Hambrough Primary and Nursery School

ACTIVE HAMBROUGH 2017/2018

It’s been an eventful and busy active year!  As you can see from the list below, the school has participated in many initiatives throughout the year to ensure children stay active, healthy and safe.

• SOUTHALL WATERSIDE DEVELOPMENT: a large crane from the Waterside Development was erected on site and pupils were invited to enter a competition, alongside other local schools, to “Name the Crane”  explaining the reason behind their chosen name. The aim was to encourage children to think about their community when coming up with a suggested name. Of all the entries, we were delighted that the panel of judges chose Gurjot Singh’s (Year 3 Tulip class) entry – “The Thunder”. The winning poster was later transferred onto an acrylic poster and displayed with our school logo on the actual crane!
• ROAD SAFETY WEEK:  We participated in Road Safety Week during the week of 20^th November to 24^th November 2017. This year’s theme was “Speed Down, Save lives”!  During the week there were many activities such as:
• A launch assembly: the assembly led by Mrs Singleton paved the way for the week’s events.
• Daily Gate Patrol: Members of the school council, escorted by school staff, patrolled the front and rear entrances of the school to promote road safety, safer parking and generally encourage active travel to school.
• Storytime sessions in classes: Storytime in all classes linked to the road safety theme.
• Digger Day for Reception & Nursery: a “Digger” named “Sammy” (courtesy of Waterside Development) was parked in our playground on Wednesday 22^nd November. Children had great fun visiting and learning about the safety aspects of being around large construction vehicles and general road safety.
• Pedestrian Skills training: For2Feet Ltd provided Pedestrian Skills training to children in Year 3. Children learnt essential road safety skills that will make them safer pedestrians.
• Participation in a Road Safety “Design a Poster” Competition: A competition to commemorate Road Safety Week. Congratulations to Sabeeha in KS1 and Leona in KS2 who were chosen the overall winners.
• Year 5 Cycling sessions: This term, Year 5 took part in the first of their 5-week cycling courses this year.
• A Hands Up Survey: We undertook our annual hands up survey to ascertain travel to school culture on 22^nd November.
• Air Ambulance: And just ahead of Road Safety Week an Air Ambulance found itself in our school playground following a fatal incident involving a cyclist and a lorry driver on South Road. Although it was an experience to remember, children were reminded of the importance of being safe on the roads. (Read more in Newsletter 4, dated 13/11/17)
• LIVING STREETS LITTLE FEET: Starting in January, children in Reception took part in a brand new pilot “Living Streets Little Feet” – a walking activity for Reception children which aims to get families and children walking more.  There were different themes each month….. starting with the theme of the month for January which was “people who help us”. In order to encourage active behaviour and reduce car usage, there were 4 main parts to the challenge:

1. Teachers introduced our Walk to School mascot, Strider in class with some fun stories about walking! Strider joined a couple of children on their walk to school.
2. Every time a child arrived – and if they  arrived by active travel – (foot, scooting, cycling) a sticker was added to the class wallchart.
3. Teachers talked about different people within communities like police officers, teachers, bakers & more.
4. There were activities for the family to do on their journeys to or from school. (For full details read Newsletter 8)  

• BIG PEDAL: We took part in The Big Pedal 2018, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school. The challenge this year ran from 23^rd April to 4^th May.

On each day of the challenge schools across the UK competed to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Our best 5 days would determine our final position in the challenge. We were competing against not only primary but also secondary schools all over the UK – so the challenge was huge! So well done to us!

• BALANCE BIKE EVENT 18/04/18: We were absolutely delighted when ten pupils from Mayfield and Hambrough Primary Schools were selected to take part in a Balance Bike Celebration day, kindly hosted by Selbourne Primary School in their large field and playground. There were balance bike races, a BMX display and lots of free time to ride bikes. Every child was presented with a certificate of attendance and each school had the chance of winning a bike – and I’m even more delighted to announce that Hambrough’s position in the races meant that we were one of the winning schools to be rewarded with a balance bike! It was indeed a unique and exciting day that the children will remember forever! (For more details read Newsletter 11)
• CYCLING COURSES each term: Cycle UK Ltd have had a busy year providing cycling courses to our children this year. Beginning with Year 5 in the Autumn term (2), 17 pupils participated in the course – of which 2 reached Level 1 and 15 reached Level 2.

Then in the Spring term 18 pupils in Year 4 took part in a 2-day course  and all reached level 1.

In the Summer term (1) Year 5 were offered another opportunity to improve their skills. During this term there was opportunity for staff as well to make avail of the cycling experience.

And finally  in the Summer term (2) Year 6 pupils took part in the course as part of their transition to High School.

• ZEBRA CROSSING APPEAL: As a result of regular gate monitoring, the School Council initiated a petition last year in support  of a zebra crossing at the front of the school and presented this to Ealing Council during Citizenship Week in February 2017. Having heard nothing they sent a further reminder letter in December and this year they finally received a response from the Local Authority in April which they presented to the rest of the school in July and to parents at the next Parent Forum (July 2018). Unfortunately the petition was not successful but we will nevertheless continue to promote the school’s active /safe travel culture.                                                                                          
• WALK TO SCHOOL WEEK 21st MAY - 25th MAY 2018: This year, we took part in Ealing's "Get Moving Challenge" and once again the Annual National Walk to School Week. ALL children, staff and families were encouraged to WALK, CYCLE, OR SCOOT TO SCHOOL. Where it was not possible to walk the entire journey to school parents were encouraged to park a few streets away from the school and walk the remainder of the way to school. 

We learnt that walking has many benefits. Walking;

• is good for the environment
• is an opportunity to learn about road safety
• keeps people fit and healthy
• reveals hidden treasures in the community
• provides quality time spent as a family.

The "Get Moving" challenge linked with the RRSA Global Goals  3 ,13 and 15 - " Good Health & Well-Being", "Climate Change" and " Life on Land". Activities were planned for all year groups throughout the week inside and outside the classroom, around these areas of work.  As part of the Active Travel Challenge we took part in a competition run by Ealing to design next year’s bookmark.  We asked children what they enjoyed about their journey to school and the designs generated some interesting and illuminating images. The best designs – one each from each Key stage (Vidhulan in KS1 and Sameer in KS2) - were submitted to the Local Authority and presented with gift vouchers for Halfords.

And in addition.....

• Every morning staff, parents and children were invited to WALK a MILE around the playground.  The designated teacher leading the Walk met children and parents every morning at 8.15am in the playground and walked 6 laps of both playgrounds.
• On Monday 21st a launch ASSEMBLY took place when children learnt about road safety, safer parking, active travel and how walking & keeping active is best for climate change. Children also sang the Hambrough Walking Song - Check out the video below and sing along to the lyrics.
• On Tuesday 22nd we held a “HAPPY SHOES DAY”. Pupils and staff wore shoes that made them happy and helped them to walk more. A total of £271.20 was collected, half of which was donated to Living Streets. The remainder will be used to fund our Health Fair, to be held later in June 2018.
• Each morning a member of staff and members of the SCHOOL COUNCIL  were on GATE PATROL issuing stickers to all children who had walked,  biked,  or scooted to school to stick on their bookmarks.  They also made sure that if you did come by car, you did so safely and in any event did not park or stop on the zig-zag lines. 
• On Wednesday 23rd, “TERRI THE TIGER” visited  the school and did a round of all the classes to re-inforce the "Get Moving Challenge".
• And on Thursday 24th a picnic themed wrapped  lunch - alfresco eating on picnic blankets in the playground - was enjoyed by all.

Read more  about this year's Walk to School week in Newsletter 13.....