News for children by the children.
Year 6’s Terrific Trip to Bolton University
On Friday 9th February, Year 6 went on a trip to Bolton
University. They stayed for the whole day and completed
various different activities, including a campus quest,
society bingo, an art competition and an engineering
competition. Overall, Year 6 had a great day out and
learned something new.
The first thing they did – after arriving, of course – was a
university quiz. The options for each answer were ‘Y’, ‘M’,
‘C’ or ‘A’. There were four questions, two of which were
‘What is the largest university in England?’ and ‘Which
university, in England, has the largest amount of ducks
per square metre?’ The answers were ‘The University of
Manchester’ and ‘The University of York’.
Next, they created makeshift ‘Mortarboards’ for a mini-
graduation, at the end of the day, and wrote their
aspirations and dreams on them. Since there were two
sides to decorate, the Year 6 students also wrote what
they would like to be if their primary aspiration didn’t
work out.
the grounds, doing a quiz called the ‘Campus Quest’. They
first went to the building where all of the University cars
were kept but most people (especially the boys) lost
focus after seeing the cars. Year 6 moved on to the
chancellor’s building and then the library, where a few
children got lost and others narrowly avoided heart-
attacks as Mrs Hulme leapt out at anyone unlucky enough
to be at the back. When the ‘Campus Quest’ was over (or
it was 12:30) Year 6 made their way back to the activity
room for lunch.
were in teams. First of all, there was another
quiz. One of the questions was which wacky
subject there was no winner for (the answer
was ‘watching episodes of The Great British
Bake-off’). Next, they played a game where they
nominated an artist to draw a picture the team
described to them, but the artist could not get
up and look at the picture. After that, year 6 did
an engineering game where the teams had to
try and make the sturdiest fort that a team
member could fit inside… Out of newspaper and
tape.
When the day was nearing its end, Year 6 played
a game called ‘Society Bingo’, where a pupil
received a card with different societies (club-like
groups of people) and the first child to get a line
won. Then, just before leaving, Year 6 stood
together and threw their mortarboards in the
air. Finally, Year 6 left Bolton University and
went back to school for the last half hour of
‘Mindfulness Week’!
gymnastics team went to the Manchester Games.
The team was Claudia, Sallie, Annalisa, Callum and
Marcus. First we all got in the car and Mrs Gilmore
drove to the Etihad Stadium. When we got there,
we were asked if we could do a skipping
demonstration for thirty seconds in front of the
whole entire crowd!
When the time came we met a girl called Lauren
Layfield who is a television presenter and
announced us to the crowd. After the thirty
second skip, we went back to our places and
watched the rest of the ceremony. When it
finished at ten o’clock, we said good luck to the
hockey team and went to the Amaechi Basketball
Centre to do the gymnastics.
When we all arrived we did a warm up to get
ready for the competition. The first routine was
vault which we all enjoyed and scored highly.
After that, we had some lunch before going to
body management. As soon as we finished we
went to floor which was the hardest routine of all.
This routine included a round off, a Y balance, a
backward roll to straddle, half turn or full turn,
two cartwheels or hand stand forward roll and
followed by a bridge. Once we had all finished the
time had come to announce the results. Sadly, we
didn’t place 3rd 2nd or 1st but were placed 5th out
of nine schools in Greater Manchester. When the
hard work had finished Mrs Gilmore and Miss
Johnson treated us to a Mc Donald’s for our hard
effort.
Y6 in a Teachers World
On Monday 5th February, all the Year 6 pupils entered
the world of teaching. They planned it all the week
before they put it into action. It took part in all the
classes across school from years 1 up to 6. It was
certainly a good start to the well-being week.
There was a range of activities going on at the same
time. Some of them were; PE, drama, maths, ICT, art
and science. First this took a while for preparation but
in the end it turned out brilliantly. The Year 6 pupils put
a lot of work into making it an exciting afternoon. They
had three groups of children, which lasted for
approximately thirty to forty-five minutes, spread
throughout the afternoon. They had an opening and
closing assembly, to start and round off the fun
activities.
