Portchester Castle Trip – Years 1 & 2

On Wednesday 7th October we went to Portchester Castle.  We are studying dungeons and dragons and we wanted to see a real castle with real dungeons. We got on the coach and it took us 40 minutes to get there. It was hot on the coach and we had to turn on the fans. My partner was Micah, and my partner was Poppy.  We went to the entrance of the castle which was a ginormous gate and there was a guard standing in front of the gate. He had a sword and some armour and he looked quite scary. We had to ask him if we could enter he said ‘Only if you are quiet.’ When we got into the castle we dressed up as the King and Queen and servants, this was fun.  We then explored the castle going on a hunt to find flags. On the hunt we saw the toilets. The toilets were just a hole in the wall, it was disgusting!  We had a great time, thank you. Miss Wood said that we were very good ambassadors for the school and thanked us for our enthusiasm and behaviour.

Year 2 - Mason P and Grace C

We were met by Brother John who took us to the castle entrance

Autumn Term 2

As part of our “explorers and adventurers” topic, Year 5 looked at the art styles and techniques of the Aztec Indians. They used lots of geometric patterns in their art and also used representations and pictures from nature but they often drew them in a slightly square fashion. We looked at some examples and we recreated similar designs using pastels. What symbols from nature can you see in our designs?

CALSHOT

On the 12^th of October year 6 (Kestrels) went to Calshot for a residential trip, we stayed there from the 12^th - 14^th. First we met our instructors and then we had a tour of the activity centre, the instructors names were Bryn, Carl and Harry.

The activities were:

Sailing- sailing is fun and challenging,  you will need concentration and focus to exceed in this activity.

Kayaking-kayaking is also another water sport just like sailing. The equipment you will need is: a swimming costume, towel, wet suit, buoyancy aid, kayak and a paddle, be warned don’t capsize the water is freeeeezing!

Low ropes-Low ropes is an activity that tests your team work and co-operation with other team mates. It also tests your brain and challenges you as an individual.

Skiing-Skiing is one of the most fun activities at Calshot even though getting ready takes quite a long time because you have  to be weighed and get your height measured. However when you get on the slopes it’s very enjoyable.

Archery-When doing archery you have to have a good aim but don’t worry you have nice instructors that will tell you how to do everything.

Rock climbing-In this activity you will be needing strength and trust in your other team mates.

It’s not just the activities through the day that are fun, the evening activities are great as well.You can take part in evening activities like: races, stealing each others points, movies and egg drop.

The food at Calshot is also amazing. you can get several different meals such as: jacket potato, burger, pasta, chicken wraps and a variety of salads and puddings. You will not be getting hungry!

The dorms at Calshot provide you with comfy beds, a sink and floor space to put all your stuff.

Calshot is an amazing place with lots of fun things to do, you will have the time of your life!

By Abigail & Mimi

Calshot learning………but not at school

We went to Calshot on the 12^th of October till the 14^th of October. First we met our instructor and then we had a tour around the activity centre. After the tour, group one and two did sailing and group three went kayaking. In sailing you get in a pair, get your boat, put it together then your instructor will push you into the water with your boat. Then you sail. In kayaking you learn to hold the paddle and go up and down holding the paddle. We kayaked for about 45 minutes and went to the cafeteria to have our morning break. It included a biscuit and some juice. After that we went to our rooms and the first thing we tried was the clicky lights and we saw the awesome security lock on the door.

Food

You will have 3 meals a day, morning at 8.30am, lunch at 1.00 pm and dinner at 6.30pm. For food in the morning there is sausage , bacon , beans or Weetabix and a drink. Lunch there is pizza, burger a drink and pudding and more lunches . Dinner there is jacket potato, chips, pudding and a drink.

Skiing

First in skiing you go to the skiing department and way yourself get your height measured then go to the desk and tell your instructor your weight and height and shoe size then he’ll tell you what boot to get then get it give it to the desk and he’ll give you your ski and boot. When you are on the track you will put 1 ski on and go on a stride. Then you will swap your ski onto the other Foot and go. When you’re going up the slope with both the skis on You stand like a banana with your feet at the side.  When you get to the top you put your feet wide like pizza then thin like fries then go down the ramp as fast as you can.

Rock Climbing

First in rock climbing you go and get a helmet, harness and a carabiner. You will be In pairs of 3, one person will be climbing,  one person will be pulling the rope and loosening it and the over person will be helping the person with the rope by doing the same thing. When you want to come down you say to your partner and instructor that you want to come down then with the harness they’ll bring you down.

Archery

First in archery you will need a wrist guard to keep your arm safe,  a quiver to put your arrows in,  and of course the bow. In archery there are a few things to 1 is hold the arrow down. 2 is to grab the arrow from the end and put it in the bow. 3 is to hold the arrow up. 4 is to put 3 fingers on the bow pull it back and shoot.

