To celebrate Sports Week, the children at Windy Nook have been participating in all sorts of exciting tournaments and challenges. They have enjoyed taster sessions of Extreme Frisbee and Bollywood Dancing from specialist coaches from the North East and received high praise for their attitude and effort. Using the playground areas and equipment, Key Stage Two completed a Super Stars' which included hopping, skipping, running, long jump and javelin and team games. The weather was very kind to us on sports day this year and our children participated in a carousel of events. The children were a credit to both parents and school - it was a a fantastic week for all. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their support.
Click on the link below to see more pics:
The talent show takes place in a slightly different format this year. Take a look at the timetable for the dates when your act will perform in the semi finals. The Grand Finale takes place on the following Wednesday. Good luck!
On Friday 25th June a group of Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children competed in different athletic events at Gateshead Stadium.
These events included sprints, a long distance run, skippiing races, long jump and cricket ball throws, as well as sping jumps and relay races.
A number of parents also attended the event and a fun day was had by all. Daniel Watson received a gold medal in the 60m sprint.
Well done to the whole team.
Y5/6 are putting the World Cup to good use...
They are researching that aims of the 1Goal charity before contacting our new MP to see what he will be doing about the issues we have found out about... watch this space!
As they finish their persuasive letters and presentations we will be uploading them to here.
If you can't wait - follow this link to find out for yourself...
Dear Billy (Class 6 Maths set) I've just been playing on Mathletics with my lad Tom and had an awful flash back.... I PROMISED I'd give you your Mathletics password before the end of the day... I forgot!
For Book Week in Key Stage 1 we had great fun exploring lots of different traditional tales.
If you want to see more click on the gallery link below.
The Dance Festival took place on Monday March 15th at The Sage. The Windy Wanabees were dressed in Spanish costumes and they performed a great spanish dance. One of the children said 'I loved perfoming at the Sage and the dresses were great!'. Well done to everyone who took part. .
Please click on the gallery link below to view more pictures.
A whole school colouring competition was one of the tasks set amongst a host of fab Book Week activities. Children from Nursery to Y6 were invited to have a go (if you'd like to see them click the 'Gallery' link at the top of this page.
The winners from Class 1 to 11 came out of class to meet and greet Billy himself!
The competition was to raise awareness of the good giving blood can do. If you wish to find out more and play some fun games just click this link:-
Better still why not go along to the next session at St Albans Church Hall, Wednesday 31st March from 2.30pm - 7pm.
As part of 'Book Week' the children in classes 9, 10 and 11 have been looking at 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'
A fictional editor's note tells of an encounter with an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick, who provided the images and captions as samples, each from a different picture book he had written. He left with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chose to buy the books. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books.
YOU are challenged to imagine your own stories based on the images in the book. Click on the links below for the images and sample stories.
Harris Burdick images and sample stories
Please e-mail your stories on a 'word document' to windynookprimary@googlemail.com
Or write them on paper and bring them into school next week.
On Wednesday 10th March a group of Year 5 children went down to Thomas Hepburn School to compete in an Indoor Sportshall Athletics Event. Each child took part in one track, one field and one relay event. Several of the children came 1st and 2nd. Out of nine teams Windy Nook came first and won the trophy. Well done to all the children who took part.
Some of the children will now compete in the Thomas Hepburn team against other teams in Gateshead. So watch this space!!!
On Friday 5th March the Hockey team went to a Hockey Tournament at Gateshead Stadium. They played three games and everyone played well. The team enjoyed their afternoon at Gateshead Stadium and fun was had by all.
What a week it's been in UKS2 the children have been learning about business. They have had a host of visitors talking to them about their different occupations. Then they used this knowledge to develop their own enterprising ideas ranging from bird boxes, cakes, door hangers, face painting and even a relaxing hand treatment spa.
Click on the gallery link below to see more photographs.
Fantastic fun has been had by all in Key Stage 1 during Enterprise Week. We have had lots of interesting visitors to tell us about their job. Each class made products to sell at our market on Thursday. We interviewed staff at Windy Nook School to find out about their jobs and we thought about which jobs we would like to do when we grow up.
Click on the link below to see more photographs in the gallery.
Can you work out Luke's 'brain teaser'?
3 men walked into a restaurant and bought a meal each. It cost £10.00 each (£30.00 into total) The waiter takes the £30.00 and gives it to the cashier. The cashier tells the waiter to give £5.00 back. On the way back the sneaky waiter takes £2.00 for himself and then gives each man £1.00 each. They think that they have payed £9.00 for their meal. 3 x £9.00=£27.00 + £2.00 (that the waiter took) = £29.00.
Where did the other £1.00 go?
Please leave your answers or suggestions in comments
Do you have any puzzles or challenges that you think children, parents or staff might want to try. Please bring them to Mr. Hawdon and I will put them on the website for anyone to try.
Please don't forget Class 9 numeracy set - Mathletics homework
Those arty Morans have been at it again...
Anyone spotted this beast around the lochs of Windy Nook?
Did you see it?
Peter Pan proved to be yet another triumph for Y6 children at Windy Nook!
