Goodbye, Mrs Holmes

Today we say goodbye to the wonderful Mrs Di Holmes. For the last 21 years Mrs Holmes has played a key role in helping to make Harewood the outstanding school it is today. In that time she has given the very best start to hundreds of children and played such a huge part in the life of the school. Harewood School will miss you very, very much, Mrs Holmes! You are a star! Best wishes for a long, happy and enjoyable retirement.

Snow day like a snow day!

Mrs Holmes says a fond "Goodbye"

A huge "Thank you" to all children, parents and colleagues, past and present, for making my last days at Harewood School so special and memorable!

I shall miss you all but I am sure that I will be seeing you in the near future.

I wish you a Wonderful Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

God Bless!!

Mrs Holmes xx

Snow, Wonderful Snow!

Playtime on the last day of term....with snow to make it even more exciting!

Class 1 Nativity

Gabriel visits Mary

The Wise Men see the Star

All in the stable

Class 2 Christmas Hand Puppets

Christmas Dinner

Here are some photos from our Christmas Dinner.

Dinner was followed by an afternoon of party games, finished off with jelly and ice cream!

Scrooge - Closing Number

Merry Christmas, Mr Scrooge

Here are some photos from our first performance

Carol Singers

Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past

Some Urchins

Tiny Tim with Mr and Mrs Cratchitt

The Cratchitt Children

Scrooge and Bob Cratchitt

Merry Christmas Mr.Scrooge!

It's time to put on make-up! It's time to light the lights!! Yes, it's Christmas production time. This year we are putting on our very own version of A Christmas Carol. We've all been working very hard to learn our lines. With Mrs. Reynolds help this year's production promises to be one of our best ever!

This morning the photographer from the Wetherby News came to take our pictures for the production supplement they are producing. Look out for us hitting the headlines soon!

Maskaraiders at Dance Festival

The Maskaraiders, one of our Year 6 dance groups, performed at the RJC Dance Festival at Wetherby High School.

I've had to edit the video slightly (due to upload limits) but you still get all the highlights!

The Best in Leeds

In the Primary School League Tables for 2009, just published in both the Times and Telegraph newspapers, Harewood has come out as the top performing school in Leeds, and one of the top schools in the country. The tables are drawn up from Key Stage 2 assessment results, aggregated over the last 3 years. Whilst it is true that league tables of this kind are far too simplistic to show the true value of a school, it is nice to see that this narrow academic measure reflects what we believe about the school as a whole, that we are one of the best around!

Primary Maths Challenge

A team from Harewood competed in the final of the Primary Maths Challenge at the Grammar School at Leeds. They had to complete a series of individual and team challenges, all against the clock. They reached the final via the qualification heat earlier in the term. We were the smallest school there, competing against much larger schools from both the public and private sectors. The team did very well managing a score of 49, just 10 less then the eventual winners. Well done, all of you.

Seeing the light

We all thoroughly enjoyed Science Week last week. Class 3 wrote recounts of their week for homework. Here is Abbas' thoughts on the week.

Science Week
On Monday it was the first day of Science Week and we did lots of experiments, for example, how to bend light around corners using mirrors. We also made periscopes and used them to see over the top of our desks.

Mr. Bishop came to talk to us about the eye. Did you know that your pupil is a hole? Also you have a jelly like substance in your eye (joke, I want mine to be lime jelly! ha ha).

On Wednesday a lady called Liz from the Lempen Puppet Theatre visited school. She performed her show 'Journey of a Turtle'. After the show she explained how she had made each of her puppets. In the afternoon Class 3 and Class 4 took part in a shadow puppet workshop. We made our own shadow puppets, they were amazing! Unfortunately, mine went all wrong.

We made periscopes and it was really fun, I thought Zac's was the best. On Friday it was the last day of Science Week. In assembly each class did a presentation to explain the activities they had been doing. Caius and I were at the end of our presentation, so I got pretty nervous, but I stood up and said my line loudly and clearly. It was a great end to a very action packed week!

Kallista plays in an Orchestra

On Wednesday and Thursday morning this week I went to Boston Spa High School to play my violin in an Orchestra (The EPoS Gifted and Talented Orchestra! - Mr M). There were children from all around Leeds coming to play in the Orchestra. It was great fun especially when we played in a concert to our mums and dads. The pieces we played were the ones had learnt during two days.

