St Edward’s Catholic Academy Newhall Road, Swadlincote, Derbyshire. DE11 0BD Tel: 01283 216721 Website: www.stedwardscatholicacademy.co.uk Headteacher: Mrs J E McQuillan BA (hons)

Special Edition Newsletter - June 2017

Super Science Week!

Well what a week we had… Our Super Science Week got off to a sizzling start when Miss Prabatani intro- duced the format of the week to the whole school. Mr Craddock from The Pingle Academy wowed us all with some fantastic experiments and returned on Tuesday to work with individual classes. The fun didn't stop there and throughout the week each class got involved and carried out lots of experiments. Mrs Metters and a group of Science Leaders from Granville Sports College also came along and wowed us with more amazing Science, they introduced our pupils to science which would normally be introduced when children progress to secondary school making us way ahead. Thank you to Mrs Sharples from the Pingle Academy and Mrs King- swood from Granville for supporting us with the event and making it even more successful. The highlight of the week has to be Dad’s Day when we had over 120 Dads and male relatives in school, the event which took place on Friday 16th June was topped off when Des Coleman from ITV News Central came to school to present the weather. Des and the crew from ITV News Central were fantastic! The programme producer Teginder Kaur complimented St Edward’s and said what wonderful children we had and it had been a pleasure visiting. Mrs Finney received an email after the event saying how much the TV crew had enjoyed coming to St Edward’s and would love to visit again in the future. There are many highlights from our Super Science Week, some highlights can be seen on our Twitter feed @StEdwardsSwad and on our Facebook page, St Edward’s Catholic Academy. Click and follow for lots of news and information. Thankyou to everyone involved and who contributed to making our Super Science Week a huge success Mrs McQuillan. Headteacher Miss Prabatani. Science Co-ordinator.

Visit our website www.stedwardscatholicacademy.co.uk The Day The Weatherman Came to School

A visit from ITV weather presenter Des Coleman on Friday 16th June 2017 capped off a fun-filled science week, Des and the crew talked to our pupils about their experiments. We applied to ITV News Central for the weather bulletin to be presented from St Edward’s during Science Week and invited them to come in on Dads’ day. Des presented the weekend weather report during the 6pm news from our front garden. Dads and male relations together with pupils and staff talked to Des about science week and what they had learned and the experiments they had carried out in lessons, they told Des about what they had discovered about the wonderful world of science. Each class was given a theme and included animal habitats, space, nutrition, health, climates and electricity. Weatherman Des asked the children to show their experiments and explain why they love science. Evangelene Puthussery in Year 3 told Des that she loved science because ’you can never get it wrong’ Des forecast a bright future for the school’s budding scientists after seeing them learning in a fun and engaging manner. Des said ’when it comes to science I think that it’s an integral part of children’s education and making it fun is the best bit’ Des told Paige Oldfield a reporter from the Burton Mail ‘the kids are having a great time with all the different experiments. You should see the smiles on their faces. It just bodes well for the future, doesn't it? Des said that he didn't realise how many different experiments could take place in such a small space, so thumbs up for the kids! Science co-ordinator Miss Prabatani said that the children have absolute- ly loved their action-packed week. Miss Prabatani and the teachers had arranged different activi- ties throughout the week and Des was very interested in what our children had been learning. We were lucky to have Mrs Metters a Science teacher from Granville Sports College together with Miss Wilson a Laboratory Technician and three science leaders who demonstrated and helped out with experiments during the day. Mr Mole who spent the day with his daughters in Year 3 and Year 1 said that the week had engaged the children to learn about science further. He said that ‘fun is the key, if they are not interested and they are not enjoying it then they are not going to learn.

Des went on to film a Facebook link with Year Three which has been posted onto our St Edwards Catholic Academy Facebook page. You can also view the news report http://www.itv.com/news/ central/2017-06-16/school-stories-des-meets-top-young-science- students/ You can also read the report on our special visit from ITV New Central in the Burton Mail in the Monday 19th June edition of the newspaper.

Austin Brown Year 2 had the opportunity to present the weather re- port and gave Des a run for his money! Well done Austin.

Des gave our school a very ‘Bright Forecast’ Thankyou to all our pupils, parents and male relatives for making Des and the crew very welcome. Tejinder Kaur the producer of the bulletin thanked us and compliment- ed our pupils on being so clever and welcoming.

