Calow Church of England Primary School

Due to the adverse weather conditions and for the safety of everyone, we have taken the decision to close Calow CofE Primary School today.

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/people/chesterfield-primary-school-celebates-glowing-ofsted-report-3921556

Staff and pupils at a Chesterfield primary have been celebating a glowing OFSTED report Staff and pupils at Calow Church of England (V.C.) Primary School are celebrating the results of their latest Ofsted inspection – which judged the school to be ‘good’ in all areas.

We are very proud to share that following our OFSTED on the 28th and 29th September 2022 we have now been rated GOOD in all areas.

calow.derbyshire.sch.uk

Thank you to all our wonderful parents for your kindness and generosity but most importantly for all your support. Have a wonderful break and we are looking forward to taking our school from strength to strength in the Autumn term.

Don't forget, it's pyjama day tomorrow!

We will also be outside the school office this morning to collect uniform donations.

And Ice Pops will be on sale tomorrow after school and we will be again collecting any uniform donations 😀

Please follow our Twitter accounts to see all our wonderful learning.

https://twitter.com/calowprimary/status/1518332517404884996?s=21&t=NNPzNXANrJBZkuMx26FYDQ

Calow Primary on Twitter “Can’t wait to welcome back all our children and families tomorrow for the start of the Summer term. https://t.co/NqYMfJTTjc”

⭐️⭐️ This Wednesday 27th, is the PTFA meeting. Please come along at 5:30pm and support the PTFA in organising events and activities for our jubilee fayre.
Any monies raised by the PTFA are put into creating experiences for the children or buying much needed resources. Everyone welcome, even if you can only offer a small amount of time. We look forward to seeing you.⭐️⭐️

Looking forward to seeing everybody tomorrow. Hope you’ve all had a lovely half term. Don’t forget we are celebrating thinking day tomorrow so anyone in scouting or guiding is invited to come in their uniforms.

Food tasting event/meet the new head Teacher tomorrow night (15th Feb) from 3:15pm onwards in the school hall. Everyone welcome, please spread the word.

Happy New Year to all our families and children. Just a polite reminder that tomorrow is an INSET day and the children return to school on Tuesday 11th January. I can’t wait to meet you all. Mrs Wigfield

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our children, staff and families!

The children sang beautifully in their Christmas services this morning, and we have recorded them for you to listen, download and share with family. There were two separate services - one for Key Stage 1 and one for Key Stage 2. Just click on the links below to take you through to Soundcloud.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: https://soundcloud.com/user-8177586/reception-year-1-and-year-2-christmas-service-2021/s-UxneU7oVXt7?si=469a41a9d13d4b2cb9144ad1c4a5511c&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Year 3, 4, 5 and 6: https://soundcloud.com/user-8177586/year-3-4-5-and-6-christmas-service-2021/s-N3LkJz3Vg6J?si=8e5bd56eb993482b8d2ea215d3cf91b0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Feel free to share these audio links as widely as you like. We stayed on after the services to sing some bonus songs too, and kept the microphones on - hope you enjoy!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Happy Friday, everyone! Here is a round-up and a few pics of some of the exciting learning and activities we have been up to over the last couple of weeks. Have a lovely weekend when it comes.

In Nursery, we have been writing letters to Santa. We have practised our cutting skills by cutting out pictures of things we would like from catalogues. We then carefully glued the pictures on to our letters and wrote our names at the bottom. Mrs Hermiston put them into a big envelope and has posted them off to Santa. We have also enjoyed singing lots of Christmas songs.

The children in Reception class have been learning to recognise capital letters. We have been playing a game with pebbles to match lower case letters to their capitals. Some children have started to use the computer keyboards to type simple sentences about their favourite character from the story of the Little Red Hen. The children have also used the mouse to draw a picture to illustrate their sentence. This week, the children have been learning to retell the story of the First Christmas. The children have been interested in looking at the special model of the Nativity Scene in our Reflection Area. The Reception children can name all the people in the Nativity scene. We have also been listening to different versions of the Christmas Story and looking at different pictures which show the Baby Jesus in the manger. The children have all carefully drawn their own Nativity scene.