There were two drama activities that were happening,
one was in Year 4 and the other was in Year 1M. They
let the children act out scenes and a short piece that
the children had thought about within their groups. One
team was acting out emoji’s and the other group was
acting out the six secrets of wellbeing.
I asked Claudia, a Year 6 pupil, a few questions about
the day the Year 6’s taught.
What was your favourite part of the experience? Why?
My favourite part was doing the teaching because it
was fun. They would listen and by the end of it they had
learned something new.
Was it hard to plan and get it all ready?
Yes, because you couldn’t do certain aspects of the
planning. The change-over was really tricky too
Did you enjoy it?
Yes, because it was good to see how much hard work
teachers put in to give us good education.
Article by Erin Hughes, ( Year 6)
Great teachers!
Fantastic Friendly Foundation
performance about friendship and kindness was
held at Claypool Primary School. All of the
children had very different clothes… The main
ones were the chefs from The Great British Bake
Off [a programme] and the Rainbow Fish. The
Rainbow Fish was played by Olivia Froggatt and
her voice was perfect! We could all hear her
voice absolutely, amazingly, clearly! In fact, all
the class was amazing.
voice to tell everyone the book has helped
Foundation Class to learn how to be a good
friend. Some children showed their superb
acting skills to tell the story.
Following this, the children sang “We’ve Got the
Recipe.” Olivia said “In Foundation we all know
how to be a perfect friend”
The Great Friendship Bake Off
Some children were asked to make a friendship
cake in one hour. At the end two children tried
to make the pretend cake and they said it was a
draw .The recipe was: A spoonful of love, a tube
of trust, a carton of patience , a bottle of
forgiveness ,a pot of respect ,a dash of laughter
and a jar of kindness. “Hands together and eyes
closed.” Said Lilia, “Thank you for our friends,
and the joy they bring.” Then Oscar said “Help
us to be kind and look after each other. Amen.”
At the end, there was a brilliant PowerPoint
which showed all of the Foundation Class
children being a good friend. At the same time
the children sang “You Can Count on Me”.
What People Thought:
amazing it made her laugh and cry. She really
enjoyed the assembly.
from start to finish and the children were
brilliant.”
Mrs Stott thought that it was so good that my
heart felt as though it was going to explode.
Holly said: “My favourite bit is the singing and
dancing.”
Joe said “I liked going on stage, and giving the
pot of kindness to another child.”
Asida said “I liked the singing.”
Gabe said “I liked the part when Gracie gave
the jar of kindness to Sam. “
Article by: Angel Jones and Poppy Worsley
(Year 3).
TREMENDOUS TATTON PARK
On Tuesday 13th February 2018, wonderful Year 5 went on
the best school trip ever! We journeyed on a coach and
arrived at 9:30 am. We dressed up as evacuees and so did
the teachers and our guides for the day. All of the
informative guides dressed up as World War II farmers
and we went down to the farm were Betty and Farmer
George told us they were only expecting five of us children
but twenty-eight children turned up! Which was a big
surprise. (The billeting office may have mixed up the
booking!) Then we went down past Aunt Mary`s house to
the farmer`s cottage and the guides told us how to wear a
gas mask and about the jobs we will have to do on the
farm and that we have to go to school.
After that, we had to act really sad and go down to Aunt
Mary`s house were we split into groups and did a carousel.
Group One went to visit Aunt Mary first were she told the
group what would happen if we did stay with her and the
group made toast with her over the fire which was
delicious. Group Two started with Aunt Betty on milking
the fake cows (they looked white and black and were
made out of wood) also she told us how to milk a cow
correctly. We had to look to our left and rest our head on
the side of the cow. Then pull one part of the udder at a
time starting at the front right. Water came out of it! After
that Betty took Group Two down to feed real chickens and
then we had lunch in Betty and farmer Joe`s cottage. After
lunch, we all got back together for a minute, a beautiful
horse named Blossom came out, and we stroked the
horse.
