Weekly Maths Challenge

Do you like a puzzle or challenge? Can you think creatively? If the answer is 'yes', our weekly maths challenge is perfect for you. Each week there will be a fresh challenge to give your grey matter a work out. Most of the activities are open ended - it is about having creative ideas to apply to your maths. This week:

Pupils can post their suggestions directly to the display board with Post It notes. There has already been an excellent response to this week's challenge with creative ideas beginning to fill the board. Feel free to share your own ideas on this post's Facebook comments.

Fun on the Field

Cheers erupted in assembly today as Mr Emes announced that the school field was now dry enough to use during play and lunch times. Excited children took full advantage of the extra play space: some enjoyed chatting in the gazebo or sitting under a tree, others joined in enthusiastic games of football, some hurtled around the running track while others showed off their impressive gymnastics skills. It was great to see many pupils literally turning cartwheels of delight!

Flat Stanley Returns

Almost all of our Flat Stanleys have now returned home after their adventures. We have received well over 200 postcards, all of which have helped our children learn much more about different places and diverse cultures of the world. Flat Stanley's travels have broadened the minds of our pupils and increased enthusiasm for learning about other countries. The response to this whole school project has been overwhelming - a big THANK YOU to everyone who took part and congratulations to the Flat Stanley challenge winners.

Year 2 Learn about St George

On Wednesday, Year 2 were taught the fascinating story of St George. George is believed to have been a third-century Roman soldier who was executed for protesting against the torture of Christians. He was declared a saint for defending his beliefs and inspiring others to become Christians. In 1348, he was adopted as the patron saint of England with the legend of St George and the Dragon representing the traditional English ideals of gallantry, bravery and honour. Inspired by St George, Year 2 made some colourful shields to defend themselves against any fiery dragons that dare to visit Hornchurch!

E for Effort

Every week, teachers recognise a pupil in their class who has made an extra effort. These pupils are awarded the E for Effort cup in front of the whole school during our Friday morning assembly. Listen to the reasons why pupils have been given the award:

listen to ‘E for Effort winners 25th April 2014 ’ on Audioboo

Congratulations to the wonderful children who have made an extra effort this week.

Early Years - Encouraging Learning Through Creative Play

In Early Years, we're always looking for new ways to enhance our outdoor areas and encourage children to develop through creative play. We've recently added some natural wood structures in Reception and Nursery areas designed to fire the imagination. After hearing tales of Saint George and the Dragon today, we were delighted to see that children dressed up and took part in role play activities incorporating the new 'buildings': brave knights and beautiful princesses defended their castles and rescued each other from scary monsters. These structures have made a big difference to creative play in Early Years and the children seem to love them.

Summer Term Begins

We hope you had an enjoyable Easter break and that you are looking forward to the action-packed summer term as much as we are. Our pupils clearly had a great time today catching up with their friends and settling back into the school routine. Plenty of inspiring trips and other activities have been planned for this term and we will keep posting updates and reports on this blog. Every day in school is full of amazing achievements and magical moments - we'll continue to share as many of these with you as we can.

Spring Term Draws to a Close

As spring term draws to a close, we would like to thank you again for your ongoing support and your children’s hard work. Success and progress have characterised the last term and we hope that you have enjoyed reading the increased number of stories on our blog about just a few of the highlights of school life with you; a glimpse into the wonderful things currently happening at Hacton.

We wish you a restful and happy Easter break and look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday 22nd April when the beginning of the summer term promises even more exciting events and engaging learning opportunities. Let’s hope that the sunshine decides to join us!

Junior Travel Ambassadors

With fingers crossed and tensions mounting, our Year 5 children waited patiently in assembly to find out who had been selected as our new Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTA). Applications were submitted earlier in the month and after discussion with the council’s road safety team, four excited Year 5 children were selected. The role of the JTA is to promote road safety, launch competitions and encourage safe parking of cars around our school. The ambassadors left the hall with shiny new badges, pencil cases and an information booklet about their new role.

Watch this space to find out how they get on. Well done!

Year 6 Volcanoes

To investigate reversible and irreversible changes, Year 6 created their own volcanoes (pretty cool huh?). We were all full of questions: Are our Volcanoes going to look good? Are our experiments going to work? Is this going to be hard? Only time would tell. Firstly, we collected some newspapers, some cardboard and a lot of glue. Secondly, we turned the newspapers into minuscule balls. Next we added strips of cardboard to give our volcanoes structure and then we applied Modrock (also known as Plaster of Paris) to our volcanoes. One day later, the Modrock had dried and we could paint our volcanoes - they turned out spectacularly. Finally, a frightful event occurred! The four volcanoes erupted and Miss Morris (the unsuspecting victim) was showered with lava, destroying her cream coloured dress!