WEEKS of late night rehearsals were well worth it - a polished performance!
Click this link to see the cast...
On Friday, November 27, Class 8 had great fun learning about the Romans by travelling back in time for the day. They found out very quickly that Roman clothing was very different to school uniform and that putting on a toga was a tricky task.
After togas were securely fastened, the children found out about Roman coins and jewellery. They made their own jewellery and laurel wreath and then went on to learn about the food that Romans ate. They enjoyed some Roman style food but stuffed dormice were replaced by chocolate ones.
This was all part of our Roman themed term, where we have already made mosaics and pottery and met a real archaeologist. Class 8 know that History can be fun.
Spooky or what?
Not only did two of our children win a fab prize from Gateshead Libraries, but
they were brother and sister too!
Claudia and Oliver spent the day at the Newcastle football foundation as their
prize for successfully
completing the Reading Stars Challenge during the summer holiday.
Smiles alround in Windy Winners assembly today. Our winning entries were there for all to see, as was a powerpoint presentaion showing many of the photographs sent in to school since we started our Sunflower competition.
Click the link below to view the presentation from the comfort of your own home!
Well done all!
Years 4 and 5 had a fab day out last week at the Gateshead Stadium, where they met the crew the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119.
STS-119 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The STS-119 mission delivered the final set of solar arrays needed to complete the ISS complement of electricity-generating solar panels.
You can read more about the mission by clicking the link below to the NASA website:
Read on to see more pictures of our fantastic day...
Continue reading "One small step for man...One giant leap for Years 4 and 5" »
This was Tom's sunflower at the end of May...
Children at Windy Nook use a short series of exercises called Activate in class every day. Each class were challenged to make their own Activate activity. One child from each class was then chosen by their teacher for most effort, idea contribution etc. The winning children were then entered into a prize draw to win four tickets at Alton Towers. The routines were performed in an special assembly.
CLASS 1
CLASS 2
CLASS 3
CLASS 4
CLASS 5
CLASS 7
CLASS 9
CLASS 6 
CLASS 8 
CLASS 11
CLASS 10 
The winning children and the prize draw!
Our overall winner of four Alton Towers tickets.
On Friday 26th June a group of children went to the Athletics Festival at Gateshead Stadium. 48 schools took part and everyone remained upbeat even though the rain came down.
There were a number of semi-finalists and finalists and Alexander Boyle got a gold medal for spring jumps and the year 3/4 boys relay team got a bronze medal.
Fun was had by all and well done to all our athletes!!
What a healthy school we are at Windy Nook, and we are kind to the environment too!
Before the holidays children took part in the walk to school week, then on our return to school, our new bike sheds had been installed on the top yard. Lots of boys and girls have been showing how healthy they are by cycling to school or using their scooters, all week. Keep up the good work.
We even brave the rain to stay healthy and look after our environment at Windy Nook.
The weather was much better for cycling after the holiday.
We lock our bikes safely in the shelter.
Today at Windy Nook around 300 pupils and staff took part in an attempt to break a real life WORLD RECORD!
At 11am the Deputy Mayor of Gateshead started the three minute skip with a blow of the whistle...
It was an amazing site, with both yards packed with smiling faces skipping their socks off!
The Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayoress thanked us for inviting them saying, visiting children in schools like Windy Nook was the best part of their job!
As you can see we took a well earned rest when the final whistle blew...
WE ARE THRILLED TO TELL YOU THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT WAS A SUCCESS!
Up to now over 15,000 skippers have been counted, shattering the previous record!
What a fab day... perhaps if you enjoyed it as much as I did you too will find a moment to say thanks to Mrs. Prynn for the huge amount of work to get it all organised!
Whilst Y6 were off chilling out with a spot of origami, Y5 celebrated the end of Diversity Week by indulging in some sweet treats!
We stumbled across these tasty treats whilst studying the Sikhism.
Why not use this link to investigate further:-
Or have a go yourself by following the recipe we used:-
Karah Prasad
You will need:
110g unsalted butter
55g plain flour
110g semolina
¾ pint of water and 110g sugar boiled together.
One Merit Point for all children who leave a comment on this entry, telling us what the equal measure of butter, sugar and semolina represent!
Everyone participated in the story telling, and the mums were sent off, sound in the knowledge that they were loved!
As part of our 'Diversity Week' activities, in Year 5/6 each class linked up with a class from Year 3/4 to share an artistic craft from another culture. In Classes 8 and 11 we did some mexican weaving with paper, in Class 7 and 10 we used handprinting to create Unity Wreaths and in Classes 6 and 9 we we did some mexican weaving with wool.
Have a look at the photos and tell us what you think!
As part of 'Environment Week', Ian Skinner, a Dog Warden from Gateshead council , came into school to talk to classes 9. 10 and 11 about his job and how we canavoid getting a fine!
Thanks again to all the parents and carers who braved the grotty weather to hear our words of wisdom this afternoon!
We hope you found it useful and as promised we will be adding further information to this post (helpful links etc.)
Please remember SATs week begins May 11th.
Thanks again,
UKS2 Team
Year 5/6 were rolling back the years this afternoon.
