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North Area ISA Netball Tournament
On Thursday 4th March our netball team set off for Cheadle Hulme in Manchester to compete against 7 other schools in the ISA High Five Tournament.
In the weeks leading up to the competition the girls have produced some stunning performances so we were confident they would do well.
Firwood won every game they played and consequently won the tournament. This is an outstanding achievement and we are very proud of the whole team.
Well done girls.
Great Manchester Run
I'll be doing the Great Manchester Run in May for Cancer Research UK. If you can sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated.
Mr. Lengden
Please click the link to sponsor Mr. Lengden.
School Council Class Representative
"Hello! We are the class council representatives from Year 3. Last term, EC was elected as our class council representative and this term the class elected DO’D to be their rep.
Every term each class votes for a new class representative. If you want to be the new representative you have to tell the class what you will try to do as a class rep and why you would make a good representative.
When all the children have spoken about why they want to be the new rep, the class has a vote. You have to write the name of the person you would like to be the rep on a piece of paper and fold it up. Mrs Batters then counts the votes and announces the new rep.
The school council meets on a Friday lunchtime in the Art room. The representatives from each class meet with the Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary who are all members of Year 6. We meet with Mrs Batters, Mrs Greenwood and Mr Lengden.
During each meeting we discuss charity fundraising ideas and issues that have been brought by the class representatives. This year the council have organised the Pink 4 Link charity day and Children in Need. We try to come up with different ideas to raise money. We have also discussed some of the issues from the playground and voted on some games that shouldn’t be played.
We meet with our class each week and discuss any suggestions they have. We take notes in our school council notebook and then take these for the school council to discuss on a Friday. This year we have also met with a lady from the council who has shown us how to set up our own compost bins. Each year group has time each week to carry out gardening and composting activities.
We also arranged for paper recycling bags in each classroom.
We really enjoy being the class council representatives as it gives us confidence and teaches us about responsibility."
Composting Introduction
The School Council are the driving force behind a composting intiative at Firwood Manor. We now have composting bins within school and the Council meet regularly to assess the progress.
The children have written an introduction below.
Mrs. Stanley came from into school from Oldham Council to tell us about composting. She told us what can go into the composting bin and what can not.
The next thing we did was play a game called 'To Compost', we had to look at the picture that Mrs. Stanley was holding up and either run to the compost bin or run to the normal waste bin.
Mrs. Stanley then told us if we were right or not. She then taught us about dry and wet compost, we all got a card and had to put it in the black or green bin. If it was wet we put it in the green bin and if it was dry we put it in the black bin.
Finally Mrs. Stanley told us about all of the bugs that can get into the bin and what they do. For example a worm helps to purify.
Charity Fundraising
Welcome to our page dedicated to the charity fundrasing organised by the School Council.
To date we have raised £2526.22
for various charities.
Thank you to everyone involved.
The total figure is broken down as follows:
- Seeds for Africa - £297.79
- Link 4 Pink - £382.35
- Children In Need - £409.58
- Haiti Earthquake Appeal - £601.50
- Macmillan Cancer Support - £835.00
This was an appeal at our harvest festival to help raise money for African families and communities by providing locally sourced seeds, plants, agricultural equipment and advice.
Everybody in school, including staff, were asked to wear something pink to help raise money for Link 4 Pink.
The whole school participated in a non-uniform day to help Children In Need. The School Council were keen to help children less fortunate than themselves.
The School Council regularly keep up to date with news events. They felt very strongly about helping the victims of the Haiti earthquake and asked parents to donate anything they could to help
Children, parents and staff participated in a coffee morning to help support cancer research.
Some charities do send certificates to us for the money we have raised. To view these please click on the amount next to the charity.
Visit from Mike Dewar
On Wednesday 24th February, we had a special visitor in school. Mike Dewer from Greater Manchester Fire Service came to school with two of his rescue dogs. He came to talk to us about how the dogs were used to help rescue people. The dogs were all Labradors. The two dogs he brought to school were called Lucy and Anna. Lucy was yellow and Anna was black. Mike told us he also had another dog called Echo. Unfortunately, Echo was in quarantine for 6months as he had been working in Haiti to help find people who were trapped following the earthquake. Quarantine is a place where animals go when they have been out of the country. This is to check they haven’t brought any diseases back with them.
Firstly, Mike talked to us about the different jobs the dogs did. Lucy was used to sniff out the cause of fires. If a fire has been started deliberately, Lucy can smell what was used to start the fire. When a fire is started deliberately it is called arson and is against the law. Anna was still in training as she was only 2 years old. She was being trained to find people who were trapped in a fire or building. When she found a person she would bark loudly. This would tell the rescuers where the person was. She still had 3 weeks left of her training.
Mike showed us the harness the dog had to wear. This told the dog that it was work time and not play time. He also showed us the little boots that the dogs wore when they went into a building. These would protect the dogs’ paws from being cut on glass or metal.
Later on, we went into the playground to meet the dogs. They were very excited but soon did as they were told. First, we met Anna who was very cute. Mike showed us how she would bark in response to finding a person. He used a toy to make her bark. He said it was very important to reward and praise the dog when it did as it was asked. It takes two years to train a dog to do this.
Next, we met Lucy. Before she had come out of the van, Mike put a drop of White Spirit on the playground to see if Lucy could find it. She was fantastic and it only took her 20 seconds to find the smell. Lucy had a short tail as it had been caught in a building and had been cut off.
We really loved meeting the dogs and were very impressed with what they could do.
By Mrs Batters' Literacy group.
