Zebras and Fruit Bats practise their maths skills

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Live: Zebra class are currently using maths games created by the Fruit Bats, on a spreadsheet, to practise their maths skills.

Whole school celebration assembly today

In assembly today we celebrated this term's achievements. Here are some of the things the children mentioned:
The Ocean Phase production
Grade 1 and 2 music achievements
Orchestra
Being the best we can be
The football team
The netball team
Futsal
Cheerleading club
Cooking club .... to name just a few.

Year 3 and 4 performance of Wind in the Willows

We are very proud of our Year 3 and 4 pupils for their wonderful performances of Wind in the Willows. The children were truly magnificent - well done.

Drum donation thank you

We were delighted to have these drums donated today.  They will be a much loved addition to our music resources - thank you. Drums donated by parent, Mr Mark Ellis.

Year 4 Roman mosaics

Learning about Roman mosaics! Starting to create our own!

Do you have a question for our visiting author?

Ruth Fitzgerald, award- winning author,  visits The Rainforest Phase on 22nd April. Year 5 and 6 children - check out her 'Emily Sparkes' series of books. Do you have a question you would like to ask her?

Live: Elephants playing maths games designed by tree frogs

Elephant class are presently playing maths games, designed by the Tree Frogs, using conditional formatting on a spreadsheet. 

We love algebra!

Year 6 have been enjoying using apparatus to support the learning of algebra this morning. 

Fantastic! Informative and humorous writing in Year 6 today

Fantastic writing in year 6 today -  informative, humorous recounts of the coast trip. Well done!

Year 5 talk sea defences

Year 5 braved the weather along Felixstowe sea front today to talk about sea defences.

Year 6 geography field trip to Felixstowe

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their geography field trip to Felixstowe yesterday. They undertook a range of activities the results of which they brought back to school for analysis.

St. Helen's squash club

The squash club children achieved some great rallies today. Spaces will be available for squash club next term, details will be on the club webpage very soon, keep looking!

KS2 story time at St. Helen's

Mrs Merchant will be reading 'The Firework Maker's Daughter' by Philip Pullman in story time each Wednesday, starting after the holidays. Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children are welcome to bring in their own copies of the book and read along!

Year 4 getting creative with dance!

Here are Year 4 enjoying a fabulous outing to the Cult Cafe on the Ipswich waterfront yesterday.

Assessment guidance for parents...

This is a very useful explanation of the current situation regarding assessment, written to parents...
https://michaelt1979.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/dear-parents/

Future professionals? Who knows!

Year 6 footballers in action during phase 4 games yesterday.

Octopus class update

The Year 3 Octopus class have had a busy few weeks and below are a few highlights:

• A maths-measuring mass
• The Alfie Strange play
• Commonwealth Day focussing on Bangladesh and designing a henna pattern which means inclusion to the children
• and maths today (helping Buttons fill up Jack and Jill's water pail- capacity).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Rainforest phase success at Ipswich School inaugural maths competition

We sent 4 children from Years 5 and 6 to an inaugural maths competition at Ipswich School. We are delighted to say that the children came 3rd out of 10 schools. Mr Gooding felt that it was a very good experience for the team. They really had to think! Well done!

Comments from our mathematicians:

"It was challenging. There was a relay race. You had to answer a question then give a question to the other half of your team. The speed, the questions, and the pressure made it really tough."

 "It was interesting even though it was tough."

"We felt happy with third although would have liked to have come first. It was definitely the relay that cost us.  We hadn't done anything like that before." 

"There was a fraction question - we had two answers and we chose the wrong answer."

"We were close. We don't know the final score but we are confident that we were very close." 

"There was a logic round that we did pretty well in." 

"We did best in the crossword round. Though some of our team members thought  it wasn't the most interesting round."

Year 5 sentence challenge

Year 5 competed to make an ordinary sentence, about a teacher threatening to cry and scream, as interesting as possible. These are some of today's efforts. Well done to all learners.

Eco Club ornithologists show off their bird feeders

Eco club have been making bird feeders out of recycled plastic bottles to be put up at home and in school. 

Commonwealth Day: Turtles share thier amazing thinking on inclusion

Turtle class spent yesterday afternoon learning about Commonwealth Day.  They looked closely at the word 'inclusive' and also focussed in on Bangladesh. They decided to design their own henna which represented the word 'inclusive'. They looked at the co existence picture and discussed what this showed. This helped them to design their own inclusive patterns.

Designs included a henna leaf design with the idea being that the leaf is dripping water onto other leaves and shows the brilliance of working together and helping each other.

Another ensured that the henna had 53 dots which represented the 53 countries in the commonwealth. Some lines have been joined up to show the act of working together and the added flower with different leaves shows what multiculturalism means to this pupil.

Amazing thinking and ideas from the Turtles today!

St. Helen's children make the most of early mornings

The Before School Club continues to be as popular as ever and we can see why! Here is a selection of activities the children enjoyed this morning.