Three friends we made through our involvement with the 'That Was Then' local history project, came to speak to us about a host of experiences linked to living through World War II.
Are you in Y5/6?
If you are, why not leave a comment telling everyone one fact you learned.
Better still use the link below to leave a comment on the website Mrs. Minns runs. Let her know what you enjoyed most about the afternoon.
www.webwanderers.org
Thanks again to our special guests:
Mrs Minns
Col. A. Johnson MBE
Mr S. McRae
Back by popular demand!
We've added this document (used with parents and friends at this mornings 'Times Tables Tricks' meeting) Feel free to print it off and colour to show how many answers you can give with 10sec thinking time. Perhaps you could print another and colour the answers you can give within just 5sec! If you don't have a printer, don't panic, just ask Mr Firth for a paper copy.
Looking for the games it talked about to support your times tables?
Well you are in the right place! Just click the link below to access the games.
Have FUN!
"You've never been to the Sunderland Air Show?" he said.
"Fantastic, the kids will love it!" he insisted!
Five hours with Hannah on my shoulders and Tom begging to go back to the fair - not a plane in sight!
Of course Mr Cronnie 'claims' not to know the dense sea fret was coming - I have my doubts.
Anyway if you were there and patiently waited for the weather to break (like Tom did really) here is a link to some BBC video and photos from last years show.
Lots of lovely learning took place at the launch of our new French web-site!
Look out for it at; www.fabfrench.org or you can click on the link from the school web-site at; www.windynookprimary.org
Thank you to all who brought in a shoe box filled with goodies for children who are less fortunate than ourselves. we managed to collect an amazing 97 boxes in a short amount of time. Thank you again!
Parties begin at 1pm. Your classs teacher will give you further information.
Mon. 17th Dec. - Key Stage 1
Tues 18th Dec. - Nursery and Lower Key Stage 2
Wed 19th Dec. - Reception
Thurs 20th Dec. - Upper Key Stage 2
Wed 12th Dec, 10:45am /2:30pm - Nursery singalong
Wed. 12th and Thurs. 13th December, 6:30pm - Pantomime: ALADDIN, get your tickets quick!
Tues. 18th December - KS1 Christmas performance
Wed. 19th December, 10:30am - KS2 Carol Service, St Albans Church
Year 2 children had a fun afternoon participating in a number of Multi Skills activities at Thomas Hepburn Community Secondary School.
Well Done to the Year 6 football team who competed in the 'Councillor John Hird Cup' tournament on the 12th and 13th November.The boys not only displayed their brilliant football skills but also their sportsmanship in every match.The team played well in all three matches which resulted in the team winning the final against St Johns.Ross Wilson scored a hat trick.Alexander Bainbridge, Ryan Beard and Jay Kirtley also scored in the final.We have now got a big trophy for the school cabinet.A big thanks to Dave and John for giving up their time to train the team.
On Wednesday June 20th Lisa White came to speak to pupils in year five and year six about the ways in which Aveda help the global environment.
We watched DVD's and heard about the many projects Aveda is involved with around the world, helping communities to support themselves. Those of us who answered questions correctly even got prizes!
Hair Raising Stuff!
Everyone got to try the products and we came away with not only new facts but an Aveda goody bag too!
If you were there why not click on 'Comment' and type in one of the bits of information you remember most.
Perhaps you can recall what Lisa said happened every 15 seconds?
Eight year six girls braved the horrible weather today to represent our school in the Thomas Hepburn Cluster Girls 7 aside football tournament.
For our Healthy Week last year, the children designed, advertised and sold a range of Smoothies.
Take a look at the videos and adverts below...
Smoothie 1 (00.37 wmv)
Smoothie 2 (00.18 wmv)
Smoothie 3 (00.15 wmv)
Smoothie 4 (00.25 wmv)
Smoothie 5 (00.36 wmv)
Smoothie 6 (00.25 wmv)
Would these adverts make you buy one of our smoothies?
Team 1 Powerpoint (41KB)
Team 2 Powerpoint (257KB)
Team 3 Powerpoint (55KB)
Team 4 Powerpoint (40KB)
Team 5 Powerpoint (56KB)
Team 6 Powerpoint (71KB)
The children in Foundation Stage took part in a Day of Dance.
For the past two years, Mrs Wong has organised the shoebox appeal in school (the ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ charity.)
‘Operation Christmas Child’ seeks to help children abroad in difficult circumstances by providing them with a gift at Christmas time.
Year 3/4 have been learning how to play traditional games.
The girls and boys of Windy Nook enjoyed an entertaining evening at Gateshead Leisure Centre watching the talented dancers performing their interpretations of the theme Freedom. Dance groups from both primary and secondary schools showed the amazing range of talent the borough has to offer. The support given by staff, parents and pupils made this a memorable evening all round. Miss Stokoe and Mrs. Prynn would love to see any photos or videos taken by friends and family.
Although it seems ages ago now, we can still remember the great fun we had at Christmas in Year Three/Four. We had a party – lots of dancing and great food! We did lots of craft activities and even managed to fit in a spot of baking too!
Continue reading "Christmas Activities in Lower Key Stage Two" »