Class One have been working on 2D shapes in maths. We have named them and looked at their properties. We made some lovely shape pictures and described them to our friends trying to use mathematical vocabulary. See if you can recognise a dinosaur, monster, Christmas tree and Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in a stable. In English, we drew and labelled maps for the journey the Queen's hat took around London. It passed many landmarks and we labelled them all, before it returned to Buckingham Palace. We have also been looking at different types of persuasive writing. We have made leaflets and posters about London as part of our topic Bright Lights, Big City. We made the posters really bright and eye catching. The leaflets contained lots of useful information to persuade people to come and visit London. We think anyone looking at our posters and leaflets would be very keen to go to London.

We have finished designing, making and evaluating our puppets in Class 2. We have made characters from a famous traditional tale. I wonder if you can guess which one they are from...? In English we have been using interesting verbs and adjectives to write diary entries. We wrote a diary entry from the point of view of the Earthworm in James and the Giant Peach, our class reader. This week, we have worked really hard in maths to find odd and even numbers. We have been sharing these number equally and investigating whether they are odd or even. In our writing we have done lots of grammar work and been learning to use apostrophes for contractions – we wrote a letter to Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge from our class read explaining why we ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’ come home. We have also worked very hard on our Christmas Nativity. We have been singing and acting, and look forward to sharing our film with you soon.

Class Three have been creating decorations for the Christmas tree in our classroom, using a variety of different stitches. We have reviewed existing products, created a range of design ideas and planned our final decorations ready for creating and sewing - they are now proudly displayed on our Christmas tree and we are looking forward to bringing them home. In English, we have been writing reports about the Stone Age. We have been producing longer pieces of writing, using paragraphs and sub-headings to structure our work. Miss Savage has been very proud of our writing stamina, and we are looking forward to sharing our writing with Reception class.

This week Class Four have continued to work hard on their D&T levers and linkages project. They have now created three different mechanisms and some writing to go with their book, putting all the pieces together to form their Christmas inspired book. A lot of care and attention has also gone into the presentation of them, and they look great! In Geography, the children have been labelling and describing different features and parts of a river course. They are now familiar with the upper, middle and lower courses of a river. In English, the children have begun to create their own spy narratives as their final piece of writing for 2021! We are now looking forward to our last 'Christmassy' week in school.

Class Five have been researching lunch bags in preparation for our own designs, and carefully taking apart lunch bags to find out what shapes the material was cut into and then how the pieces were sewn together. We had lots of fun deconstructing the lunch bags and were surprised by what materials we found inside. It has given us lots of ideas for how we can make our own lunch bags. In Maths, we have been using money to find different ways to represent amounts.

Class Six have found out more about World War II, including the Blitz, and have been creating a newspaper recount about the outbreak of the war. In Science, they have found out more about light and also enjoyed a special online Assembly run by the National Physical Laboratory that showed how real scientists might find out the answers to some tricky questions - like how many sprinkles are there in a jar. This week, class 6 have finished their class reader - Letters from the Lighthouse. Through the story, the class have learned all about what it was like to be a Jewish refugee in the war. They loved the story and are sad that there isn't a sequel to it. They have also been finding out about VE Day and how people celebrated that the war in Europe was over. In Science, they have looked at different types of mirrors and how reflections in them are different, as well as finding out how we see different colours. Shape has been a focus in Maths and the class have been rising to the tricky challenge of how to use protractors.

Hi everyone. Hope you've had a good week. It's been full of exciting and interesting learning at school. Here's a round-up of some of the things we've been up to.....

The children in Reception class have been writing reports about the cat from the story of the Little Red Hen. Reception children are very proud of their reading skills. They were able to read several sentences about cats and could use the ideas from the sentences in their own writing. The children have also been making part part whole models using the hoops and bean bags outside and recording their ideas. They have been explaining how the whole links to the parts in their models.

