Walk to School Week 2023

More than ever before we are encouraging our families to Walk to School, not just for the personal physical and mental benefits, but also for the environment and safety of all our community. here are our local area maps that you can use to plan a route to school that includes more active travel aspects. Perhaps you can park 15 mins away from the sites and talk a little stroll in for the rest of the way? Or maybe you can get off the bus a few stops earlier and have a leisurely walk down the rest of the route?

We are also launching our poster competition to help ask for some road markings outside Manor Way and so look out for your letters soon - get your entries in after half term!

JLT visit The Mayor of Greenwich

 On Monday 13th March a small group of JLT representatives visited Woolwich Town Hall to meet the current Mayor of Greenwich, Councillor Leo Fletcher.

The group consisted of children from Year 2 to Year 6 and were accompanied by Mrs Seaton and Ms Fosang, one of our School Governors. They enjoyed a Q & A with His Worshipful the Mayor in the Council Chamber, where they posed some great questions about various subjects such as: budgets and how the council spend money; the history and architecture of the town hall; and also the role and responsibilities of being a Mayor. They also posed questions about some aspects our our school life and community that they hoped he might be able to help with, such as helping ease traffic around our local area, litter and antisocial behaviour in our nearby open spaces and how some people inn our community are using Escooters unsafely.

Everyone got a chance to sit in his magnificent chair and then, after a tour of the building, we enjoyed light refreshments in his parlour and a had chance to see close-up the Mayors collections of chains, interesting artifacts and artworks and also find out more about his life as Mayor.

Pine Tree visit Bostall Woods

Pine Tree's trip to Bostall Woods

In Science, Pine Tree class have been learning about living things and their habitats. We went to Bostall Woods to explore the area and find out more about the types of living things that can be found in the local area.

We used classification keys to help us identify the different types of trees and discussed why some things were able to grow better than others. 

 

Junior Travel Ambassadors Team present..... Be Bright Be Seen 2022

 At their last meeting members of the JTA from across both sites and all year groups planned their annual Be Bright Be Seen assembly, which they presented to their peers this week as the final week of term draws Winter closer. They also presented the Be Bright Be Seen poem and got their peers chanting it loud and clear for all to hear!

Here are a selection of the slides they presented:

Junior Travel Ambassadors first meetings of the year

This week our Junior Travel Ambassadors, also known as JTA, met with Mrs Seaton to discuss their aims for the year ahead and how they can promote their cause.

Firstly the JTA children from High Street site went for a walk outside the school gates to observe the traffic and vehicles on Plumstead High Street. We talked about the road markings already in place to protect us such as yellow lines, yellow zigzags and  speed circles and then discussed how we can get our pavement safety railings back in place which the council sadly took away!

At MW the team members talked about safe cycling as part of Cycle to School Week and shared local places we can visit and safely cycle there. This includes: Winns Common, Plumstead Gardens, The Thames Path, Danson Park, Charlton Park and we also shared some places further afield like Epping Forest and Hyde Park. Then we attempted to make some physical art to promote Cycle to School Week 2022 - can you work out which word we are spelling out?!

Our partnership with The Elizabeth Line at Abbey Wood Station

 As part of our ongoing work with the Elizabeth Line, staff from the Elizabeth Line's Customer and Community Ambassadors Team supported with our Summer Fair, where they ran a stall giving out freebies and resources and sharing information about the new services from Abbey Wood Station and giving advice on safe travel on the network.

"Such a fantastic afternoon, with the array of fun and colourful stalls adorning your lovely school playground. It was a joy to meet and talk with your colleagues and school families, and it was encouraging to see such great enthusiasm about the new Elizabeth line railway and learning more about staying safe when in or around the railway."

Out Junior Travel Ambassadors team look forward to collaborating together on more projects with the Elizabeth Line team next academic year as part of our commitment to the TFL Stars Active Travel programme and our encouragement to our families to use the excellent local transport links to visit London and other places.

Eco Squad and JTA are getting reading for Road Safety Week

On Car Free Day back in September children across Bannockburn made bunting with pledges to try and encourage people who come past our school to think more carefully about their car usage, its impact on our local air quality and the dangers it poses to road safety. The messages remind people about the physical health, mental wellbeing and environmental benefits that active travel offers, such as walking or cycling and some children made pledges about what they would do to improve their travel habits.