By Harry

Paragraph Writing

Year 5 have been learning about writing paragraphs and we would like to share some with you:

Olivers Battery is a school in Winchester, the teachers here are very kind.  All of the pupils enjoy the lessons and it goes from Year R to Year 6 just like most primary schools ! Children at Olivers Battery will get a good education and they will take life a step at a time. At Olivers Battery we like to celebrate, for example Christmas, Red Nose day and Easter !  Now I am going to tell you about the library.

 

At Oliver’s Battery we have an amazing library.  We have a librarian and also if you want to get a book out of your class we have pupil librarians who can help you get a book at break or lunch time.  Our library system is just like a real library we have names with barcodes then you scan the barcodes and you can take the book.

Tegan

 

Oliver’s Battery is a caring environment with a school library, computer room and music room.  We have lots of classes and are happy to welcome children who want to become one of us.  Our school charter is most brilliant, it explains who we are.  I would like to mention the top one as it is who we are, it is “be proud”.  If you are looking to send your child here read on to find out more.

 

The grounds at Oliver’s Battery are huge.  We have 2 large fields that link together and into the woods.  We have 2 wonderful ponds which we sometimes do pond dipping in.  We love our wildlife – once Spring Watch came here for foxes and deer.

Vivien S

 

Oliver’s Battery is a big school with a library, two Key Stage areas and a central hall which backs onto the kitchen where we get our food.  We are very lucky to have a toy shed for lunchtimes and a full P.E. cupboard.  We are located in Winchester in a village called Oliver’s Battery so called because Oliver’s Battery is where Oliver Cromwell kept his guns and other weapons.  Also we have huge school grounds with two fields.

 

At Oliver’s Battery we do lots of sport that includes netball, a wide range of football.  In the summer there is basketball, cricket and tennis.  All this wonderful sport and P.E are organised by our P.E. teacher, Mrs Marshall who does one day a week for each class.  Also we are lucky enough to have Kings’ P.E teacher Mr Birch who teaches Year 5 and 6 on a Monday afternoon.

Rosie T-A

Year 3 Bear Visit

 

 

 

 

Earlier this week the postman delivered a box to school and it was addressed to Year 3, Oliver's Battery School. Mrs Best and Mrs Jensen took it to class and Year 3 had to try and find out what was in the box.  They found fur and they guessed it could possibly be a bear that may have escaped.

 

When they peeled back the address label they found the address of Marwell Zoo!

 

We are happy to report that the Bear has been successfully returned to Marwell where he arrived safe and sound!

 

 

By Natalie Shepherd and Oscar Bennett

Trip to Milestones

Badgers Class went on a trip to Milestones Museum to look at how today's toys differ from those in the past.  We compared toys from years ago with modern day toys and were amazed at how different they were!

 

We looked at what they were made of, how they were made and also how playing games has changed over the years.

 

Most of the day was spent looking at the toy exhibition where we were lucky enough to be able to handle some of the old toys and look at the amazing museum exhibits.

 

We had a fantastic day and hope you enjoy looking at some photos of our time at Milestones.

 

 

Fairytale Day

Fairytale Day

As a finale to our topic, "Wishful Thinking" Badger class spent a day dressing up as our favourite character from a fairytale. We could choose to be either a goodie or a baddie!

Here are some of our chosen characters

 

 

 

The whole class had a fantastic day!

  



We even wrote our own Fairytales...

 



We acted out our own stories in our role play area



We created some 'Wanted' posters to help catch some of our evil characters!

Year 4 Gym Lesson

Recently Skylarks class have been making full use of our amazing new gym apparatus.


Take a look at the photos below to see how creative we've been....

 

 

Woodpecker's Bug Houses

This term Woodpecker's class have been learning about the insect world.

For their home learning project they all had to design a home for an insect. This had to incorporate things that would suit the insect living there.

The children took into consideration what the bug might need, so the spider house had 4 pairs of tiny shoes! The Ladybird house was red with black spots.

The Bee house had pictures of flowers on the walls, and the carpet was scented like a flower.

Thankfully we didn't have any real bugs living in any of these houses - as that might have been a bit scary if any of them escaped into the classrooms - though it would have been fun seeing a spider scuttling around wearing four tiny pairs of shoes!

Oliver's Battery Parish Plan Launch Meeting with Input from the Children

On April 1st around 150 residents of Oliver's Battery met at the school for a launch meeting to start working on a parish plan. The hall was very full! 

The children from Oliver's Battery Primary School had provided lots of input to share their ideas and work created by pupils throughout the school was on display at the meeting. The audience listened to several presentations and watched a video made by Woodpeckers class to share their ideas on how Oliver's Battery could be improved. 