Class One have had a very exciting week. We had a visit from Cinderella in her rags! The children had planned questions to ask her and she answered them all. The next day, there was a letter from her saying how she had loved her visit and her stepsisters never knew she left her house to visit Calow. On Thursday, Cinderella returned, this time in her ball dress. She was very excited to be going to the ball. She answered more of the children's questions and they were very pleased to see her again.

In Class Two, we have been learning how to bridge 10 in Maths. We have used rekenreks, tens frames, numicon and part part whole models to help show which two numbers total 10. We are becoming more fluent in our Maths now. In English we have been writing our own wanted posters for the gingerbread man. He is still lost though, so keep an eye out! During our history sessions we have been learning about the Gunpowder Plot. We now know all of the facts about the story and even managed to tackle a crossword puzzle using our knowledge. We’ve had a very busy week and earned our weekend break!

Class Three enjoyed the book Flotsam so much last week that this week we decided to write a narrative for the wordless book. We have been including the speech skills we have been learning about recently. In geography, we have been exploring our school grounds using maps and compasses. Our favourite lessons this week have been gymnastics sessions in PE. We have really enjoyed creating routines using a range of apparatus. We have shown resilience and determination when using some of the larger equipment.

This week, Class Four enjoyed taking part in a lantern making workshop with visitors who came into school. The children have also been working hard to practise their times tables. They have been working on their 3s and 6s in class and have been using Times Table Rock Stars for further practice at home, improving in both accuracy and speed.

This week Class Five have been researching and writing a non-chronological report all about space. In our reading lessons, we have been finding out about influential Britons, such as David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.

Class Six have found out more about the reasons why there was another war so soon after WWI. They have focused on what it would have been like to be evacuated during this time and how children may have felt. They have written some diary entries to explain their thoughts and feelings. In music, we have listened to some of the songs sung be Dame Vera Lynn as well as Glen Miller's Big Band with Chattanooga Choo-choo. Class Six have also begun to create their shelters in D&T, using their designs to cut and saw the pieces that they need for their structures.

I wonder what is about to happen at Calow Primary School this morning.......?

To see what the box holds, solve these riddles:

I can fill up a room, but take no space.

The more of me there is, the less you can see. What am I?

I can bring a smile to your face, a tear to your eye or even a thought to your mind, but I can't be seen. What am I?

I am always in front of you and never behind you. What am I?

Have a lovely weekend when it comes, everyone! Here is a snapshot of our learning and activities in school this week:

In Nursery, we have created eye-catching firework art. We cut up kitchen rolls and dipped them in different coloured paints to create our work. We had fun adding glitter to make our fireworks sparkle!

In Reception class, the children have been listening to the story of The Little Red Hen. We have been thinking about how the cat, the pig and the rat could have helped the Little Red Hen make the bread. The children have been finding out about rats by looking at pictures and reading sentences. We have each written a report about a rat. In our maths lessons we have been partitioning bread rolls using the part part whole model.

In Class One, we have been working hard in maths looking at "whole" and "not whole". We used different construction kits and playdough to make models and take parts away, using terms "whole" and "not whole" to describe them. For Remembrance, as a class, we made a beautiful wreath of poppies which you can see on the fence at the front.

Class Two have been learning about poetry and fireworks. We made our own fireworks out of junk - we tried hard to work respectfully with a partner. This week we needed to have lots of resilience as we sewed our own firework display using a running stitch. In shared reading, we have read firework poetry and found the rhyming words. Finally, we planned our own firework poem. It is a countdown poem…. three, two, one…. BLAST OFF!!

Class Three have focused on Remembrance Day. We learned about the important roles of women during WWI and we created silhouette artwork to depict some of the many jobs they had. Class Three have also written poppy poetry, thinking about what the poppy represents.

Class Four have been focusing on perimeter in maths. They've measured, calculated and found missing lengths over the course of the week. On Tuesday afternoon the class created artwork based on the roles of women in World War One. These are proudly on display at the front of school.

