South Tyneside Lego League Festival- Y3D

12th July 2024Catherine Dodds

This term, in computing, children have taken part in the MASTERPIECE  season of FIRST LEGO League. In teams the children imagined and innovated new ways to create and communicate art across the globe. The children use SPIKE Lego Education kits that encourage STEM learning through building and programming moving parts using coding in the app.

On Thursday 11th July, the children in year 3, visited The Word in South Shields to take part in the South Tyneside Lego League Festival where they had the opportunity to show off their moving Lego models and team posters. The children enjoyed making friends with children from other schools and see what they had been building in their school.

The children worked very hard on their models and team posters at school and the judges were impressed. They also answered the  judges questions very well and showed off their knowledge excellently. The teams won The team spirit award, The core values award,  The stick to it award and the Team poster award.

Y3 Art Trip

23rd March 2024Catherine Dodds

Year 3 have been studying sculpture in Art. We have looked at sculptures in the North East and in our local area. On the 22nd of March, we visited ‘The Conversation Piece’ known locally as the ‘Weebles’  by the internationally acclaimed Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz. The children sketched the sculptures then created their own ‘Sand Weebles’ on the beach.

(We even had time to fit in some fun at the local park as a treat for our exceptional behaviour on the trip.)

 

Y3 World Book Day

23rd March 2024Catherine Dodds

The children have enjoyed reading our class novel ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl so had a lovely surprise when Mr. and Mrs. Twit turned up for World Book Day!

A great day was had by all in year 3: designing and making Mr. Twit’s beard, creating book reviews of the Roald Dahl collection, drawing like Quentin Blake, sharing books, and much, much more.

Thank you to the effort made by the parents and to the children coming to school dressed as their favourite character. They looked amazing!

British Science Week 2024

23rd March 2024Catherine Dodds

British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths that took place between 8 – 17 March 2024. This year, the theme was ‘TIME‘.

All year groups took part in daily science missions inked to one of the five different methods of scientific enquiry.

  • Research using secondary sources.
  • Comparative and fair testing.
  • Observing over time.
  • Pattern seeking.
  • Identifying, classifying and grouping.

The children joined a daily virtual celebration at the end of the day to see what other schools involved had been up to and to celebrate their achievements of the day. What a great week we all had!

British Science Week Activities

Nursery

The nursery children had a lovely week planting beans & cress and observing them growing daily. They practised star jumps (a skill) and compared their progress over time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KS2

 

 

 

 

Y4/5B- Hula Hooping skill

 

 

 

 

Y6T- Skipping skill

 

 

 

 

 

Even the teachers had fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Year 3D

 

 

Y3/4M

 

 

 

 

Y3D

 

 

 

 

Y6T

Y5H- star jumps

 

 

Y3D- animal classification

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y5H- biscuit dunking

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls’ Football

15th May 2023Catherine Dodds

Girls’ Football 

Some of our pupils took part in a football session to promote girls’ participation and enjoyment in the sport. Across the day, nearly 60 girls took part. For many, it gave them an introduction to the sport and a chance to learn some basic skills.

A New Adventure for Laygate Pupils with First Lego League!

By Catherine Dodds8th May 2023

In Autumn term, an amazing opportunity opened up for schools in South Tyneside. FIRST®
LEGO® League, The IET, Sage and ICT in Schools partnered up to enable
schools to deliver a full STEM educational programme for all pupils. Laygate School were excited to hear we had been chosen to be part of the project and participate in FIRST® LEGO® League.  We received all of the hardware, robot kits and Lego kits and we began our new, exciting journey at the beginning of summer term.

Our new journey has got off to a fantastic start and the children are already fully engaged in the project. They are looking forward to next academic year where teams will have the opportunity to participate in the South Tyneside regional competition and compete to win a place at the FIRST® LEGO® League England  and Wales National Final!

Year 3 beginning their exciting journey.

Watch the videos below of the year 3 children’s achievements.

Wind Turbine Model.

Sharing our successes.

What is FIRST® LEGO® League?

FIRST® LEGO® League is a worldwide competition that introduces pupils to hands-on robotics and programming. It is a fantastic opportunity for children to develop their STEM and computer science skills while also developing creative thinking, problem solving and team work skills.

Every year, FIRST® LEGO® League releases a new challenge based on a real-world, scientific theme. This year the theme is SUPERPOWERED where the children will learn about different types of energy sources, storage, distribution methods, and ways
in which energy is consumed.

FIRST® LEGO® League is split into three divisions; Discover, Explore and Challenge.

EYFS and Year 1 children use the Discover Kit, where they are introduced to STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) through building models using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks, and working together to solve fun challenges.

Year 2 and LKS2 children use the Explore Kit where they can put STEM into practice as they work in teams to design, build and program robots using the LEGO® Education SPIKE Essential and block coding.

UKS2 use the Challenge Kit and apply their STEM skills combined with critical thinking to work with a team, build a robot, and compete in an exciting, mission-based robotics game using block or text code.

We will keep you updated about our journey with FIRST® LEGO® League and are very excited to see where it takes us.

(more…)

King’s Coronation

6th May 2023Catherine Dodds

The children at Laygate School enjoyed celebrating the upcoming coronation of our new king; King Charles. We were excited and proud to celebrate this moment in history together. We took part in coronation-themed activities throughout the day and enjoyed a coronation themed lunch prepared by our lovely cooks.

What a great day!

 

 

Cricket Taster Day

28th April 2023Catherine Dodds

South Tyneside Cricket coaches; which included a professional cricket player all the way from Sri Lanka,  visited Laygate School today to introduce pupils to cricket and build an enthusiasm for the sport. Each class participated in exciting activities organised by the coaches and had a lot of fun completing the different games and challenges.

A Wednesday lunch time cricket club will follow this session for some of the children.

Year 3 Art Sculpture Trip

26th March 2023Catherine Dodds

23.3.23

In art, Year 3 have been learning about sculpture. We visited South Shields beach to look at the ‘Conversation Piece’ sculpture that was created by the renowned Spanish artist Juan Muñoz in 1999. The children made observational sketches of the sculpture and then created sand sculptures of the bronze figures.
We had a great day and were very excited to see the sculpture up close.