Photo Gallery 2019/2020

PHOTO GALLERY

2019-2020

Welcome back from Mrs Lambirth - September 2020

Term 6

How to Help a Plant Grow Challenge

Erin's Vegetables.mp4

Erin in Yellow Class wanted to share how she has been growing and looking after vegetables during lockdown. Erin moved cucumbers to little pots in the beginning of May and two months later they ate their first grown cucumber! It was very yummy and they are looking forward to harvesting more vegetables including tomatoes (yellow, red and orange) pumpkins (which soon will overtake all garden) sweetcorn and dill. Erin is enjoying watering vegetables and watching how they are growing and changing!

Seraphine's garden.mp4

Seraphine from Blue class has been growing wild strawberries over the summer. She has been taking cuttings from the strawberry plant and planting the new shoots into a bamboo vertical planting screen. She cannot wait to have more strawberries to eat with her brother.

Westmeads Virtual Sports Day

Well done to all those who took part in our virtual sports day. We hope you had fun. We have put your wonderful photos together into a video for you to see.

Balance Competition Sports Week

Mr Wraight and Mrs Watkins have a balance competition, but who will win?

Message from the Chair of Governors, Hansjörg Schmidt

Virtual Sports Day 2020

Mrs Thomas demonstrates the fun virtual sports day activities you can do.

While We Can't Hug

Hedgehog and Tortoise want to give each other a great big hug, but they're not allowed to touch.

Term 5

Westmeads' Virtual Choir Performance - Sing

We hope that you enjoy our choir. Thank you to Mr Wraight, the choir children and Gareth Thomas, father of Rafe in Purple Class, for putting it altogether.

Ducklings to ducks!

The left hand photo is what our ducklings looked like when they left us 2 months ago. The right hand photo is what they look like now! Look how much they have changed!

The staff at Retreat into Wonderland farm are doing an excellent job of caring for them but unfortunately they have not been receiving any extra funding during this time. We have purchased and donated some food for the ducks on behalf of all of us here at Westmeads and look forward to more updates soon!

Westmeads is ... by Red Class

Please check out this lovely video message from Red Class.

Messages from the children May 2020

VE Day celebrations

Please see the photos below of the lovely bunting produced by some of our pupils to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day on the 8th May.

A message from Yellow Class

The children of Yellow Class are missing us at school and so have sent a lovely message to you all.

Doodle Challenge May 2020

Easter Photography Challenge April 2020

Term 4

Message from Mrs Lambirth

Coronavirus - A book for children A free information book explaining the coronavirus to children, illustrated by Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler

Ducklings

Our ducklings have been keeping the school happy over the last couple of weeks. See below some photos of when they first hatched out. They have now really grown even though they are only a week old. The ducklings visited classes and the children held and stroked them. The ducklings even had a paddle and a dive in deeper water!

We have now said goodbye to them, as they have gone to their new home at 'Retreat into Wonderland', where the Year 1 children visited earlier this year.

Book Week and World Book Day

We have enjoyed our World Book Day and Book Week celebrations, which included a wonderful visit from the author and illustrator M.P. Robertson. We has also loved seeing the children's fantastic potato creations that depict their favourite story books.

Author and Illustrator M.P Robertson

Dressed up potatoes depicting favourite stories!

Thank you to all the family members who came along to 'Share a Story' on World Book Day. The children thoroughly enjoyed it and we heard some great storytelling voices! Thank you also to the teachers and TA's who also have been sharing stories in different classrooms throughout the week.

Share a story

Pancake Day

To mark Shrove Tuesday, all classes took part in Pancake races. Staff and pupils alike had lots of fun flipping pancakes in the relay races. Please see below some of the fun that was had.

Term 3

Astrodome

On Monday, 10th February the children all enjoyed the Astrodome that visited the school. Each class had up to a 30 minute session inside the dome. Learning about the stars and planets. A big thank you to Zuzanna's mum from Orange Class for organising this special treat with the University of Kent.

