Downham C. of E. (Controlled) Primary School

Thank you to those who have pledged so far - we are 21 pledges away from being entered into the prize draw.

We’re proud to be part of the UK’s biggest school sporting event

Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week on 28 June to 2 July is a fun week of sport and celebration using the magic and anticipation of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire our pupils to take part in more sport.

Lloyds TSB are giving away £20,000 worth of sports equipment to schools across the UK to help their pupils take part in more sport. Pledge your support here or visit www.lloydstsb.com/london2012 to help us be in with a chance of winning!

Every pledge counts, so please help increase our chances of winning new sports equipment for our school.  Thank you for your support.

Summer and Mini- Fete

Our PTA 'Summer' fete took place on Saturday 19th June.  Thank you to everyone who supported this event. More news will follow on the PTA news page once the final total is in.  Our school council held its Mini- fete in glorious sunshine on Monday 21st June.  The money raised will go towards next year's school fees for our adopted pupils.  

'World Cup' themed Mini Fete

Downham's Got Talent

Wow!  Does Downham have talent?  Yes, it does! Congratulations and well done to everybody who took part.  Thank you to everyone for your support including the Year 6 House Captains and their helpers who organised refreshements, raffles, photography, the PA system and of course ...  judged the runners up final during the day and the finals during the evening!!  All money raised will be donated to the SMILES foundation ensuring that children in Romania smile nearly as much as we did during the show!

Year 2 Music Festival

Well done to the children in Year 2 who took part in this year's Music Festival organised by the Billericay Schools Music Association (BSMA). 

Great Baddow Fun Run

 

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the fun run on Sunday 23rd May including everyone in the Downham Team.  A special well done goes to Charlie who not only came first in the Under 12s but also came 4th overall.  Wow!

 

Fairtrade Tuckshop

Some children in Years 5 and 6 will continue to be holding a Fairtrade Tuckshop one Friday each month during the summer term.  The children asked to do this to raise awareness of the quality and range of Fairtrade products available.  This was following work in Literacy and PSHCE during

Fairtrade Fortnight last term.

Music Marathon

Saturday 15th May was Downham's first 12 hour Music Marathon.  Mr Clark taught 24 children how to play an instrument.  The £400 raised from this event is going to the Smiles Foundation for children in Romania.  Thank you to Mr Clark and our talented musicians.

Music Marathon

PTA events

Thank you to those people who supported the Bouncy Castle Evening and the Fashion Show in May.  Please see the PTA page for photographs of the events or click here.  Our thanks also go to Mrs Moore and Mrs Brand who worked with groups of children to plant herbs and alpines in the pots around the outdoor shelters.  Thank you to the PTA for financing this.

Ten Year 2 girls went to represent Downham Primary School at the Year 2 Dance festival at Mayflower High School.  They worked with children from Buttsbury Infant School and Brightside Primary School to learn and perform dances taught to them by Year 8 students from Mayflower.  It was a lovely afternoon and Mrs Waterman said everyone danced really well.

 

Year 2 Dance Festival

 

 

 

Central League Football

Well done to the boys' and girls' team that took part in this Month's Central League Football. The boys played 3 matches and the girls played 4 matches against other schools in Billericay.   Good luck for your matches in May.

Welcome Back.  See you on Monday 19th April. 

Your teachers will be waiting for you in your classroom to arrive from 8:45am. The bell rings at 8:55.

Spring Term

2009 - 2010

 

We wish you all a Happy Easter.

The Summer Term starts on Monday 19th April.

Easter Competitions

Congratulations and well done to those children who entered our Easter Competitions.  Everyone who took part received a Creme Egg.  The winners of each competition won a Fairtrade Chocolate Bunny with the overall winner winning a large Fairtrade Easter Egg.

Here are some of our egg-cellent winners.

 

PTA Easter Egg Hunt

On Wednesday 31st March we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Children from the older classes paired up with younger children to look for 5 coloured eggs hidden in the school grounds.  Once they had found 5 eggs each, they were exchanged for a Creme Egg.

Easter Service

Thank you to everyone who came to our special Easter Service on Tuesday 30th March at Emanuel Church in Billericay.  It was a special occasion where children from all the classes where involved in retelling the Easter story through art, song, drama, music or dance.

Our Stars were:

Classes JA and ST - singing a song about Palm Sunday

Class MM - miming to the Creation Story

Class LB - scarf and pom-pom dancing to a song about Easter Sunday 

sung by some of our talented school choir

Class JN - singing a song about Jesus' trial

Class ES - playing the African drums to symbolise the

Roman Soldiers at Jesus' arrest

Class CW - story telling and art about the Last Supper and prayers

Class CE - drama about the crowd at Jesus' trial

Class RP - dance about Good Friday

Song - When I think about the Cross - sung by soloists

from our talented school choir

Easter Service

Through our collection at the end of the service, we have also raised £100 to be shared between our 4 House charities.

