West Cornforth Primary School

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Stone Age Day 2022

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On 21st November, we enjoyed a Stone Age day at West Cornforth Primary School. We all entered the Stone Age and became hunter-gatherers. Each class looked at where the Stone Age came on the history timeline.  We enjoyed dressing up and taking part in Stone Age activities.

Find out what each class got up to below:

Early Years

Can I retell simple past event?

In Early Years, they thought about the how the Stone Age people they lived. They became hunter gatherers and foraged for their own food and built their own shelters.

Class One

Can I ask questions about the past?

In Class One, they thought about the clothes Stone Age people would wear. They thought of some questions they could ask about their clothes:

•             Why did they have fur?

•             Where did they get the fur from?

•             Did boys and girls wear the same?

Year One then designed a Stone Age outfit.

Class Two

Can I develop an awareness of the past?

In Class Two, they thought about where the Stone Age was in history. They made a human timeline of significant historical events.

Class Three

Can I use photos and artefacts?

In Class Three, they thought about Stone Age pottery. Class Three used photos of Stone Age artefacts to then design and make their own Stone Age pot.

Class Four

Can I compare and contrast sources?

In Class Four, they used a variety of primary sources and interpretations to gather information about the Stone Age people. Our sources included an oil lamp, flint and needle. We then thought about which source was the most useful.

Class Five

Can I use some different sources of evidence to deduce information about the past?

In Class Five, we used a variety of primary sources and interpretations to gather information about the Stone Age people. Our sources included an oil lamp, flint and needle. We thought about the information we could deduce from them.

Class Six

Can I understand that no single source of evidence gives the full answer to questions about the past?

In Class Six, we used a variety of primary sources and interpretations to gather information about the Stone Age people. Our sources included an oil lamp, flint and needle. We thought whether the sources were reliable and useful.

Stone Age Shelters

Unfortunately, it was raining all day, so we made indoor Stone Age shelters. We worked as a team to make our own shelters out of things that we could find. We researched Stone Age dwellings and tried to recreate them.

Ancient Egypt History Day – 29th March 2022

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Pharaohs, priestesses, priests, crocodiles, mummies and even Queen Cleopatra herself walked the corridors of our school yesterday in our first whole school history day.

The day was jam-packed with workshops from the Oriental Museum in Durham, fruit mummifications, Egyptian jewellery making, hieroglyphics code crackers and so much fun for our young people, exploring the life and culture of one of the very first civilisations known to us.

Early Years spent their time carefully designing and making their own Egyptian neckpieces, wrapping each other up as mummies and investigated some Ancient Egyptian artefacts.

KS1 practised their hand at writing in hieroglyphics and sending secret messages around the classroom, as well as making Egyptian flatbread and creating their very own Egyptian jewellery and headpieces.

KS2 practised their Egyptian dancing and singing and became mummification experts. In their bespoke workshops with Durham University, the children handled artefacts and became archaeologists to discover secrets of Ancient Egypt from the clues the inhabitants left behind. At the end of the day, KS2 were joined virtually by curators at the Oriental Museum where they got to see a real life mummy!

Here at West Cornforth Primary School, we are passionate about creative and immersive learning. It is days like this that bring history to life for our young people and foster a love of lifelong learning. Next term, we will be having a Roman Britain themed history day.

Cornforth Library Update

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Cornforth Library would like parents, carers and children to know that they are open again. Please see their new opening times below:

Monday – closed

Tuesday – 9:30am -12:30pm and 1:30pm – 5:30pm

Wednesday – closed

Thursday – 9:30am -12:30pm and 1:30pm – 4:30pm

Friday – closed

Saturday – 9:30am-12:30pm

Sunday – closed

The library will be running the Summer Reading Challenge again this year, but it will be slightly different to last year’s challenge. Further details will be posted closer to the time. You can follow the library on Facebook @CountyDurhamLibraries and Twitter @DurhamLibraries where they have lots of information and online activities including crafts and jigsaws.

They are currently giving out free Elmer activity packs to celebrate Elmer Day on Saturday 29th May.

West Cornforth Library – Online

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For any parents who have a library card for themselves or their children, the library has many resources online that you can access while they are closed. They have access to Encyclopaedia Britannica, eBooks, eAudiobooks and also eMagazines. Resources can be accessed using the link below:

Library Online

If you are not members of the library, you can also join the library online using the link. The library also have activities on their Facebook page, which is @DurhamLibraries on Facebook. There are craft activities and weekly online jigsaws, and they are hoping to add more activities soon!

 

Online Learning Platform

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Hopefully, all being well, the setup of Office 365, as our online education platform, should be completed next week. This will mean that children will be able to access our online education platform from home, and access lessons with their teacher. We will use this alongside other appropriate online platforms (Mathletics, myON, Tapestry etc.) to ensure children can access their curriculum from home. Teachers will be able to provide feedback through the appropriate channels to ensure children continue to make progress whilst working from home.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Before allowing your child to access their Office 365 account, please ensure that you have read and understood the following policies (as they also apply to online learning from home):

Online Learning AUP October 2020
Online Safety Policy 2020-2021

In order to ensure online teaching sessions are of the highest quality, please also be aware that lessons will be recorded for monitoring purposes.

Thank you.