Earl Sterndale CE Primary School

Mrs Hofman, our Chair of Governors, came to tell us about the Jewish Sabbath meal. All the children and adults tasted her delicious homemade Challah (Jewish bread) and saw some of the special items used during the meal. The children asked lots of questions about the Jewish faith – thank you Mrs Hofman for giving us this opportunity.

The whole school enjoyed working together to make various craft and foody items to celebrate the new Chinese year…the year of the Dragon!

Early in January, we were lucky to have Rachel Tate with us to deliver a week of Materials investigations. One of the children’s favourite activities was seeing ‘supercooling’ in action. They also had fun with their melting races and finding out which melts quicker; salt water or tap water.

On Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th of January, our school will be inspected by Ofsted.

The children sang a variety of Christmas songs during our seasonal fundraiser event in church. We raised over £100 selling cakes and other yummies. Thank you for your support.

Mrs Wendy Slater, who has been our cook for nealry 2 years, has recently been acknowledged for her dedication to improving school dinners. Derbyshire County Services have awarded her two gold level certificates and a cut glass trophy for a vastly increased uptake of children partaking in school dinners. She is the only cook in the High Peak area to win these awards. Mrs. Slater makes sure the ingredients are of high quality and all meals are nutrionally balanced.

A super yet exhausting time was had by all at Whitehall this year. Thanks to all the adults who helped. Here are some photos of the week.

The children had an exciting yet muddy week developing our garden. Miss Wikes was the expert wicker sculptor and Mr Noble and Mr Bowers helped the children make bird houses. Thanks to everyone else who helped out – it has made a huge difference to the quality of environment for our children.

Here is the whole school pond dipping with Ann McNeil. We found lots of interesting creatures and even some early tadpoles.

As part of the juniors geography work the KS2 children went on a field trip to look at river features. With a bit of expert help from Ann McNeil we tracked the source and beginning of the River Dove all the way to Dovedale where it stretches over 10metres wide. The children identified: the watershed, tributaries, meanders, a confluence and waterfalls. The children particularly enjoyed measuring the depth of the river at and finding out how fast it flowed at different points. Lots of learning on a beautiful day! Also we spotted a Chinook!