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Music To Our Ears!

Crich Junior School were delighted to be awarded a Music Quality Mark in January 2008 at the Assembly Rooms for the excellent provision and opportunities we are able to offer our pupils. As a new Derbyshire award we are privileged to be one of the first schools to have achieved it.

We would like to give you a flavour of music in our school. Music is an essential ingredient of our ethos as we believe it raises children’s selfesteem, increases confidence and brings enjoyment from being able to perform together.

As part of Derbyshire County Council’s Wider Opportunities in Music programme, all Year 5 and 6 pupils as well as the staff in class have been learning to play the trombone or trumpet. This has been a bit nerve-wracking for the staff but good, as it reminds us what it is like to be a learner again. The class provided a short after-dinner rendition of Jungle Bells to the Infant School when we held our joint Christmas Lunch. This was enjoyed by all and we hope we are producing budding players who will aspire to join Crich Brass Band.

What music means to us:

Emelia Wild

“It feels exciting to play because I really like loud things! The teachers are funny and kind, and learning to play an instrument is a new experience for those who have not done it before…like me!”

Calum McKenzie

“In brass lessons I really have time to think. They help me concentrate and extend my musical knowledge.”

Demi Ball

“The lessons make me want to play more instruments.”

Sarah Glover

“We get to make up lots of different rhythms and put them together.”

Ainsley Walker

“It’s fun because you get to express yourself through the music. It’s really good being one part of a big group when everyone comes together.”

Ellie Hopley

“It’s good being able to work with other instruments and not just guitars!”

Matthew Birks

“I enjoy playing in the orchestra because I get to make up different beats to go with different musical pieces. Drums are important to keep the whole orchestra in time together.”

Mrs Coppen

“I’m not finding it too easy, but the kids are giving me lots of support and enthusiasm.”

All pupils also have the opportunity to play within our school orchestra or recorder club. Children can learn to play the recorder, violin, drums, trombone, cornet, guitar, and flute. As those who were able to see our Christmas performance, the orchestra supported La Nativité with great success, playing pieces such as Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and Silent Night.

We will hopefully be playing during the coming months at events in the village. Please come and hear us.

Our Great Potato Taste

The English Kestrel Wins By A Whisker.

On September 19th Crich Junior School children took part in the great potato taste. We compared three different varieties, English Kestrel, Irish Kerr’s Pinks and English Golden Wonders, all grown by our own fair hands in our vegetable patch on the school field.

Earlier this year with lots of help from the local horticultural club, three trenches were dug on the bottom of our school field. We planted beetroot, carrots, green beans, onions, and of course our potatoes. We were all very proud of the vegetables that we harvested. Some of our onions were used to make Quiche Lorraine with Mrs Howard.

At last the day had come to dig up our potatoes. We plunged the garden fork into the earth and lifted up the roots and there they were, pounds and pounds of fabulous potatoes.

We couldn’t wait to taste them! Mrs Howard helped us scrub the skins clean and we put them in the oven to bake. It seemed like an age before they were ready but finally one by one we began to taste all three varieties.

We had to vote on the colour, texture and flavour of each variety. Some children enjoyed the powdery texture of the Golden Wonder others preferred the more moist texture of the Kestrel. Most thought the Kerr’s Pinks were the nicest colour.

These are some of the comments received about the potatoes.

It was generally felt that the Golden Wonder "smells nice" while the Kestrel potato has a waxy taste.

All the votes were counted and verified by an independent adjudicator, (Mrs Packard) the results were: In third place came the Golden Wonder. Second place went to the Irish Kerr Pinks, but in first place it was the English Kestrel.

Our potato growing has also inspired us in our music lessons. All Year 5 and 6 children are learning to play the trumpet or trombone and we have named our music groups after different potato varieties.

We would like to take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone from the Cliff Inn Horticultural Club for their help and inspiration.

Now we are all looking forward to next years planting and perhaps growing three new potato varieties.

RESULTS of the GREAT POTATO TASTE VOTE

	Golden Wonder	Kerrs Pink	Kestrel
Year 5/6 - No. of votes	5	7	10
Year 3/4 - No. of votes	6	1	15

Bonjour tout le monde. French activity day

On Thursday 19th April the whole school took part in an activity day based on the French language and culture. Some children have visited France on holiday and one or two have lived there, but for most children it was a new experience.

