The Eyrie
WELCOME TO THE WEBPAGE OF THE YEAR SIX EAGLES
WAR MEMORIAL
We walked to the War Memorial in Timsbury with Mr Fiddes from the Royal British Legion to see the names of the seventeen soldiers who lost their lives in World War One. We will be back here on Sunday 11th November to play a very important part in Timsbury’s Remembrance Day Service, with seventeen of our Year Six Eagles laying a poppy wreath for each of these local heroes. We also walked to the cemetery and paid our respects at the grave of Private Moxham, the only one of the seventeen to be buried in the village. We will meet at the War Memorial at 10.30am on Remembrance Day and our part in the service will be completed by 11.30am.
ANDERSON SHELTER MODELS
We have had a lot of fun making our Anderson Shelter models. We designed our models carefully, working out exactly how we wanted them to look. We gathered the resources and materials required to construct our structures. Then, we used tools, including saws, to create a framework to a carefully calculated design specification. Cardboard was then put over the framework and it was decorated to make it look like it would have done during World War Two. Did you know that people put soil over the top of them to grow their own vegetables in because food was so scarce?
REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
The Year Six Eagles are very honoured to have been asked to play a very important part in this year’s Remembrance Day commemorations on November 11th. Seventeen children from our class will be paying tribute to the seventeen soldiers from Timsbury who lost their lives during World War One. We will be researching information about these local heroes before writing our own fitting tributes which we will then perform on the day, before laying seventeen poppy wreaths in their memory.
ANDERSON SHELTERS
As part of our The Battle of Britain topic, we have been learning all about the Blitz and how people tried to keep themselves safe during this time. We have discovered how children were evacuated to the countryside away from the cities which were being bombed and we have researched how those who remained in the cities attempted to protect themselves, including carrying out blackout procedures and building Anderson shelters. In DT, we planned our designs for models of Anderson shelters and we have now started to build them. We researched their shape and size, how they were camouflaged in people’s gardens and what furniture would have been inside. We will show you our finished models when we have completed them.
PGL 2018
We had an amazing time at PGL in Osmington Bay in Dorset. We enjoyed lots of different experiences and all of our instructors were very impressed with us. It was a happy week of fun and challenging opportunities which will have helped to build our self-esteem and confidence. It was great to be a part of Team Eagles!
PGL – RAFT BUILDING
This is the Raft Building activity at PGL. This was our final activity of the week and one of our favourites. Each team built their own raft, tying the poles together and securing the barrels, before launching their vessels into Portland Harbour and paddling around. It was brilliant fun!
PGL – ZIP WIRE
This is the Zip Wire activity at PGL. The zip wire was in an amazing location at the Osmington Bay site, on a hill overlooking the English Channel with wonderful views across to Weymouth and Portland Harbour. We all enjoyed our trip whizzing down to the bottom of the hill but not so much the walk to the top again, pulling the rope and harness back up with us!
PGL – LOW LEVEL ROPES COURSE
This is the Low Level Ropes Course activity at PGL. Each person on the course had two teammates to support them with either their ‘Ninja Squirrel’ position to push them back on or their ‘Fist of Friendship’ to help them to balance. The course was tricky enough but then we had to get to the other end whilst holding a cup of water! Some groups managed this better than others!
PGL – AEROBALL
This is the Aeroball activity at PGL. This game involves scoring points by throwing balls into your opponent’s hoop whilst bouncing on a trampoline. Each team consists of two players, with each individual aeroballer having their own sealed bouncing compartment. It was a fun but exhausting session!
PGL – CLIMBING
This is the Climbing activity at PGL. The climbing wall goes a lot higher than you can see in the photo. The children at the bottom are belaying. This is a very important job we were taught. Belaying is very technical but we became very skilled at it. A belayer distributes the rope that the climber needs to climb higher but also exerts tension to keep the rope taught. Therefore, a falling climber would not fall very far at all.
PGL – TUNNEL TRAIL
This is the Tunnel Trail activity at PGL. We enjoyed playing lots of different games which involved scrambling through the underground tunnels. The tunnels had different diameters, meaning that you needed to adopt different crawling techniques to travel through them. It was a lot of fun!
PGL – KAYAKING
This is the Kayaking activity at PGL. We left the Osmington Bay site and headed to Portland Harbour where the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy is located. We changed into our wetsuits and then, after practising how to use the paddles correctly on land, we spent an hour kayaking around the harbour. We had a brilliant time!
