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

laurelavenue@durhamlearning.net

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

laurelavenue@durhamlearning.net