Mr Craddock sends Mrs Bloor rockets soaring! Explains Healthy Eating

Mr Craddock visited us from the Pingle Academy. Mr Craddock is the Raising Aspirations Co-ordinator at The Pingle, he works alongside primary schools in the area to inspire and encourage children to get involved Mrs Bloor spent an afternoon with our Year 3 chil- with Science. dren looking at the importance of healthy eating Mr Craddock led a fantastic inter- and introduced them to a variety of vegetables to active assembly. Our pupils were make a delicious vegetable stir-fry. They learnt introduced to science that they about how the vegetables are grown and which would not usually do until they countries they are from. They got to try pak choi, move on to secondary school. mange tout, bean sprouts and many more delicious Mr Craddock worked with years four and year five and and colourful food. there was a ‘little’ competition with regards to whose During the session Mrs Bloor demonstrated to the rocket propelled the furthest! Well done to Daniel children how to make the stir fry, which they were Salter from Year 5 whose rocket propelled the furthest able to try at the end! The gorgeous smells of garlic during the experiment. and spices wafting from Year 3 even had members Megan Wood, Year 5 said that she of staff also wanting to have a taste. After the cooking demonstration Evie Newham said, really enjoyed the lesson and enjoyed making and sending the rockets flying “I had lots of fun learning about how to make a stir down the playground. fry, it was very delicious and I can’t wait to make it at home with my parents!”. Thankyou to Mr Craddock who got our science week of to a great start and for inspiring future scientists.

Visit our website www.stedwardscatholicacademy.co.uk Some of the feedback from Dads’ ‘Super Science’ Day.

The weather Q: Was there an aspect of The day was very good, the day that was particu- presenting was educational, fun and inter- larly enjoyable? great. esting. An excellent well All of it! Excellent subject, organised day, great inter- Miss Prabatani controlled action with the teachers. everything fantastically.

Q: Did you have a school Q: If improvements lunch? could be made to Dads’ I was very full and the food Day what would you was very good. Thankyou to the staff. recommend?

Well done to the kitchen staff. More Biscuits!

Another great Dads day, I’m going to miss Great day as always, these!! Many thanks. the kids loved it! Year 6 parent

Comment: A very good day Best one ever! thankyou.

Thankyou. Comment: Nice to see everybody so enthusiastic!

Comment: Awesome day, thankyou.

100% of our male relatives Great day as stated that they found the always! Kids school welcoming and found love it. the opening assembly enjoy- able and informative and the day was well organised . Super Day. Looking forward to next year. The Research and Investigations our Children carried out during Super Science Week.

Reception Class had an exciting week learning about a variety of animals from different coun- tries. They investigated their habitats and also had a fun filled trip to Ash End Farm where they interacted with real animals and looked at how they live and what they eat. Year 1 Learned all about meerkats and visited Twycross Zoo to look a real life meerkats. Mrs Farmer and the children in Year 1 worked very hard in our school garden and planted new seeds and plants. Dads helped out as well and got stuck in with the weeding. Year 2 made bottle greenhouses which housed the seeds that they had been growing during their seed topic. The children also explored health and exercise! During Dads Day Mr Ward got all our Year 2 Dads involved in doing exercises and showing off their fitness skills. Year 3 had a fun filled week learning about Health and Nutrition. They had an exciting after- noon with Mrs Bloor trying different vegetables and learning how to make a stir fry. On Dads Day they looked at the weather in South America. They researched how different weathers are formed and carried out an investigation to create a tornado in a bottle. They also made some fantastic windmills. Year 4 Did exciting things which incorporated the investigation of sound and vibrations. They made pan pipes and looked at pitch and tone, created rain clouds and re-created rain! They also investigated absorbancy flowers and created salt dragons with paint and salt. The results were firey! Year 5 children learned all about space. They carried out Space experiments where they looked at shadows, measured the distance between planets and completed a rocket experiment with Mr Craddock from The Pingle Academy. Dads’ Day was all about experiments, they looked at fire- works and created clouds in jars, they also made volcanos with coca cola and mentos mints and also created a tornado in a jar. Year 6 created weather related products that included electrical circuits such as hand held fans, weather warning systems and intruder alarms. They also acted as weather presenters using a su- perimposed Des Coleman… Step aside Des we have budding weather presenters here at St Ed’s. They also spent the week exploring and investigating electrical circuits.