This must be a record...
Are you ready for this...
33 pips from one orange!
During the next few days we shall be updating the school website to let you see if school is open.
We are fortunate in having a small number of staff who can walk in so ratios are such that we can remain open. However we are not able to run a 'normal' school day and certainly for Wed 6th and Thur 7th January if you are happier to keep your child at home please do so.
More snow is forecast later and again on Thursday so it is possible we may need to send home staff who drive to work. If this happens and you have opted to send your child to school - you will need to be confident about being able to return to school to collect them.
In the event of total school closure both this website and the Real Radio website will say so.
Here's to some sunshine!
Mr Firth
During the School Council Visit to the Civic Centre on Thursday 10th December, The mayor set his own challenge for the children from the 4 schools that attended. The Mayor's chains of office originally cost 100 gunnies, how much was this in current money?
Well, Windy Nook mathemagicians strike again! Merci Sebanda and Alexander Boyle were the first to e mail the Mayor with the correct answer and win themselves a book token. Well done.
It looks like we have a competition on our hands!
This monster was 30m long!
Is it too late to apply to have this as a sport in 2012?
Cara and Natasha stayed up FAR too late the other night building a huge paper chain!
Luckily Mr. Firth was able to find a couple of Magnificent Mathemagicians from KS1 to help measure the chain...
Joe and Laura found the paper chain to be over 10m long!
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!
Well, it had to happen sooner or later!
Please find below a downloadable version of the July Newsletter in pdf format.
Any comments gratefully received!
Mr Firth
July 09.pdf
This was Tom's sunflower at the end of May...
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!!
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!
Amanda Ross (teacher for visual impairment) and her team spent the morning with children from Year 3/4. Lots of practical activities were offered to children so that they could find out for themselves what it would be like to have a visual impairment.
During the afternoon Year 5/6 took part in workshops with Maxine Caine (our Educational Psychologist) and Mrs Preece to investigate how co-ordination difficulties affect the lives of many people. They too had the chance to experience what it would be like to be visually impaired using some of Amanda's equipment.
Not only did the children have to have to move around using the specialist glasses- they also had to complete an obstacle course. This gave us all a good idea of what it would be like to walk down Gateshead high street with a visual impairment.
A co-ordination activity that left us all frustrated!
Did anyone manage to draw around the whole star?
In March, children at Windy Nook school took part in a range of activities to investigate diversity in the community. Activities included a visit from Expo Chef exploring foods from different cultures, visitors from non-Christian faith groups and various groups of people who taught children about living with disabilities.
Expo Chef
One of the delicious meals produced by the children....YUM!
After a gruelling week researching and writing Instructional Texts; Classes nine and ten put their money where their mouths are and tried following the 'Chocolate Treats' instructions.
Fancy a treat?
Download this PPT - it has all the information you need to make some yourself. They were proper lush!
Warning: Please eat responsibly.
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!
Just in case your copy didn't arrive via "Pupil Post"!
Download file
Three girls from Class 10 found a gap in the market and bled it dry during our recent 'Enterprise Week'.
They evaluated their venture and created this presentation to share their highs and lows with YOU!
"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.
No sooner had the holiday started than our Year Six pupils decided they were missing school SO MUCH, they just had to come back...
Forty pupils and seven staff gathered to polish up on a few points to help progress over the next few months.
So....for a literacy merit point on 21st April, who can give me the proper term for this device...used to keep the reader in suspense?
Didn't look great did it?
But thanks to a £4000 grant from the Council, we are nearly ready to start planting up our rejuvenated pond.
As you can see we are having a fantastic dipping platform built and when the boards are down we'll be able to get cracking with the pond plants, the bog garden and the wild flowering banks.
We can't wait!
Lots of people turned out last Thursday morning to view the spectacle of our Easter Egg competition.
As usual, talent and creativity was evident in the large number of entries to feature in our display.
Well done everyone!
An eggstraordinary eggsibition!
We are once again collecting the 'Tesco Computers for Schools' vouchers. The vouchers are used to purchase new ICT equipment. There is a box in Reception where they can be posted.
Just in case your copy of the March newsletter didn't make it home.....
Download file
How Keen?
Once again the children of Windy Nook have done us all proud!
Over a dozen Y6 pupils are coming into school 45min early to trail a pack of maths games UKS2 staff have put together. Although not all wish to be in the spot light...
...they are all grafting away to sharpen maths skills through the playing of carefully selected maths games.
If you are really good - you get to play on the interactive Smart Board.
Year five and six pupils are getting even more creative!
Using Windows Photo Story they are creating a moving visual image and marrying it up to a bespoke audio track!
