Winter 2011

Du Du Tucci Bangs the drums

What is ‘Makaton’?

Saving the planet, one switch at a time

What if…?

Welcometo Benton Dene Primary School

Benton Dene Primary School is a cheerful place to come to. When you first walk through the door it is welcoming and it makes you feel at home.

We have a brand new building which is very eye-catching. Our school has a lot of friendly people. All of the teachers are kind and funny! In our school, we have colourful zones for different year groups. Foundation stage is colour coded yellow, years 1 and 2 are green, years 3 and 4 are red and 5 and 6 are blue.

Two schools – Goathland Primary and Glebe School – share the newly-built inclusive Benton Dene School building in Longbenton (completed in June 2010). They are also part of the Longbenton Learning Community, including Longbenton College. We are very lucky to be in the school because of the lovely head teachers and the quality of the school.

We also have a brilliant after-school club that provides child care and fantastic fresh food to eat. Hopping around, children also can play with our outside equipment!

In and after school, we have a range of clubs for all ages! Each year goes on lots of fun trips about their lessons. We are expecting a fabulous trip to France next year. Year 5 and 6 have been on a great trip to London to see Wicked and The Wizard of Oz . They also enjoyed workshops about the shows.

www.bentondeneschools.org.uk

By Chloe Whitesmith and Jessica Dawson

2

When we started the magazine, we talked about what a community was, and we all had very different answers. Communities can mean different things to different people.

Our school is probably a little different to yours, and we want to share our school community with you. We love our school community, and feel like everyone here are part of a different kind of family.

We really enjoyed writing our magazine, and we hope you enjoy reading it!

2 Introduction to school

7 Saving the planet one switch at a time

8 Turner Prize

3 Introduction to theme

4 The Heads

5 Why our school is brilliant

6 Tooting trumpets

9 Gorgeous graffiti

13 Our community jigsaw

11 Du Du Tucci bangs the drums

14 Doing our bit

15 Benton Dene School

16 What is ‘Makaton’?

17 Perfect parks

20 Different communities in North Tyneside

18 Get on your bike!

21 Agents for change

24 Little ones do it, too

27 Credits

22 Our school council

25 Special school

23 The sporting community

26 What if?

Contents

This publication was produced by a team from Benton Dene Primary School,Published by: Children, Young People and Learning Directorate, North Tyneside Council,Quadrant, The Silverlink, North Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside NE27 0BY

3

The

In Benton Dene Primary School, we are lucky enough to have two head teachers and we got to interview one of them.

Mrs Turner works with children who have different problems. We interviewed her to see what she thought about the school and why she wanted to be a head teacher.

In our school there are two schools put together – we have a school with pupils who have some additional needs. Whereas the other school, which Zoe and I are in, don’t have additional needs.

Mrs Turner was very glad that there was a Tag-Mag because she thinks it is important for children to be heard and to know more about our community.

We asked Mrs Turner:

Q:A:

Why did you want to

become a head teacher?

I wanted to be able to

make a school how it

should be. I have been a

teacher before, so that

inspired me more to

become a head teacher.

Q:A:

Do you like the idea of the new school?Yes, I do because of the building and the environment and it’s really exciting to work with Mrs Forster.

By Jasmine Paterson and Zoe WillcockHeads

4

As we said earlier, our school is a bit different because we have two parts… really it’s like two schools, but we work together a lot.

There is the ‘primary’ and the ‘school’. The ‘primary’ used to be Goathland in Longbenton, and the ‘school’ used to be Glebe. One part of our school is for children who have problems with learning and need to have special support from teachers.

We have lots of different adults in the school who work with different pupils who have different problems. These are some of them…

Why our school is

brilliant!

Play Therapist:

Helps children in school understand

their feelings while playing.

School Nurse:

Helps us with any health problems,

weighs and measures us!

Occupational Therapist:Helps children be able to do everyday things like eating, writing, walking.

Learning Mentor:Works with children to help them in school.

Speech & Language Therapist:

Helps children with problems they

have with talking.

Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road?

Because he had no guts!

5

Trumpets!