It's Panto time ... they're behind you!

The New Year began with a wonderful pantomime treat, which was enjoyed by staff and children alike! 'M & M Theatrical Productions' visited us with their performance of 'Beauty and the Beast', paid for by the Friends of Westmeads.

Term 2

Christmas Events

We have had some lovely festive fun at school over the last few weeks (December 2019). Please see below photos of some of the events that have taken place, including: Christmas Tree Decorating Assembly, Christmas activity day, Choir community singing, Christmas dinner and Christmas Shopping Activity.

A big thank you to the Friends of Westmeads and the Parents/Carers who volunteered to make all our events a big success.

Christmas Activity day led by Friends of Westmeads

Christmas Shopping Event

Christmas Community Singing

Christmas Post

Christmas Dinner

Story-time Assembly

On Monday, 25th November we were treated to a special 'Story-time' Assembly from Buster's Book Club, which was given by Princess Jasmine from Aladdin (better known as Georgia Rowland Elliot). The children enjoyed this special treat.

Divali celebrations

To celebrate Divali, we all participated in Indian Dance Workshops on Friday 1st November. The children also enjoyed trying Indian foods, including some special Divali biscuits made by the Little Kitchen.

Term 1

World Mental Health Day

The children marked this day by having thought-provoking sessions throughout the day on how to look after their well-being. Thank you to the staff involved in the activities and displays, especially Mrs Quinn.

Also the children had a non-school uniform day, where they wore something yellow and brought into school a 'Sunshine pocket' with a donation for the Young Minds charity. A big thank you to our families and the children for the wonderful donations. We raised the amazing amount of £685.68 for Young Minds. Thank you for your support.

Otterden Trip

On Thursday 10^th October some lucky children in Year 1 went in our minibus to Otterden Estate, just outside Faversham, to take part in a woodland session run by Countryside Learning.

We met Guy, the woodsman, who showed us round the estate and let us explore the fields and the woodland area. He helped us to look for signs of some of the animals we know from the story The Gruffalo. We had an interesting time looking at seeds and then enjoyed making and testing our own paper helicopter before we went off to build dens in the woods. We needed to haul great big branches and small tree trunks into position to make shelters with fireplaces, doorways and windows. It was really good for problem-solving and working co-operatively and although we got our hands dirty, we loved it!

We also learnt about some of the animals who live in the wood, including finding a fox’s den and we admired some of the magnificent toadstools growing in the fields.

Our morning was quite exhausting and we definitely felt a bit sleepy on the way back, but had loved the freedom of racing across the fields and into the woods during our morning at Otterden.

Harvest Festival

On Friday 11th October we held a whole school Harvest themed assembly with songs, poetry, artwork and facts all about the very Kentish theme of 'Apples'.

This tied in with our Visitor Assembly from the week before by Mike Roser from Brogdale. He came to talk to the children about some of the 2000+ varieties of apples they have at Brogdale and even brought some for us to sample! It was fascinating to learn about the varieties, their names and their origins. He then stayed for the morning and visited every class to allow some tasting to take place.

Summer Reading Challenge

Westmeads has won the district libraries' Summer Reading Challenge for the 5th year running! Wow!

Many congratulations to everyone who managed to complete the challenge by reading six books over the Summer Holiday.

We had a special assembly to celebrate our great achievement, where we were presented with a lovely trophy, which is now pride of place in our library.

Visitor Assembly

For our Visitor Assembly last week (17th September 2019) we had Wayne and his dog Koda join us. Wayne is an ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy and has made it his mission to walk the coastline of Britain, picking up the litter people leave behind. So far he has walked 3,700 miles in about three years and he is only half way round the country! Shockingly he had picked over 40 pieces of litter from where he was staying in Whitstable on his 10 minute walk to Westmeads on Tuesday.

He spoke to the children about the dangers of litter to people and animals and called on us all not to drop rubbish left by others, if safe to do so. The children are very keen to help him on his mission. #GBSpringClean