Class Five have learned about Sikh soldiers' role during WWI, producing some thoughtful artwork for the front of school. In English, we have been reading a range of Remembrance poetry and have used this to write our own reflective poetry. We have also had fun planning and carrying out our materials investigation in science.

Class Six have focused on their history topic of WWI and WWII this week, especially with it being Remembrance. The children have looked at some Remembrance poems and written some of their own. They have also found out about the events that led up to WWI and what life in the trenches would have been like. When thinking about the wars, they have looked at how many Sikh soldiers helped by fighting against the Triple Alliance. Their artwork for Remembrance has focused on memorials for these Sikh soldiers.

Our Remembrance service at the war memorial was very moving, and we are proud of our children for behaving so respectfully.

We will remember them.

Our brief Remembrance Service at the war memorial will start whenever everyone in Reception-Year 6 has arrived safely in the park, which we hope will be around 10:45am. We will be walking down, and parents/carers and guests are welcome to join us there. If you do, please stand well back from the memorial to allow all the classes to get into position. Thank you.

Here's a round up of some of the exciting learning we have been doing this week. Have a lovely half term everyone!

This week in Nursery we have been practising our cutting skills. We have been learning how to use scissors safely to carefully cut things out. We have also been looking at pumpkins. We cut a pumpkin open and tried to guess how many seeds were inside.

The children in Reception class have been thinking about old and new teddy bears. We have compared an old teddy bear and a new teddy bear. We have talked about how we know if a teddy bear is old or new. We have also drawn pictures of the outside of a pumpkin and predicted what might be inside a pumpkin. We are very proud of our writing in our Sounds Write Phonic Lessons.

Class One have been working hard in maths, looking at equals to, more than and less than. We counted objects and compared them using whiteboards to write the answers. In English, we have been making books to retell the story of The Disgusting Sandwich. We are trying to remember finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. We have completed some lovely writing.

In Class Two we have been baking. We made Grannie Island's "Porridgies" recipe from the book. We really enjoyed making AND eating them. During the making, we had to use our Maths skills to measure accurately. After that we decided to evaluate her recipe and make our own version. Some of us chose to change flavours, add fruit and add a topping. Some of us loved her Porridgies recipe just as it is. We have been baking our own version today.

Class Three and Four had a fantastic day in Ecclesall woods on Tuesday. We became a Stone Age tribe for the day and had fun working as a team. We learned how to throw spears, hunt woolly mammoths, light fires, make clay animals and build shelters in the style of Mesolithic Stone Age homes. We all stayed dry when Sarah tested our ‘homes’ to see if they were waterproof!

On Remarkable People Day, last Friday, Class Five learned about the life of Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut ever to go into space. We learned about how she grew up in Sheffield, studied Chemistry and went to work at the Mars Bar Factory. She heard a radio advertisement to become an astronaut and applied. She spent eight days in space conducting experiments. We made a Google doodle to sum up everything we had learned about her. In art we use our mark making skills to create drawings of gemstones then painted them using watercolours and watercolour pencils.

Class Six have produced some fantastic work on description of a Sci-Fi setting and creatures, showing their wonderful use of vocabulary and figurative language. They have also found out more about Moses and his life in R.E. and have thought about the Ten Commandments and their significance. In Geography, they have learned about the high-value exports of different countries and their importance across the world.

Children from Reception to Year 6 all had a dance session today with a professional dance teacher - it was a lot of fun and all the groups learnt some great moves and looked really impressive.

Well done to the Year 5 and 6 footballers who represented the school in the Chesterfield Schools Football Tournament at Hasland Hall yesterday. They played really well, and were very proud to finish as runners up. Most importantly, they showed fantastic cooperation and teamwork, and supported each other throughout the tournament.

Not every day you see a ship arriving in Calow!