Some of us are learning to play the trumpet in school.It is lots of fun and a bit tricky but we are getting the hang of it!

Here are some photographs of us playing, and some sound ‘bytes’ you can listen

to!

By Jack Welsh and Jack McNeil

Tooting Pupil: Sir, would you punish someone for something they didn’t do?

Teacher: Of course not.Pupil: Oh good, because I didn’t do my homework.

6

Looking after our environment is important. If we don’t look after our parks and fields they will get full of rubbish and we will not be able to play in them. We need to respect where we live.

We are an Eco-School. We have won two awards from the Eco-Schools project – a Bronze and a Silver award so far. This means we make sure that our school is environmentally friendly. We re-cycle paper and plastic. We turn lights off and don’t leave computers on standby. We only use the water we need.

Top tips for looking after

OUR environment:

1. Have a shower instead of a bath.

2. Put rubbish in the bin

3. Don’t waste paper.

4. Recycle5. Don’t leave the lights on when they

are not needed.

6. Don’t leave the computer on standby.

Five top tips for looking

after OUR community:

• Put all rubbish in the bin

• Cycle to school most days

• Pick up dog poo

• Use public transport

• Try to walk instead of using the car,

which sends out all those

nasty fumes.

By Ellen O’Brien

We interviewed Mrs. Cairns because she is in charge of Eco-Schools.Our Tag Mag is Eco-friendly too. We have done it online to save paper!

Q:A:

How long have we been an Eco-School? We have been an Eco-School for three years.

Q:

A:

Has the School Council

ever been involved in

Eco-Schools?

Yes, every year. They

help to do the new action

plans.

Q:A:

Why did we become an Eco-School?

It was something I was interested in, so I asked the people that run it how to go about being an eco-school. We started from there.

Think of something Eco-friendly you can do today.

By Ellen O’Brien, Chloe Whitesmith and Jessica Dawson

Saving the planet,

one switch at a time

Why did the witch travel

on a broom?

She couldn’t afford a

vacuum cleaner.

7

Turner Prize

The Turner Prize is modern art that is sometimes very wacky! It is a prize given to an artist and is named after the painter J M W Turner. It is very thought-provoking. The Turner Prize, which has been running for 27 years, has arrived to the North East.

We visited the Baltic and saw some of the art work being constructed. They taught us all about the four artists entering the Turner Prize this year. One of them uses powder, make-up, soap and even soil as she loves the textures. Another takes pictures of things and paints them with aeroplane modelling paint. As they’re not meant to be used for painting pictures, it makes it shiny, more realistic and 3D.

The third artist uses everyday furniture and dismantles them to create something not as ordinary. He likes to write poems and little messages on his sculptures, giving you a clue to the story behind it. The fourth takes pictures but doesn’t hide the wires or the projectors. She includes many of the other electrics you wouldn’t normally expect to see.

Q:A:

How did the Turner Prize come to the Baltic?The prize has been going on for 27 years at the Tate. It has only once been out of London and that was to the Tate in Liverpool. It is a national prize and is good that it is travelling to somewhere else and allowing other people to enjoy it.

We got an exclusive interview with Godfrey Worsdale, the director of the Baltic. We asked him some questions.

By Martha Wylie and Meghan Ritchie

The

8

He told us all about how art is important to the community.“Art is critical to people and it means different things to different people. To me, it means being able to see the world through someone else’s eyes,” he said. “Art makes a community more knowledgeable and more open minded. Strong communities learn and think together.”

Here at Benton Dene, we are holding our own Turner prize. We will be having artists in school and Godfrey Worsdale is coming to our school.

We have three ‘Turners’ in our school and they are going to choose the winning entries for every two year groups. Entries will be shown and there will be a Turner Prize coffee morning!

www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize

Q:A:

What is it like to be the Director of the Baltic?Great, fantastic, exciting but also scary! I get to travel all over the world, meet lots of important people, go to great events and work in an amazing place.

Q:

A:

Who can enter the

Turner Prize?

