On Friday the 16th of December 2016 GEMS had a Christmas Fair. There were lots of stalls by all the classes in GEMS. Some stalls were: Guess what’s in the sock by 5SL; Save Santa by 5RM; Pick a Stick by 5ER, and much, much more. There were lots of raffles as well, including a Wine Raffle, a Chocolate Raffle, and even a Teddy Raffle. Over 350 people attended. £1900 was raised at the event.
On Tuesday the 23rd the Newcastle Eagles came into the school. They put all the year five classes into four groups. Every class was allowed in every one of the activities.
One of the activities was the water activity were you learned about water and how it helps you. We all got a booklet which we had to fill in. We also played a game of water bingo were you had to answer the question correctly.
On the 11th of January some Year 5s went to Sport Central to take part in a basketball tournament. They were very excited and could not wait to get into the game.
On the 10th of January a time traveller came into school and everyone in Year 5 went to meet her. She brought along her friends from the Ancient Maya civilisation. But, by accident, she brought the Spanish conquistador, the leader of the Spanish invaders who tried to conquer the Maya. The person she brought on purpose was an old lady
Everyone is familiar with the usual Valentine’s Day tradition of sending cards and giving gifts to the special person in our life that we love. However, this year our take on Valentine’s Day at GEMS was rather different. We were asked to think about our friends and classmates and what we appreciate about them and like about them. We then wrote our thoughts on cut-out hearts which are now displayed in the school foyer so that we can ….spread the love!
On the 3rd February, five year seven children and Mrs Leahy went to see the Scottish Ballet’s performance of a childhood classic fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.
On Wednesday the 25th of January, thirty year sixes went on a trip to the Tyne Theatre to a Lambton Worm Workshop. When we got there we went into the auditorium (where plays are performed) and were shown to our seats. We then did some interesting physical warm ups, including shaking our arms, hands and shoulders. We also did some vocal warm ups which included meowing like a cat! Next, we started practising the lyrics for the Lambton Worm song in parts. There were about 7 parts to the song, (not including the chorus) and we practised them all.
On Friday 27th January 2017, students from the maths sets 8.1, 8.2 and 7.11 attended a maths fair at the Centre for Life in Newcastle. There was a range of activities and puzzles to immerse ourselves in, such as making sausage dogs out of balloons and using maths in stargazing.
Some pupils from all the year groups at GEMS went to see an inspirational film on Thursday 9thFebruary called ‘Hidden Figures’. It is a film about three African-American women named: Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson who worked at NASA during the launch of John Glenn into orbit.
On different days of the week, Year 6 went to the Creative Writing Centre at Live Theatre to take part in a Live Tales Writing Workshop. We started with a warm-up game where we walked around the area and when the leader called out a command (go, stop, clap and jump), we had to follow the order.
Year 6 had a visit to Durham Cathedral on the 17th and 18th of January. We went to learn about Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon period, and how it spread around the North East of England.
The Key is a student independent project which encourages students to work together and develop skills that they will later use in life. Through providing funding, it lets groups of girls and boys organise a variety of fun and community based activities and develop some important skills in the process. Groups need to organise an activity and pitch it to the Key Committee in the hope that they will be given a grant of £250.