 Central Venue League

Netball Tournament

 

Congratulations to our girls who took part in the latest netball tournament at Mayflower School on 24th March. We are proud to say that we won all our matches, which puts us in fifth place out of all the schools in Billericay. 

Netball

KS 2 Music Festival

Thank you to the 40 children who represented us as part of the choir and orchestra at the Billericay School's Music Association (BSMA) Music Festival at the Brentwood Centre on Friday 19th March. 

Our choir also performed during assembly on Monday and to parents at 3pm on Monday afternoon.

 Easter Competitions

It's time for the Easter Competitions again.  Children are invited to enter as many competitions as they wish.  You may choose from:

• Design and make a container to hold one egg
• Write a poem about Easter
• Create a picture that celebrates the story of Easter.

Entries should be brought to school from Wednesday 24th March and the competition will be judged on Tuesday 30th March.

Henry VIII

Our Key Stage 2 classes have been working with Henry VIII this week to support their understanding about the reasons for Henry's marriages.  Henry also explained about life in Tudor Times including how the stocks were used with Mrs Craig demonstrating!  Look out for more photographs on the class pages.

 World Book Day

On Friday 5th March Peppa Pig came to visit our Foundation and Key Stage 1 classes as part of our celebration for World Book Day on 4th March.  She also made a special appearance and presented the Headteacher's trophy for the 3Cs during Friday's Whole School celebration assembly.

Peppa Pig

Creative Partnerships

We have completed our project with Creative Partnerships. Class ST and pupils in Years 4/5 were part of the project looking at involving maths through creativity.  We worked with 3 artists specialising in different media.  Children will now share the techniques they learnt with other pupils within the school.  Please see our Creative Partnerships page under the 'Awards' tab for further information.

Singing

Our boys in Years 3 and 4 have enjoyed developing their singing skills working with the singing leaders from Chelmsford Cathedral.

Central League

Football

Thank you to Mr Collis and Mr Pease (parents) for helping to train our team for the Central League Football Event. 

Central League

Rainbow Theatre

The Rainbow Theatre Group came to perform some famous fairy tales for children in Classes JA, ST, LB and MM.  We saw Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs.  They were really good.

The Rainbow Theatre

Haiti

Some pupils in Year 6 have asked if we can hold a Non-Uniform Day to raise money for the people of Haiti.  We all agreed this was an excellent idea.  On Wednesday 27th January we held a Beach Day and raised more than £700. Thank you for your generosity.

Spring Term

Child/ Parent/Teacher Consultations

Child/Parent/Teacher Consultations will take place on Wednesday 3rd February and Thursday 4th February. Please click on the link below. 

Parent Consultation Letter

Thank you

We would like to say a huge thank you to the staff, parents and governors who gave up their time last Sunday to clear snow from the school grounds. This ensured the safety of the children whilst still enabling them to play in the snow this week.

Snow Clearing

Welcome to

Mrs Craig and Mrs Wilson

A new year and TWO new Headteachers for Downham C of E Primary School.  Mrs Craig and Mrs Wilson worked with all the classes today to plant a bulb.  Each pupil has planted and taken home a bulb.  Mrs Craig and Mrs Wilson have challenged us to grow the bulb.  These should be brought back to school once they have flowered.

Autumn Term

2009 - 2010

We wish you all a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New year.

Farewell Mr Southgate

 Mr Southgate joined us on Tuesday 5th January for his Leaving Assembly.  Each class presented a card and Mr Southgate opened his presents from children and families of Downham C of E Primary School.  Mr Southgate was overwhelmed by the number of gifts and thanks families for their generosity.

Father Christmas Visits

Thank you to Mrs Perry and her team for cooking our delicious Christmas dinner.  Father Christmas took time out of his busy schedule to visit us after our meal - just as the first snowflakes began to fall.  We also enjoyed the chocolate bars he gave us.

Christmas Dinner

 Generous giving at Christmas

An enormous 'thank you' to all those lovely people

 who contributed towards the collections

following our Christmas performances.

We managed to raised £1,629 for       

Little Havens Children's Hospice.

We presented our cheque to a representative

 from the charity today, 16.12.09 

Christmas Bazaar

What a lovely event!

Thanks to all the hard work carried out by PTA members

we managed to raise a fantastic £1,226.

Have a look at some photos on our PTA page.

