Simba - Summer 2010

Excellence through care....

BABLAKE JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNDON ROAD COVENTRY CV1 4AU TEL: 024 7627 1260 www.bablakejuniorschool.co.uk

ROUNDERS NEWS

This term our girls have been busy practising their batting and fielding skills in preparation for the eagerly awaited rounders fixtures. The U10 team started the season with a fine 17-10 ½ victory against a C team from Bablake Senior. They continued in the same vein with a 22 ½14 defeat of Crescent School.

They faced stronger opposition against the Croft and after a closely fought match lost 14 ½-17. A combined U11 and U10 team, playing together for the first time, secured a 22 ½-16 ½ victory over Arnold Lodge.

The Year 6 players have shown great commitment to practices and the U11B team were

rewarded with a 13 ½-9 win against Kingsley Prep. After a narrow defeat in their first match of the season, the U11A team have gone from strength to strength, claiming victories over Kingsley, Crescent and Milton Keynes Prep. In the recent Rugby School Invitation Tournament, the A team qualified for the semi final after a display of excellent team work. The semi, against eventual tournament winners Bilton Grange, was a match worthy of the final. At the end of the timed innings both teams were level with a score of 5 ½ all.

After a period extra time and a valiant effort, Bablake narrowly failed to reach the final by 2 ½-4 rounders. Congratulations to Jemima Beddow in 6D who was voted ‘player of the tournament’.

Good luck to our U9 rounders team who play their first fixture next week under the guidance of Miss Harrison. A special mention must go to the mums of our Year 6 players who, in the recent mums v daughters match, surpassed all expectations to secure a brilliant victory!

Congratulations to Danika

Patel in 6D who has been selected for the Warwickshire U11 Girls County Team

CRICKET This has been a challenging season and victories have been hard to come by.

What we can say for certain is that all of the boys have made great progress.

Those that had never picked up a cricket ball have learnt to bowl and the batting and running between the wickets have become much more vigorous.

The ease with which the U8’s beat King Henry’s augers well for the future.

The U10’s were narrowly beaten in the Henry’s fixture with Taran Sanghera remarkably getting five wickets in two overs. The team had comfortably beaten Twycross the week before. Amrit Gill had also secured a five wicket haul against King Henry’s for the U9’s. Camren Bisal led a battling U10 performance against Arnold Lodge when scoring a magnificent forty two runs.

The U11’s secured victory against The Crescent with some strong batting and good team play. Their season was enhanced by the telling addition of Danika Patel to the line up. Her performances were significant and it is great to hear of her success with the Warwickshire team.

This has been a season of transition as we have sought to challenge ourselves with tougher fixtures. We hope some of the boys will join Cricket Clubs from home as we seek to help everyone fulfil their potential.

Simba

Bablake Junior School Summer 2010

The Lion King hits the stage at Bablake Junior School

THE CALSHOT EXPERIENCE Albert “Pico sailing is extreme boat heaven.”

James “The food was excellent, healthy and exquisite. It was really quite special.”

Robert “Skiing down the slope felt exhilarating, the cold air fresh in my face.’”

Raajun “Archery was great, when you mainly hit the red.”

Dominic “Skiing was great because it was exciting, and really thrilling when you got up to speed.”

Alex “Climbing was exhilarating because on a wall we were blindfolded and had our legs tied!”

Amelia “The feeling of pure decadence slipping down into my stomach eased the essence of tired achievement, whilst preparing me for continuing the day.”

Bethany “Skiing was my most absolutely favourite activity; it took my breath away chugging down the slope like that! I even managed to finish properly for once which was an awesome achievement!”

This was a fantastic production. The whole cast contributed to the delight of the audiences, with everyone from the humblest member of the chorus to the mighty Simba giving their all.

Clearly much had be learned from the casts’ participation in the Christmas smash hit ‘Nativity’, and the players confidence shone through. Mrs Dodd has taught the actors a set of essential stage skills that allowed them to shine. Even Mr Norman, with his astonishing stage presence, was forced to play second fiddle. The part of Scar was well and truly taken!

