After a long coach journey, Year 5 finally arrived there and made their way to the special base were they saw a slide show of our Solar system. The children asked the mad professor, Paul, lots of questions and he answered every single question correctly. The children then split into two groups; they were called Mars and Jupiter. Then they were ready to start their mission!

Jupiter first started their mission by going to the mission control room. They sat down at a computer to start the first mission which was landing an alien on the Moon safely. None of the children successfully landed the alien but they all gave it a good go!

Next the children had to shoot as many asteroids as they possibly could. Joshua Shode won in Jupiter and Ella Daley won for team Mars. The children then had a race to put the planets of the Solar System in order. Niamh Hegarty won for Jupiter and we have mentioned Ella Daley, the winner for Mars, before.

Next the children went to the planetarium were they all talked about the planets with another member of staff called Bernard. They found out many amazing facts!

The children then had lunch and watched a movie about what it was like in a spacecraft. They saw people floating in the air; there were people throwing juice and eating drops of it in the air too!

Back into groups, the children were  launched into space and landed in the mission control centre on  the Moon! First of all, they all went into the science lab and sat down at a computer. They had to complete a sheet were they got the answers from the computers they were working on. After that we had to launch a rocket with the correct supplies to make it go higher than 28 metres.

The final part of the mission involved entering into a control room. The children went to the robot control room in which they played with different robots and saw how to control a robot’s arm by picking up various items like a rock or a pin. They soon saw a controlled car which automatically stopped when there an object is placed in front of it. Following this the children put on some space suits (there were lots of excited children) to go out onto the Moon’s surface to do some alien catching! The children took them down one by one and successfully caught all of them before packing up and heading back for the Star Centre. Unfortunately due to fuel loss, the children had to para-shoot back to the base loosing a few of the class members initially. Thankfully the group managed to bring them back to safety and transform them back to living children.

The trip ended with a celebration ceremony to say well done for winning in the mission control centre.

Now after that long, tiring day the views of Ellie Porteus and Jack Haslope from Class 5 were sought. Ellie said, “I thought it was really interesting and my favourite part of the day was when we filled the worksheets in and scored 100% in my first one and 90% in my second one.” Jack commented, “I thought that it was awesome because you get to learn about space on the computers we used, and why Pluto is classed as a dwarf planet.”

Year 5 had an amazing day at the Star Centre and it will be a school trip to remember for a lifetime!

Niamh Hegarty and Yasmin Coe, Year 5

Links:

http://hullchildrensuniversity.com/

http://www.leedscitycollege.ac.uk/index.php/services-projects/star-centre/

First the children were put into teams and given 10 minutes to make as many snowballs as possible.

Then the children took aim and fired the snowballs at hoops of different distances. For the closest hoop, 1 point was given and for the furthest away 3 points were awarded.

The winning team gained a massive 19 points. We are sure that all children not only improved their aiming and throwing skills but also has a huge amount of fun in the snow.

Skalla the Skald invaded Victoria Dock Primary School last Tuesday and Wednesday and showed a less vicious side to the Vikings. The children were amazed to see a real life Viking and some were given the chance to dress up in authentic style clothing. The children were then divided into two families and Sigwulf gave Frey the key to his worldly possessions and they were married. A tradition that seemed to amuse the children, especially when they learnt that children became adults and were married by the age of 11- no too long to go then.

Sigwulf and Frey

The children then handled Viking furs and artefacts such as horns and bone instruments, in order to guess their origin and use- some of which were not easy to work out.

We can now only imagine what it was like during Viking  times, but Skalla brought some smellboxes for our imaginations to run wild. These included farm yards, apples, burnt wood and even urine, which strangely enough the children unanimously preferred, as it smelt like “aftershave”.

The highlight of the day was when the children learnt more about the vicious Viking’s reign of terror through battle. The children loved to hear stories about the weapons and even got the chance to handle a replica ‘nose picker sword’ and bow and arrow. A fabulous day was had by all and the children really relished the information given- especially History with the gross bits left in.

On Friday 3rd February Victoria Dock Primary School’s Choir competed in the annual Cottingham Music Festival performing a varied programme of music from different styles and musical periods. The Methodist Church, which packed to bursting point with children from across East Yorkshire, was filled with a nervous excitement in anticipation of the performances.

