Michael Rosen VC event

Using our Video Conferencing equipment, children from Years 3 - 6 took part in a discussion with poet and author, Michael Rosen. in September. There were lots of laughs and the children asked Michael some brilliant questions, including one about his reasons for not completing training to be a doctor...

We have lots more VC events lined up, including workshops from the MET Office for Year 6 (Climate Change and Extreme Weather) and history sessions delivered by the National Archives.

Crownfield Wiki

Our new Year 6 will be contributing to the school wiki from September. Although we will focus on information for our global partner schools, we hope our work will be of interest to everyone! The wiki is available for everyone to view at www.crownfieldjunior.wikispaces.com

Using MSN to chat to Escola do Max

Last week we used MSN to chat to pupils at our partner school, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Teacher Gabriela Dimitrov and her class of 8 and 9 year olds chatted to some of our pupils during Miss Smith's Library Club. We hope to link up with Escola do Max using our webcams in the new school year.

School Partnerships

From September 2010, each of our classes will be exchanging work and letters with one of our partner schools. We now have partner schools in Brazil, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Ukraine, Jamaica, Australia and Turkey. The Head Teachers and teachers from each school will be sharing how our schools are run and how we work together to ensure that all our pupils reach their full potential.

We have already sent some letters to each of our partner schools.

Our Year 6 children will be exchanging emails with pupils at Park Lake State School, Helensvale, Queensland, Australia, via our new email system, London Mail.

Circus Week 2010

Doody has been with us this week for another great Circus Week at Crownfield Junior. It culmintated in a superb performance this afternoon, which saw children from all year groups showing us their skills.

Rag Week

What a great week! There was so much going on in school - it was great to see so many of you taking responsibility for different activities. There was a great buzz around school and we raised over £800 pounds which will be shared between our House Charities. Well done to everyone!!

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a happy half term break - don't forget to log in to the Virtual School, explore some of the Subject Zones you haven't been to lately, have a look at what's in your Year Group spaces and keep in contact with your friends via stickies.

Password Security

Several of you have reported issues with the security of your log in details. It is your responsibility to keep these details secure (private) as you are responsible for any messages/forum posts that come from your account. Simple steps to help keep your details secure include: LOGGING OUT CORRECTLY. Always click on Log out and then shut the browser down (you get a message reminding you to do this). If you need to write your log in details down, do it somewhere secret, so that other people can't find them.

If you think someone else knows your details, please speak to your teacher who can arrange for your password to be changed.

The HOSCARS (Havering Oscars)

We will be entering a short film into the Havering Oscars competition this year, (a competition organised by the Havering ICT team and open to all Havering schools). The plan is to shoot and edit the film during the Summer term. The film will be about Romford, with French and English subtitles, the idea being that through the film we can show the children at our partner school, Ecole Emile Zola, in Paris, a bit more about where we live.

New for 2010 - ANIMATION UNIT FOR ALL YEAR GROUPS

All our year groups will now study Animation, as part of their ICT lessons. We will be using a program called 2animate to produce some simple animations. Once you have learnt the basics, your teachers will be giving you opportunities to create short animations during other lessons, such as Geography.

CROWNFIELD JUNIOR SCHOOL WIKI

We have launched our own wiki - take a look by clicking on the link or typing www.crownfield.wikispaces.com into your address bar. We will start off with Year 6 adding pages to the wiki. If it is a success, we will invite other year groups to contribute too.

Education City access - COMING SOON

You may remember that we trialled an on line resource called EDUCATION CITY at the beginning of this year. We have now signed up to this, which means you will be able to access the English, maths and science activities during lesson time. Keep checking your stickies inbox for more news.

Has your work been uploaded?

Mrs Chidwick has been working hard with the children she teaches to upload their work to our Virtual School Year Group spaces. This means that work can be shared with your parents, carers, friends, showing them your achievements! Visit your Year Group space to view your work and that of your peers.

Special visitors in school today

Today we welcomed three visitors into school. They were Dr Jun Takahashi, Professor Yoichi Nonaka and Megumi Atarashi. Dr Takahashi is carrying out research on comparing how teachers use ICT in their lessons, in British and Japanese schools. Our visitors were very grateful to all our teachers and children - they had a wonderful morning and said they learnt a lot. Dr Takahashi will report back to us on his findings in April.

Link with Ecole Emile Zola, Paris

Class 6A will next week begin work to strengthen our link with Ecole Emile Zola, Sarcelles, Paris. They have taken photos and will produce comic strips to show their hobbies and out of school interests. These will be emailed to the children in Paris.

Using ICT in the classroom - Japanese professor to visit Crownfield Junior

We are helping out with some research being conducted by a Japanese professor, Dr. Jun Takahashi. Dr Takahashi, is conducting the research on behalf of MEXT - the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology - and will visit our school, to compare the use of ICT in British schools, with how ICT is used by teachers in Japan. Three of our teachers are taking part in this exciting study.

STORY TELLING CHALLENGE

A group of our Year 5 pupils took part in the Story Telling Challenge, organised by Roger Bloxham. In total, 10 schools from across the country shared their stories, in many different forms. We were last to go, so spent the morning enjoying the contributions from the other children. Many other people watched the event, via the live stream. Well done to our Story Telling team - they did brilliantly and one of the professional story tellers who were giving feedback said the story gave her tingles up her spine! Have a look at our video diary of the rehearsals leading up to the performance (go to the School Reception page)

4th March 2010 WORLD BOOK DAY

This Thursday is World Book Day. Many of you will be using different forms of ICT throughout the day, as part of the celebrations. Photos will be taken to create a record of all the fun things that take place in school on Thursday. Check back here (and also the Virtual School) to see how we celebrated.

School reopens tomorrow

After three days of closure due to the weather, the plan is for Crownfield to reopen tomorrow. Please remember to check the Virtual School or school website www.crownfieldjunior.co.uk for confirmation that school is open.

Happy New Year

Well it's the start of another exciting and I'm sure successful year at Crownfield Junior. The Spring term begins tomorrow, 4th January. We all have much to look forward to!