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Year 3 Rocks and Fossils Workshop - March 2022
Thu 24 Feb 2022Last Thursday, we had a dinosaur, fossil and rocks workshop. Graham and Sue came in to run it. We started the day with a scavenger hunt to find lots of different fossils and models. At the end of the scavenger hunt, we had to see which fossil matched each name. One fact we learnt is that a triceratops could grow as long as 9m! Isn’t that amazing?
In the afternoon, Graham told us all about the different fossils that you can find in different rocks. The different types of rocks are sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Then we sketched different fossils and he did some oil pastel drawings. He showed as a real, fossilised dinosaur egg with a baby dinosaur still inside! We saw the x-rays of the inside of the egg too! We also saw an amazing potato rock, which he called that because on the outside, it looked like a potato! But actually, on the inside, it was full of lots of little, sharp pieces of crystals called quartz!
We also had a visit from Mary Anning in the afternoon. She told us all about when she found a fossil of an ichthyosaur skeleton. The first complete skeleton of one of these found. It was sold to the Natural Museum but it didn’t have her name on it because she was a girl and back then didn’t think girls could be scientists! She was devastated!
Year 3 had the best day ever!
Penny and Vivien (Year 3)
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Police Officers visit to St Mary's!
Mon 21 Feb 2022Police Officers visit to St Mary’s
On Monday, we were delighted to welcome two local police officers to St Mary’s for our Monday Daily Worship assembly! One of the purposes for their visit was that we want to give our pupils the opportunity to find out more about different jobs/professions (a key part of our School Development Plan), so that when our pupils grow up into adulthood they are able to make more informed choices about which professions they choose for themselves. Another reason for their visit, was to support two of our school values: Respect and Trust - we want all pupils to understand the different roles and activities that police officers have to fulfil each week, whilst on duty.
Police Constable Jasmine Thorndyke and Police Constable Conor Fields, both based at Saffron Walden Police Station, gave an interesting and informed discussion to the children about the different types of police officer and how half of their job is to catch bad people and the other half is to keep people safe – which they said that people often forget! They talked about how they often have to respond to emergencies, take finger prints, attend ceremonies with colleagues as well as the different types of offences that criminals can commit! The children proved themselves to be very knowledgeable in many of these areas – including knowing the colour of a Taser (!), what to do if a police dog is running near you, and identifying some of the kit worn by both officers. The pupils very much enjoyed the demonstration of PC Fields being hand-cuffed by PS Thorndyke (and how to do this effectively and safely) as well as a demonstration of their police radio/telephone devices (with attached earpieces), body-worn cameras and other equipment. A number of pupils were also chosen to come up to the front to wear some of their different police helmets/hats – which included one which would be worn by a PCSO – and how to identify this. The police officers also discussed the emergency number to call (999) as well as what to do if you are every lost and you cannot find your mum or dad. Again, the children gave some excellent answers to some of the questions asked by the officers.
We would like to thank a HUGE thank you to PC Thorndyke and PC Fields for taking the time to visit the school and tell us more about the incredibly important job that they do. If there are any parents, carers and friends of the school out there in our school community who are feeling brave and would be interested in coming to talk to our children about their own profession in a Daily Worship assembly, please do contact the school and we will discuss this with you and get you to come in for a talk with our lovely pupils!
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Stormy weather!
Sun 20 Feb 2022The end of the February half term break and the start of the second half of the Spring term, saw huge storms, cold winds and even some hail, followed by some lovely bright sunshine – very much typical of British weather! You will not fail to have noticed that the school suffered from some storm damage. Some of the damage was to some trees located at the bottom of the concrete staircase to the school field, which unfortunately produced them to fall down a few days before school restarted; the other was to some of the large roofing panels on the Key Stage 1 decking area – seven of which blew away on the same weekend. I am delighted to report that a roofing company have now visited the site and have completed the first stage of the remedial works to the decking roof area; the damaged trees have also now been removed.