Great Dunmow

Gallery

Please find below some photographs from around the school and recent events 

Children in Need 2022

It was great to see the children wearing mixed up clothes and their pyjamas/onesies. The highlight of the day was the Children In Need assembly, where staff played the yes/no game and if they didn't refrain from saying yes/no for 90 seconds a selected child (at random) won the right to custard pie their chosen member of staff.

Sports Day 2022

The sun shone on our Sports Day this year and lots of fun was had by the pupils, their parents and the staff. 

Woodwork

The children in EYFS have been busy using tools to create their ambulances.

RED NOSE DAY 2022

Our special activity was to try and design a face that would make someone smile.  Each child in the school had an opportunity to design a face and the winner of the design for each class was allowed to paint the teacher in the class. 

Art Focus Week 2022

Here are a selection of photos showing the various activities that the children have been participating in during Art Focus week

Below are examples of

• Colours in Nature artwork Rotary competition
• Grandmother portraits for a local exhibition
• Stitching group (Yr5/6) and silk painting groups (Y3) with visiting local crafts people sharing their skills and expertise

Children in Need 2021

To celebrate Children In Need  today  staff took part in a special ‘chocolate challenge’ assembly in the hall.   Each class could nominate an adult for the challenge.  The adult was then blindfolded and had to guess the chocolate bar name.   If they were successful they got to eat the chocolate bar and select another adult for the ‘pie’ but if not they were pied themselves, unless the children selected to exchange the pie for a tub of chocolates.   Please see the amazing videos and pictures below

Sports Day - September 2021

Please see below pictures from our Sports day - it was amazing to see  the children enjoying the day and to see so many parents coming in to support them

2020/2021

Despite the Pandemic, we have tried to follow our 'Business as Usual' mantra and have still managed to participate in our WOW moments, support the local community during Harvest, we dressed up for Red Nose Day and even held our amazing Whole School Christmas Lunch. 

Please see a selection of photos below.

Year 3 Roman WoW Day 

Science Week 

Celebrating Euro 2020

Music Festival - March 2020

Year 3 went to Dunmow St Mary’s School for a day of workshops as part of their Music Festival. The Festival has been sponsored by Great Dunmow Round Table and ensured that the children experienced workshops from professional musicians and dance teachers.  The activities ranged from Indian Bollywood dancing to African drumming and a composition workshop as well as learning the Haka. Their behaviour was superb and many tutors commented favourably on their enthusiasm and effort.

Last Friday, Year 3 brought their History topic of the Romans to a finish with a ‘WOW’ day trip to Colchester Castle.

 This was a great opportunity for the children to act as archaeologists and investigate real finds from the Roman times.

They worked together to build a roundhouse and a Roman villa, as part of their activity session and had first-hand experience of trying to piece things together.

They also had a story tour under the castle and found out all about Boudicca and the events which happened in and around Colchester.

What a great time the children had in assembly this morning!  The raffling of the tickets for pie-ing was a great success although we don’t think the adults found it as much fun, however it was all taken in good humour.  The children also made such an effort in dressing up and raised £825, which is our highest total to date.  A big thank you to all the adults for joining in and making it a morning to remember.

Visit

On Thursday 20th June 2019 we had a very special visitor at the school, Mr Gavin Jones.  He is the Chief Executive Officer of Essex County Council and was keen to see how we managed our school dinners along with seeing how we source various items like using our vegetable plot with Mrs Casey.  He was very impressed with our school and the catering we offer.    He said we are lucky to have such a fabulous school.

March 2019

We think that the children all enjoyed Red Nose Day today and we sure did have some crazy redness going on!  We gave out some Red Nose Red Awards to some children that are consistently happy, funny, smiley and positive in class.  The Joke Off in the hall was a great success with some really funny (and some not so funny!) jokes! 