No one can enter. The

gallery chooses four

people as judges who

put together a list of

six artists each. They

then meet together and

narrow the list down to

four artists in total. The

four artists then put

together exhibits and a

couple of months later,

the four judges come

back and make their

choice.

To have a chance of being

selected as a competitor,

you would need to go to

art school, practise art

afterwards and maybe

one of the judges would

see your work and add

you to their list.

9

George loves graffiti art, especially the artist Banksy.We saw some children doing Graffiti art on our visit to the Baltic. We found out about a Graffiti company that does projects in North Tyneside. They are New Line Graffiti Company. George asked Rob some questions about what they do.

How do you learn to be good at graffiti art?Like anything else in life you need to practise and try hard.If you want to play football, be a scientist or a graffiti artist you have to try hard, practise and be passionate about whatever you do.

Why do you think graffiti art is special?Tricky to answer this one. I feel that all art is special as it is an expression of something, it is a person trying to communicate something to an audience.

For me personally graffiti captured my attention as I liked the style and the freedom that one can have whilst painting something. I also like the fact that it is the largest modern art movement ever and it was all started by young people with a shared passion to create something new.

Are you allowed to do graffiti in the community if you’re a professional?You can only do graffiti where you have permission this doesn’t change if you are just starting out or an old pro, always get permission from the owner of the land or building.

Do you have a role model?Not as such but I do have people who I find inspire me to try new things or sometimes just to paint for fun!

What’s your inspiration for your art?Everything, the world, other art, sign writing, comics, photography. I have always thought that you should be able to find inspiration anywhere, and you shouldn’t only look for it in one place.

What are the most interesting projects you have done?I have been interested in them all, but I like the ones which look at local history as you get to meet the locals from the area and hear all their stories about how life used to be in our local areas.

If you had to do another genre of art, what would it be?Photography and film making, I studied photography at college and university and have since started trying to make some short graffiti films.

Remember that if you do graffiti without permission, or not as part of an organised project, you could be breaking the law and could get into very serious trouble. If this is something you are interested in, look out for projects like those run through New Line Graffiti.

You can find the new line website at www.newlinegraffiti.com

This image shows some graffiti art at the Panama skatepark in

Whitley Bay. Ros Taylor, Urban Games Development Officer from the Play and

Urban Games team in North Tyneside Council, worked with ‘Real

Art Projects’ to consult with children and young people about how

they would like their skatepark to look. Andrew Morley, who works

for a company called Creative Ginger, created the artwork based on

this consultation. This means that the artwork was very much what

children wanted in the park.

Gorgeous

By George McKenna

Graffiti?

10

Bangs the drumsOn Sunday 25th September, a group of pupils and staff went to Grey’s Monument to see one of their teachers and a famous Brazilian samba drummer perform with local samba teachers.

The performance was very loud and energetic. It was very exciting!

After the performance, George asked Du Du Tucci some very intelligent questions.

Du Du said that he was born in Brazil and started to have an interest in samba at the age of eight. He banged on his desk and his teacher would say “Do not bang on the desk!” while pulling at his ear.

He could not say anything about England as he does not live here and he said if he could say anything he said it would be a lie, but the English treat him well.

He said he played a variety of instruments – like the flute, the drum, the piano and lots more. His favourite samba instrument was the ‘Repanique drum’, the one he was playing.

Miss Gallagher is a teacher from Benton Dene Primary School. She is a samba drummer and she runs a samba club for the Year 6 pupils at Benton Dene. We interviewed her to find out a bit more about samba drumming.

What got you started

with samba drumming?

I started to play the

drums when I was

little and my school

got a grant for musical

instruments so I decided

to start a samba

drumming club.

Q:A:

What skills do you need to be a samba drummer?A good sense of timing and good listening. You should work well in a team, have big muscles and a good sense of fun.

By George McKenna and Zoe Willcock

Du Du Tucci

Q:A:

Q:A:

What other things have

the samba club done?

The samba band has

performed at the City

Hall, Whitley Bay

Playhouse, the ‘Make

Poverty History’ concert,

school celebrations and

at the Mouth of the Tyne

Festival.

