Our trip to see Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books, was great and all the children loved it. 

At 8:15am, we were on the coach and ready to go to Cambridge. When we arrived at Cambridge’s Lady Mitchell Hall, there were lots of benches. We say on the first, second and third benches because we were the first people there. After we say down, lots of other schools came into the hall. Then Francesca Simon told us about herself. 

After she told us about herself, she read a book to us called Horrid Henry and the Zombie Invasion. When she was reading the book, she put a lot of expression into her voice and it was very scary. It was great when she read the book!  

After she read us the book, she gave us some tips on writing:

• ·         Always finish the story.
• ·         Remember your chapters.
• ·         Use pictures for children’s books.
• ·         Make up funny names for characters.
• ·         You could just split a normal person and turn it into two characters.

Francesca Simon inspired a lot of people to become an author when they are older. All the Year 4’s loved our trip!

By Pippa Outlaw and Ellie Wibberley

Our Year 6s simultaneously played a huge quiz with 9 other schools in the local area. This was run by the St Ives Rotary Club in our school hall. We came joint second with a score of 121/150.The children’s knowledge, behaviour and attitude were a real asset to our school.

“I enjoyed the quiz, it was fun!” Mario, Year 6. Well done Year 6s and Mr Sweeney, Miss Marshall and Mrs Burke for their help in organising it all.

On Monday 2 March, some of our pupils went to Hinchingbrooke Hospital for an Art Party to design a logo for their new garden restaurant. You may have seen them in the Hunts Post recently!

There were a number of schools there who were taking part in the design party. The children were given a selection of art equipment and asked to design things that grew in their gardens.

They munched on a buffet of party food, which the children thoroughly enjoyed!

“I enjoyed the food as the cakes were cool!” Jemma

“The art was fun and so was the cake. You could put toppings on.” Aiden

We will keep you updated over the next few weeks as the winner of the design competition is decided upon. However, Thorndown’s art work is already on display in the hospital for visitors and staff to see. Keep an eye out for our work if you ever visit.

On Friday 6 March, the school celebrated World Book Day. The children dressed up as their favourite book characters, enjoyed book themed work in their classrooms and many, many pupils and their families visited our book fair. The school was full of animals, witches, monsters, heroes and heroines of storie

National Science and Engineering week is taking place between 9 and 22 March 2015.   Organised by the British Science Association across the UK, our nearest location is based close by in Cambridge.  It is an exciting opportunity to discover, question and take part in scientific activities at some interesting venues.  The event has a whole host of exciting topics, from talks to hands-on activities that I’m sure will have something for everyone, whatever your age and interests!  (And the great thing is, most things are free! Some do need to be booked though.)  This years’ theme for the festival is titled ‘Light and Light based Technologies’.    The website has full and comprehensive details about the whole programme of events, accessibility etc and can be found at: www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival

During this period, children at Thorndown will be writing Scientific riddles linked to their Science learning in class.  We hope to be sharing some of these during the normal Friday Assembly for pupils and publish a few examples in the Newsletter for parents to share.  Keep a look out for them.  I’m sure some will make even us adults scratching our heads!

The latest Thorndown Chronicle is available for download by clicking HERE. The pupils have really enjoyed putting their literacy skills to the test and eagerly anticipate reading the paper when it goes to press.

We have a new online booking system for Parent Consultations. You will be able to book the time slots that fit in best with your own commitments and will receive an email confirming your booking. If you do not have access to the internet then please get in touch with the school and we can make the booking for you.

Please click HERE to book your slot

In Design and Technology, Year 5 and 6 children showed their powers of invention as they “dressed” traditional wooden dolly pegs, with the added challenge of making a firm stand. This project formed part of their learning about the properties of different materials, in the context of toy production from Victorian Times to the present day.

Click here to view the photos of the Dolly Pegs

The latest issue of the Literacy and Numeracy newsletter is available by clicking here. It has some useful ideas for apps that can be downloaded on Apple or Android devices.
Have you seen the new Literacy and Numeracy pages on the website?

Well done to the Year 5/6 Thorndown Tag Rugby team who managed to secure a fantastic 3rd place at the inter school tournament on Tuesday. The team played hard fought, frantic and fast moving games and were incredibly proud of their achievement. For a team that is still in it’s infancy (only 8 training sessions) they did the school proud.