Say hello to our snails!

Last week Class 7, 8 and 9 had some exciting news...they were getting a pet! And not just any pet - a Giant African Land Snail!

They spent their week researching these creatures and writing fact-files about them in order to learn how to take care of them before they arrived with us.

Please welcome:

Jeff in Class 7 →










← Spiro in Class 8 (enjoying a late night snack!)












Happy in Class 9 →

The children learned lots of amazing facts. Ask your child what they know about these molluscs.

Did you know a snail has a radula? This is a type of tongue that contains thousands of tiny teeth that act like a conveyor belt when the snail eats! 

We'll look forward to sharing more of our snails travels and adventures soon! 

Miss Bailey, Miss Knight and Miss Robinson 

The Victorian Life!

This half term we have been learning about the Victorians. The Victorians is a time in history from long ago when Queen Victoria was on the throne. 

In our first lesson, the classroom was transformed back in time. The boys had to sit on one side and the girls sat on the other. The tables were in rows and we had to face the teacher. We wrote on blackboards, practicing our joined up handwriting. We got to dress up in old-fashioned clothes, we looked very different! We also sang the national anthem. Then we went outside without our shoe on, this really hurt our feet as we walked on the playground. Humayd didn't like being in a Victorian school because the teacher was strict and he didn't want to wear a Dunce's hat. Harvir liked the afternoon though because it was different going outside with no shoes on!

We have learnt lots about Queen Victoria, especially Anya! "Queen Victoria's dad died when she was 8 years old. Later she married her cousin - Prince Albert. They had 9 children but Prince Albert died quite young. Queen Victoria then wore black clothes for the rest of her life. Queen Victoria celebrated the jubilee and died in Osbourne House in 1901".


In art we have been looking at silhouettes. We have made our silhouettes by sketching our outline from a photo we had taken, using gridlines to help us get our heads the right shape! We then experimented with oil pastels and black paint to see which media is more effective. We then decorated our very own frames by sticking art straws onto the frames in a pattern. Miss Bailey sprayed these either gold or silver so that they look like professional paintings!

By Harvir and Humayd.

Our amazing Goalball session

This morning we played a game called Goalball. None of us had ever played this before. It is a game that is played during the Paralympics by people that may be injured or disabled. They have to play the game blindfolded so that it's fair. 


During Goalball there are bells in a ball, which you have to use to try and score goals. It is important to listen to the bells because you can hear where the ball is going. We use our other senses because we can't see! 

We really enjoyed having a go at this game with Charlotte from Premier Sports but we did find it a little bit tricky! It was difficult not being able to see the ball and it really hurt our knees crawling on the floor! 


Miss Bailey had a go and twisted her thumb on Luca! She found it really difficult because she isn't used to crawling! 

A letter from the Mayor!

As you know last half term we visited Sherwood Forest as part of our 'Fantastic Forests' topic. When we returned to school we learnt that Sherwood Forest was set to be demolished to make space for a theme park with hundreds of rides. We worked very hard that week to think of reasons why we should save Sherwood Forest. We even wrote persuasive letters to the Mayor of Derby and the Mayor of Newark to get their help! Here is the reply we received from the Mayor of Newark...

'Dear Year 2,

SHERWOOD FOREST

Thank you for your letter outlining the project that your children have undertaken following their trip to Sherwood Forest.

As a person who was born and has spent most of his life in Nottingham I am very proud of our heritage and Robin Hood is a symbolic feature that is recognisable the world over.

Whilst a new theme park would, no doubt, bring many jobs to the area and provide a boost to the local economy, I agree with the views of the children that the negative impact of such a development significantly outweigh the benefits.

The loss of the natural environment with an historic woodland, containing so many amazing trees that are centuries old could, perhaps, be described as an act of modern day vandalism. The woodland has remained untouched for hundreds of years and it should be protected for future generations to come who, like your children, can explore and re-live what lie would have been like for Robin Hood.

On a personal note when I was a young boy (50 years ago) I visited the Major Oak with my grandma & Grandad. At that time it was possible o get close to the Major Oak and explore the splits in the trunk, where it is thought Robin Hood may have hidden. My lasting memory of the visit was seeing my grandad get stuck in the tree; as he was a bit too fat to fit through the split. This may have led to the increased protection for the tree from the many people who visit it each year!