11

Our Community

Jigsaw

Family

Mam

Dad

Grandma

Granddad

Cousin

Aunty

Uncles

Niece

School

Teacher

Friend

Dinnerstaff

Lollipop warden

Shopkeeper

Fireman

Church School

Bus driver

Youth clubs

When we first started thismagazine we were told the topicwould be about ‘community’. Whenwe sat down as a group and talked about what community was, we all had different ideas.

It’s a really difficult word to explain! So we wanted to show you some of the different people we came up with that make our community whole. What better way to do it than a jigsaw!

12

Community

JigsawNephew By Zoe Willcock and

Jasmine Paterson

Cleaner

Speech therapistSpeech

therapist

Occupational therapist

Counsellor

Support staff

Fireman

Policeman

Families

Friend

Pet

Clubs

Bus driver

13

Doing our bit

Why is charity important in a community?Charities are important in a community. People raise money to help other people who are not as fortunate as them. We like to see happy faces and help people, so in school we support charities. We support a range of charities.

Mrs Taylor works a lot with the school in Africa that we support. Mrs Taylor did an assembly about the work they do to help the children in Africa. She told us that in Africa some of the children are really poor and don’t go to school. They have to go to work instead. Some of the children who do go to school don’t receive a good education because the school can’t afford books, stationery and food and their classrooms are small and dirty. The children often have to walk a long way to school and the school finds it difficult to raise enough money to give them dinner. Their dinner is important at school because it might be their only meal.

We raise money to give the school so they can feed the children and buy books and stationery. The Gambia

FundWhen we moved into our new school and

became part of Benton Dene we got new

uniforms. Our old Goathland uniforms were

donated to children in an African school. They

were thrilled with them.

We recycled and helped children in Africa too!

HarvestFestivalEach year we collect food at harvest time and

give it to people in the community who might

need it.

DiabetesOne of our Tag Mag team has a sister with diabetes. Her family does fundraising for diabetes. Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK.

MacmillanOn Friday 30th September Benton Dene

school arranged a coffee morning. Mrs

Dickinson has said that she was very proud of

the children in Blue 5 (class), for helping her

to make the cakes for the coffee morning. Mrs.

Stock had said that she wanted to support

Macmillan because the Marie Curie nurses do

a very good job taking care of people.

Children with diabetes organized a fundraiser on 14th November 2011. All donations go to buying new equipment for the diabetes department in the hospital.

Each year the hospital holds a world diabetes day on the 14th November. Diabetes is a lifelong health condition which can’t be cured. There was also a fundraising day on the 12th of November 2011 at the St Andrews church. The money went to the hospital to buy new equipment for the diabetes department.

14

SchoolBenton Dene

By pupils at Benton Dene School

Every Friday afternoon in Benton Dene School, key stage 2 pupils have ‘clubs’. During the last hour of school we all get to choose a club that we are interested in. Some of the clubs are multi-skills, trampolining, Capoeira and football.

We have recorded some interviews to let you know about our clubs.

We go swimming every week to the Lakeside Centre in Killingworth. This is what some of us think about it.

“I have only just started to swim in

the big pool and I love it.”

“I go in the big pool. I swim very fast.

I like jumping in the water.”

“I like the big pool. I swam without a woggle in the big

pool after two weeks. I used to go in the little pool. I don’t like going underwater.”

“My favourite thing is swimming underwater. A

shark fin helps keep me safe in the water in the big pool. I am trying to learn to swim. I have fun and I like it.”

“I like swimming and I am a good swimmer. I do not like

it when swimming is finished. I always want to stay in for more.”

15

Makaton?Makaton is a different way to communicate. It is used with a wide range of children as well as adults who have learning difficulties and communication problems. They use signs and symbols alongside speech, they also use hand gestures.

NewsOn Friday 7th October, Zoe and Jasmine went to a class in Benton Dene School to learn a bit of Makaton. In the lesson they made cakes, played hairdressers, doctors and vets. They also learned a few signs such as: cake, biscuit, beautiful, sign, airplane, disco, play and many.