Group 3 started looking at the pigs with Farmer George
and he first told us about the piglets and why they don’t
give them names. Why? The reason is because they will
just kill the pigs for meat later. If they gave the pigs names
and loved them they wouldn’t want to kill them. As a
result, there would be no more pig meat such as: bacon,
ham, pork, sausage and the other body parts like head and
trotters. Then he told us that pigs that have given birth are
sows. After, we learned about the pigs. Later Group 3
went to go and chop potatoes in the root chopper. Then
there was an air-raid siren and all groups went into the air-
raid shelter.
In the Air-raid shelter Aunt Mary, Farmer George
and Betty asked us if we knew any songs. We sang
`We`re Going to the Country`, `We`re Doing Our
Bit for the Nation` and `White Cliffs of Dover`.
Then Aunt Mary, Farmer George and Betty taught
us a new song called `Run Rabbit`. It goes like this:
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG goes the farmer’s gun.
So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.
Don’t let the farmer have his fun, fun, fun.
He`ll get by without his rabbit pie.
So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.”
Then, the all clear air-raid siren went off. Sadly, we
had to leave and when we were leaving, we had
to pretend the war was over. We did not want to
leave. I think if it was the real war and I was a real
evacuee, I would want to stay!
Children’s Comments
went into Aunt Mary’s house and made toast” It
was YUMMY!”
and started our role as evacuees”.
Rebecca said “My favourite part of the trip was
when we went to Aunt Marys house and we made
toast over the fire and ate it. It was so delicious
and I wanted to go back to Aunt Mary`s house
again”.
the farm and helping out.”
James said “I liked milking the cow with Betty.”
Archie said” I liked doing jobs with Farmer George
and Betty. Also I thought it was good because it
was on my birthday.”
We arrived back at school at 3:15 PM. It was the
best school trip ever and we all enjoyed our
Terrific Tatton Park evacuee adventure as it was
so much fun. We all hope to come back to Tatton
Park as soon as possible!
By Erin Wilkinson year 5
Year 5 learning about life during WW2.
The year 5 class assembly
This assembly took place in the hall at Claypool Primary
School on Thursday 15th February 2018. Our assembly
was based on our learning around World War II
because we studied it as our topic. Year 5 thought it
was very interesting so we wanted to share our
learning with others. The characters were Mike, Sue,
Warden Stringer, children, old lady, adult, Mrs Jones,
Mrs Make Do and Mend, Evacuees, Mums and fact
readers.
morning everybody and welcome to our class
assembly.” Then we sang a song called “One of the
Kind”. Year 5 sang beautifully. After that, the rest of
the school listened to some information about what
happened when Hitler was fighting a war against Great
Britain and other countries. Some of the information
included: We did not realise how quickly our lives
would change, all men between the ages of 18 and 40
could be called up into the army, navy or air force
service and over the six years of war millions joined the
armed service.
Blood,Toil,Tears and Sweat and performed it well to an
interested audience. When World War II ended in 1918
and the Germans were defeated, it was decided that
Germany should not be allowed to have an army again.
Hitler decided that Germany would be the greatest
nation ever. He wanted German life to be perfect and
was allowed to form an army again. He bombed our
supply ships too so that we did not have enough
food.Things that we could not grow here came by ship
and the ships were in danger when they crossed the
seas and oceans.
allied forces. The victory celebrations were immense
with singing, dancing and street parties going on way
into the night.
scenario, which had interesting characters who
included: Mike- A young boy, caught in an air raid
without his parents, Sue- Mike’s sister, Warden
Stringer who Keeps everything in order in the
shelter and children who are keeping safe in the
shelter. There was an old lady who enjoys having
a bit of a moan. The adults in the play give the
children a little sympathy, especially regarding
their lack of sweets. Additionally there is Mrs
Jones): a member of the Women’s Voluntary
service). Mrs Make Do and Mend, who busies
herself with knitting and so-on, whilst keeping an
eye on the children. The evacuees have labels
pinned on and they wait for their train. Other
children were mums with hair tied into
headscarves and perhaps wearing overalls and
dungarees ready for work. They are waiting
nervously with their children who were going to
be evacuated. It was like going back in time!