Kallista E Lawson-Tovey

Pinhole Cameras

Class 4 made pinhole cameras they work by passing light from a torch through a pinhole in a shoebox and projecting the image on the torch onto a screen [grease proof paper]. This image is upside down [in the same way our eyes work]. This only works if it is completeley dark.
We painted our shoeboxes black inside and then made a hole in one side of the box. On the other we cut a rectangle out and covered the whole with grease proof paper. Altogether, we had a great time.

Thank you for reading.

by Tom Rothwell and Seth Jamieson

"Body Tricks"

On Thursday 19th Class 4 went to Otley Courthouse because it was Otley Science Week. We did something called Body Tricks with Dr Marty Jopson from the One Show. First,we did Eye Tricks and you had to stare at some shapes and then they all went fuzzy and we all thought our eye sight was going fuzzy. After that we did Brain Tricks and a boy had to read out some colours and then the colours changed and the boy got mixed up. After the Brain Tricks we did Body Tricks and Marty Jopson cut a board in half with his hands!!! Once it was all over Marty said a carrot is very dangerous and we thought he was going mad but he shot a carrot at a board and chopped it in half !!! It was a great presentation!!

Dress like an Egyptian!

If you called into Class 3 this week you may have met up with Cleopatra or the odd pharoah! We were researching how the ancient Egyptians used to dress. We used our research to design our own outfits.

The challenge was to create a complete outfit in thirty minutes, so we had to use our group work skills to meet our deadline. I think you'll agree we look simply fabulous! :)

Everything is looking brighter!

Have you spotted the engineers around school with their ladders and tool kits? They have been installing our new projectors. Now we have fantastic new brighter projectors in our classrooms - so we can work from the interactive whiteboard without sitting in the dark.
"They are great!" said Billy. "So much easier to see and the colours are fantastic!"

Introducing Mrs Watts - Our New Class 1 Teacher

A big hello to everyone at Harewood Church of England Primary School!

My name is Dawn Watts and I am thrilled to be joining your fantastic school in January as the new Class One teacher. Mr Madeley has asked me to introduce myself to you all – so here goes!

I have worked in education for many years in a number of roles. At Bardsey Primary School, over the period of ten years, I worked as a Teaching Assistant, Special Needs Assistant, Learning Mentor, Higher Level Teaching Assistant and Graduate Teacher Trainee. For six of these years I worked in the Reception class and for my teaching degree I specialised in Early Years Education. I have also previously worked as an Education Officer for Harewood House Trust.

I am currently the Reception teacher at Colton Primary School, which is a brilliant school in which to work. I have been extremely happy at Colton and was only lured away by the prospect of working at Harewood – my dream job!

I have a deep commitment to learning and teaching and I strongly believe in the importance of parental involvement in children’s education. Consequently, I am committed to establishing close school and family partnerships and also believe that children’s personal, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing should always be a priority for teachers.

I have already had a long and very happy association with Harewood Church of England School. Both my children, who are now nineteen and eighteen years old, were taught by Mrs Holmes at Harewood and have extremely happy memories of the school. I feel fortunate to once again become part of this unique and very successful ‘family’ school.

I have the utmost respect for Mrs Holmes and we will meet later this term to discuss classroom routines at Harewood and how I can step into her much accomplished ‘shoes’ in order to ensure the continued progress of the children in Class One. I will of course also spend time with the children to help ensure a smooth and stress free transition for them. In addition to this, Mr Madeley and I will arrange a time when I can meet the Class One parents so I can introduce myself to you in person.

I very much look forward to meeting all of you and becoming part of your outstanding school.

Dawn Watts

Fabulous Ideas!

For much of Thursday and Friday Miss King and Mr Madeley were on a course learning about how to use computer games to encourage brilliant learning in the classroom. It was superb stuff! The course was run by a man called Tim Rylands and showed how wandering through virtual worlds, with the right guide, can inspire wonderful language, writing and learning.

We even got to see it in action, with REAL children in a REAL primary school. What they produced was magnificent. It was so good expect "Myst" to be coming to a classroom near you soon!

Homegrown vegetables in the soup!

Before the end of half term, Class 1 harvested the herbs and vegetables from our School Garden.

We picked carrots, onions, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkins and tomatoes.

Once we had collected the vegetables, the children used their senses to feel the various textures, look at the different colours, smell and taste the raw vegetables.

The class then prepared the vegetables, peeling and cutting them to the right size.

We blended some of the vegetables for our soup.

A big pan of vegetable soup was soon on the cooker.

The children all enjoyed tasting our homegrown vegetable soup.

We made a Halloween lantern with the pumpkin.

Mrs Holmes read a story to the class about pumpkin soup.