InfoIn Benton Dene, we also have a lot of

children who communicate in different ways

because they have different needs. They use

Makaton to communicate, so it is really useful

for us in Benton Dene to know some of the

signs, so we can talk to children who use

Makaton alongside speech.

By Zoe Willcock and Jasmine Paterson

To find out more about Makaton, you could look on the website www.makaton.org

This sign means biscuit

This sign means hello

This sign means

thankyou

What is

16

ParksPerfect

We are lucky in our local area to have lots of nice parks. Longbenton Park has big play equipment, Rising Sun has walks and nature, Killingworth Park is great because you can feed the swans and ducks, Springfield Park has climbing frames and the Oval Park has outstanding play equipment.

The Rising Sun is very important because it is a conservational park with loads of interesting facilities. No builders are allowed on it so it will be there forever. There will always be green land there and there will always be loads of formidable things to do there.

Children can make dens and fires, they can play in the park, there is a café , you can go fishing, you can fly kites, go orienteering and biking and go climbing. There is also a visitor centre and restaurant. You can also go on walks and visit the park wildlife and go sledging down the hills in the winter.

By David Nelson and Luke Edgar

We asked some people in our school what they thought of the Rising Sun Country Park and everyone had positive things to say about it.

Locky Vodden said that he thought it was “ very relaxing !”

Jonathan Bryant thinks it’s good that there’s green fields to play on. Me and Thomas Birdsey said “I just like the park.”

You can find out about the park at www.northtyneside.gov.uk or could call the park on (0191) 643 2241.We asked staff who work for North Tyneside Council about what they do to help in their community. Some work in parks, others work elsewhere.

Knock Knock.

Who’s there?

Thumping.

Thumping who?

Thumping green and

scary just crawled up your

trousers!What’s the difference

between a firemen and a

soldier?You can’t dip a firemen in a

boiled egg! 17

Get on your bike!We are so lucky in North Tyneside to have the Waggonways. The network is huge and means you can get nearly everywhere in the borough on foot or on a bike!

We asked Paul Adams (who works for the Transportation team in North Tyneside Council) about cycling in the borough:

The number of people travelling by bicycle in North Tyneside has more than doubled over the last few years!

So why are so many people taking to two wheels? And why might it be time for you to get the bike out of the garage and join them?

One reason is the attraction of our traffic-free cycle paths. A number of years ago now, the council received funding to transform our network of old train routes (used for transporting coal in the 19th Century) into better routes for cyclists.

In the Longbenton area, for example, cyclists can enjoy routes (that mostly miss roads!) up through Killingworth and on to the Weetslade Country Park, or in another direction you can ride through the Rising Sun Country Park and down to the Tyne where the route connects the Newcastle Quayside to Tynemouth and the Coast!

Wherever you want to go in North Tyneside – be it school, work, shopping, or leisure trips to our many attractions – there is a great route to get you there by bike. All the routes are available to explore using the FREE North Tyneside Cycle Map, which you can download from the council website (http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse.shtml?p_subjectCategory=588) or you can get a paper copy by contacting the Transportation Team on (0191) 643 6125 or emailing cycling@northtyneside.gov.uk

18

By Luke Forster

Get on your bike!

Cycling is important in the community because it keeps you healthy, and it reduces pollution. Cycling training is good because it helps people ride safely on the road and helps to prevent accidents.

The ‘Bikeability’ course is headed by Graham Keefe, the coach. It is designed to help people to ride safely on a bike.

First we learnt how to do the ‘M’ check, to make sure our bike is safe to ride. Then we practised having one hand on the handle bar so we can indicate.

Then we headed out onto the road to practise left turns so we cycled out of school and got to a junction. Later we did some U turns. Finally we practised the hardest turn, the left turn, on the main road.

Level 1

Level 2

The ‘Bike ability’ course

Why is cyclingimportant in a community?

In year 4 we did a cycle campaign protesting for a new cycle route down Hailsham Avenue. We walked down to the shops and back waking up everyone still asleep. We succeeded and got a new cycle path down Hailsham Avenue.