The day was split into 4 activities and the children moved round each activity in groups of 14. The activities were cross curricular and included many aspects from both the foundation and core subjects.

One activity required the children to use their ICT skills as, in pairs, they had to produce an A4 information page on either a famous person, place or event in France. Once their choice had been made they used the Internet, pictures and writing to produce a colourful and informative piece of work.

“It was interesting to learn about somewhere new. I didn’t realise Mont Blanc was so high” – Conor.

We all need a passport to visit foreign places and so the children had to make their own . Their passport however was somewhat unusual in that it included their eye and hair colour along with their name, age and address. There was also a section for them to write comments on the other activities as they went along.

Shopping for delicious food is an important part of French life so the children had to visit a French shop and buy goods using euros. All the products were labelled in French and the children had to ask for what they wanted, along with using merci et s’il vous plait.

The final activity was food tasting. Each group had a selection of typical French food to try – such as camembert, crepes au chocolat, baguette and crème fraiche.

Tiffany said “I enjoyed tasting the different foods but didn’t like the cheese!”

The day was very successful and the children got a lot from it. Robert thought that the French were very lucky to have such lovely food.

Since the start of the summer term the children have been studying the French language and culture each week. They have enjoyed the outdoor activities and videos in particular and some have commented on how good it is to learn a second language. Bonnes vacances.

Flamborough Head

Early one Thursday morning in June the children waited eagerly for the coach to arrive to take them to the seaside for the day. The weather forecast looked promising but only time would tell.

We managed the 3 hour journey without any toilet stops or sickness, an amazing feat in itself !

Once there, the children had a variety of activities to do – sketching, interviewing locals and tourists, rock-pooling, sand castle building and a beach survey.

Lunch was eaten on the beach whilst the sun shone and at the end of the afternoon there was an ice lolly for everyone. Visitors to Flamborough Head commented on the excellent behaviour of the children which rounded off a brilliant day. It was only when we had set off for home that the rain started.

During the following days the children produced work about their trip in the form of a collage and a report. It was an excellent day out that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone involved.

Music at Crich – a musical report by Robert, Conor & Adam

We all enjoy music at Crich Juniors, whether it’s practising singing, or having a great time playing instruments in the school orchestra. Those are both things that are encouraged very much by our Headteacher, Mrs Julian, as she has always loved music.

We also have a never ending list of music lessons including:

• Drumming
• Guitaring
• Brass
• Flute
• Violin
• Cello
• Recorders.

But that’s not it! We even have a school band, which contains …

• drummer (Conor Isaacs)
• guitarist (Adam Harris)
• Bass guitarist (Rowena Horton)
• pianist and keyboard (Robert Dimbleby)
• Singers (Ellie Wright, Emily Wright and Rowena Horton)

These are the lyrics to our latest song, composed by the band, which we will be performing at our Leavers’ Service.

• Sittin’ at my desk you can listen if you want to,
• Most people don’t but I guess you really have to.
• Maths, Literacy, Science, History,
• After a while it all becomes a mystery.
• You can do what you want to, you can fly to the sky (twice)
• Art, Technology, they’re both great, games on computers are top of the range.
• Music’s the rhyme so join in with mine,
• Music’s the rhyme so keep with the time,
• It’s the time of day when you want to play.
• But if you don’t want to then you gotta say.
• Trips to the pantomime, trips to the beach,
• All of the band’s got to get with the beat,
• We’ve had lots of fun here but now we’ve gotta leave,
• This school rocks and the next school rules.
• We hope you will remember all of us,
• We will always remember all of you (we hope you do too).

The orchestra have recently performed a concert in aid of the Luncheon Club which was thoroughly enjoyed by parents, friends and members of the community.

Crich Market Place Traffic Survey Report

On Thursday the 30th of November Crich Junior School conducted two traffic surveys on the Market Place. A year 3 pupil gave us the idea in her school council manifesto as she was concerned about the amount of traffic travelling through our village.

Year's 5 and 6 sorted themselves into groups. At 9am and midday we went up to the Market Place and positioned ourselves in sensible safe places to carry out the survey.

