Reports about our opening ceremony

See the Wetherby News Report about the official opening of our extension:
http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/news/wetherby/harewood_school_extension_unveiled_1_4188714

Also Fabian Hamilton, Labour MP for North East Leeds, reported the event on his website: 
http://www.leedsne.co.uk/harewood_primary_school.htm

Ice Cube (live blog)

Class 4 are having great fun learning to ice skate at the Ice Cube in Millennium Square. Not too many falls so far!

We (Class 4) had a fabulous time at the Ice Cube. There were some nerves to start beforehand....

...but we listened carefully to the instructor....

...and soon we were away.

We certainly discovered some of us had hidden talent!

But with some the talent was just too well hidden to discover!!!!! :-)

Are you a champion mathlete?

Our search for our champion mathlete continues. Pupils have been competing, both at home and at school, to complete the maths challenges online and earn their certificates. We now have one computer for every two children in school - this means that gaining access to the internet programme is even easier. For those who are taking their training to the next level, Mathletics club is held every Wednesday lunchtime. This week we had twenty three children at the club, they were each able to have a laptop or PC in the ICT suite.

We already have our first Gold Certificate winner. Luke Mutamiri in Year 4 has earned an amazing amount of points and has gained the top prize from the Mathletics site.

All the children in KS2 have a Mathletics account that they can access from home, as well as at school. It is a great way to practise the key skills and have fun at the same time.

This year we have also invested in Spellodrome, which is a new spelling based part of the Mathletics site. Children access the spelling activities with the same user name and password. Who will be our first golden speller?? We'll keep you posted!

The Official Opening of the School House Extension 23.01.12

Monday 23^rd January was a very special day for all of us at Harewood School. David Lascelles, Earl of Harewood visited the school to open our new extension. Before the official ceremony the children performed for the Earl and invited guests.

There were readings by the children from our Log Books, dating back to 1863, telling the history of the school. There were also songs by the school and the choir.

After the performance the Earl unveiled the plaque in the entrance, commemorating his donation of the School House to the school and recording the date of this official opening.

It was wonderful that so many important guests joined us for this special occasion, including Fabian Hamilton MP, Alec Shelbrooke MP, Councillor John Procter, Rev. Sylvia Earle and respresentatives from both Pearce Bottomley, our architects, and Torpoint Ltd, who did the renovation work. 

After refreshments, many of the guests enjoyed guided tours by our Year 6 pupils of the school and its new facilities. They were all extremely impressed with both the new facilities and the brilliant way their guides told them about all the changes.

During the afternoon we had many more visitors, as friends from the village, past pupils, parents and former staff from over the years came to look round. Notable among these many guests was the daughter of Mr Wadsworth, who was Headmaster of the school for over 40 years during the first half of the 20th century. Barbara was actually born in a bedroom in the School House (now part of Class 3), as her family lived there while her father was Head, and attended the school herself leaving in 1936. (Her name is on the Honours Board in the library)

The whole day was a fabulous occasion and marks the official beginning of the next exciting chapter of the long and illustrious story of Harewood School.

Class 4's amazing solar system poster!

Here is the moment when the Class 4 first glimpsed their fantastic Solar System work. As you can see, they're delighted with the final product - a massive canvas printout comprising all of their work.
The planet images were created at the CLC using an impressive suite of state-of-the-art computers. We used the program 'photoshop' in order to manipulate our images, blending in other images and tweaking the colour using layering and blending tools.

Look carefully and you will notice different images within the planets (and moon and sun). These represent different things associated with the origin of the planet's name in (typically) Greek or Roman mythology.

This project combined so many skills: impressive, current ICT skills; historical research; art and design choices; and scientific knowledge and understanding.

Some pupils were surprised about the scale of the planets in relation to each other and to the sun. However, they were probably even more surprised by the scale of the final piece! Many thanks to the staff at the CLC for collaborating with us on this unique project - this concept was another first for the CLC and I hope you'll all agree that it was worth the effort. Keep your eyes peeled for this poster as it will be on display very soon in school!