These are the quotes from year 5.
Ella: liked being a child from the air raid shelter
and she liked the acting too.
Grace liked the acting.
Rebecca liked the singing.
and are looking forward for another one!
By Inshra Osei Mensah Year 5
Year 5 performing their assembly.
Year 5 explore arts award project
Year 5 are taking part in an Explore Arts Award project
which is being funded by Bolton Museum and Library
Service. Year 5 are completing booklets to show the
learning they have been doing around the arts –the
evidence will be assessed by the Trinity College of
London.
They have read `The Girl Who Saved Christmas` and done
lots of activities around this. For inspiration, Year 5
sketched and described Amelia Wishart appearance and
personality. On Wednesday 21st March 2018 Year 5
went to a workshop with Chris Mould the illustrator.
As part of our homework, we had to research
information about Matt Haig which developed our
exploring skills. Some people completed fact files and
others created interesting biographies.
We have also taken part in a Victorian workshop at
Smithills Hall and an artist called Minty came into school
to make lanterns with the children. We had to think
about being creative, rushing the sketch, trying our
hardest and making it look neat. We thought about our
skills in sketching and cutting. We discussed what we
enjoyed about the workshop. We evaluated the skills that
we were able to do well and identified the skills for
improvement.
We are creative and on Thursday 15th February 2018 Year
5 performed their class assembly to the rest of the school
and their parents. The assembly was based on World War
II and involved lots of brilliant acting and singing! Year 5
received some fabulous feedback following all of the hard
work they put into producing their brilliant class
assembly. Miss Johnson asked the class to describe and
reflect on our role in the class assembly and we wrote
about this. It was a great opportunity for children and
parents in the audience to learn more about World War II
and why it happened.
All of Year 5 was creative when they designed a
colourful book cover in the style of Chris Mould.
This followed on from exploring his style.
Year 5 have already achieved the `Discover` Arts
Award in Year 3 so the `Explore` Arts Award is
the next step.
The children will be going to a special red carpet
event on 3rd July 2018 to receive their awards.
Children’s Thoughts
Philip likes it because he can do more art which
he really enjoys.
Lois said that she liked it because it`s fun and
enjoyable also I love art.
Gabriella said she like it because it shows people
our talents.
different skills to improve our art.
Erin Wilkinson likes our arts award because I like
art and the skills they teach us are handy for the
future. I realise how important this award is.
Ella likes it because we can learn more about
art!
Hannah thinks we can keep track of our art.
Archie likes the fact that we are the first Year 5
class to do it in our school and Bolton!
Mia thinks that it is fun; she loves books and
likes art so it is great.
Article written by Inshra Osei-Mensah and Erin
Wilkinson (Year 5)
The Marvellous Manchester Games – Hockey
On Tuesday the 20th of March, Claypool’s very
own hockey team (breaking school records by just
sitting in a car) travelled to ‘Sports City’ to
compete against the best hockey teams in
England in ‘The Manchester Games’ in
Manchester (shock). Despite the fact that both
Year 5 and Year 6 could compete, the team
consisted of seven year 6s (Sam Wilder, Alex
Horden, Aleks Clayden, Ethan Howard, Erin
Hughes, Elizabeth Davies and Izzy Randle-Sykes).
The Ceremony
being the brilliant geniuses they all are, sat at the
very top of the ‘Lacrosse’ section of seats, directly
beneath the sign. What marvellous role models.