Whilst there is always a balance to be stuck between progress, new building & new investments and the loss of landscape, natural habitat or heritage; the loss of the site would not be acceptable and the idea of a theme park should be re-located to one of the many sites nearby that are still empty and redundant following the closure of the many coal mines that existed in that part of Nottinghamshire.

In summary I, the Town Mayor, am fully behind your campaign to protect Sherwood Forest for the future, good luck and best wishes.

Yours Sincerely

Cllr R Crowe

Town Mayor.  '

We were extremely excited to receive a letter of support from the Mayor of Newark and hopefully Sherwood Forest will no longer be destroyed. 

Becoming Rolls Royce Engineers

On Wednesday we were given boarding passes to let us go on a very special journey after phonics. We went to the hall to find lots of chairs set out like an aeroplane. Before we could sit down the crew checked our boarding passes. When we were seated the team from Rolls Royce introduced themselves by telling us their names and job. 

Our first destination on our trip was to Stony Rock Island. We had to call for Rocky, someone from the island that needed our help. When Rocky arrived he explained that the island was empty and full of stones so he had nowhere to sit. Our first challenge was to make ourselves into furniture for Rocky's home so that he had somewhere to sit. We made ourselves into sofa's, chairs, beds, tables and even a fridge! We got back on the plane to learn 3 buzzwords about what we had done. They were teamwork, problem solving and communication.

Our second destination was Energy Bay. This time we had to shout Dudey. He needed our help to learn how energy changes things. We learnt that object + energy = action. This is like when a lightbulb receives electricity it gives it enough energy to light up. In our teams we had to be air particles and move through the engine. We had to start out low to the floor and cramped together. Then we started to spin as we gained energy, next we jumped up and down as our energy was almost full and finally the air particles were released and we had to run out of the engine. The 3 buzzwords we learnt on this island were air, energy and thrust.

Our last leg of the journey was to the Isle of Industry. We arrived to help our friend the Professor who told us how new things are manufactured. First you have to draw a blueprint, then you have to build a model and finally you have to try it. We practiced this by making our own paper aeroplanes from a plan. When we had all made one we tested them in groups to find who's aeroplane went the furthest. We learnt 3 more buzzwords and they were design, make and test.











Finally we flew home to Derby. We thought that the whole morning was amazing, and taught us how to be engineers. In Class 9 lots of us now want to work for Rolls Royce as engineers!

By Class 9

Super Science in class 9

Three weeks ago, we began a science experiment in Class 9. We wanted to investigate whether a bean plant would grow in different materials. We planted the seed into wet paper towels, sand, water and rocks. 'At the start I thought sand might be the best for a seed to grow in because I've seen plants in the desert grow in the sand too' - Owen. We thought that rocks might not be a good place for a plant to grow in because the roots won't be able to hold onto anything.

We checked to make sure all the seeds were a similar size and were all put on the same shelf near the window to make sure our experiment was fair. In our books we had to write the prediction, equipment list and the method in case anyone else would like to try our experiment. After the method we had to draw what each seed looked like. We have been checking our seeds every week so we can record our drawings of their progress and see which has grown the best.

So far the seed in the sand is growing very quickly and may get as tall as the roof if we leave it to carry on growing!


By Owen, Sabeel and Fiza

Become a Sun-safe Supersar!

In yesterday's assembly, Mrs Dale told us all about how to keep safe in the sun. She told us a story about a boy called George who was a sun-safe superstar because he followed the five simple rules. 

These are:
Slip, Slop, Slap, Sunglasses, Shade.

• We must slip on our t-shirt to protect our shoulders. 
• We then slop on our sun-cream to prevent sunburn from the harmful UV rays. 
• We also slap on a hat to stop the bright, shining sun hurting our heads and neck. 
• We must wear sunglasses because if you look at the sun you can really hurt your eyes. 
• Shade is important to keep us cool in the midday sun.

You need to be sunsafe even if you are outside just for a little while because your skin is still exposed to the sun. We should all drink plenty of water so you stay hydrated. 

Here at Ridgeway, we are going to bring in sunglasses and a sun hat for playtimes as well as putting suncream on from the dispensers around school. Teachers should also be covering their shoulders as well as wearing sunglasses and a hat. 

By Class 9's Sun-safe Superstars!