Working in groups, the children have created graphical scores, detailing which sounds will need to fade in and out at each stage of the animation.
They have then had great fun using junk modelling to design and construct a range of homemade instruments to produce the sounds they are after.
Keep your eyes peeled as by the end of next week we may be in a position to publish links to the first few finished items!
Have you heard about our 100% attendance initiative?
The names of all children who attended 100% and were not late last term have been put into a special prize draw for two tickets for a VERY special football match!
The lucky pupil will be able to attend the Newcastle v Middlesbrough fixture on Saturday 2nd February, and with yesterday's exciting news on the appointment of King Kev (and who knows, there may be MORE if Shearer is appointed as coach!) the tickets are undoubtedly hot property!
So, as well as as being a hot hundred percenter, some lucky pupil and their parent will be watching fab football !
My question is, do staff qualify for 100% attendance awards too?
Mrs. Bathan
After a busy festive season, most of our pupils have returned safely and managed to miss out on the chickenpox, winter sickness bug and flu that seem to have gone the rounds!
In our assembly today, we have discussed our various New Year resolutions, and some of our KS2 pupils are happy to share their resolutions with you.
Some to look forward to at home include....
"To keep my room tidy all year."
To help my mam tidy up."
I know we will be having an official opening watsit, but... have you seen our latest brilliant addition to Windy Nook's online armoury?
You MUST follow this link to our Fab French website.
It is bursting at the seams with ideas and great examples of 'Fab French' and will shortly be buzzing with the sounds of our very own children!
Perhaps I can find how to really spell 'Sack Ray Blur'!
What a busy end of term!
In amongst the usual excitement (and glitter), we've had our fair share of fabulous events to kick off the festive season.
Firstly, we had four parents "graduate" from Mrs. Hopkins "Parents as Partners" course, and they were brave enough to be awarded their certificates of achievement in front of a special assembly for Classes 1 & 2.
Congratulations go to Nicola McKie, Debra Scantlebury-Watson, Maxine Bolam and Malathy Pradeep for their participation, and for completing the homework on time!
Next came our annual pantomime, "Aladdin" playing to two packed houses! Our Year Six pupils did us proud with lots of memorable performances, and much fun and laughter putting it together. The school choir also sounded wonderful. I know that as children leave our school, they have lovely memories of their pantomime experience and
often remember this event with great fondness.
If your copy of "Council News" has been delivered this week, please look out for three articles featuring our school!
Our launch of "Schools on the Move" project is covered on page 5, our football victory in the John Hird Challenge Cup features on page 7, and the opening of our new route to school through the Nature Park has a lovely write-up on page 33.
Must be some sort of record!
More stars heading your way with our panto next week...
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.
Find out more about Nursery rules, routines and forthcoming events.
Download Nursery newsletter
The Fire Brigade came to visit our school in September because we have been finding out about The Great Fire of London. We were shown the metal cutter, lots of equipment, their medical kit, a special camera that helps you to see in the dark and the water hose. the most exciitng bit was when the water hose was turned on - it was great!
We have had a happy and settled start to the new school year with all children successfully completing their induction into Nursery. The children have enjoyed taking part in exciting activities and making new friends. Our topic this term is houses and homes and we have already been learning about the different types of homes people live in. We listened to the story of the Three Little Pigs and have been making models and pictures of houses for a display in our classroom. You can find out more about Nursery by accessing our latest newsletter and photographs of our activities which will be published soon.
Forget 'Hammer Time' (ok so I'm old!) at Windy Nook it is 'Harvest Time'!
Last night our Busy Gardeners unearthed our first ever Windy Nook Spuds.
We uncovered the root and cut the leaves off to compost!
Then we dug out our little treasure, rinsed them and then stood proudly over them!
And we still had time to build a cane and net structure to protect our strawberries!
The children in Foundation Stage took part in a Day of Dance.
What a week!
Our Y6 pupils have done themselves proud this week.
Their brains may well be on the verge of exhaustion but WOW, what an effort they have made.
Not only have they sat SATs, but they have fitted in a number of refresher sessions, plenty of fresh air and a few even found time to make a presentaion about our developing school grounds to our Y3/4 classes!
Thanks to all involved, especially our parent helpers.
Of course the last word goes to our 'braintastic' stars of the show...
Year Six - 2007! 
It's official the Windy Nook vegi plot is up and running!
After a huge amount of help from Mr Bainbridge and Mr Cronnie, the first 'Windy Nook Spud' has been planted!
Twelve KS2 gardeners have planted a range of veg, now we can sit back and wait for germination...