At first, there was a medley of dancing from
children belonging to different schools. Then,
some cheerleaders did a dance routine, which
was followed up by a skateboarding
demonstration from two professionals and a
teenager, who performed better than both of
them, most of the time. After that, the
gymnastics team did a skipping demonstration for
thirteen seconds with the screamed support from
the hockey team. To finish it off, a boy who won
‘The Voice – Kids’ and met Will.i.am sang ‘This is
me’ from ‘The Greatest Showman’. Then he cut
the ribbon, some deafening cheering began,
everyone split off into their different sports and
schools and then they went to all of their
different venues (for the hockey team, it was the
‘Armitage Centre’).
The Games
Claypool, which was useful because the first
players (only four players could be on the pitch
from one team at once) could get an idea of what
the opponents’ strategy was before they played
against them. Even though they (Alex Horden,
Ethan Howard, Erin Hughes and Elizabeth Davies)
had scouted the other team, the match ended in
a draw.
The very next match was played by four of our
players (Aleks Clayden, Sam Wilder, Erin
Hughes and Izzy Randle-Sykes), once again,
which ended in a bitter loss. The third match
(played by Alex Horden, Elizabeth Davies, Erin
Hughes and Ethan Howard) ended in
Claypool’s first, glorious win. The fourth game
– just before lunch – (played by Ethan Howard
– before a small mishap –, Erin Hughes, Izzy
Randle Sykes, Alex Horden and Sam Wilder)
was yet another amazing win.
After lunch, Claypool played their fifth game
(with Alex Horden, Aleks Clayden, Izzy Randle-
Sykes and Erin Hughes) and suffered another
bitter loss but that barely dampened their
spirits; our team is made of tougher stuff than
that! Just to show this, the team (Sam Wilder,
Alex Horden, Elizabeth Davies and Erin Hughes)
played their sixth match and came out with a
win!
Alex Horden, Izzy Randle- Sykes and Erin
Hughes) was a sore loss but the Claypool team
weren’t going to give up that easily! On the
eight game, (Izzy Randle-Sykes, Elizabeth
Davies, Alex Horden and Aleks Clayden) they
came out with a draw. They took what they
had learned from the experience and headed
home.
Being a good team player is important!
Sharing Brilliance at Clarendon
On Tuesday 6th of February, Year 6 went to a primary
school called Clarendon. Firstly, Year 6 showed
Clarendon a piece about being brilliant and they learnt
how to spread happiness, not to be a mood hover, if
you put good things into something you get it out. It is
important to send good vibes and to set yourself
HUGGS (huge, unbelievably, great, goals). After that,
Clarendon teachers had a range of activities for
Clarendon and Claypool children to participate in.
Therefore, we split into groups, the groups were split
randomly. The activities we did were making loom
bands, making vegetarian fruit pastels, painting (free
choice), making rice dishes, playing scrabble, coiling
pieces of paper into a masterpiece and making
bookmarks. Claypool pupils made friends with the
Clarendon pupils during the activities we were doing
and chatted nicely.
Claypool School.
Now you can read about some of the pupils from Year
6’s feelings or opinions about Clarendon.
What was your favourite activity and why?
Lucas St- My favourite activity was making loom bands
because it reminded me of when I was younger.
Sam- My favourite activity was making bookmarks
because it was calm and relaxing.
Elizabeth- My favourite was making the rice I have
never made rice before and it was nice to do
something new.
were able to do anything we wanted and could make
our mind go wild.
What did you learn?
Lucas St- I learned that not every school is the same.
Sam- I learned different skills that will help me in the
future.
Elizabeth- I learned how to cook rice.
Amelia- I learned that on this trip, going to a different
school meant that you did not have to learn; you had to
have fun.
