Year 2 had a busy day learning about Japan on Monday! We covered lots of skills in geography and art!
Alia has been learning many life skills since the lock down was announced. She has taken part in several activities including making hand sanitizers, slime, salt dough, baking, cooking. She has been on many walks along the beach and in different parks. We also bought a paddling pool during the lovely weather we have had and Alia had absolutely loved playing in the water!
She tried to fast during Ramdan. She would fast from sweets .. or from food for an hour.. she did a great job. She received a lovely present at Eid. The tandem pram she wanted for her dolls.
Alia is enjoying BBC Bitesize Daily Lessons and Oxford’s Reading Owls. We are trying to get her into TTRS.. she now seems to be interested as she found out there is a competition going on! We have some books from National Geographic’s ‘Little Kids Big Book of..’ series and she absolutely loves reading those.
On Saturdays she does her Arabic homework through an online platform. Her Arabic teacher has been very impressed so far.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays she has her Islamic education online classes and she is performing really well.
Alia and I are over the moon with her school report. She read it to us and the smile never left her face!
After reading what is required from her ‘next’.. we decided to work on her handwriting as recommended. She practiced a little bit this morning .. then came to me and said: “mammy, can I write long sentences?”. I told her that she could but the exercises are arranged in a way to help her build up to a full sentence .. she went away for a few minutes and came back .. “mammy, this is boring.. can I write a story? Please?”. Attached is Alia’s own writing.. no help at all from anyone. This is the original paper.. there were a few spelling and punctuation mistakes.. which we worked on together. Little did I know she was trying to prove that her writing has already improved!
I would also like to let you know that there was a national children khutbah competition organised by Newcastle Central Mosque. Khutbah is a speech about any topic in Islam. Alia won third place. She received a certificate and many other gifts. 
Daniel and Lucy had a big surprise tonight when they went to meet our new puppy! She is only 3 weeks old at the moment and will be coming to live with us on 25th July. We are all over the moon and very excited. We have lots of names lined up, we just have to agree on one! We wanted to share our exciting news with you.
Emily and her family have been set the task of doing something creative to commemorate VE Day. Here is their amazing poem:
Ode to Our Heroes
Hitler had ambitious plans
For German’s to have more living space,
He wanted to unite all German speakers,
And create his Aryan race.
He resented the Treaty of Versailles,
Because Germany accepted the blame,
He ignored it to increase the size of his army,
So that he could continue with his reign.
Britain and France turned a blind eye,
As they were recovering from the First World War,
Then Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia,
Which they continued to ignore.
Germany went on to take Poland,
As Hitler was feeling so smug,
Britain and France had to declare war,
To halt this brutal thug!
But there was no stopping Hitler,
He invaded Denmark and Norway,
His tactics were barbaric,
Causing Europe to dismay!
In 1940 he blitzed Great Britain,
By bombing major cities at night,
The British people blocked up all their windows,
So German pilots had no light.
Germany bombed Britain’s food ships,
In Hitlers pursuit of power,
Causing the British people to ration food,
Such as sugar, bacon and flour.
Children were sent to the countryside,
In an attempt to keep them safe,
Parents did not know who was taking care of them,
So they had to have a lot of faith!
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour,
Then America joined the fight,
To help to put a stop to Hitler,
And end all this misery and strife.
Germany had conquered most of Europe,
Until the Allies planned D-Day,
They attacked Germany on Normandy beaches,
Which altered the state of play.
The Allies grew from strength to strength,
Making the German army retreat,
In 1945 they marched into Germany,
Hopeful that Hitler they would greet.
But when he knew he’d lost the war,
Hitler took his own life,
Many of his supporters followed him,
Including his future wife.
Seventy-five years have now gone by,
Since the Allies won the war,
Up to eighty-five million lost their lives,
But what was it all for?
I hope it has showed us how to respect,
Our neighbours, friends and foes,
To celebrate our differences,
And forget about our egos.
Thank you to all of the heroes,
Who fought for you and for me,
So that we could have a better life,
And live peacefully and trouble free.
By Emily Mordue (Aged 11) and her family.
Just a little update on how Harry and Zoe have been getting on. They have been missing their friends, but also enjoying working on the school projects. They have both made a ‘Great Fire of London’ model where their favourite part was making the oobleck river. Blue food colouring does not come out easily by the way!
And we all congratulate you on your new non hair style, for a very good cause.
Hope you are all safe and well.
Dan and Lucy have been keeping busy during lock-down. We’ve been going on lots of walks in our local area. It’s been nice enjoying what we are lucky to have on our doorstep! We’ve had a teddy bears picnic in the garden and Lucy has learned to ride her bike without stabilisers, Bradley Wiggins, watch out!! Dan has discovered his dinosaurs again and has been busy creating various ‘Dan’s Dino World’ and teaching mom and dad lots of new facts. Lucy enjoyed her online dance class and has opened her nail bar and doll Salon which was lots of fun and of course Dan is never far from a football, keeping his skills up. We had a family colouring competition to design your own football kit and team name (a work in progress!), getting our friends and family to vote on Facebook – mom and dad were joint winners! We’re keeping up with Maths, English and reading and going to start our class family projects. We hope you are all ok and miss our St Oswalds family. Stay safe,
The Longstaff’s xxx
Thank you so much Ella for the lovely things you have made for the people still at school. They came through the post and melted our hearts. Another sign of Koinonia!!
Anna wanted to send her diary entry. Worked alone 90% of the time.
Keep your child’s phonics on track with daily phonics lessons! from Monday 27th April, the DFE will be providing 12 weeks of Summer term lessons using our in school phonics programme. Tune in to find out more! 
https://www.youtube.com/
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Myself and Joe have been on more bike rides and walks down the coast
. We have continued taking part in virtual quizzes and bingo across the week with our family and friends. When I haven’t been working I’ve been spending time in the garden and reading, which I love to do
️. We’ve also got some board games out, my personal favourite being Cluedo
🏻. I’ve been volunteering with my family at Hebburn Helps, delivering food parcels which has been very rewarding 🥰. Take care and stay safe everyone
Miss Booth