March 2019 - This week at school we have been focusing on Creative Arts. Throughout the week we have had a range of activities including an assembly, a visit from the Multi Story Theatre Company, an African Drumming session, A drama workshop by Scene 2 on Vikings and Christopher Columbus to Year 4 and Year 2 respectively, Indian dancing workshop for Year 5, an Australian Aboriginal dance workshop for Year 2, an art competition, a music showcase and a class swap, phew! We would like to say a big thank you to the staff, especially Mrs Andrews for her expert organisation, children and parents who have helped make it such a success!  

March 2019

World Book Day

February 2019 - For the last few weeks we have been preparing for the Primary Schools’ Public Speaking Competition.  All year 6 were invited to prepare a speech on the title ‘Why should we care about the environment now?’ and then auditioned to be part of the team.  All pupils made an impressive presentation and made it very difficult for the teachers to choose a team.  Annabel S was chosen as chairperson, Zoe L-R as the main speaker and Olivia D to give the vote of thanks.  They were also joined by some other year 6 pupils to help with the writing and drafting of the speeches, which showed impressive teamwork in the year group.  The competition took part at HRS last Tuesday night and we were delighted by the girls’ performance and the fact that they brought home the cup.  They spoke eloquently and with great confidence and we are very proud of their hard work.

Whole School Christmas Lunch 2018

Strictly Come Dancing   - Year 6    -  2018

Sikh Visit  2018

On Thursday, as part of the Religious Education provision, we were delighted to welcome to the school Mrs Kaur who is a member of the Sikh faith.  Mrs Kaur began by presenting an assembly to the whole school on the key beliefs of the religion and the celebrations that are undertaken for the birthday of Guru Nanak.  Mrs Kaur then spent time in some classes consolidating and extending the knowledge of the children.  In Year 4, she spoke about the 5Ks and some important ceremonies and in Year 1 she spoke about Guru Nanak and helped the children make some Sikh flags.  The children were fascinated by their sessions and had the opportunity to ask lots of questions.

We are really grateful to Mrs Kaur for giving up so much of her time and really bringing the children's learning to life.

Children in Need 2018

Wow!  There were many spots before our eyes today in aid of Children in Need with the children looking fantastic in a multitude of different outfits.  The children who had received the most dojo’s in their class were given the opportunity to paint spots on Mr Watts in assembly, this went down very well with the children.  The pupils and staff had a great time dressing up.  A fantastic amount of £454 has been raised so far....

Remembrance Week 2018

We have had a fantastic week remembering those who fought in WWI this week with the whole school using this as a focus.  The children have deepened their knowledge and understanding of the conditions that the fallen soldiers have endured and how their sacrifices have allowed us to have the lives that we have.  It has been an emotional and moving week in school remembering our relatives who were soldiers and this has really done justice to this important period in history.

R E Week

On Thursday afternoon, 4 children from across Year 3 and 4 joined together with other schools from the RE cluster group to take part in an afternoon of reflective activity. This is an essential part of the Essex ExploRE curriculum. The theme was nature and it's importance to all the world religions. The children produced art work in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, using only objects produce by nature. The children worked together cooperatively and were really absorbed in the task. There was plenty of time to discuss feelings, the calming effect of nature ant to experience a sense of awe and wonder.

Hopefully this will be the first of many collaborative events for the RE cluster group.

Year 5 went to the Aerozone at Stansted airport. They learnt interesting facts about the airport, the emergency equipment the Fire Brigade use, the role of a Ranger and they had front row seats to watch the planes taking off and landing.

Attached are some photos from our Sports Day

Year 6 spent a week in Bradwell recently on their residential trip.  They all had a fantastic time and enjoyed all of the activities they took part in.

This week our  curriculum focus was history with Mrs Russell organising our very own Great Dunmow Primary School museum with artefacts from the past.  Each class has been looking at a famous person form history as well as exploring the impact that they had.  Pupils were given the opportunity to make an artefact themselves from history and prizes were awarded to the pupils in assembly this morning.