The Lion King

Zumba Dancing

Aboriginal Painting

Aboriginal Painting

Arts Week

The school was brought alive at the beginning of the week with African music and gospel singing. The children had the opportunity to take part in vocal workshops and trial African hair styles. The Zumba dance workshop also went down a treat with the children. Zumba is a popular dance workout in the city and the children loved experimenting with the Salsa, Merengue and Belly dancing to name but a few. Year 4 focused on China during the week and were treated to workshops from members of the Chinese community

African Dancing

Indian Art

Mencala Game

Expedition to Zimbabwe

The children have been celebrating diversity in different cultures as part of the school’s International Arts week.

During the week a range of exciting activities and workshops were provided for the children to give them a real insight into other cultures both local and abroad. The week also celebrated the Arts; in particular Music, Dance, Drama, English and Art.

Aboriginal Pottery Tiles

where they created Chinese lanterns.

They have also been busy creating a life size Chinese dragon! Other cultures that have been explored include Australia, India, Turkey and Zimbabwe and Wales.

There have been plenty of other great activities to amuse the children during the week including: creating aboriginal pottery tiles, cultural drama workshops, Henna hand patterns, multicultural banners, Japanese Manga designs as well as a trip to the Herbert Art Gallery to create Bengali story scrolls.

To round off the week, the children came to school in dress from a different culture, raising money for their chosen charity: The Air Ambulance.

Bengali Scripts

Bengali Scripts

During International Arts Week 5P took a ‘trip’ to Zimbabwe. Like thousands of children starting their school day in western Zimbabwe, we began each morning by singing ‘Nkosi s’ ikeleli Afrika’ in Sindebele.

We mastered the language and even the clicks very quickly.

During the week we used books and the internet to research the geography, history and cultural aspects of Zimbabwe. Mrs Price showed us photographs and slides, taken when she taught in a village school in Matabeleland. We also read lots of African stories and are now writing and illustrating our own picture books for younger children. These will be based in Zimbabwe and feature African animals, birds and plants in their plots and illustrations.

The Magic Paint Brush

Elizabeth Yardley came to visit and showed us how to drum, dance and sing a variety of songs from all over Africa. There were a number of very enthusiastic dancers in the class.

We have learned to play mancala, an African strategy game and have made and decorated own playing boards.

In Art we looked at the Ndebele geometrical patterns that are used to decorate homes and create beadwork. This inspired us to create our own brightly coloured wall hangings. We hope the Year 6S might like to use them for the backdrop to their production of ‘The Lion King’.

Mrs Farren took us on a trip to China in a drama lesson where we became Liang, and did good deeds with a magic paint brush. We also visited the Herbert Art Gallery to look at Bengali story scripts. Using our knowledge of myths and legends we created our own class myth and illustrated a scroll in order to tell the story.

The Magic Paint Brush

Geometric Designs

Dear Headmaster,

Dear Headmaster,

I am writing to tell you why Coventry Fire Station’s Purple Watch should come and talk to your children about three incredibly important things. These three things are; smoke alarms, hoax calls and house fires.

I am a fireman from the Coventry Purple Watch. Please let us come in and teach the pupils about the fire service, smoke alarms, what to do in a house fire and hoax calls. Many people die every year from fires. Teaching people about the risks of fire will not only help them survive but help their families survive and give us less work and more time to deal with bigger and more deadly fires. Another upside to this is teaching more pupils about fire.

Firstly I would like to tell to you about appalling hoax calls. It is no laughing matter. People die!

That is why it is an extremely important. We would tell your pupils about what would happen to the to the caller’s mobile phone or if you called from a home phone you may get a knock at your front door from the police.

Two in three deaths are caused in house fires just because people don’t realise how often to check their smoke alarms!

My team and I will explain the correct places to put smoke alarms. We will also tell the children that there is no need to worry if you don’t have a smoke detector they can call a number and we will fit one for free!

Fires are deadly. They are the major cause of sadness, mourning and distress, but if we can teach people the fire escape routine we can put a full stop to all this. If the children know what to do, they will encourage the parents to put smoke alarms in the right place and if they are unfortunately stuck in a fire, they will survive until the fire brigade come and put the fire out. As a recent study has shown, it only takes 3 minutes from a small lighter fire to turn into a colossal death fire that will take the fire brigade hours to take down. As part of the lesson on fire we will show them how to stop, drop and roll and the science behind it.

