Ferncumbe Friday

friday 4th march 2022

Today we all wore yellow and remembered beautiful Delilah. This afternoon members of Delilah’s family, friends and some members of Honiley Class shared in a special ceremony to unveil Delilah’s bench. The bench now lives outside the front of school by Delilah’s tree, if you would like to take a look.

Many thanks to you all for your generous donations in support of the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, and in memory of our brightest Ferncumbe star, Delilah. xxx

Ferncumbe has been decorated in the most magnificently scientific way this week, with over 150 project boards. Ideas investigated by the children have ranged from how bacteria grows to whether cats have a favourite colour. There was even the question as to whether science can save us from a biscuit dunking disaster! The variety of investigations has been incredible and the effort even more so. Thank you so much for your support and help at home. The children have shown obvious pride in themselves and each other when sharing and exploring each other's projects.

A big WELL DONE to our winners from today. A couple more are yet to be announced due to illness, but we really enjoyed hearing from these amazing scientists this morning!

Lowsonford class are keeping things warm!

This week, Lowsonford Class needed to use all their scientific skills to plan and carry out an insulation investigation. Predicting, planning, recording, presenting, concluding, evaluating and not forgetting scientific explanations - all skills that the class needed to show! They produced fantastic graphs to show which material (cotton wool, cloth or bubble wrap) insulated their beaker of hot water (or hibernating dormouse, as we imagined) the best. Fantastic work everyone!

shrewley’s speed stacking success

Year 4 are the Central Warwickshire speed stacking champions for the 2nd year running! Speed stacking is a competitive sport that involves stacking 12 specially designed cups in pre-determined sequences against the clock. The children have been very competitive and determined to improve their times and their hard work has paid off! 12 children will be representing Ferncumbe at the county finals later this month to compete against the other top schools in Warwickshire. The competition will involve both individual and team speed stacking events. Well done Shrewley and fingers crossed for the finals!

Haseley class’ magnet adventure

In Year 1, we have been exploring magnets. On our special physics day, we had a go at predicting what materials the magnets would stick to and which ones they wouldn’t. Then Miss Forbes set us a challenge to find a way to get some paperclips out of the water without getting our hands wet. Some of us used the magnets and dipped them in the water to pick up the paperclips. Some children chose to hover the magnet over the water and the paperclips jumped up and stuck to the magnet. This worked really well but we still got a little bit wet. THEN someone realised we could make a fishing rod out of string, a paintbrush and a magnet and this worked even better! We are very proud physics geniuses!

Year 4 polar ice cap investigation

Shrewley class carried out an investigation into the melting of polar ice caps this week. We learnt about the difference between the ice caps at the North and the South Poles and what impact their melting could have on rising sea levels. Our investigation involved making miniature models to represent each ice cap. One with ice cubes floating in water (North Pole) and the other with the ice cubes resting on Play-Doh (the continent of Antarctica). We measured the water level before and after the ice cubes had melted and although the ice cubes melted much more slowly at ‘The South Pole’, the water level rose dramatically! We then wrote up the experiment and used our data to explain why this is such an important issue for many island countries and major coastal cities in the world.

Hatton Class

We made pancakes in Hatton Class this week. We thought about how the mixture changed when we cooked it. What a delicious science experiment!

Honiley class

Miss Constable has been blown away with the fantastic science investigations that have going on at home. Take a look at some of the wonderful boards that were shown in class! Huge thanks to parents for supporting their children at home. We have been investigating how micro fibres from some our clothes end up in our water. Keep your eyes peeled on Twitter to see how we get on!

a slice of science, sunday 13th march

To celebrate Coventry City of Culture - Amazing Women and British Science Week, Coventry University are holding a fantastic afternoon called ‘Slice of Science’, hosted by the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine. It will bring science to life through interactive workshops, taster sessions and inspiring talks. Tea and cake too! See the website for more details..

https://www.resonatefestival.co.uk/events/a-slice-of-science

As I’m sure you might expect, as a response to events in Ukraine our focus for Worship next week in school will be Peace.

We will be sharing the following prayer with the children and ask Ferncumbe families to join with us as we pray for a speedy resolution to the conflict.

Loving God,

We pray for the people of Ukraine,

for all those suffering or afraid,

that you will be close to them and protect them.

We pray for world leaders,

for compassion, strength, and

wisdom to guide their choices.

We pray for the world

that in this moment of crisis,

we may reach out in solidarity

to our brothers and sisters in need.

May we walk in your ways

so that peace and justice

become a reality for the people of Ukraine

and for all the world.

Amen

Families Warwickshire magazine - March/April 2022 edition

Please find below the link to the latest digital issue of Families Warwickshire magazine…

https://issuu.com/familiesonline/docs/familieswarwickshiremarchapril22digital?fr=sZmJkNDQ3MDEyOTc

request from warwickshire county council

Warwickshire County Council (WCC) are reviewing the way parents and carers apply for a school place for their children. As part of this review, they want to understand what matters most to those involved and are asking for your feedback on using the service and Parent Portal. The information provided will help design, manage and improve the way in which this system operates.

If we could please encourage you to complete the questionnaire and help them understand what is important to you when deciding on a suitable place for your child to learn.

The questionnaire will take around 5 minutes to complete and is anonymous, it asks you about your experiences and what matters to you along with some general information about your family.

Please do share as much as you can about your experience to help inform the future system to ensure the best experience for parents and carers in the future.

Link to Questionnaire - https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=BqqwiCdZu0uok4nMJxOsgsm0tjJiEphEr4czIH-IOkpUNlAzVlk0M0pQT1pCSFNFUE4xWUtaUldURy4u

With very best wishes for a lovely weekend,

Tracey Webb, Head of School

Newsletter Issue 11