Year 5 enjoyed an amazing space-themed science day at Hasland Hall today. We took a coach trip to the secondary school and were treated to 4 fantastic hands-on workshops and an astrodome. First, we made moon cookies in the food technology kitchens. Then we moved to the science labs, where we tried to use grit, compost, water and dry ice to make a comet (not entirely successfully, but the dry ice was still spectacular!). After that, we made and measured craters, by dropping balls into trays of sand from different heights. Next, we watched an amazing demonstration of liquid nitrogen, seeing how it could freeze a sausage to be smashed with a hammer, and a bunch of flowers to be crushed into dust. More importantly, we watched how milk, cream, sugar and vanilla could be turned almost instantly into ice cream using liquid nitrogen, and we all got to eat a bowl of scientific ice cream! Mmmm....delicious! Finally, we went into a huge dark astrodome, and watched an incredible immersive presentation about space, showing the Earth, Moon, planets, stars and robot landings. What a great opportunity for Year 5 - well done to all the children for being super scientists, thanks to Hasland Hall for inviting us and putting on the activities, and thanks to Mrs Cullington for leading the visit.

This is Patricia, who paid us a visit after school, managed to find the highest, least accessible ledge in the hall and hid behind a curtain for a laugh. Thanks for the feathery Friday fun, Patricia! 😀

This week, in Nursery, we have been thinking about autumn and we have been looking at autumn colours. We have printed some beautiful autumn trees using pieces of broccoli.

In Reception, we recalled key events in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children enjoyed wearing headphones and listening to the Three Bears story on the immersive Now Press Play platform. Reception children also retold the story of The Bear Hunt in our outside area and drew story maps to retell it.

In Class 1, children have been following instructions. We tried really hard to follow the instructions in the correct order to make some delicious jam sandwiches and then we ate them. Yum! We had so much fun this week in literacy and DT.

We have been learning how to take care of ourselves in Class 2. We have learned what humans need to stay alive and healthy. Mrs Martin wrote letters with us to Mrs O’Neill, asking for help whilst we were stuck on a desert island. Mrs O’Neill has promised to send us food, water and warm clothes so we can survive.

In Year 3, we have been writing instruction on how to wash a prehistoric animal. We all chose different ones – the most popular was the Sabre-Toothed Tiger. We loved our tennis session with Andy and are getting better at aiming the ball using a racket.

We have been mapping the spread of the Ancient Roman Empire in Class 4, and analysing replicas of artefacts from Ancient Rome.
We had a very exciting immersive afternoon, imagining that our father, a Centurion, had been kidnapped and we had to rescue him!

Year 5 have been busy "accidentally" flying to Mars and saving Earth from an asteroid! We have also been looking at how the Sun seems to move across the sky during the day, to help us to work out how the Earth actually moves to create day and night.

We have been reading a range of animal poems in Year 6, writing our own poetry and creating images in the reader's mind with our vocabulary. We have also enjoyed carrying out two immersive experiences. By wearing headphones, we were taken to Jamaica looking at plants and how they are pollinated, and we also travelled to Egypt to found out what it was like to be there during the Ten Plagues.

We were pleased to welcome Chris the firefighter into school to lead fire safety workshops this morning with Year 2 and Year 6. They all listened and participated really well, and Chris complimented both classes on their respectful behaviour. Children learnt all about the simple things we can do around the house to prevent fires and protect ourselves, such as unplugging devices at night, closing doors and checking smoke alarms regularly. Thanks Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service for the important lessons and excellent workshops.

Happy Friday everyone! Here are some of the interesting and exciting things we have been up to in school this week:

In Nursery, we have enjoyed getting to know all the new children and building relationships. We have enjoyed reading the story of the Selfish Crocodile and talking about what it means to be kind and a good friend. Children have loved the playdough and the sandpit, and we have done lots of counting and colours together.

Reception Class have been exploring how to represent different numbers using the outdoor maths equipment. They have been developing accurate counting of small groups of objects, recognising numbers and making number lines using number cards. Children have also loved practising their balancing using the obstacle course outside.

This week in Class One we have been learning about belonging. We have sequenced the story of the Disgusting Sandwich and written speech bubbles. We have also enjoyed investigating sound in science.