House fires devastate so many families, that is why we try and talk to as many schools as we can and trying to teach children at a young age what to do in fire so then they will remember it for the rest of their lives. (Hopefully they don’t have to use it) We will teach them about, stop, drop and roll and how to escape a fire. A recent test has proved that a small lighter can cause a life threatening fire in just over three minuets! That is why it is our responsibility to teach your children about house fires.

We also will teach them about 999 and 112 and how they are the emergency numbers to help them. Hoax calls are dangerous because the make us go to a place and waste our time going to check for a ‘fire’ when there a really needy person whose family is about to die and can’t do anything to help. We have a DVD to show the pupils about a recreation of a real disaster that happened in Coventry. Hoax calls are no joke because you can kill someone. We will explain that to the children and how they can be dangerous. If they do make a hoax call, we will tell them about how we can track them and the police will come knocking on their door.

After we have talked to the children we will bring our own fire engine and we will show them some of the kit, plus we will let them have a go on the hose. We will need about two and a half hours, plus we will also come for free. We are anticipating your letter back, or call us on 03700 567 43990.

If you decide to let us come, we will need about 2 hours and don’t be surprised if we get called away. Not only will we teach them we will let the squirt the hose and try on the kit that lets us help people stuck in fires. We can handle up to 50 pupils at once to give them a go if we get called away. If you would like us to come, call us on 07912352548 or housefires@wifialarms.com.

Charlotte Allitt

Behrad Koohy

KEBAB KITCHEN WITH MR BOGYOR Georgia

“My favourite thing was working with nice people.”

Charlotte

“I enjoyed cutting the meat.”

Ethan

“They were delicious and tasty.”

Imaan

“My favourite bit was making all the ingredients.”

Ezra

“I have never cooked before and the kebab tasted delicious.”

Jauvan

“The best bit was eating the kebabs!”

Zahrah

“It was so good, they tasted delicious.”

Naomi

“Yum.”

Katy

“The highlight of the week was Kebab Kitchen. I loved it.”

Maryam

“It was excellent learning about different cultures. The kebabs were super delicious.”

Joseph

“I liked the mushrooms on the stick, and the tomatoes. It was lovely.”

3L have spent four weeks this term practising their multiplication facts every day. We had a new rhyme to say and learn each day, and had actions to go alongside them. We have all really improved our Maths. As 6 x 6 is 36 , lollipop sticks , our reward was a lollipop each.

Sophie “It has really helped because learning all of the tables and I enjoyed getting out the equipment.”

Ben “I really enjoyed it because it has made me quicker and more accurate.”

Jauvan “I enjoyed it because I really liked the worm rhyme and I have improved a lot in four weeks.”

William “I enjoyed it because the rhymes were fun.”

Jessica “The best bit was when Miss Love handed out the things to count.”

Jasmyn “I enjoyed it because it was fun to learn and rhymes are easy to remember.”

Aaliyah “I enjoyed it because you could feel, see and hear the tables.”

Ezra “The worms were really slimy.”

Imaan “I enjoyed it because I’ve improved . My favourite rhyme was 3x3, 9 cuts on my knee.”

CROSS COUNTRY

On Saturday 22nd May Bablake Junior School’s cross country teams were invited to take part in the Joe O’Brien Primary Schools Memorial Cross Country Run at Ernesford Grange School and Community College. The atmosphere was very friendly as there were many primary schools from Coventry there and runners of all abilities. The spirit of the Memorial Race is to encourage anyone who enjoys running to take part.

Twenty-two keen Bablake girls and boys turned up to race in the sunshine.

All the boys and girls ran together – which was unusual

but enjoyable. Our formidable girls team came first with some great performances from Eleanor Bonas, Anna Price, Sophie Hollinrake and Caroline Smith. The boys team came second with good positions for Tom Morrell, Lewis Faulkner, Alex Carroll and George Bayliss. We also won first position for the combined scores of the two teams. At the presentation ceremony the children were awarded trophies, certificates and individual medals by famous Coventrian David Moorcroft, who competed at the Olympics and was the former 5000m world record holder.