The fake lava was made when a chemical reaction took place between vinegar, detergent and baking powder (bicarbonate of soda). Bubbles were created which told us that a chemical reaction had occurred to produce a gas. It was irreversible. 

By Mostafa (Year 6)

Maths Challenge Winner

Congratulations to the winner of last week's Maths Challenge 'You have £5 to spend, what will you buy and how much change will you have?'. As usual, we had some great responses (see below). Well done to our Year 3 pupil who won a bag of sweets for his multi-step solution that showed brilliant maths skills for his age.

"I did the Maths Challenge to have a chance of being the lucky winner. When Mrs Muskett said my name in assembly I felt proud and delighted. I'm definitely going to do the next challenge!"

E for Effort

Every week, teachers recognise a pupil in their class who has made an extra effort. These pupils are awarded the E for Effort cup in front of the whole school during our Friday morning assembly. Listen to the reasons why pupils have been given the award:

listen to ‘E for Effort winners 4th April 2014’ on Audioboo

Congratulations to the wonderful children who have made an extra effort this week.

Music Assembly - Feeling Good

Every week we ask a question about a famous piece of music. This is help children listen more closely and learn about how music is made. Last week we asked you to name the group of singers that Frank Sinatra sang with? The answer is: The Rat Pack. This week:

Who recorded this song for her album in 1965?

The answer will be posted with next week's question.

Learning about Life Cycles with Year 1

Year 1 have been studying the life cycle of frogs. The children are very excited to have some frog spawn and they are counting the tadpoles as they hatch from their eggs. There are 6 tiny tadpoles at the moment and it won't be long until they start turning into little frogs. The children have been keen to 'hop to it' and produce colourful information booklets to show how much they have enjoyed this topic.

Sport Relief Fun Run Raises £690

Hacton took part in Sport Relief with a sponsored fun run on the school field. Children jumped hurdles, tiptoed through hoops and danced their way along to music. Years 3 and 4 started the day by running a combined total of over 1,000 laps - a high standard for others to follow. Reception classes then demonstrated their Olympic spirit as they raced around the course with enthusiasm and determination. In the afternoon, Years 1 and 2 took up the challenge by starting at an extremely fast pace, achieving almost 1,000 laps whilst also showing off their funky dance moves! Not to be outdone, Years 5 and 6 were the last to take to the field. There were some particularly impressive individual performances and in total they ran over 1,500 laps. Houses were running for points and, in a close battle, Yellow came out on top. There were some weary legs at the end of the day but everyone showed true sporting spirit and made a real effort to do their part for a good cause. Thanks to the generous sponsorship by parents and friends, we raised £690 for Sport Relief. Well done to everyone!

Year 6 Netball

Year 6 netball squad narrowly missed a semi-final place after a fantastic performance in the Havering netball league finals. After finishing second in the group stages, Hacton were one of the 8 teams to reach the finals from the 23 schools that entered. First, we played Hylands. Despite 3 superb goals from Elle, we lost 3-5. Next up was Engayne. Fast movement and accurate feeding into the circle secured us a decisive 2-0 victory. Finally, with renewed confidence, we played La Salette. Unfortunately, their defence proved too strong and Hacton missed out on a win 1-4.

This was the first time that we had reached the finals since entering the league - a huge achievement. Miss Claridge and Miss Batty (team coaches) would like to congratulate the team on their hard work and impressive performance. Well done!

Weekly Maths Challenge

Do you like a puzzle or challenge? Can you think creatively? If the answer is 'yes', our weekly maths challenge is perfect for you. Each week there will be a fresh challenge to give your grey matter a work out. Most of the activities are open ended - it is about having creative ideas to apply to your maths. This week:

Pupils can post their suggestions directly to the display board with Post It notes. We'll post some of the best solutions here before next week's challenge begins. Feel free to post your own ideas on this post's Facebook comments.

Maths Challenge Winner

Congratulations to the winner of last week's Maths Challenge 'The answer is triangle what is the question?'. We had a wide variety of responses that displayed some excellent mathematical knowledge and taught us some interesting facts. Runners up were: 3 corners, 3 sides and is a square cut diagonally; what is one face of a pyramid; what is a 3 sided shape and an equilateral; which shape has angles that add up to 180 degrees; what tattoo has Ellie Goulding got? Well done to our Year 4 pupil who won a bag of sweets for her solution that displayed a brilliant understanding of how to plot coordinates (see below).

"I did the Maths Challenge because I knew it was going to be fun... and I wanted to win! I didn't think I actually would win and I feel proud that the teachers liked my idea."