learning
After the Easter Holidays, we will be adding Year Group
timetables to your child’s class page on the school website.
A text will be sent every Monday directing you to the page.
Each timetable has set out daily activities from our online
learning platforms (Purple Mash, Mathletics, Reading Buddy,
Big Maths) and activity sheets which will be on the class pages
to open and read or to print if you are able to.
We will also be sending out Big Maths logins and further
information about using Big Maths at home.
There will be weekly challenges set which may involve creating,
making, doing or researching topics and extended writing each
Friday. Instructions for these tasks will also be on your child’s
class page.
Weekly challenges and extended writing can be completed in the
exercise books sent home or on any paper available.
Photographs of work can be taken and emailed to class teachers.
We hope this will help support both you and your children in
establishing routines which are familiar and mirror the school
day. Work set is designed to ensure children continue to develop
and retain skills and are motivated and keen to learn whilst at
home. It also provides for more activities to complete that do
not involve sitting in front of a tablet or laptop.
You are all doing a wonderful job but with the
variety of online tasks, links to learning videos and
activities provided in the timetables, home
learning should be made that little bit easier.
All staff at Laurel Avenue Community Primary School would like to wish you a very Happy Easter.
If you need to get in touch, call
0191 3868416.
There may not always be someone
available to answer the phone
so please email