Blog
Expectations and Memories
21st March 23
Expectations going to a new school for year 7 – what I will miss about Priory
When I go to secondary school I will miss all the teachers that taught us how to read and write.
I enjoyed all the trips in Priory that they took us on like Grapham and also a new a trip in the future like going Germany .And I will also miss my friends because of the memories that we made together like clubs we go to together.
When I go to secondary school I expect it to be way stricter than priory. They teach us how to work independent and prepare us for our future.
Tamid and Sekemi
One thing I will miss in Priory is the school trips we had, such as going to the cinema and in the future going to Germany. I like the school trips because it was fun and I experienced going to different places I’ve never been to. And when we go to Germany I can learn new things about it.
One of the subjects that were fun in Priory is pe,history and science.I like pe because all the different fun stuff we do like dodge ball,cricket and gymnastic.
For science I overall enjoy the subject, however, for history I mainly enjoy the topic we are doing such as civilizations and World War 2.I am excited to learn more about history in secondary school.
I will miss the teachers that helped me to improve in my learning and I will miss my friends because all the memories I have made.
Mysha and Michael
Some of the things I will miss is all of the teachers that have taught me throughout priory and the school trips that I went on like London and Warrick castle. [ Rizwan ]
A few things I will unfortunately miss is doing Algebra with Miss Wakeling and the class. Also, one of my greatest memories at priory was a while back in yr4 when we had went camping.
A good thing about going to secondary school is you will get better learning and all of the learning will help you be successful in life. Also, There are many more people in secondary school so you could make many more friends. [ Rizwan ]
A specific good thing about going into secondary school is that you get to learn more about your favourite subject like Algebra or English. [ Edi ]
The secondary school I will be going to is Biddenham upper school & international sports college, it will be great for me because I love to do sports and Biddenham is known for it. [ Rizwan ]
By Rizwan & Edi
Why we want to go to Germany
14th March
I want to go to Germany because it will be an experience of a lifetime. You couldn’t have the same experience in secondary school because the prices would be very expensive for e.g. a trip to go to another country and you should go now because most of the cost is funded by different companies. You’d be able to play Crazy Golf and watch a football game. The only difference is the language spoken by the commentary. Somebody could be able to become more fluent in German thanks to this as well as being surrounded by German advertisements and people.
By Isaac and Minhaj
I would like to go to Germany because it’s a once in a lifetime experience and we never know if we can go again. We could meet new people and learn new things about the country. In addition we are going to meet our pen pals by going to their school, plus we can see how things work in a different country. We can also take part in all of the activities and try new sports. We are going to improve our language skills and also teamwork: communicating at all times will be necessary, supporting each other and making sure no one will be left out.
By Humaira and Lavinia
I think going to Germany with our teachers is a good trip because it has a good price bargain, so if I would go later on instead of now it would be more expensive because the school has gotten a good price per pupil with charity money.
Everything will be different from England, the food the culture, the weather and everything will be different and it will be nice experiencing a new culture. It will teach me how to be independent so I’m ready for the future especially if I have a job that requires travelling. I will be more independent because I will be travelling without my parents which will teach me how it’s like to have an experience without them. And since me and Tamid are picky eaters we can try new foods to change our greedy taste buds. And I really want to try original sausages from Germany. I want to pronounce deutsches food properly.
By Tamid and Parham
7th March
Reduce, reuse, recycle – Global Recycling Day on March 18
The problem
Something that has a huge impact on our planet is littering and filling up landfill with plastic.
Littering takes up a lot of our land and most of it ends up in our ocean, killing our marine life.
When the plastic pollutes the ocean many animals end up getting harmed: They can get stuck in plastic, sea life can get cut by sharp bits of plastic and they can suffocate on the plastic and die.
Christina & Tamid
What we can do
To help, we could re-use the plastic by making creative things out of the used plastic. For an example, we could make things like gardens or other things that would look nice and help the school or our home look like a better place.
You have to make a difference between soft plastic and hard plastic. Soft plastics are like crisp packets and wrappers, and hard plastics are containers and plastic bottles as well as pots of yoghurt.
Barnabas & Mysha
You could help by joining in litter picks and learn how to properly recycle plastics and use more paper instead, like paper straws, paper bags and re-use it whenever possible. You could also help by riding a bicycle instead, if the location is nearby because most of plastic pollution comes from wheels on cars because particles come off from the rubber tires.
Marwa & Minhaj
28th February
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London
On 27 February 2023 year 6 went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. We arrived at 11:30 and we separated in to different groups. In our group we saw the statue of David made by Michelangelo and it was huge. We saw jewellery and it was very fascinating, it was made using gold and gems. There were rings, necklaces, bracelets and tiaras.