Save Sherwood Forest!

We went to Sherwood Forest last week but a few days later we received a terrible, devastating letter that said that Sherwood forest is going to be demolished. How sad we are that this could happen!

What would happen to the sweet, homeless animals? Where would they live? What about the Major Oak that some people think it is the oldest tree in the UK?

What about if the mud soaks into the metal rides? The builders will have to move the rides and it will take a lot of time and money.

The stinky, dirty rubbish would make us feel down in the dumps. How overwhelming the pollution would be! The noise will scare the animals. Why should the animals have to suffer just because the builders want to build a theme park?

We urgently need you to help save the adventurous, ancient, amazing Sherwood Forest with it's very old trees.

Written by Emilija and Millie

How amazing our time in Sherwood Forest was!

On Tuesday we all had to go on a very exciting trip to Sherwood Forest. First we went on a blue, shiny coach with all of year two. It took a very long time to get there, some of us played I spy, some of us went to sleep and the rest of us talked to our friends. Once we arrived, Robert of Wentworth took us to a little classroom where we learnt about his life in the forest and the clothes that he wore in the olden days.

Afterwards we went with Maid Becky to build habitats for the animals that she gave us. Each group had a different animal, including foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels, badgers, birds and moles. We had to work like Active Ants, building our habitats together. We thought carefully how to make the habitats safe in case another creature came hunting. 



We also pretended to be badgers and searched an area for things to see if a badger might like to live there. Then it was lunchtime and we had our class photo taken on a huge, fallen log.




In the afternoon we had another fun story about Robin Hood in the spooky, dark forest with actors and actresses acting the parts. We went on a long, muddy walk to get to the Major Oak. Some people believe that the Major Oak is the most famous tree in the world. It is between 800 and 1000 years old. This was also Robin Hood's meeting place. 

After our walk it was time to get back on the coach and head home. We were so exhausted that lots of us slept the whole way back. We couldn't wait to share our adventures with our grown-ups.
We had a fantastic school trip it was!

Our fantastic new topic!

This half term we're learning about forests. So far we have learned the layers of a forest: the forest floor, the herb layer, the shrub layer, the understory, the canopy and the emergent layer. This is very tricky indeed! Did you know a forest is different to a wood because a forest has more trees and they are closer together than in a wood?

In science we are learning about living and non-living things and today we drew and labelled plants and trees. We even got to look closely at pansies to see their different parts. Next week we will be planting bean seeds in different areas to see if they will grow or not. We predict that the soil will be the best because you always plant seeds in soil. We also think that sand might be good because there is water beneath sand and some plants grow in deserts.
We are very excited to go on our adventure to Sherwood Forest tomorrow. What an amazing time we will have! Amelia really wants to ask Robin Hood some questions. For example, how do you help the animals in the forest? Emma is hoping we get to meet Robin Hood and his friends, maybe Little John.
After the trip we will be writing an interesting recount of what we did, what we saw and what we heard. Please come back and check later in the week to read all about what we got up to!

By Emma and Amelia

Fantastic Forests!

Next half term we will have a new topic in Year 2, Fantastic Forests! We have started to think about what we might do and learn in our new topic as we have had to decorate leaves with any green things we like ready for a secret display. We have taken one leaf home to decorate but have also done one in school too. 'I used pom poms, tissue paper and sequins to make it look exciting' - Sabeel. 'I think we are going to create a giant tree on our display filled with different leaves' - Kiean. 

Next term we are lucky enough to be going on an exciting adventure to Sherwood Forest. We are over the moon and filled with joy to learn more about our topic by going on a trip. At Sherwood Forest we are going to learn about Robin Hood and his merry men! 

By Kiean and Sabeel

Imagine India!

This half term our topic has been 'Imagine India'. We have been learning about Indian people and how they build their houses. We have also learnt about special places in India like the Golden Temple, Taj Mahal and the Himalayas. 

At the start of this term we did lots of research about India,  then we created beautiful Indian sunset pictures. 

First we tried 4 different medias (oil pastels, chalk, wax crayons and powder paint) to practice our techniques. Then we chose our favourite media to make our final picture for the display. 'We chose wax crayons because they weren't messy and you can mix the colours together without it smudging' - Layla and Amelia. Finally we put a silhouette of an animal or the Taj Mahal on top of our sunsets using black paint or black sugar paper. 

