Fire Fit March 2020
Fire Fit is a six week fitness course where the children learnt about healthy eating, fire safety and teamwork. On the last week, they performed a passing out parade and lots of their parents came to watch them. This is the second time we have attended and we are hoping to attend again.
World Book Day March 5th 2020!
This year's theme is to "share a million stories". Sharing a story is being read to or reading with an adult, sibling, friend or pet. This can take place at any time throughout the day - from breakfast till bedtime, whether at the breakfast table, on the bus, in the bath, or in bed.
This week we have held events to celebrate reading; these have included, Mrs Walsh reading 'Witches' by Roald Dahl to her after school reading club, as well reading an extract in an assembly, showing us how truly devilish the Grand High Witch really is. Mr Richardson read 'Slog's Dad' by David Almond with Years 5 & 6. He also told the story of 'Hanzel and Gretel' to children and their grown-ups in his own animated and imaginative way. One parent commented, "you captured the children’s attention with your story telling...”all from memory”, with your funny voices and great interaction with the children"
We had a fantastic day celebrating authors, illustrators, books and most importantly celebrating ourselves as readers! Even the school staff joined in.
Our World Book Day Author Visit - March 2020
Frank Cottrell Boyce is an accomplished, successful and award-winning author and screenwriter. His books have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children's Fiction Award (now the Costa Book Award) and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and Millions, his debut children's novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2004.
Millions was was later turned into a film by Danny Boyle and it features in the Book Trust’s 100 Best Books List for 9-11 year olds.
Frank is also a successful writer of film scripts and was the official scriptwriter for the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, playing an important role devising the ceremony with Danny Boyle. He is also a judge for the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition.
He has also created a fantastic trilogy, written with his trademark wit, warmth and sense of story, based upon Ian Fleming's novel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, comprising Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon.
When Frank came to Dalton School, we were lucky enough to hear about where he gets his ideas from for his stories, as well as reading some extracts from his books, Run Away Robot and Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth. We were so interest in Frank and we were delighted when he agreed to take part in a 'question and answer' session. For those children who bought one of his books - some even bought four or five, he did a book signing, which the children loved and appreciated.
He gave the children some valuable advice too from Einstein,
"If you want to be clever, read fairy stories.
If you want to be really clever, read lots of fairy stories."
Our Question and Answer Session with Frank Cottrell Boyce:
Q: Which was the first book you wrote?
A: Millions
Q: Who inspired you to write Damien from Millions?
A: I wanted to write about a boy who was good because there are lots of stories about boys who are bad.
Q: Why did you become a writer?
A: At school, I wasn't good at anything. It happened when I was in Year 6, when my best friend was away from school sick so that day I put all my effort into a piece of work. The teacher collected in my work and she read it out to the rest of the class. Everyone laughed in all the right places. Words are something that you can be good at. If you use the right words you can make people laugh and cry.
Q: What is your next book?
A: I have just started on it. It's a science fiction story where mobile phones and satellites stop working and there is no wifi.
Q: How long did it take to write Sputnik?
A: I wrote it quite quickly. I thought about it in the car with my daughter. It took a year to write.
Q: What would your top items be to save the earth?
A: Gravity, family, words and weather.
Q: Where did you get the ideas about the Saints?
A: My friend was very ill. Everyone knows the names of Saints but people have forgotten the stories about them and I think they're brilliant.
Q: What was it like to be part of the Olympic Opening Ceremony?
A: I worked on it as the 'writer' for two years alongside five other people. All the skills I used were skills that I learnt when I was in Year 6.
Kirkheaton Arts Festival - May 2019
Being part of the community is really important to Dalton School, so we were thrilled to be invited to exhibit some of our amazing artwork at a local church.
The work included homework projects based on the topic 'Titanic' as well as artwork linked to topic work such as the 'Vikings' and 'Rain Forests'.
Lots of visitors to the church commented on how good they thought the children's work was. We couldn't agree more!
WORLD BOOK Day (March 7th 2019)
Today we enjoyed dressing up as some of our favourite characters from our favourite books. Even the teachers joined in!