Hephzibah & Christina
Our group saw fashion from Africa and we were completely fascinated by how it has modernised. There were dresses, shoes, bags and more.
We definitely came across lots of cutlery with many different designs such as flowers. Some of the cutlery was very old and special because it was made of gold and silver. We walked past a wine cooler which was massive.
There were also some really huge paintings by Raphael called the Raphael Cartoons.
In the Europe section, we came across a virtual door which had a man with a monkey mask behind it. The man would open the virtual door and wave. It was very funny.
Isaac & Amelia
During our visit to the Victoria and Albert museum, we went into the China section, and we saw a lot of ancient cutlery with fascinating designs like dragons, Chinese writing and patterns. The most interesting thing we saw was a Shang Dynasty knife. It had a really thick handle and sharp blade. While we were discovering the Japanese section we saw old razor sharp katanas and old traditional robes they used to wear. We also saw lots of Japanese writing which we wondered what it said.
Rizwan & Michael
We found an old Qur’an that was from a long time ago, that had been in an old mosque, now being displayed in the Islamic Middle East section, where we also saw a specific surah from the Qur’an named Surah Annabah. We also saw a huge door filling, which was around 18ft tall.
Another section we went to find interesting objects was the Japan section. The Japan section had some kind of creepy masks called “Theatre Masks”. The thing that was creepy about them was that one of them looked like a demon, which seemed proper realistic. We found out that people used to wear those masks for a type of tradition.
While we were exploring the area, we found out whether you were a samurai. They would use a katana for melee and they would also use a matchlock rifle for range.
Ameen & Minhaj
7th February
School Musical Performance
Today there was a school musical performance with years 3, 4 and 5 in the hall with all of key stage 1 and 2.Year 3 were doing a Ukulele performance with Mrs Wakeling, year 4 did a Glockenspiel performance with Caroline and year 5 did a Recorder performance with Mr Mistry. They also learnt chords and different notes and now know about dynamics.
(Marwa and Humaira)
Visiting a graveyard
Last week year 6 class went to the graveyard near Bedford Park. We took clipboards, paper and chalk to do some grave rubbing. When we walked under the archway to the graveyard, the first thing we saw were hundreds of graves and tombstones; some were more special than others, some had marbles, some had statues. There were some graves over one hundred years old. We went there because we read a grave yard book and we wanted to experience it in real life.
(Haleema and Sekemi)
31st January
Workshop with Peter Thompson
On the 27th of January, the year 6 class went to the Mugga (the green cage) to do a workshop with Peter Thompson. Peter Thompson is a 6 world-record breaker in skipping. During the workshop, we did the human computer game. The game was very fun and it was a bit challenging. We had to split into 3 groups. As a group we had to create our own controls on a piece of paper. The controls were about how to go forwards, backwards, left and right, but you couldn’t use the words, instead you had to come up with different ways to say it. So when the game starts, there are two people blind folded and there are one or two people saying the instructions. When the instructor says the word to the two people blind folded, they have to do what it means. We had to guide the people who couldn’t see because there were obstacles in the way and there were gates they had to go through.
Guiding someone was not easy; pressure was put on the leaders because you were controlling where people were going. Same applies to being guided; sometimes people would bump into each other or take the wrong directions.
This session was mostly about trusting people and teamwork.
24th January
Yesterday, Monday 23rd of January, Year 6 had a Mental Health Workshop. It focused on worrying, and how we can calm ourselves down. The first exercise was about a breathing method:
On our palm we followed a square with our fingers.
The first line of the square we breathed in for 5 seconds. On the second line we held our breath for another 5 seconds. After, we breathed out for another 5 seconds and for the last line we took a 5 second break. We repeated the 4 steps until we finally calmed down.
Other ways to calm you down are:
Doing our hobbies, like baking , cooking , reading and listening to music or to holy books like the Bible/Quran
We also had a ginger bread man where we had to write what we feel in our body when we are worried.
Another exercise is the Hot Cross Bun. We had to write what we are worried about: what is the situation, our behaviour, our emotions and bodily sensations. Seeing how these parts are connected can help you deal with your worries about situations like Year 6 SATs, being late, homework or tests in general.
Worry can be a good thing because it’s actually trying to warn you. Sometimes you shouldn’t go with something so your brain is trying to stop you from being harmed emotionally and physically through feeling worried.
17th January
Plastic Pollution
On Wednesday, 4th January 2023, Year 6 made sculptures all about plastic pollution. We made these to symbolize the effects on sea life and what occurs when you litter; due to this, many sea creatures are passing away, plus it’s changing the way every creature lives.