The year 4 cycle path campaign

Dear Governors of Longbenton Community College,

Campaign for a cycle lane

Benton Dene Primary School is a new school. Leading to our school is a new road and in front of our school is a huge car park .To keep cyclists safe in our school grounds there is a cycle lane on the new road and in the car park but this does not go up the busy street outside our school road. This is dangerous for children cycling and people walking.

We think that both cyclist and pedestrians will be safer if the cycle lane was extended.

We think you could help us. We would like you to send us a letter of support. We look forward to your reply,Amelia Armstrong and Sophie PatonFrom year 4 in Benton Dene Primary School

Did you hear about the two

men arrested for stealing

batteries and fireworks?

One was charged but the

other was let off!

Here is one of the letters we wrote to the Governors of Longbenton Community College, which is right next to our school. We were asking them for their support.

19

North TynesideDifferent Communities in

There are lots of things to do and places to go for children and young people who live in North Tyneside. We are really lucky! Because we talked about ‘communities’ and what they mean to us, we though we would look at some of the things in our community and see how the people who work there feel they are part of the local community.

“Parks are a special place where the community can meet and enjoy the natural surroundings. They are a place to play with your friends and make new ones. You can also learn about the variety of nature that lives so close to your house, but you often don’t see unless you explore. In parks you can learn about the history of a town, as many of them are very old. Richardson Dees Park was built in 1900 from an old pit – mining used to be the main income for many families in Wallsend around that time. Parks are a great place to hold events. The open spaces and, of course the sun, make them great for summer fairs or winter snowball fights and sledging. The community can volunteer at parks to learn new skills and plant new flowers, helping each other to improve one big garden for everyone to enjoy. Maybe that is the best way to describe a park, like a big community garden where you can play, relax, walk, learn and get out of the house to be with your friends and nature.”

Carl McCleanWallsend Parks Manager

“We provide a range of safe, enjoyable and exciting places to play close to where children live. We involve children and their communities in the planning and design of playsites and parks, meaning they are valued and that they are what children and young people want and need in their own community. We are also writing a new ‘policy’ which will mean North Tyneside Council (and others, called partners) are promising to develop a play friendly borough, where there are lots of things to do and places to go for all children and young people.”

Keith HardyPlay and Urban Games Manager

“Parks are at the heart of the community for

leisure, recreation, healthy living and play. It is

important that young people take an active role

in how these areas are shaped and developed

to continue to make them both a fun and safe

destination for everyone. Anyone who wants

to get involved with a park group, or give their

views on a particular park, can look at the parks

site on the council webpage!”

Pixie Beattie Parks Development Officer

“North Tyneside Council has teamed up

with Sport England and local community

organisations to create Sport North Tyneside.

This initiative will help North Tyneside residents

get fit and healthy in their local communities.

This forms part of the council’s Widening

Horizons 4 Sport programme.

Sport North Tyneside can help you get involved

in sport in many different ways. Visit our website

www.sportnorthtyneside.org.uk and you can

find out which sport or leisure activity is for

you, make friends by joining a sports club or find

volunteering opportunities in your community.”

Darren Greco Widening Horizons 4 Sport Project Officer

20

ChangeAgents for

Agents of change is a programme about taking an interest in our community. The organisers are trying to make it better and letting people know what they do makes a difference. They started the scheme because lots of people in the community have been doing really good things and we want to recognise it. We interviewed Karen Brown, the leader of the scheme, to find out some more.

What is the scheme about?

We are starting in foundation stage . It’s about

taking an interest in the community. Trying to

make it better and letting people know what to

do to make a difference.

A great example…Being a good member of the community is all about doing kind things for other people.

Three of the boys from our school, Locky Vodden, Lee Robson and Jack Thompson have been excellent members of the community. Lee and Jack found a ferret outside Longbenton shops so they went into the shop and they asked for a cardboard box. They then put the ferret in the box. They went to the flats to ask if it belonged to anyone. When they didn’t have any luck they returned to the shop, with the ferret. A woman was standing outside the shop and said she’d take the ferret in until the owner was found. The next day Jack and Lee were talking about what had happened at school. Their friend, Locky Vodden, said he thought he knew who the owner was. He asked and it was a teacher from Benton Dene Primary. She was very, very happy. She gave each of the boys a chocolate as a reward for their help.