The video was very well received and there were lots of comments on how achievable the ideas were. It is clear that the school is seen as an important part of the community and that input is welcome from all age groups. 

The Parish Feedback Video was a fantastic project to bring together the multimedia skills that Dr Gardner has taught Year 3 (Woodpeckers) this year. It was also a valuable opportunity to produce a piece of work with the potential for real impact in the local community. 

After a whole class discussion, each team chose a topic that they felt strongly about. The children then selected, used and combined a variety of multimedia tools to produce the video. The children worked in small teams, taking on the roles of video editors, writers, narrators, illustrators and researchers. 

Every team used Windows Movie Maker Live to edit their video and include photos and some children recorded their voices. Some children chose to work with Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, several drew pictures and then took photos with the LearnPads and included those, some searched for images they could include (and some mastered checking whether they had permission to reuse the images.) 

Kestrels Spring Half Term

This half term, Kestrels Class have been working exceptionally hard whilst preparing for SATs. In the following text you will find information about what we have accomplished recently.

In project, we have been exploring a variety of different text types. Included in this have been descriptions, letters, arguments and persuasive writing. Some of our topics have been:

-Dr Who’s Dilemma

-Should teachers wear school uniform?

-A persuasive letter to Miss Thomson describing what we should do on the Friday after SATs.

-Should Giants come and live on Earth?

Here a couple of examples.

A GIANT CONTROVERSY (By Josh Mawer)

Raging controversies have flooded the newspapers and countries across the globe, with discussions of whether giants should return to earth. These rumours have turned more and more realistic. Now giants have been begging us to return to our beloved land. In this argument I will have a debate looking at the pros and cons of this contentious subject.

            My first theory is that giants could help save countries when it comes to attacks and battles. Their huge size and their immense weight would come in handy. However, other countries could have larger and stronger giants than us and this could end up in our country and our civilians being crushed.

            Space has some lethal weapons such as meteorites and asteroids. Giants could prevent our planet from space attacks. When they see a rock heading towards earth, they could team up and catch it and then throw it back to space. On the other hand the meteorites or asteroid could crush us and our giants. This could be caused by the rocks pace and size.

            Medicine is a vital part of our planet. Especially for our giants, they have some very large and important bones which form a lot of our medicine. Medicine from giants’ bones will help 99.9% of our population that are in aid. However, scientists believe this might not be possible. They will have to discover the DNA of the creatures with technology that wasn’t around 45 years ago when Giants used to rule earth. When scientists do discover the DNA of the Giants, for medicine, the results could be fatal.

            My next debate will be on jobs and unemployment. 1’728 people will become unemployed and maybe even homeless! This will be too high of and it may crash peoples’ lives! Also, their massive hands or their clumsy body is almost certain to destroy buildings. The builders and till workers think differently. They believe that giants could become teachers and that they could become greater at our jobs because they have a larger brain than us so they could be smarter than us and they could serve more people due to their size.

            Food is what humans thrive on and if ants return, there will be pros and cons all over the place. Giants must have a massive stomach. This means 90% of food will vanish within 10 years. This brings me on to the cons. One giant is the equivalent of 1726 people. 1726 people won’t have food when one giant eats. This is a big risk and therefore the more the work, the more they eat.

To conclude I believe that giants should not be allowed to live back on Earth as the cons completely out-weigh the pros. For now, I hope that giants don’t come back to earth.

Should Giants Return To Earth (By Jessica Reels)

An extreme controversy has been raging global about whether giants should return to Earth or not. After a century long banishment, they have never ceased to plead for their return. The nation’s representatives have argued furiously and have chosen sides.

Firstly, if they are to return to Earth, the giants could assist us because their strength is equivalent to that of over a thousand men. They can do dangerous work such as building, mining and much more. However, even if they do help us, the more energy they use the more food they consume. It is predicted that in one year’s time, over half of the Earth’s food will be eaten.

Secondly, the nations can set the giants on protecting them from terrorist or invaders. This will make the nation’s people safer. On the other hand, it may frighten the other countries and they will not ship resources or it might even result in a World War 3, consequently destroying the Earth.

Following on from that point, the giants could help us gather resources, such as fishes, crops, wood and water. The counter-argument stated that, because of this, many people will be forced into unemployment, making citizens homeless and bankrupt. Furthermore, the giants might accidently tread on important structures and ancient monuments, such as churches and castles, which would annoy people greatly.

Also, with their immense bulk, the giants can deliver cargo overseas. This can be beneficial to humans because it will take less time, meaning less waiting for the receivers of the cargo, goods or resources. Unfortunately, their heavy footsteps could cause strong waves that could flood land. Eventually, much of the land will be submerged in water.