We used plastic that came from recycling bins. We found items like bottles, bags, cups, salad boxes, wrapping paper and nets. Most of these were single use plastic which is only used for a short time before it’s going to waste.
10th January
Celebration Assembly
On celebration assembly announced Celebration assembly is about celebrating the people who achieved something Celebration assembly starts at 9:05 on Mondays where every class comes in quietly and sits on the floor in a straight line or on the benches with their class. When everybody has come in Mrs Fraser or Mr Walsh starts the assembly by saying good morning to everybody and all the children say good morning to Mrs Fraser or Mr Walsh and all the teachers. After that, whoever is running the Assembly gets the celebration book and goes through all the classes and rewards the children in the book with stickers. If you are wondering how those children got the stickers is by helping out, like being a good demonstration to their class and always trying their best to maybe doing their homework or listening as best as possible in class. In year 6, Ameen and Amina got a sticker each for their positive attitude towards our school and inspiring them to show good attitude towards their learning and others.
(Ameen and Amina)
On celebration assembly Mr Walsh discussed about the football raffle. The football raffle was about which country won the world cup and we had to get a country randomly and if that country won the world cup you will win a prize and the prize was two tennis rackets and a ball and the winner of the raffle had Argentina on their ticket. And Mrs Fraser discussed about attendance [attendance means the percentage of how many people where there and the winner was revealed to be year 5 and they got the cup/trophy.
We had to wait for a while to wait for the other Neil to come, Neil is a sloth that classes get as a reward that will sit in their classroom for a while and work with them.
(Ehsan)
30th November
Orchestra trip
On Wednesday 30th November we went on a trip to the Orchestra Unwrapped. We went with our class (year 6) and the whole key stage 2. We had to go through Harpur centre to get to the corn exchange. It was really fun because we saw all the types of instruments like violins, cellos, a keyboard, trumpets and many more. It was amazing. The topic was Speak Up and while playing music they showed different pictures children had drawn beforehand about topics that we thought were important like racism, anti-bullying and more.
(Marwa and Humaira)
The first piece of music we heard was In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. The people who were remaking the piece of music were very talented and I could almost not hear the difference between the original and the remake they made. I saw all the musicians going so fast and me and my friend thought they were so talented. At the first part, the music was very quiet, after, it kept on getting louder and more dramatic.
The second piece of music was very calm like if I were to be in the mountains and it made me think about nature as well. But just like the other one it started getting louder and more dramatic so it also made me think of entering a castle. The song was Vltava by Bedrich Smetana.
The last song was We don’t talk about Bruno. Personally, I don’t like the song but the music they played with their instruments was very nice and I really liked it.
(Barnabas and Zaraan)
29th November
Expectations we have going to a concert:
I think the concert will be really loud because there will be lots of music and singing since there is going to be a whole orchestra playing. Also, there will be lots of people singing along with the orchestra. I think I will like the classical music since I’ve heard it before and I liked it. Some people will find it funny because at the end the orchestra plays some Disney songs (we’ve been there before).
(Tamid and Minhaj)
Workshop: Mental Health
Yesterday two experts came from the mental health and wellbeing department of Bedford, Michelle and Molly, to tell us about how important not only physical but also mental is. What you can do for your mental health: You can do techniques and exercise for example the square method. In the square method you have to breathe out and in for 4 seconds each, holding your breath in between, again for 4 seconds while holding your finger out and drawing a square. We also learnt that we should distract our minds when we’re stressed out about something, for example, if you are stressed about something, you can do something else that you might enjoy. Also, you can tense up certain muscles and relax them after. If you have no energy, you can try doing some exercises such as star jumps and jogging, you can do any sport you like. If you have too much energy then you can meditate or breathe in and out consciously. This is another activity we did: If you feel happy you could draw (on a paper gingerbread man) the places where you feel that emotion and in which way you feel it, for example, if you were sad, you could draw a sad face. You can also say how much energy you might have in that moment or if you feel hot or cold. This way we learnt about being conscious about our emotions and mental health. if you have a stomach ache and you know that might come from a certain emotion you feel, you can go to a grown up or trusted adult.
(Haleema and Ehsan, Ishaal and Rizwan)
14th November 2022
Cinema Trip
On Friday the 11th of November 2022, year 6 went to the cinema to watch The Railway Children Return. We went first things first in the morning. We all as a class walked together in pairs and headed to Cineworld. Mrs Wakeling let us take one snack to eat at the cinema and I got Cheetos and for the people that didn’t bring any snacks Mrs Wakeling gave them a bag of popcorn. Then we had arrived at the cinema and had got our seats. When we had got into the cinema we saw other classes from different schools that are watching the same movie that we were watching. Eventually the lights had turned off and the movie had started. In the film there were different characters such as a young teenaged girl named Lilly who had two younger siblings a boy and a girl called Ted and Paty. During the Second World War children were sent to the countryside because staying in the big city wasn’t safe. In the new village they got a new family with a grandma, a mother and a boy who they quickly became friends with.