We put groups positioned at:

Bowns Hill, The bus stop, Bottom of Sandy Lane, Near the bakery

We were only interested in traffic travelling into and parking in the village square.

In our 9am survey there were lots of cars travelling through the village and delivery lorries double parking making it difficult for cars to get through. This also made crossing the road more dangerous for pedestrians. We saw only one lorry coming into and out of the quarry.

During our survey at midday, the amount of cars travelling through the village was about the same, the biggest difference was in trucks and vans, there was a decrease in the number. The amount of pedestrians increased. Other vehicle figures stayed much the same.

As a result of our survey, we think more organised parking areas, speed bumps and a pedestrian crossing would make the Market Place safer.

The best part of the geography report was doing the traffic survey because we got to work outside and it was fun. I have learned that even though I live in Crich drawing a map of the Market Place is very hard. - Zoe B

I have enjoyed doing the counting of the questionnaires because we got to see how many sheets we got back, and I got to write on the board. I have learned that the Market Place is more dangerous than I thought. - Bruce

Report and results of the questionnaire

Following comments made by one of the youngest pupils in school, we investigated the hypothesis that - the market place is dangerous for pedestrians. This was part of our geography topic.

First of all we came up with some questions related to the dangers on the market place e.g. yes/no questions, tick box questions and 1 to 10 questions. All the year 5 and year 6 pupils took home 4 questionnaires to ask people in the village if they thought that the market place is dangerous. We asked people like those that go to Luncheon Club, family and friends. On regular visits to our friends at the Luncheon Club, we talked to them about their experiences and what they think should happen. We found that they had similar ideas to us.

81 questionnaires were returned and 90% of these people think that it is a dangerous place. On a scale of 1 to 10, 58 people thought that the market place was very dangerous.

Here are some of our other results: % of returned questionnaires agreed that these features made it a dangerous place:

• Lots of vehicles - 77%
• Poor visibility at the junctions - 73%
• Narrow roads - 48%
• Dangerous parking area - 75%
• Speeding - 73%
• Parking in dangerous positions - 80%

Other dangers indicated were; double parking, lack of clear road markings, too many large vehicles, poor driving (lack of indication), a very complicated road junction.

% of returned responses which considered that these features would improve safety:

• traffic lights - 43%
• speed bumps - 35%
• zebra crossing - 84%
• speed cameras - 38%
• reduced speed limit - 46%
• school crossing patrols - 51%

Additional suggestions which would improve safety are: wider pavements, warning lights on approaches, island in the middle of market place or a roundabout, pedestrian crossings.

From this questionnaire we have discovered that something should be done for the safety of pedestrians of all ages as well as drivers of various vehicles. Many accidents have occurred causing broken bones. Maybe next time, some one won't be so lucky.

We would like to thank everyone who helped us by filling in our questionnaire.

Supermarket vouchers

Dear Villagers. A big thank you to you all for all the vouchers you have collected over the post year from Sainsburys and Tesco. It has been lovely to see so many of you coming into school to pop your vouchers in the box. Your efforts have made a real difference to the amount of equipment the children have been able to choose for the playground. We have just taken delivery of our new games 'bought’ with the 6694 vouchers that were collected during the summer.

Our children would like to say:

Thank you for...

• All the games because it makes playtime fun - Timmy.
• The jump ropes. I like them because it gives me more ways to skip - Neve.
• The cats cradles because Mrs Denman teaches me different tricks at dinner time - Emelia.
• Giving us lots of different games to play even if we don't want to play football - Emily.
• Lots of games so we get more exercise to make us healthier - Jamie.
• The toys they get better and better and they help us improve our skills - Katy.
• The Pogo Sticks. I like jumping up and down - Bruce.
• All the games we can share so that there are no children at the friendship stop looking for a friend to play with - Rhys
• Giving us so much fun. It makes everyone really happy! - Sarah
• Our future Andy Murray says I like the tennis rackets and balls because I never get bored of tennis and can even get a game in at Breakfast Club! - Andrew

It is very heart-warming to see how much the community is supporting our children and citizens of the future. Thank you once again.

Yours faithfully, all the Children at Crich Junior School