Whole School

Levens Lego League!

 in Whole School by

FIRST Lego League Banner

What a day for class 4 today! We’ve been in Barrow attending the FIRST LEGO league regional final.

It’s been a day of grueling challenges, starting early with the first test of the robot we have been coding in school over the last few months. We quickly learned that the robot game wasn’t going to be as easy as it had seemed at first; we needed to regroup to strategise and come up with a game plan. Despite a difficult first round, Class 4 showed resilience, came up with a plan and were ready for round two. This went far better, with our robot coding teams now working together to help each other and giving direction to new team members. More learning was done and we came back at the end of the day for round three with a solid team and a clear plan. We had some bad luck with some elements of the game, but the progress made since the first round was phenomenal and we walked away with a respectable score!

Just before lunch, we were also called into the boardroom to present our ‘Innovation Project’. We’ve been working on this in school too – a new idea on the theme of ‘energy’ to help change the world. We went with cow poo, naturally, and set about telling the judges all about our cow waste to energy plan for the farms in the local area. We got a real apprentice-style grilling from a crack team from Ørsted – the renewable energy company sponsoring the event – and had to keep our cool despite some tough questions.

Throughout the day, we were also expected to show the core values of LEGO League – I’m pleased to say class 4’s behaviour was exemplary throughout. Not just kind and polite, but thoughtful of others too, from helping other teams to charge their robot to an impromptu litter-pick in the hall after lunch.

I’m pleased to announce that with all of these things combined, Levens came away with the trophy for best newcomer! Well done to the whole team for their truly phenomenal performance!

 

 

Fundraising Fun

 in Whole School by

Last Friday, we had two great days of fundraising for Red Nose Day and for the Syria-Turkey Earthquake Appeal.  School Council organised a cake sale – a regular favourite at Levens School; as well as non-uniform day, an Easter Egg Raffle; and best of all a lovely opportunity to play games with children and siblings all around school.

At the children’s request, the amazing total of £300 will be divided equally between both charities!

Well done everyone!! Look out for our next fundraising event for charity coming up in the summer term.

Elleray Cross Country Event

 in Class Four / Class Three / Sport / Whole School by

What an absolutely brilliant afternoon we all had at Elleray last week, participating in their terrific, challenging and rewarding cross country competition, running against 564 of the best runners that the county has to offer!

As totally expected, our team of 18 did not disappoint, everyone finishing the hilly, stream-ridden course with great personal gratification to be rewarded with a special medal and a burger/hotdog!

For a small school, we provide a terrific punch in cross country running, our Under 10 girls finishing second in the team competition, many children running against much older competitors. The day might have been incredibly cold, but staff and parents were warmed through with pride, appreciating every single effort, they could not have given more or tried harder.

Running Club concludes for the season this week with a celebration run through Levens Park and warming homemade refreshments served at Mrs Mason’s farm. We cannot wait to start again in September already…..

World Book Day 2023

 in English / Whole School by

We had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day 2023. This year, our challenge was to create a story sack of clues about a favourite book or character from a story. We had some brilliant book choices, with some being quite tricky to guess! We also enjoyed taking part in lots of lovely activities; writing book reviews, designing and making bookmarks, a pre-loved book sale after school organised by FOLS and World Book Day yoga in Class One. Class teachers also shared their own story sacks and read to different classes throughout the day.

Barrow Raiders School of the Week

 in Whole School by

How delighted were we to once again be invited to the Barrow Raiders’ School of the Week recently.

Eighty nine of us enjoyed the hospitality of the Raiders, for their game at Barrow against Superleague side, Wigan Warriors. We turned up with banners and very loud voices to cheer our team to victory and were delighted with both the win and our opportunity to accompany the team as mascots onto the field in from of 2,500 spectators.

It was a wonderful, memorable event and we hope to be invited again in the Summer as the season progresses.

Edinburgh Highlights

 in Class Four / Whole School by

This week, Class 4 enjoyed three amazing days in the incredible city of Edinburgh.

Our trip began bright and early on Monday morning with a meet up at Oxenholme Station for our train journey North.  On arrival, we dropped our bags at the hostel, then set off up Calton Hill for views of the city and the surrounding hills on such a clear, bright day.  In the afternoon, we enjoyed a tour around the Scottish Parliament – an incredible modern building located opposite the historic palace of Holyrood.

Tuesday started with a good breakfast and a walk up the Royal Mile to the Castle and then to Camera Obscura – a fascinating museum and definitely a popular highlight of the entire trip with all our pupils.  We then headed out of town on a local bus to Edinburgh Zoo where we saw koalas, penguins, pandas, sun bears and much much more!

Our final day involved exploring the exhibits at the National Museum of Scotland which included stepping back in time to Ancient Egypt and lots of interactive scientific displays too!

We all enjoyed such a wonderful time and, as always, the children were incredible ambassadors for our school!

Take a look at some of the highlights here:

Wheelchair Basketball

 in PE / SCARF / Whole School by

We were incredibly lucky last week to welcome wheelchair basketball world champion Nat Pattinson to Levens! Nat came and delivered a whole school assembly and the staff and children had a wonderful time learning how to play wheelchair basketball – a sport which develops collaborative team work, perseverance and resilience.  Nat is passionate about raising awareness of disability in sport and answered lots of questions from the children, telling them about how he manages everyday tasks in his daily life and what it was like competing in the world championships. A wonderful day was had by all!

Multi-Faith Week

 in RE / Whole School by

We are currently enjoying learning more about some of the many faiths followed by people across our community and the wider world.  At our School, we spend a lot of time learning about Christianity, but this week we have immersed ourselves  in the faiths of Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism through the theme of prayer.

Each day, we have started with a whole school assembly led by each of our four classteachers. This morning, Mr Dean led the whole school in Buddhist meditation!  Each class has then enjoyed a session in the their classroom with each of our four teachers learning about every faith in greater detail through a variety of ways including role play, artefacts, photographs, art and film.

South Lakes District Cross Country Trials

 in Class Four / Class Three / PE / Sport / Whole School by

What a terrific and successful afternoon was had at the district trails this week and what a muddy delight to be there!

It was ‘touch and go’ for this event to even take place on Wednesday, following torrential rain for several days in the lead up. The ‘go ahead’ was finally given on the morning and our team of 9, excited and full of confidence travelled to the challenging and muddy course at Casterton to compete.

What effort, what support, and what an achievement by everyone, who excelled to run their best, in races against at least 80 of the best district runners.

I am delighted to report that everyone finished in the top 50%, and that 6 pupils qualified for the Cumbria finals on Tuesday 17th January.

We are so very proud!

The fun that is Running Club continues each Friday until the end of March when all runners will compete at the season finale at Elleray, what a team they all are!

Cave Painting in Class 3

 in Art / Class Three / History / Whole School by

Class 3 have been finding out what it would have been like to be one of the world’s first artists, painting on the walls of caves with natural materials and only their hands to create images.

Inspired by the work of our ancient ancestors, we travelled back in time to our cave – the school hall – where we worked collaboratively to create images of hands, animals and people.

It was very different to our usual experiences in art lessons.  The large pieces of paper had been crinkled and squashed to replicate the uneven surface of a cave wall; they had been positioned vertically so that we could feel what it would have been like to try to paint on walls; and the hall was dimly lit to imitate the dim light in a cave.

Unlike our ancient predecessors, we were able to use graphite sticks, acrylic paints and pastels.