Sunday, 28 September 2014

Conkers!

September 2014
Mon 29th
 ISA Under 10 football
 Year 1 Assembly
Tue 30th
 
October 2014
Wed 1st
 Years 5 and 6 Trip to Creswell Crags -Ice Age Survival
Thu 2nd
 ISA Under 11 High 5 Netball
Fri 3rd
 
Sat 4th
 Cross Country at Sutton Lawns


The 2014 World Conker Championships will be held at Southwick, near Oundle, Northamptonshire on 12th October 2014. The event starts at 10:30 a.m. and finishes at 3:00 p.m.

iconHow to play conkers?
Each player has a conker hanging on its string. Players take turns at hitting their opponent's conker. text taken from and copyright of projcetbritain.com
If you are the one whose conker is to be hit first, let it hang down from the string which is wrapped round your hand. The conker is held at the height your opponent chooses and is held perfectly still.
Your opponent, the striker, wraps his conker string round his hand just like yours. He then takes his conker in the other hand and draws it back for the strike.
Releasing the conker he swings it down by the string held in the other hand and tries to hit his opponents conker (yours) with it.
If a player misses hitting his/her opponents conker they are allowed up to two further goes.
If the strings tangle, the first player to call "strings" gets an extra shot.
If a player hits his/her opponents conker in such a way that it completes a whole circle after being hit - known as ‘round the world’ – the player gets another go.
If a player drops his conker, or it is knocked out of his hand the other player can shout 'stamps' and jump on it; but should its owner first cry 'no stamps' then the conker, hopefully, remains intact.
The game goes on in turns until one or other of the two conkers is completely destroyed.
iconScoring 
A victorious conker assumes the score of all its victim's precedent foes.
Thus, in a contest between two fresh conkers, the winner would then have a score of 1 (known as a 'one-er'). If it then beat another three one-ers, it would become a four-er.
However, if the same conker then beat a conker which had previously conquered (no pun intended) 5 fresh opponents (and thus was a 'five-er'), our steadfast nut would then become a ten-er (its own four, plus its latest victim (1) *plus* its victim's previous count of 5).
You won't find this rule for a world championship as it doesn't make sense for a one-day event. But it certainly does at school, where a good conker could go for several seasons or even be passed on to a younger sibling.
I remember there being sixty-ers around in my youth but, sadly, have no recollection of ever beating one...

iconHow to choose a good conker.
Ever wondered why some conkers float in water but most sink? When placed in water, all the conkers that have damage inside them will, due to their lack of density, float to the surface.
For children who wish for 'killer' Conkers. you simply discard the floaters and concentrate on the much harder ones at the bottom of the bucket.

iconHints on how to make your conkers harder.
You could try one of the following, although it is considered cheating:
  • Soak your conker in vinegar.
  • Bake your conker in the oven.
  • Use an old conker from previous years.
iconWorld Conker Championships
This event is held every year on the second Sunday in October on the Village Green at Ashton in Northamptonshire. Contestants are not allowed to use their own conkers. Nuts are supplied for each game after being gathered and strung by the organisers. Each game lasts five minutes. If neither conker has broken a shoot out takes place. Each player has three sets of three hits and the one who lands most clean hits is the winner.
Visit the official World Conker Championship website for more details.
iconInteresting facts about Conkers
Britain is believed to be the only country in the world where the game of conkers is traditionally played with horse chestnuts in the autumn.
Horse chestnut trees were first introduced to England in the late 16th century from Eastern Europe.
Horse chestnut conkers, unlike many other kinds of chestnut seed, are unfit for human consumption.
Conkers are edible by deer, cattle and not surprisingly, horses.
The first recorded game of conkers was on the Isle of Wight in 1848 and was modelled on a 15th century game played with hazelnuts, also known as cobnuts.
The origin of the name 'conker' is unclear, but one popular explanation is that it stems from the French word cogner, meaning to "hit" or "biff".
Extracts from horse chestnuts have been used to treat malaria, varicose veins, diarrhoea, frostbite and ringworm, as well as being a component of sunscreen products.

Sunday, 21 September 2014

Monday September 22nd

September 2014
Mon 22nd
Tue 23rd
Wed 24th
Thu 25th
Fri 26th
Under 11 Football v Old Vicarage
Sat 27th
Southwell Ploughing Match





Every year on or around 22 September, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society.
But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to "normal" life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.
Let World Carfree Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars…365 days a year.
As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.






Sunday, 14 September 2014

Harvest

Mon 15th Hockey Y5/6 Practice, Netball Y3/4 Practice, Football Y3/4
Tue 16th Cross Country All Years 12.30pm, Netball Y5/6
Wed 17th Cross Country All Years 4.00pm Calverton
Thu 18th Hockey Y3/4,  Netball Y5/6
Fri 19th Football Y5/6, 
Year 4 York Visit

In churches around the country, Harvest Festivals are being held.  It is a time to give thanks for the food we have and to think about people who are not as lucky as we are.  
In Britain, thanks have been given for successful harvests since pagan times. Harvest festival is traditionally held on the Sunday near or of the Harvest Moon. This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23). In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. The celebrations on this day usually include singing hymnspraying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival, Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving.
Year one are finding out about Harvest as part of their R.E studies.  They are learning a song which they may perform to the rest of the school during hymn practice.




You can sing along with them!


Sunday, 7 September 2014

New Computer Curriculum


Mon 8th
 
Tue 9th
 School swimming lessons begin today
Wed 10th
 
Thu 11th
 
Fri 12th


The subject previously called ICT is now called Computing.  The school is now fully networked and has a new computer suite in Mrs Stopher's old room.

Children will be given lessons in coding.  It is going to be exciting and challenging for all pupils and staff.

If you have an ipad, there are a whole range of apps which introduce you to the new world of coding.

Cato's Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey


Tynker - Learn programming with visual code blocks

Daisy the Dinosaur

Kodable Pro

Lightbot - Programming Puzzles

Move the Turtle. Programming for kids

There are many others available.  Most classes will be using SCRATCH.  It is free to download and is available here

Have fun and if you make anything you would like to share with the rest of the school - show it Mr Britten and he can put it on the blog.