Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

Yesterday Year 2 went to Ilkley Literature Festival to listen to Catherine Rayner and Anushkar Ravishanker read their stories and talk about their work.
Today Catherine Rayner, an author and illustrator, came to talk to the class and work with them in school.

Catherine’s first book “Augustus and his Smile” (all the children have a signed copy to take home)

Year 2 showed Catherine the pictures they drew after yesterday’s trip

Catherine with the class

Catherine showed the children how to draw Posy

by Jan

by Rio

by Sophie C

by Isobel

by Jodie

Friday is European Language Day and to celebrate our children’s fast-improving French we thought we’d invite Breton dancer Yannick and musician Robin into school to teach us some dances and some French.  Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 took part in a thoroughly enjoyable day.  Here are a few photos of us in action:

 

Merci à Yannick et Robin – c’était super!

Thanks to Sue (Max’s Mum) who came in during her holidays to help Year 4 learn some Tai Chi.  It was great to try something new and a really relaxing end to a great year. Thanks!

Year 4 were visited by Garulf the Viking today.  We had loads of fun finding out about the REAL vikings and investigating some artefacts that Vikings would have used 1000 years ago.  Here are some photos:

Being a Viking farmer:

 

Making fire Viking style:

 

An anglo-Saxon warrior protecting his land from an unruly Viking:

Thanks Garulf!

On the morning of Friday 14th March a Roman Centurion visited Year 4. He told the story of the Roman invasion of Britain and a day in the life of a Roman soldier including the differences between ranks of soldiers. Cameron was chosen to dress as a Centurion and Katie as an Auxiliary soldier. 

Jacob, suffering at the hands of the Romans, who wanted to steal his land.

The Centurion, brandishing various weapons at a surprised and frightened Year 3! (All perfectly safe.)

Armour and weaponry of Roman Soldiers.

The children in Reception and Key Stage 1 were delighted to find a frog (or a toad?? – help from Nature Club might be needed here) in the playground on Wednesday morning. I don’t remember them appearing as early as February 6th before.

The whole school enjoyed a performance today by the Theatre for Today group from Halifax. Four actors took all the parts in Dick Whittington. Lots of opportunities to shout, cheer, boo and clap – “Oh yes there were!” Thank you to the PTA for funding the event.

Chip, Dale and Dick wondering how to rid London of rats.

Alice, the Lord Mayor of London’s daughter, introducing Dick Whittington.

Dick and Tommy, the cat, plotting how to catch King Rat

King Rat on his way to the pet shop!

A good time had by all

Thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas Fair last Saturday. It was a fabulous day, and there was a really warm, happy feeling around school (maybe it was the mulled wine!). In the hall we had a wide range of traders with some tempting goods for sale. The screen showed a slide show of school activities from the last year, much enjoyed by visitors. The tombola had a fantastic range of prizes, the cake stall and cafe did a roaring trade, and the secret present wrapping was an excellent opportunity for children to surprise their parents. Our special visitor from the North Pole found that he had a wonderful grotto prepared for him, and he saw a steady stream of visitors throughout the day. The school choir sang beautifully, and their special version of ‘Rudolph’ was particularly enjoyed.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped to make the day possible; some of our PTA members worked solidly for weeks on end to make the day a success, and we were so grateful for the support we received on the day. Thank you to Karen McHale and her team, and here’s to next year’s fair – may it be even more successful!

On Wednesday Year 2 (and the rest of school) enjoyed learning about Holland and how to speak a little bit of Dutch from three students who spent part of the morning in our class. Altogether there were 19 students from Utrecht in school. Year 2 can now answer the register in Dutch (a good addition to Spanish, French, Italian, German, Polish and Welsh) and say goodbye. They also learnt to sing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes as well as having chance to ask about the weather, food, school and windmills in Holland.

We had a very unusual visitor at school today.  This furry little guy was just hanging around all day next to one of the entrances to our school.  Mrs Sowden made sure none of us disturbed him until we could find someone (hopefully his mum!) to take him to a safer place.