(Amina, Louise)
The German Shop
On the 9th of November 2022, Miss Schwabe, a student teacher from Germany, opened a German shop at our school. Basically, you need to do something good to get paper and plastic Euros as a reward. Every morning Miss Schwabe is near our shed and you have to speak in German to buy some stuff. They sell Gurke (Cucumber), Birnen (pears), Tomaten (tomatoes), Kaffee (coffee) and many other things. The reason they opened the shop was so we can learn German better, and practice sentences that are used in daily life.
(Parham)
Trip to grafham water Centre (GWC), year 5 & 6
3-4 November
Lots of year 5s and 6s got to go to an adventure camp called Grafham Water last week! Lucky, lucky! The bus was late for group 2, so they got to eat some snacks before going. Once group 1 got to GWC, they were able to put blanket covers, mattress covers and pillow covers on, then we were able to make our beds, which was when group 2 arrived. Then, group 2 were able to do the same things group 1 had done. The following day, group 2 did the Grafham challenge, which involved us getting muddy, and canoeing, which was one of the water activities. When group 2 were doing their activities, group 1’s activities were crate stacking and archery. At night time we did orienteering as our last activity in the night as a whole class. On Friday, all the activities, except orienteering, have been swapped around with each group so everyone got to do everything which was fair.
(Ameen & Hepzibah)
Blog Club, Tuesday 1 November
On Friday 21st October, members of the Philharmonic Orchestra came to our school. We started with some warm ups for our voices. They showed us different instruments: clarinet, cello, bassoon. When they were playing the instruments we had to imagine what we felt and thought, what images came to our mind.
After, we learnt two parts of a song. To learn it we split the class into two groups. There was one conductor for each group. The conductors were two different children from our class. For group one they were singing: “I have, You have, We have, Something to say”. For group two they sang: “Something, Something, Something, Something to say”. We learned this because our KS2 classes are going to see the Philharmonia Orchestra at the end of November. We will sing with them because we already know the song. It’s going to be really exciting.
(Aisha and Amelia)
23rd October 2022
On Wednesday Year 6 made volcanoes. We designed it first, we wrote what equipment and resources we would need to make it. Some people used paper Mache and some people used nova clay or air clay. On Thursday we painted our volcanoes and wrote our evaluation. On Friday we are going to explode them on the playground. We really enjoyed making and painting them and we CAN’T WAIT TO EXPLODE OUR VOLCANOES.
21st October 2022
Today, we had a harvest festival at school. Each class would be doing a performance about harvest such as songs, poems and for the finale we done a school song.
Here is what the classes did:
Year 1 did a speech about what happens before the process of harvest.
Year 2 did a song about being thankful for harvest along with some actions.
Year 3 did a story about what people should do for everyone to be equal.
Year 4 did a few Tanka poems which were about sharing and the process of harvest.
Year 5 did some jokes about harvest time and a poem.
Year 6 did a song about harvest with ukuleles and actions.
The whole school did the finale of a song which was about fruit and vegetables growing.
There was a table of food to donate to the less fortunate which children brought into school.
By the way, a Tanka poem is a short poem with 5 lines and a fixed number of syllables in each line.
Michael and Isaac.
14th October 2022
We learnt new games during the first week, for example Corners, Minute Challenges, I spy and Music Statues.
Our favourite is Corners. This is how you play it: You name four corners, you choose two people. One needs to be blindfolded, the other one needs to count from 1-10 in German. Meanwhile, the other students must each choose one corner and go there. The blindfolded person names one corner and all people standing there are out of the game. This continues until only one person is left – he or she is the winner! (Sekemi and Hephzibah)
My favourite is Minute Challenges. This is how you play it: Our teacher says start and we have one minute to say as many numbers we can as a whole class. For example: The first person chooses what numbers you will be counting in (ones, 2-time tables or 5-time tables), you can choose saying it in German or English. When the minute is over and you beat your score from the last time you get a break as a reward. Our current high score in the 2-time table is 126, our highest number is with the 5-times table: 295. Our target is 350. (Haleema)
Last week it was poetry day. Everyone wrote poems about friendship and the environment, you got a prize if you poem was really good. Each class had one person that won the prize: cinema tickets. We heard some poems from other people in the school at our morning assembly. Some poems were very expressive. You don’t have to rhyme your poem, some people love to rhyme while others don’t. (Christina)
