Whole School - Puzzle Company Visit - 15 January

Year 3

Our class had great fun exploring the puzzles, which challenged our thinking skills in may ways. We especially enjoyed balancing the penguins on the iceberg - just as we thought we were getting somewhere, they all tumbled off! We learned the importance of working as a team and started to look at puzzles from different angles to help us find a solution.

Year 5

'Today the Happy Puzzle Company visited West Lodge School. The man who represented the company was named Peter. He put us in to groups of five or six. Before we started, he asked us a few trick questions. For example:
Q: My friend Kelly’s Mum has four daughters: April, May, June. Who is the fourth?
A: Kelly!
Then he told us the main rules: To persist, persevere and to never give up. Our first challenge was especially difficult and apparently three year olds love it! It was a plastic iceberg that wobbled. There were penguins that we had to put on the iceberg without it falling down. My group’s method was to balance one penguin on one side of the iceberg and do the same on the other side. It was extremely frustrating when the plastic penguins kept falling off.
The next challenge was to make a continuous road out of twenty pieces of straight, curved and three way roads. After a few attempts, my group succeeded. Next we attached tubes together and used two stoppers to block open ends, except from the entrance and exit. My team completed this task fairly easily, and finished doing the same thing but with no open ends.
The hardest puzzle was to make a rectangle out of wriggly pieces of wood.
The best activity was left till last. Peter spun a flat kind of spinning top with black and white circles. We stared at the middle of it as the circles spun round and round. After ten seconds we stared at the back of our hand. It was very fuzzy and blurry. That was a marvellous illusion, created by a Greek explorer. Thank you very much to the Happy Puzzle Company. I hope to purchase a few of the problem solving puzzles'.

By Rhea S. - Year 5

'We all thoroughly enjoyed The Happy Puzzle Company’s challenges. We found the puzzles very challenging. We all finished most of the puzzles, such as putting penguins on an iceberg, and putting tubes together so there was two exits and one entrance. Every time we completed a challenge we were given a tougher one. The last challenge was a spinning disc that had white and black lines twirling round it. It spun round. You looked at it for ten seconds, then looked at someone’s face and they looked all blurry'.

By Charlie R-B./ Kieran D./Kaya S. - Year 5

Year 1 - Victorian Scullery Workshop - 24 February

Year 1 took part in a Victorian Scullery workshop where they learnt how Victorian scullery maids would have done their family’s washing years ago. Sarah showed the children the different clothes children would’ve worn in Victorian times and then told them how often they would’ve had a bath and clean clothes to wear - they didn’t like the idea of only having clean clothes once a week! After that, the children used carbolic soap – they didn’t like that either!! – and washed pieces of cloth in a bucket with a washboard. The ‘washing’ still wasn’t lean enough so Sarah showed them the dolly and posser for really tough stains!! To dry the washing, the children took turns to use the mangle – it was a tough job turning the handle and then with aching arms, they then had the ironing to tackle!! The children were surprised how heavy old fashioned irons were but all thought they were strong enough to cope! They especially liked the name of the ‘slug’ iron and the idea of spitting on the iron to see if it was hot enough to use! Dressed up in their aprons and hats, the children certainly looked the part and did a very good job with their chores. At the end though, most decided they wouldn’t like to have to do it for any longer and thought their mummies and them were very fortunate to have our modern washing machines and tumble driers etc!

Netball Match v Breaside (Home) - 26 February

Breaside's team came to West Lodge to play our league netball match. West Lodge got off to a really good start with some super defending and shooting and ended the first half 4-0. The second half continued just as positively and West Lodge extended their lead to 8 and denied Breaside a single goal! Well done to all the girls who played and thank you to all the parents who came along to support and to Mrs Ranford–Bragg for another batch of beautiful cookies for our tea! The final league match against Bishop Challoner which was due to be played on Wednesday 3 March has been cancelled by Bishop Challoner and so we automatically get 3 points! The league comes to an official end on Friday 12 March when we play all teams again at the tournament to be played at Farringtons. Good Luck girls!!

Year 6 - Safety Assembly - 26 February

'Today was our assembly about safety. We either went in groups or individually, we had to make a costume with recycled materials. Obviously our design had to be on safety. My group and I decided for our design we would make a first aid box! We dressed as a thermometer, a plaster and a pair of scissors. We had to write a speech on how we made our costumes, we then recorded our voices onto the computer using a head set. Mr Pressling made a PowerPoint presentation which had our voices on and some pictures. Some of the other costumes were a plug and socket, traffic lights, zebra crossings, helicopter, fire truck, speed camera and grit and snow chains, as you can see we had a variety of costumes. Everyone was nervous and excited at the same time. We had to show our costumes off, on four stage blocks while the presentation was in the back ground. Everything went perfectly except for one technical difficulty! Everyone had fun making and designing their costumes, it was a really great assembly and I hope everyone who watched it enjoyed it.'

By Georgia Y. - Year 6