Primary Maths Challenge

Alex Spooner Class CW                  Thomas Spooner Class ES       Peter Roberts Class JN

Each class designed their own badge and sold them for 50pence each to raise money for Children In Need.

Decathlon

The Year 2 and Year 3 Decathlon took place at Brightside Primary School this week.  Well done to all those who took part.

Autumn Term School Trips

Foundation and Key Stage 1 pupils had a very enjoyable trip to Hanningfield Reservoir this week.  Key Stage 2 found out about the life in Tudor Times during their Tudor Day at Cressing Temple.

Downham School Newspaper is in preparation... 

The editorial group met last night (Thursday 8th October) to begin to format the first edition of our school newspaper.  This is a new venture and is led by children from Years 5 and 6.  Karazita Monday (Class RP) has been instrumental 'behind the scenes' in getting the idea communicated across the community and her hard work has paid off. 

We hope to publish our first paper after half-term. 

Watch out for further updates!

New Headteachers Appointed

                                                                                                Monday 5^th October 2009

Dear Parents,           

Following our selection day interviews last week I am pleased to let you know that we have appointed Mr Southgate’s successor.

Mrs Susan Wilson and Mrs Helen Craig will fill the role of Headteacher in a job share capacity  from 1 January 2010.  Mrs Wilson and Mrs Craig currently work together as Headteacher  of a C of E Primary School near Colchester and have a long and successful track record of co-leadership together.

We appreciate that this is quite a novel and unusual arrangement,  particularly in the primary school stage of our education system. However, we are confident that the vision they share for the future of our school will build upon our current strengths and take the school forward to even greater successes.  Our Governing Body are committed to supporting our new Headteachers and our joint goal is for Downham to be recognised as an outstanding school at our next inspection.

Mrs Wilson and Mrs Craig will be spending time in school later in the term to familiarise themselves with our day to day procedures and to speak with Mr Southgate and the Senior Leadership Team.   I know that they will wish to meet you all early in the New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Janice Josiah

Chair of Governors

'Eco-Schools Award'

 

We are in the process of applying for the 'Eco-Schools' Bronze award. As a school we have made great developments to our school outdoor areas, had environmental days, worked closely with Chelmsford Borough Council and educated children on protecting the environment. Thank you to the PTA for all their help and support. We look forward to informing you of the good news about achieving this special award.

 

We are collecting vouchers from Morrisons to get gardening equipment and seeds. These will help us to develop our school outdoor areas further. Please continue to bring these valuable vouchers.

 

Harvest Thanksgiving 2009

 

Our two Thanksgiving assemblies were rich with thought and creativity.  Our theme 'An attitude of gratitude' allowed us to consider the need to be ever thankful for all that we have and to be aware of the need to give generously. 

We were joined by Audrey Pegrum, representing Blythswood Care, Jane from Schools' Ministry Billericay and our Rector Stephen Robertson.

Audrey gave us a very clear understanding of the importance of our Shoebox gifts.  She told us stories of children and adults whose lives have been enhanced by receiving a Shoebox.

Jane reminded us of the Parable of the 10 Lepers and the importance of saying 'thank you'.

Stephen led us in prayer.

Our singing was very lively and we introduced our parents and friends to many new songs this year. 

Our Year 6 children will begin delivering Grocery Boxes in our local community this week. (28.9.09) 

 

Harvest Thanksgiving

 

 

Playleaders

Year 6 have completed their training and have now begun Playleading.  Our Playleaders work with classes on a rota of activities that help promote active play and provide further opportunities for exercise.

 

Playleaders

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Friday 18th September was a Pirate Theme Day.

A big thank you to those parents who read to classes and a well done to everyone for amazing pirate costumes.  All classes were involved in the day.  Work was based upon a pirate theme.  Some of the activities were making treasure maps from tea bags, painting pictures, making telescopes, writing words for a pirate song to given music and writing stories and poems.  Please see individual class pages for more photographs and details of the day.

Pirate Day

School Development Plan

       Revise the structure and content of the RE Curriculum, in line with the new Local Authority Syllabus.

       Embed expectations of ‘Let’s get Cooking’ Project

      Achieve re-validation of our Advanced Healthy Schools status

      Consolidate our school’s relationship with Billericay Community Trust.

      Ensure established processes to support regular attendance and punctuality are maintained and reinforced.

We will also be working with Singing Leaders from Chelmsford Cathedral and extending our work with African Drumming.

Children return to school on

Thursday 3rd September.

Please wait with your child on the playground until 8:45am  From 8:45am children may go to their classrooms where staff will be waiting to greet them. The bell rings at 8:55am for registration to begin.