In the first class a total of eight schools competed, each performing two contrasting pieces. Victoria Dock Primary School’s Choir opened their set with a beautifully peaceful song by the 20th century composer Elizabeth Poston, ‘The Dormouse’s Carol’. Showing off their versatility, they went on to sing a traditional spiritual, ‘All Night, All Day’, complete with effective movements and superb piano playing by Mr Walster. After all the choirs had performed, the adjudicator, Gaynor Keeble, was greeted to the stage with a rapturous round of applause from the children and teachers in the Church, as well as supporters watching the show in the Church Hall via video link. Mrs Keeble had nothing but positive comments for Victoria Dock Primary School’s choir and out of the eight choirs, they came second.

The second class was Hymn Singing. Again, the standard of the choirs was extremely high. Victoria Dock Primary School’s choir sang a two-part version of ‘Cross Over The Road My Friend’ and were awarded third place in this class.

The final, and arguably the most difficult, was the ‘Unaccompanied Singing’ class in which Victoria Dock Primary School’s choir performed a beautiful rendition of ‘High Germany’, a folk song about a young man who has to leave his wife to fight in the war. The children’s singing was spectacularly moving and in this class the choir were awarded first place, an amazing but well-deserved reward following all of their hard work!

The whole afternoon was a resounding success and enjoyed by all. As well as enjoying being on the stage, listening to the other choirs sing and the hearing the adjudicator speak and comment on the performances was a superb learning experience for the children. Due to their success during the afternoon, The Victoria Dock Primary School choir has been asked to perform in the Prize Winner’s Concert on Saturday 3rd March.

They got there and back by travelling on two minibuses, a white Sirius Academy minibus and the blue Victoria Dock Primary School minibus. When they arrived in the morning they took their coats and bags off in the science lab (room number 177) and they firstly did some science. They were learning about reversible changes by dissolving salt in water and putting sand in the salty water. They then filtered the sand away from the water using: filter paper, funnels and beakers. Then they went in to one of many computer rooms where there’s a computer for one each. The were making posters about flying machines and the first men to fly and land safely. Year 6 really enjoy ICT!

Sirius Academy is an enormous and lovely building that is very shiny (outside) and very colourful (inside) and also very clean. There are lots of children that study there very hard and it’s just a great Academy to be in.

In the afternoon the children did some dancing in the large, professional dancing room. They were making sequences as groups of dance moves that are like aeroplanes. They all really enjoyed it very much and all of the different groups tried very hard.

The children will be going to Sirius Academy every Tuesday for the rest of their last primary school year at Victoria Dock Primary School, and can’t wait for the upcoming weeks.

Written by children in Year 6

On Thursday 26^th January two Year 6 pupils, Megan and Jiayuan, from Victoria Dock Primary School went to Hull College to judge at the School Chef Awards alongside four other judges.  The competing chefs were Audrey Harris (St. Bede’s Catholic School, North Lincolnshire) and Katherine Breckon (Westcliffe School,  Whitby). The two fantastic chefs cooked a two course meal using many different ingredients.

The menus included an Olympic themed menu of Tom Daley Turkey, Seb Coe Salad and Sir Steve Redgrave Rice from Katherine Breckon, and a ‘Grow Your Own’ themed menu of Tortilla Chicken Basket, Sauté Potatoes and Salad from Audrey Harris.

It was a tough decision which needed more than one taste to make sure, but it was decided that the ‘Grow Your Own’ menu was the winner due to better presentation. The winner will compete in the National Final at the NEC in Birmingham in May.  The judges (even the student judges) were interviewed by The Yorkshire Post and will be appearing on the website www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/videos.

Report by Megan Batterbee and Jiayuan Feng (Yea 6 pupils and Judges)

The squad of seven players arrived looking ready with a few nerves but full of confidence. The aim of the night was made quite clear: enjoy the event, encourage each other and do your best. If that means winning, even better.

Victoria Dock Primary School were first to play and the opposing team from Bilton have a great footballing reputation. The game started and chances were there for both teams to win it. Great goalkeeping from the Bilton number 1 kept out super efforts and Victoria Dock’s keeper, Lloyd, matched him at the other end. There were some silky passes and some back-heeled passes but the possession in Victoria Dock’s favour did not provide a deciding goal. First match over and both teams earned a point.

The next two matches resulted in draws for St. Thomas Moore and Cleeve (1-1) and Bilton and St. Richards (0-0). The group was looking as though it was going to be a tight one with all teams so far, matching each other.

Victoria Dock then entered onto the field of play again with St. Thomas Moore in red and black against them. The match was not so tight this time with a brace of goals from Tom Brown and Oliver McKee and a single goal from Joe Reeves putting the game well beyond STM. The 5-0 win for Victoria Dock was well deserved with a very disciplined defence being the foundation of an attacking style that was great to watch.