Class Two have been thinking about how our brains work, and learning to train our inner chimp! On Thursday afternoon, we had a surprise visit from some chickens! We learned lots of facts about them, including what they eat and how they change from being a chick to a chicken. Did you know that a chicken can sit on as many as 12 eggs at once?

Class Three have begun our science topic, learning all about rocks. We have started to learn about where rocks can be found and how they are formed. We have begun to classify rocks according to different properties. In history, we have started our topic all about the Stone Age by thinking about enquiry questions.

This week, Class Four have been busy working on their description. They have been creating brilliant setting descriptions, getting their inspiration from some fabulous foodscapes. In history, the children have been researching the spread of the Roman Empire. They've used their chronological knowledge to plot how the Romans marched to our shores. Finally, this week in Science, the children have been following the journey food takes through our bodies. They now know this process to be digestion. Keep up the effort Class Four!

Class 5 have used the poem Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen to come up with their own poems about their favourite food.
We have also been learning about the movement of the planets around the sun and acted out their orbit.

Class Six have been busy planning their report text on a dragon or unicorn that they have created using their imagination. In Science they have become classification experts, identifying which invertebrate groups different creatures belong to. For our new Geography topic, they have worked in pairs to find out about trade in Stone Age times, the 17th century or the 21st century, and have presented their findings to other pairs in the class.

It's been another busy, fun-packed week of learning and activity at Calow. We've missed our Y6 class, and a few other children and members of staff, and we're looking forward to seeing them all back in school soon. Here are a few things we've been up to recently:

Everyone in Nursery was talking about the football, so on Friday we had a football day. We played football on the field and had a penalty shoot-out against Mrs. Hermiston. There were lots of super goals scored! We also had a small football pitch in nursery and we had a football dance party!

Reception children have been completing their papier-mache mini beasts. The mini beasts have been painted. The children have added wings, eyes, legs and spots. The finished mini beasts look amazing. During outside learning time, the children have been partitioning numbers and checking that their ideas are correct using the balance equipment. The children have been working hard to record their ideas independently and explain their thinking to their friends.

This week in Class One, we have been learning all about hot countries and reading Handa’s Surprise. There are lots of animals in the story which we wouldn’t find in our country! We are starting to find out more about the different types of animals and which habitat they prefer. To find out a bit more about the country Handa lives in, we have used the globes, atlases, and maps, and identified where the hottest places are. We have also learned some new geographical vocabulary, including "equator".

Class Two have had another great week. We had so much fun yesterday with our Sports Day challenges. First, we made super progress with the triple jump (hop, skip and jump) and measured each attempt, achieving new personal bests. We also measured how far we could throw the air flyers. Our events with Liam from the Sports Partnership were lots of fun. In the afternoon we learnt about the Paralympic sport of Boccia and played in two teams. We also had a go at indoor curling too and finished off with extreme team parachute games!

Class Three have enjoyed designing and making their own picture frames, using lots of creative materials, including woodwork skills to make our frames stand up. In English, we have continued our work on volcanoes and have begun creating explanation texts on how volcanoes erupt. We had lots of fun on Sports Day with our leader India. We showed great resilience and teamwork skills. Another great week for Class Three!

Class Four have been exploring angles in maths. They have been securing their knowledge of right angles before identifying and comparing a range of different angles. In English, the children have begun to create their own narratives about an alien invasion. They've watched a short clip to inspire them. We can't wait to read the finished pieces! Class four have also used their creative flair to create some brilliant sketches of insects and plants this week.

Class Five have finished their moving toys, and I think you will agree that they look amazing! As you will know, we had sports day yesterday so we are planning to write a newspaper to let you all know what happened!

Class Six have been self-isolating and learning from home, and we are proud of them for trying to stay positive and resilient. Amongst other lessons, they have been strengthening their knowledge of fractions in Maths, writing a voyage story and revising some grammar in English, learning about Evolution and Inheritance in Science and doing some fitness circuits in PE. Keep going, Year 6, and we look forward to seeing you soon!