Today the Eco Squad helped string the bunting together and we started displaying some at our Manor Way site, on a corner near our school where we find traffic can sometimes build up. It was rather windy today so it was a challenging but worthwhile task. We will soon display some more at High Street too - keep an eye out for your design as not all have been displayed yet!

Woolwich Carnival comes to your living room this Summer!

Each year we take part in the Woolwich Carnival and whilst some things might be different this year, one thing has not changed - you can still get involved with the carnival team!

The Taru team, who help organise the Woolwich Carnival each year, are releasing a series of videos showing fun craft activities you can do at home. Why not combine them with your Arts Weeks colour tasks!

There is a mask-making task below, complete with video below and a downloadable template at this link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BDGa0GzzO2V0B2fyZgk_-raV-vvDYb2M

New activities will be added regularly, so check out their Youtube channel for new updates:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbW614-q1hQPLWDM7j27RA

May is National Walking Month!

May is National Walking Month and usually we would celebrate it by having Walk to School Week in mid May. This year, whilst things are different and children should only be out walking as part of their daily exercise, Living Streets has created a space where you can find FREE resources and activities!

DISCOVER LIVING STREETS NEW PAGE 

Living Streets will be releasing new resources and fun activities on the page on a weekly basis, so keep going back for more. 

Remember – during lockdown, it is important that we all follow the latest Government rules to keep ourselves and others safe. 

It is also important that we stay connected in every way we can and share any positive experiences. Ask your parents to share your daily walks, thoughts, pics and videos on social media using #WalkingFromHome, as a reminder for families to stick together! Or you could send it in to the school newspaper or working together email addresses.

No matter the times, the walk to school movement is still strong; whether we are walking to or from an actual school whilst our family members do their keywork, or just around the neighbourhood as part of your local daily exercise - walking is a fun, active and healthy activity to do!

FREE bike checks at local Dr Bike sessions in Greenwich this month

Let's help Charlton Athletic Women break an attendance record!

Charlton Athletic Women take on London Bees at The Valley on Sunday, March 22nd 2020 and Bannockburn children and families are invited to join them for FREE! 

Here is the link http://cawfc.com/​ for students to claim their free ticket to this game.

You might event get too see Jenna playing, who visited our school last term and had training session with our girls football team.

Multicultural Menu Ideas from the International Ambassadors Team

On Wednesday 12th February, Mrs Seaton and the International Ambassadors Team, one of our 16 Community Partnership leader Groups, met with Jo-Anne and Rose from Independent Catering, who supply our school with our yummy school dinners!

The aim was to discuss some more multicultural themed days for Summer Term and next year; we talked about ideas that we have for days which celebrate different cultures, using our own knowledge and experiences, and how it could link to our learning or global affairs, such as a Japanese food day to honour the 2020 Olympics.

We are looking forward to our next meeting when we can hopefully plan a couple of different menus for the Independent team to investigate further; Jo-Anne explained how the food is always freshly prepared, healthy and sourced as locally as possible, to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible, so these are all important factors we will have to consider.

Eco-Squad Plastic Fishing trip

On Wednesday 5th February, a group of children from CPL groups Eco-Squad, Junior Travel Ambassadors and Helping Others Team visited the Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre near Canary Wharf, where we took part in a plastic fishing trip run by the Hubbub charity. Some travelled in the school minibus and others took bus, train and DLR (plus walking by the river side) to get there.

The aim was to help combat the global fight against ocean pollution, by fishing plastic and other waste out of the Thames before it reaches the oceans.

We had a workshop and safety talk, then put on our buoyancy aids and went out on the boats to the dock areas. We found a whole host of interesting items; items which should never have made their way into the river. Once back on dry land, we sorted the waste items out so that as many different pieces could be recycled as possible. 

Mrs Kimmins, a school governor who accompanied us on the trip, said:
"What a lovely trip to the Docklands water sports centre. Going in a boat around the canal was a new experience for a lot of the children and the eco message was amazing. Fishing out lots of single use plastic and other rubbish was eye opening for me and certainly sent the correct message to our children."

All of the children and adults who took part had an amazing time and would like to thank Hubbub UK for giving us such an exciting and rewarding opportunity.

Look at all the wonderful photos we took of our incredible outing!