Cleeve then beat St. Richards 2-1 in the next game and Bilton beat STM 2-0. The results put Bilton top of the group but Victoria Dock had a game in hand. The starting line-up was again shuffled slightly to ensure the players all had time on the pitch. The previous 5-0 win must have given the team confidence as they went out and continued to pass the ball about, working from the back to take the lead. Lloyd in goal did no touch the ball once, something that showed the dominance that Victoria Dock had. The players worked hard for each other and the full-time whistle blew with Victoria Dock 3-0 winners (despite a missed penalty too). Victoria Dock were back at the top of the group.

St. Richards and STM then drew 1-1 before Bilton reclaimed top spot with a 2-0 victory over Cleeve. The last game between Victoria Dock and St. Richards was important – a win or draw would see Victoria Dock as winners.

The game began and Victoria Dock had some early chances. St. Richards attacked on the counter and Lloyd was busier than before. He still refused to throw the ball long in pursuit of total football. It worked well as Tom and Oliver at the back played nice football setting up Max up front. Oliver and Joe scored too and at 3-0 up, the group looked secure. St. Richards did press but the defence of Victoria Dock was solid and the victory sealed.

As group winners with 10 points, Victoria Dock progress to the Finals on Thursday 16th February.

On Thursday 12th January a team of Year 5 & 6 girls took part in a football tournament at the Bonus Indoor Arena.  After a nervous start which saw the girls lose their opening game 1 – 0 to Wold Primary, the girls quickly got into their stride and performed brilliantly to get a 4 – 0 victory over Gillshill Primary School.  Eladriana Njie scored a superb hat-trick in the win and was joined in the scoring by Sarah El-Sharkaway with a superb solo effort.

The girls were once again narrowly outdone in the third game and went down to another 1 – 0 defeat this time at the hands of  Neasden Primary but did not let their heads go down.  Knowing that a victory in the final game against Tilbury Primary could qualify them for the finals, the girls dusted themselves off and took to the field for the final match.  A solid display by the Victoria Dock girls led to its rewards when the they took a 1 – 0 lead through the free scoring Eladriana.  With only seconds left however the opposing team managed to grab an equaliser and earn a 1 – 1 draw thus meaning that they managed to qualify ahead of the Victoria Dock girls.

The team enjoyed the tournament and are looking forward to going a step further in the next tournament.

The school Table Tennis team won the Zone Finals to become North Eastern Regional Winners to add to the title of Humberside Champions. The team of five travelled to Billingham on Saturday 14th January and returned as Champions.

The pressure was on as the team arrived with the professional setup quite clear with new rules, umpires and opposition. Victoria Dock took on four different schools and won three matches and drew one, making them champions before the final match was played.

The results were:

Victoria Dock 5 – St. Columbia 3

Victoria Dock 8 – Holy Family 0

Scalby 0 – Victoria Dock 8

Wolviston 4 – Victoria Dock 4

The team will now travel to Blackburn for the next round on Saturday 25th February.

Well done to a great team of Year 4 and 5 children, competing against mainly Year 6 opposition. A big thank you should also go to Shane Bradley who coaches the team.

The team will now travel to Blackburn in the next stage.

The pupils travelled on Hull Trains and once in London, travelled by tube and on foot and altogether, went on three tubes and two trains.

Whilst in the National History Museum they saw sculptures of Dinosaurs. Emily Beadle, a Year 6 child said ” I enjoyed going to the National History Museum the most. Whilst I was looking  round the museum I took many pictures of dinosaurs to keep for in the future”.

Whilst the children were in the Houses Of Parliament they went in two very famous rooms – the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Following the tour, the children took part in a workshop where they learnt more about what an M.P. would do at work. Local Hull M.P. (Alan Johnson) came to talk to the pupils so they could ask him questions about him being a Member of Parliament (M.P.).

The full class had a great time! Faith Coombs said “I really liked the Houses of Parliament and the National History Museum. I couldn’t chose which one I liked the most because I loved it all!”  The Year 6 pupils loved London and hope to go again sometime.

Report by Megan Batterbee, Year 6.

The visit, organised in conjunction with Hull Children’s University and the ever-enthusiastic and positive Dr. John Buttrick is all about inspiring young people that there is a big world out there that everyone can access.

Related links:

http://hullchildrensuniversity.com