By Luke Forster and Oli Edgar

What will you do to encourage pupils to make a change? We’ve come up with an award per year group that children can work towards. It’s to do with raising money and inviting people into the school and we’re working together.

Doctor! Doctor! I think I’m

shrinking.

Well take these tablets

but you’ll have to be a

little patient.

21

At Benton Dene we have a school council. School councillors organise events for the school and think about what the school needs. School councillors help look after the equipment at break times. They organise events and find out what their class needs. They discuss any school issues in their meetings and help run the shoe box appeal.

Every year, each class has a class vote. The school councillors in Year 6 had been chosen by presenting a speech about what they would do if they were a school councillor. They would be picked if they were popular, but most of all they would be picked if they set a good example to the whole school and if the teachers trust them to be good role models, being responsible and sensible.

School councillors are really important because the children should be involved in having a say. They organise things and give feedback in meetings and discuss this with the others.

School councillors teach us to be a member of the community by helping people to understand the importance of making the right choices and being responsible.

Our school

By Diya MartinCouncil

Did you hear about the

pregnant bed-bug?

She is having her babies in

the spring!

22

The sporting

communityWhy is sport important in a community?Sport is important because it helps you get fit. It teaches you about a healthy lifestyle. You meet new friends and learn about good sportsmanship.

We enjoy lots of sports in school. We do football, karate, skipping, dancing, netball, zumba, rugby, gymnastics, trampolining, athletics and a whole range of other sports.

Football is good in our community because it’s good fun to watch and it keeps you fit .

Chris Kirk is a young, talented long jumper with an outstanding personal best of 7m 93, set in 2008. He has been involved in many different competitions, including world and European under-23 championships . Fortunately for us, he comes every Monday to deliver a fitness class for teachers at Benton Dene and Luke Edgar and David Nelson were able to interview him . He wants to take part in the 2012 Olympics. We interviewed Sam, aged 10, a gold medallist who does karate in our school. He loves karate and goes every Tuesday morning.

Sam thinks karate is important in our community so we can defend ourselves and enjoy competitions in later life. Sam has also won a silver trophy. Since karate started, three years ago, a lot of children in our school have been trying to take on karate. The Sensei Lee and Hannah have brought children on visits and trips and taken Sam with them. Sam says he has been from Newcastle to Whickham High School. We asked him if he would recommend karate and he said yes, as it could be a good hobby for anyone in their spare time. His favourite thing about karate is being with his friends and travelling with the club.

Sam goes to Kensho Karate Club at school and has become very good. We asked Sensei Lee how he got started with karate and he said his mum encouraged him to start at school. Since then he has travelled all over the world, entering competitions and teaching children.

KarateSports in school

Football

Olympics

By Luke Edgar, David Nelson, Martha Wylie and Meghan Ritchie

23

We wanted to find out how children in ‘early years’ learn about their community.

Foundation Stage were finding out about older people in the community. They had a Grandparents’ Day where they invited their grandparents into school to show them around and ask them what life was like when they were little.

The children told us how they learnt that school wasn’t much fun for them and if they were naughty they would get whacked with a ruler (or even a cane)!

They were very surprised there was no ASDA in those days and they didn’t like the fact that there was no Pizza Hut either!

The children were disgusted by the fact there was no TV! They soon got over it when they realized their grandparents had to wash themselves in metal baths outside! In those days there were old-fashioned radiators and it was always rather cold in the winter.

Foundation Stage have been on walks around the local area. They went to look at their houses and other places in the community.

I went down to Mrs. Stapleton’s class and Year 1 to find out what they thought about the community. These are their comments:“I like drawing at school and I have lots of friends to play with.”“The park is great fun as there is a climbing frame and the swings.” Our Metro is good for travelling in a fast and cheap way. It’s also good for people who don’t have a car or a bus stop nearby.