PGL – GIANT SWING
This is the Giant Swing activity at PGL. Two people sat in the swing while the rest of us pulled the rope like a tug of war team to take the pair backwards and upwards as high as they wanted to go. Then, one of the pair pulled the release cord and they were launched forwards at speed, sending them high above the Osmington Bay centre. The views from up there were amazing. In the photo, you can see Portland in the background.
PGL – FENCING
This is the Fencing activity at PGL. We learnt all about the safety equipment you have to wear when fencing and then spent time practising how to stand and then move in the correct positions. The swords we are using are called foils. Can you recognise who the Year Six Eagles are that are fencing in this photo?
PGL – ABSEIL
This is the Abseil activity at PGL. We had to climb the ladders inside the tower to reach the top. Our harnesses were attached to the ropes and then we leaned back and walked down the outside of the tower to the ground. The tower was very high. Some of us pushed off with our feet as we descended and tried the jumping technique rather than walking. You feed the rope through the carabiner attached to your harness to control the speed of your descent. It was great fun!
PGL – TRAPEZE
This is the Trapeze activity at PGL. It involves climbing up the telegraph pole to the little wooden platform which you can see at the top. Then, if you make it that far, you have to launch yourself off the platform and try to touch the white ball. You then swing around for a bit before you are brought down. Everybody managed to gain a huge sense of achievement on this activity. Even if we didn’t make it to the top, when we thought we had reached the point where we didn’t want to go any higher, everybody encouraged us with shouts of “Two more!” We then found the courage to climb two more steps before being lowered to the ground. We were all so proud of everybody.
PGL – BEACH
When we arrived at Osmington Bay, we walked down to the beach to have our lunch. We enjoyed searching for unusual pebbles on this beach and also looking at the amazing views across the English Channel towards Portland Harbour in the distance. We would be kayaking over there later in the week.
ROUNDING THINGS OFF
In Year Six, we have to be able to round any whole number to a required degree of accuracy. We rounded off our work on rounding by taking each other on in a series of challenges which required good rounding skills but also good tactical skills too! We had a lot of fun during this session. Some of us extended our learning by rounding decimal numbers to the nearest tenth.
WORLD WAR TWO DANCE
As part of our current topic of The Battle of Britain, we are creating a World War Two dance performance. We scattered lots of books containing interesting photographs of different aspects of the conflict around the hall floor as inspiration for ideas. Our task was to create a range of dynamic movements based on how the people in the photographs might have been feeling. On the screen, you can see that we were playing the video for If War Should Come by Public Service Broadcasting at the same time, as the music for our performance and as a backdrop for our dance.
TOUR DE TIMSBURY
Our week of cycling activities, celebrating the Tour of Britain passing through our village, ended with our Tour de Timsbury event. Everybody brought their bikes to school (or scooters instead) and had great fun cycling around a specially designed course marked out on the school field. The whole school took part which made it quite an impressive peloton!
TEAM TIME TRIAL
The Tour of Britain featured a team time trial for the first time this year. It took place on stage five in Cumbria, covering 14 kilometres from Cockermouth to Whinlatter Pass in the Lake District. We found out about the different equipment and different tactics used during this test against the clock. Afterwards, we went outside to carry out our own team time trial. Can you see how we stayed in lines, closely behind each other, to keep in the slipstream and become more aerodynamic?
STAGES
We have been developing our knowledge of the United Kingdom this week through looking at where the stages of the Tour of Britain have been taking place. We researched where the start and finish was for each of the eight stages and placed coloured stickers on the map to locate these places. Although we had a good knowledge of where Bristol and London were, other places required some efficient atlas skills to plot them accurately, such as Pembrey Country Park and Whinlatter Pass. In the photo, you can see us working out where Cranbrook is.
TOUR OF BRITAIN
The first day of the brand new school year saw the Tour of Britain cycle along North Road in Timsbury. Our whole school turned out to cheer loudly as the professional cyclists, including Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, passed by. It was an exciting and unique experience and one we will never forget. As we waited, police on motorbikes and people in team cars waved to us. Eventually, the race appeared, led by a breakaway group of four riders, with the peloton 54 seconds behind. They still had 47.2 kilometres to go before they would reach the finish line in Bristol.