Acrost ic Poem Brilliant my school is, Acrostic poems is what I am doing.

This school is more than fun, lovely, is how I describe my school.

Art is my third favourite subject.

Kind people are at my school, Everyone works hard, even me!

By William Bastock

INTERNATIONAL BANNERS Trudy Marklow, a local artist, came into school on the Wednesday to help the children create our two multi cultural banners.

The banners represent the diverse cultures that we have in school.

Year 5 and 6 worked creatively with fabrics to produce two brightly coloured designs. These are now hanging in the Junior School Hall.

Please feel free to pop into School to see the finished products!

Ambers Island

Year Four visit Dunfield House

In a palm tree, on an island, in the middle of the great Pacific Ocean, there were two girls.

In May Year Four spent a long weekend at Dunfield House, which is on the Welsh border in a picturesque part of Herefordshire. Each of the pupils really excelled themselves in many areas and the accompanying staff were very proud of them. Everyone who met them, either at the house, Small Breeds Farm or at The Offa’s Dyke Centre was impressed with our lovely, well-mannered children.

One was called Amber and the other Fern. Amber’s hair was red as the evening sky, as curly as a beanstalk and as messy as spilt milk. Her favourite colour was yellow, like daffodils. She wore a t-shirt and shorts and so did Fern. Fern’s favourite colour was green.

Her hair was brown, it was messy and it was wild.

The island was the one-of-a-kind type and it was the most beautiful island in the whole wide world. Every beach was covered in golden sand, and there were absolutely no stones or pebbles on them. And in a small grassy patch, there was just room for a hut! The sea was very gentle and calm, so you could hear a quiet, rippling sound almost always. It was heaven. You could smell sea salt and feel a warm breeze quite a lot.

As the sisters were looking out to sea, Fern said to Amber, “You know, little sister, I bet you’re old enough to look after yourself for a few days. I‘m going to go to sea to research jellyfish. Look, there’s the ship now!” As Amber waved to her sister, she couldn’t keep back tears of sadness. She wondered why she couldn’t go with Fern. She decided to play on her new laptop to cheer her up.

Later that day, Amber’s pet platypus Nika, who was pregnant, came to visit. She managed to comfort Amber a little by nuzzling her leg. Amber then went to go and find some coconuts for her tea.

The next day, Amber woke up to a peaceful surrounding. But when Amber looked out to sea at lunchtime, she got the shock of her life. She had spotted some very dark storm clouds heading her way – and fast!

“Uh,oh. Help meeeeeeeeee!” she thought. Quickly she gathered everything she could hold. Then she ran up to Emergency Cave as fast as her legs would carry her. “Oh, Fern, where are you? Are you safe?”

As she built a stone stove and cooked a cheese, ham and tomato pizza the storm got better and stopped worsening. She knew that there was just enough-and only enough time to get Nika before the storm came back for ‘round 2’ of the battle, though.

Meanwhile, Fern kept being sucked into whirlpools and water tornadoes. The water tornadoes ripped off the mast, while the whirlpools tore off her rudder.

Despite Amber being sad she was just able to look up enough to see a boat on the horizon. It was the Treacherous Tourists. Quick as a flash, Amber had covered the beaches in pebbles and seaweed. “There! All done!” And she had done it so carefully that the Treacherous Tourists right round straight away.

A few moments later, Fern’s boat reached the horizon. She could just make out two men lowering a jet ski carrying someone into the water. It was Fern’s jet ski! “Fern! Yay! Wahoo! You’re home and safe!”. Then Amber gave her sister the world’s biggest hug, laughing loudly.

By Rebecca Dodd

For some it was their first time away from home and this presented some challenges. However we had all practised bedmaking as part of our work on self-help skills. This was well worth the effort when we all fell into our own beautifully made bunk beds in an exhausted heap after a variety of activities each day! (And that was just the STAFF!!)

Thank you to all the staff who gave up their time to be with the pupils over the weekend.

We hope the pupils’ comments will tell the rest of the story for you so….. enjoy!!!