Agents for

ChangeBy Martha Wylie and Della Murray

Grandparents’ Day

Walks around thelocal area

They said there was quite a lot of rubbish and it really needed a clean because they couldn’t play in their garden because people dropped rubbish in it. Our community needs a clean!

The children stated that there were quite a lot of shops and there was a big chance to buy sweets and ice-creams.

Lots of the cars they saw all made smelly fumes. This was not a very good smell!

24

Special? By Luke Forster, Ellen O’Brien and Della Murray

What makes our school special?

What does community mean to you?

“Our school is special because there are windows on the roof”

Cole Caven, age 5

“Our school is special because we have houses”

Zorah, age 6

“The new areas like the pond, it’s very relaxing”

Jack, age 11

“Lots of different areas, two schools, zones”

Holly, age 8

“It has lots of clubs” Charlotte, age 7

“The ICT suite” Emily B, age 9

“The space we get” Evie P, age 8

“I like the fobs” Matthew O’Brien, age 8

“Lots of rooms” Esme, age 8

“All of the play equipment” Jamie, age 8

“We are linked with another school”

Emily Rooney, age 9

“Because it is colourful, it’s like a rainbow”

Luke Devlin, age 8

“Fun clubs” James, age 8

“On trips in Year 5 and 6, you can stay overnight”

Pawan, age 8

“Lots of competions” Maddie, age 9

“The great education” Evie P, age 8

“The teachers” Catleyn, age 7

“Having a cookery room” Emily B, age 9

“Being with people I know” Mrs Rooney

“Everybody living together comes together”

Mrs Smith

“Where people learn things” Aaron, age 8

“It’s where you are and the things around you, like houses,

parks, shopping centres” Luke Devlin, age 8

“The local area” Pawan, age 8

“The local area” Emily B, age 9

“The schools” Harvey H, age 8

“The local area” Sophie Briggs, age 8

“The public” Evie P, age 8

“The local area” Catleyn, age 7

“I like where I live because it’s quiet, my children can play

out safely, good neighbourhood watch”

Mrs Batey

“It’s handy for everything, next to family”

Mrs Rooney

What do you like about where you live?

What makes our school

25

Si l l yNow for something

By Martha Wylie

What if...

Try to come up with some answers! They will be really funny, so jot them down and you can remember the funny things!26

Monkeys were normal pets...

You could travel to space by car, train,

bus, cycle or by foot in 20 minutes…

Miley Cyrus was a gorilla...

Monsters were real…

We had no vitamin C…

You could see what was

going on in heaven…

There was no such word as NO…

There was no government…

Cows went on holiday…

Everything was free and money meant nothing…

Children didn’t have to go to school…

Your hands were on your back…

There was no number 1…

Space was a normal

holiday place…

There were no babies…

Walls could talk…

There were no baddies in the world…

You could be any age you wanted to be, for however long you wanted…

Why is Dracula so

unpopular?

Because he’s a pain in the

neck!

Animals spoke English…

Time didn’t exist…

How do you do!

Credits

Games

North Tyneside Council would like to thank each and every member of the editorial team at Benton Dene Primary School.

Thanks to Meghan, David, Sam, Martha, Oliver, Zoe, Jasmine, Chloe, Jessica, George, Luke E, Luke F, Fae, Ellis C, Leo, Ellen, Diya, Jack Mc, Jack W and Della. Well done! You all worked extremely hard and should be very proud!

The editorial team would like to thank Mrs Lindsay, Mrs McCallister and Mrs Rutherford for all of their support and encouragement throughout the creation of the magazine.

Special thanks go to the staff and pupils at the school, and the staff across North Tyneside who contributed to the magazine.

And now for something a little Christmas-y!

A wordsearch!

Santa, Christmas, Jesus, Angel, Baubles

Tinsel, Chocolate, Presents, Stocking

Elves, Snow, Gloves

By Jasmine Paterson and Ellen O’Brien

Can you work out what words these muddled up letters make? yonitmmcu

.....................ports

.....................olacl

.....................shoocl

..................... 27