We have been studying the topic of 'Pets' this term and so Mrs Sargent kindly brought her Giant Rabbits into School for the day.

Pre Prep and Year One met these massive bunnies and learnt how to care for them.

Over the next few weeks the children will be meeting a tiny Chihuahua call Dilly, a chicken called Flossie and guinea pigs too.

On Monday 21st November year six went on a science trip to the Science Museumn in London.  We experienced a lot of activities but the one that I enjoyed most was in something called the Launch Pad.  You had to get a clean straw and slide it onto a vibrating metal rod.  If you placed your fingers in you ear and bite on the rod you could hear some music.  This was because of the vibrations going through your mouth and into your ears.  Another cool experiment in Launch Pad was a water rocket.  We had to fill the rocket with water and put it into a tube.  It would then fill up with air and when we pushed a button it shot the rocket forward and the water backwards.  There was one more activity which a lot of my friends liked as well as me, it was the pedal bike that we had to sit on and pedal.  The faster we padalled the higher a red beam went up.  The first stage that the red beam got to was a green light, the second one was a light bulb then a TV Camera, after that was a hair dryer.  Most of my friends got to the top but a couple fell off the seat and didn't get anywhere near the hair dryer.  It was quite a long and exciting day at the Science Museum.

All of us Thoroughly enjoyed another fantastic Alleyn Court school trip!

By George McAllister 6c.

This was a competition run by Young Writers.  It was designed to introduce Key Stage 1 children to poetry in a way that was both interesting and fun.  All last year’s Year 2 children had a great time expressing their creativity and expressing their thoughts and feelings in this unique way. Their riddles were then submitted to the competition. 

We are very proud to announce that the following children were successful in having their riddles selected for publication in ‘My First Riddle 2011’:

Madissen Samuels, Sara Anwar, Rohan Aggarwal, Lilly Duffin, Alexander Johnson,

Nathan Batchelor, Ellie Rouse, Oliver White, Luke Guyler, Thayan Kanthavel,

Nathaniel Curtis, Mya Gordon, Amelia Rowe

Congratulations - this is a great achievement of which these children should be very proud!  Indeed they are featured as Authors of the Month in the library, in the footsteps of Roald Dahl and Sue Hampton!  Copies of ‘My First Riddle 2011’ are available to borrow from the library.  The book can also be purchased from Amazon, or direct from the publishers www.youngwriters.co.uk. 

Anne Crabb

Author Visit Thursday 13th October

The entire school is still buzzing from the day spent with renowned Essex born author Sue Hampton.  Michael Morpurgo may be Sue's most famous fan, but she has gained a couple of hundred more as a result of the compelling and captivating assembly and workshops she led for pupils in years 1 - 6.  These sessions not only built on the reading and writing skills taught by our own staff, but were inspirational in motivating the children's imagination, suggesting ideas and techniques they can use to stimulate their creativity.  By the end of the day many children left the school proudly clutching copies of Sue's books personally signed by the author herself!

Thanks to the hard work and generosity of the PTA and the fundrais- ing efforts of the school‘s parents and pupils, the school has been able to invest in a new computerised weather station. The equipment will allow us to view and record wind speed and direction, rainfall, hu- midity and many different temperature readings.

Please remember that the school has a policy where children must not return to school within 24 hours of vomiting. There have been a number of recent incidents where there have been transgressions in this regard. There have also been a few cases of chickenpox recently and the advice here is that children should not return until all spots have scabbed over.