Finally, the giants could help farmers and such to clear land. They could easily shift rocks and overgrown vegetation. This would be good but they have nowhere to sleep. If they were to lie down, they could crush whole towns and cities. In addition, if they were to make a sudden movement, it could result in an earthquake, or worse.

In conclusion, I think that giants should not return to Earth. The risks and dangers they could bring are too great. I think Earth would become an inconvenient, unsafe and chaotic place if the giants moved back.

In Maths, we have been doing an almost uncountable amount of activities to exercise our brains. This has consisted of area and perimeter and angles of shapes, percentages and decimals, adding mixed numbers, co-ordinates, rotation, reflection and translation on grids, formulas, graphs and diagrams. We have revised on all out past knowledge and have begun texting our abilities and stretching onto higher levelled questions.

We would like to say thank you to all of the teachers who have been with us throughout this half term, especially Miss Thompson, Mrs Cole and Mrs Bordoli for helping us excel to our highest potential. J

 

By Lily Goddard and Jessica Reels

Illustrator Visit

The children had an exciting visitor and got to enjoy a day of illustration, organised by FOBS. We were very fortunate, as we had the excellent drawing skills of a well known illustrator, Tony De Saulles. He came and joined the children for the day to teach them some exciting drawing techniques. Tony is well known for illustrating the Horrible Science series of books. He's been an illustrator for many years, and does fantastic school visits with workshops for the children to join in. His workshops are very interactive, and the children get to shout out what they'd like him to add to his drawing - as well as all drawing along with him.

We were lucky enough to have Tony with us for the whole day, and he did drawing sessions with the whole school.

He started off by drawing a snail on a fork, and then moved on to small fish being eaten by bigger fish! The children found all his illustrations very amusing. He showed them techniques to draw different facial expressions, slime, dangerous creatures, blood - all in his cartoon style.

Most of the teachers also had a go too at drawing - I expect many hidden talents were discovered!

Tony's visit was very inspirational for the children, and we are very pleased he was able to visit us. He left us with all his lovely drawings that we will frame and put up around the school. He also dedicated, to the school, one of his books to go in the library.

Easter Egg Hunt

Every year FOBS organise an Easter Egg Hunt for the entire school! This is a great afternoon, that all the children really enjoy.
The younger children had the challenge of finding two halves of an egg, the same colour. These were all hidden in the woodland area of the school. There were extra whole eggs hidden that contained house points for them to win as a bonus!

The older children had much more of a challenge. There were lots of questions hidden all around the school grounds. They had to find them, in order. Then take the first letter of their answer, and figure out and unscramble an Easter related word. This was quite tricky, but they all got there in the end.

Lots of chocolate was enjoyed by all :)

Chinese New Year

The Early Years Class really enjoyed putting on their first assembly, in front of the whole school. There weren't any nerves, and they all proudly stood up and showed us the dragons and lanterns they made to celebrate Chinese New Year.

They then put on the story, with actions about how all the animals had a race to decide the order of years for Chinese New Year. They had each made an animal to show in the story. It was a lovely assembly. They finished by singing us a song all about Chinese New Year, including some Chinese words they had learnt.

Icelandic Day - Land of Fire & Ice

Earlier in the year, the topic of the term for years 3 & 4 was Iceland - the Land of Fire and Ice. The children all really enjoyed this, and at the end of the half term all the parents were invited to the school to hear about their findings.

They put on a fantastic afternoon for everyone, and set up the hall as if it was an Icelandic Tourism Information Centre. You could wander freely between exhibits the children had made, and they helped parents to learn Icelandic phrases, and imagine they were planning a trip to Iceland!

Everyone got to watch a volcanic eruption, enjoy Icelandic cakes, look at all the fantastic projects the children had done. There were computer coding animations they'd produced, and at the end we were treated to a traditional Icelandic dance. It was clearly a topic the children enjoyed learning about, and really captured their imagination for pretending we were all going on a trip to Iceland.

Cinema Club

Every term FOBS run a cinema club, open to the whole school. This is a great opportunity for everyone to relax after school, with their friends. They all enjoy refreshments and a good film!

Butser Ancient Farm

One of the subjects Year 3 studied was the Stone Age. For this they learnt about all aspects of what it would have been like living through that time.
To help the children get a better idea of what life then would have been like, they had a brilliant trip to a Stone Age Village - Butser Ancient Farm.

 We were very lucky to have such a beautiful sunny day for our visit, as all the activities we did were outside. We had some great guides, who were very enthusiastic telling us about what life then would have been like. The children sat in a Stone Age house, with an open fire inside. It was very dark and smokey, but it gave them a good idea what it would have been like living in one of those houses.

 We then did some great Stone Age activities, including archeology (to see how we discover about our past). Many children found animal bones, old jewellery and pottery. We then did some fence wattling, chalk carving and copper jewellery making.

It really was a fantastic day, and created a very memorable experience for the children.