The Tudors
On Thursday the 1st February, Year 4 went on a
school trip to Smithills Hall to learn about the
Tudors. The adults that went with us were; Mr
Horne, Mr Barrett, Martha’s mum and Megan’s
mum. On the mini-bus all Year 4 were talking
about was what it would be like there. There
was a lot of crazy thoughts .When we all got
there a lovely lady named Lesly told us all
about the outside of the hall. First of all, we got
changed into our costumes. William was Ralph
Barton, Josh was John Barton, Maya was Lady
Cecilia and Molly was Queen Barton. After we
got changed’ we had a big pretend Tudor
banquet. Next we went into different rooms.
First, we went into the information and
building room. Secondly, we went to the
bedroom and talked about a servant called
Egbert Jobs, Ben was Egbert. One was holding a
bucket underneath a king or queen so they
could go to the loo and the other was checking
for bed bugs. Soon after we went into the
family room and asked Lesley about our last
names. We also shared facts about them too.
Then we went into the church room and
designed our own shields. After, we had a
break and played lots of games. Sadly we had
to take off our costumes and eat real lunch.
Finally, we had to go back to school.
Our school trip was so much fun and we all
loved it!
Year 6 working in groups.
Welcome to Wonderful Well Being World
On Thursday 25th January 2018, on the stage in front of our family and friends as well as the whole of
Claypool School, Year 2 performed an assembly called Wonderful Well Being.
Year 2 has been kind by making biscuits for our reading buddies with a nice message. In class we have
been saying the oral storytelling of Fire Cat with actions. We wrote stories as well as pictures, drew
story maps and made up our own version. As part of our art learning we have studied Laurel Birch and
created works of art in the same style. We are going to build our own houses and burn them down
when the fire fighters visit. We wanted to show everyone our learning and the information we know.
On the day, we came dressed in our active clothes like joggers, leggings, jackets and t-shirts. Elijah,
Joseph and Evie introduced the assembly and said good morning. Everyone talked about secrets
including Mr Horne’s secret chocolate stash. They told us about Samuel Pepys and burying all the
things he wanted to protect including his cheese.
Almost everyone went on the stage to sing ‘The Best Day of My Life’ with actions to show super
singing skills.
On the stage Joshua, Alex and Harry drew some cats in the style of Laurel Birch. William, Iona, Ailie
and Finn talked about the famous artist and our brilliant artists in Year 2.
Lucy, Ellie, Alfie, Holly, Robyn Alex and Joshua told the audience about how we had been kind to other
people such as: cheering people up when they were sad or had no friends to play with.
At the end, Charlie, Mio and Nayan said a prayer and thankyou too.
All of the children took part and enjoyed the performance
Article by Ellie and Lucy (Year 2)
Wonderful World Book Day
new information. All of the children and adults
dressed up as both fiction and non-fiction characters.
We did an assembly that took ages but it was still
awesome! Mrs Bell was talking about why books are
important and why they are helpful. All of the classes
went up to the front one at a time and three children
from each class asked who they were and why. The
teachers also went up to the front as well as the
children.
Year 1M listened to a story of The Princess and the
Pea; they drew and wrote about their favourite part.
Later in the afternoon, after travelling by coach, they
watched @The Princess and the Pea@ play. Yr1 R
went to a lighthouse church to watch princess and
the pea in Manchester with Yr1 M
Whilst Year 4 made book tokens to see if one of
us could win the competition and we read a
book called King Henry VIII’S Shoes. After that,
they completed their George Marsh (martyr)’s
biography. Foundation class read their favourite
stories to each other. Year 5 did book titles,
designed a book cover and completed a book
review of the girl who saved Christmas.. Year 6
did a free write, maths questions that are book
related and researched features of a biography.
Finally, they met up with buddies from
Foundation Class and did activities. Year 2 made
bookmarks of their favourite book characters!
WOW! Year 3 made pop up books, spent time
with reading buddies and created a fantasy story
about the rainforest.
LOTS of fun.
Article by Maya Clayden (Year 4).