We had a special visitor from a local Indian restaurant that brought in lots of spices for us to smell and taste. He told us about each spice and what foods you can use them in. 'My favourite was the coconut because the flavour wasn't too strong' - Layla.

Finally we had a very important job to do for Mrs Dale our deputy headteacher. We had to make persuasive posters for her husband, Mr Dale, to convince him to go on holiday to India. We learnt the best ways to persuade someone are to use WOW words to add lots of description and to use fancy features like rhetorical questions and exclamations. We created bright, colourful posters with great information about the landmarks in India, the weather they might experience and finally the animals they might see. We hope we persuaded him!


By Layla and Amelia

Sports Relief 2016

Last Friday we had to come to school dressed as our favourite sports person. 'I dressed up as a street dancer because that is my favourite sport to do' - Maceo. 'I dressed up as a ballerina because I love that type of dance' - Anya. 

In the morning we started our day of being active by dancing with the teachers and staff on the playground to songs like 'Macarena'. We all had lots of laughs and fun joining in. 

Next we went swimming as we do every Friday but this week was special! We got to have a fun swim session where we got to use giant floats, throw balls and use surf board floats to play with. Miss Bailey also got in the pool and we had fun splashing her!  

At lunch there was a big competition of teachers vs children! We all had to throw dodgeballs at the grown ups but avoid the balls they threw. The teachers nearly won but at the very last moment the children were victorious! What a fantastic time we had! 

To use these photos we went and got permission from the grown ups to check they were happy to feature on the internet and to keep them safe!

Sports relief is very important because it is a charity that helps children that aren't as lucky as us. They help children all over the world to have a better life. 

By Anya and Maceo

Wonderful World Book Day!

Thursday 3rd March is World Book Day! We bought some of our favourite books in to school to read with our friends. After phonics we had a whole-school story swap. We went in to the hall to find out which books the teachers would be reading and we got to choose the book we wanted to listen to. 

"I went with Miss Baldwin to listen to The Book With No Pictures, there were so many children who chose this book that we had to stay in the hall instead of going to the library! I like this book because it is funny and it doesn't have any pictures so you have to use your imagination!" - Layla.

"I went with Miss Dale into Class 3 to read The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson. I have this book at home and really enjoy reading it. I like it because I find this author's books very interesting. I would recommend Stickman and Monkey Puzzle as well." - Millie.

In the afternoon, Miss Bailey read the story she had chosen for the story swap to us. This was 'Slug Needs a Hug', a really heart-warming story about a slug who wants his mum to give him a hug so he sets out to become more huggable. She then gave us time to read our own stories with our friends. We both bought in our favourite books from home. 

"I bought in The Perfect Hamburger by Alexander McCall Smith. It is about a man who works in a hamburger shop and his name is Mr Borthwick. It is a funny story about a customer, Joe, who helps Mr Borthwick make the perfect hamburger but then forgets the ingredients so they can't sell any! I think lots of children would like this book, especially ones who like hamburgers!" - Layla.




"I bought in The Troll by Julia Donaldson, I told you I liked her stories! This book is about a troll who has to find a bridge to find a goat and eat him. If he hears a noise on the bridge he says 'Who's that trip-tropping over my bridge?' I find this book quite funny because of the illustrations. I read this book with my little brother at home because he likes it too!" - Millie. 

World Book Day is great because we get to share lots of stories with our friends and teachers! 

By Millie and Layla

Marvellous M.A.D.D Week

This week is M.A.D.D Week! This means we have a really fun week focusing on Music, Art, Dance and Drama. At the start of the week we had an assembly from Mrs Gray about our special week. We went through the letters and saw something exciting for each letter. 'M' for Music -we sang our school song. 'A' for Art-  children from each class showed some of their artwork, in our class Emilija showed a piece of chalk work. 'D' for Dance- Class 5 showed us their Scottish dance. Finally 'D' for Drama- Mrs Gray talked about our School Pantomime and we practised shouting "Come In" when we hear a knock at the door. 

After assembly we started our week with some art. We used watercolour paints to create colourful, eye-catching Chameleons. We had to use lots of water to make sure the different colours blended together. After we practised on our small Chameleon, we then made a larger Chameleon for the hall to show one of our school values - Considering Chameleon. 

On Tuesday our day started with an exciting and energetic assembly from Ashley from West End In School. He showed us lots of different types of dance like Ballet, Tap and Hip-Hop dancing. When we heard we were first to work with Ashley we were over the moon! In our workshop we did dancing through the ages, starting with the Charleston, which was interesting because it was something we hadn't heard of before. We also did Rock n' Roll and disco dancing, which was really fun because we got to learn lots of different types of dance. Ashley was a brilliant dancer and we all had a big smile on our faces throughout!

On Tuesday afternoon we created our own play to show to the rest of Year 2 on Thursday. Our performance is about a Chameleon that is a little bit down in the dumps because he was disappointed that he was grey and didn't have a special talent. He went on a journey and discovered a rainbow, but did he get his colours? The children worked in 3 groups to add different things to our play. One group tried really hard to create an exciting super rainbow dance to dazzle our audience. Another group created realistic rain sounds using instruments like maracas, drums and tambourines! Our final group were amazing animal actors and they were fantastic at remembering their lines. 

On Thursday we got to perform our Chameleon play, we were a little bit nervous before but we managed to put on a great performance. Class 9 went first and we even added a bonus song at the end! Next went Class 8 and they did an incredible performance about the Discussion Dolphin (we liked the songs best!). Finally Class 7 performed and they did a marvellous guessing game to get the audience guessing which school value they had focused on, we discovered it was the Active Ant. 

We are really happy that we have got to learn lots of new things during M.A.D.D week and we loved every minute of it!

By Class 9

Discovering Islam

This half term we have been thinking about the question 'Who is a Muslim?'. In our first lesson Class 9 thought about questions we would like to ask a Muslim child. Miss Bailey then asked those children who are Muslim to come up to the front to be our 'experts'. Children asked us questions like 'What do you eat?', 'What do you wear?' and 'How do you celebrate a wedding?'.


Ibrahim and Malaika showed us how to pray in a Mosque. You take your shoes off and kneel down on a prayer mat. Boys' backs have to raise up and girls' backs must be flat. We also looked at a Qu'ran and the special stand they can sit on. Did you know that Arabic is read from the right to left - the opposite way to how we read English? Lots of children told us all about their own families, where their relatives were born and how they practice their religion. We could remember lots of things from our R.E. Faith Trail back in November too.

In another lesson we looked at Allah's 99 names, it must be very hard to remember them all! M.Ayaan very kindly bought in some prayer beads from home to show us. Muslims use prayer breads to help them remember the 99 names, moving one bead along each time a name is said.

We have all really enjoyed learning more about Islam this half term and are excited to learn more about 'How and why do we celebrate special occasions?'.

By M.Ayaan and Malaika

Visiting the Council Chambers

Last Tuesday, the school council went to visit the Council Chambers in Derby. Right before we went I felt so excited because I've never seen the Council Chambers before!

To get there we had to go on a small blue coach, it felt like the journey whizzed by but actually the Council Chambers are quite far from our school. When we got off the bus we stood on the stairs outside the Council Chambers but we nearly blew away because the wind was so fierce. We got to look at the doors that used to be the entrance but Mrs Gray realised these were the old doors and they aren't used any more!

Miss Doyle and Mrs Gray had to sign us into the Chambers to keep us safe and in case there was a fire. Then a lady that worked there called us into the hallway and told us there was 150 stairs to the Mayors office. That sounds like a lot of stairs! 

After that she called Mr Mayor to come and meet us all and he took us into the meeting room. The meeting room was gigantic and it was filled with chairs, even a special chair that the Mayor sits on (it's the biggest one!). 



We all had to find our chair that said 'Councillor' and our surname, which made us feel very proud and important that we were allowed to visit such a special place. Mr Mayor showed us how to use the microphones, which you have to turn on every time you want to speak during a meeting. When you use the microphone your face appears on the television screens around the room so everyone can see who is talking.

We were lucky enough to hold a School Council meeting in the real Council chambers. In our meeting we discussed the outdoor classroom vs a canopy over the Sensory Square. We decided the outdoor classroom was a good idea because you can rest there if you get tired and  because its a nice big space. 12/12 people voted for the outdoor classroom instead of the canopy. Miss Coburn took lots of photos of us with Mr Mayor around the Council Chambers. 

By Humayd