On Thursday 15th March, four year 6 girls went to Felsted Secondary School to celebrate ‘Women in science.’ They completed a variety of science experiments throughout the day to develop their scientific skills and inspire them to think scientifically. In the Chemistry lesson, they made red cabbage indicator, using Bunsen burners, which they used to test the pH of different household liquids. The Biology lesson involved investigating meal worms’ food preference and there was even the opportunity to touch a snake! After a delicious lunch in the Lord Richie Dining Hall, we had a physics lesson which involved making rockets. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all of them – handling the snake and the Chemistry lesson were their highlights. The girls also confidently presented their scientific findings at the end of the Biology lesson. Hopefully they will be inspired to continue to enjoy science throughout the rest of Primary school and into Secondary school.Enter 

Last week at school we have been focusing on Engineering. Throughout the week we have had a range of Engineers that have visited the classes and shared their knowledge and experiences of engineering with the children.  As you may be aware the children have been creating either a shoebox or a motorised vehicle throughout the week. They have had to use and apply a range of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based skills. Each and every child has demonstrated these skills throughout the week and have grown in confidence when tackling these types of challenges. We are delighted with the way the children have taken part and the enthusiasm they have shown. All of the Engineers have commented on how impressed they have been with the children, not only with their practical work but also with their questions and engagement in their sessions. We would like to say a big thank you to the staff, children, Engineers and parents who have helped make it such a success!!

Mrs Ellis and Miss Shambrook.

We are really pleased that the new play equipment in EYFS has been passed fit for use!  This has been a long time coming and we really hope that the children have been coming home telling you about the fun they have been having on the equipment.  This will really help the children with their personal and social development as well as their physical development as well as having lots of enjoyment!

We were pleased to welcome Rev Lea, from St Mary's church to yesterday's assembly.

He led an interesting, interactive assembly and had a thoughtful message for the children.

We look forward to welcoming Rev Ruth to assembly after half term and to having some classroom sessions with both Rev Lea and Rev Ruth.

Last Saturday, our school Choir and Glee Club joined forces to sing together for the first time on stage in Great Dunmow for the annual Christmas Lights Switch On event.  It was amazing to see so many children make the effort to attend this performance, where they sang loudly and beautifully to an extremely large crowd.  They were all magnificent. 

On Thursday, the children were treated to an assembly about Buddhism which was lead by Jane, a member of the Brentwood Buddhist community. Our visitor told the story of how a prince became the Buddha and outlined the way in which Buddhist's try to live. She then lead the children and staff in some meditation whilst explaining its purpose.  Following on from the assembly, Jane then spent some time in Year 5, in order to follow up and extend the children's knowledge of Buddhism. They looked at artefacts and a home shrine and looked in more depth at certain aspects of Buddhism.  The children had the opportunity to ask questions and have been invited to the Buddhist mansion in Brentwood, which would be a very exciting end to their module of work.

On Thursday we held an assembly to celebrate Harvest.  We had a visit from the Reverend Ruth from St Mary’s Church who led the assembly.  We sang songs, listened to readings and celebrated the festival of Harvest.  Thank you to Mrs Casey and her willing volunteers who baked the Harvest bread.

This week has been science week and staff have planned a varied selection of activities for the children to investigate.  This included the visit of a planetarium for KS2, the Rocket Man for Years 4 and 5 and staff teaching other classes across the school. 

On Thursday morning we were pleased to welcome to the school Kashif Ahmad from the Braintree Islamic community. Mr Ahmad presented a, very informative, introduction to the Muslim faith to the whole school during assembly. He then spent time in Year 3 consolidating the work on Islam that the children have been learning about this term. The children enjoyed the visit and listened very enthusiastically to all that he had to say.

He was impressed with the behaviour of the children and the range of different questions which he got asked.

We hope to welcome Mr Ahmad back to the school for a follow up visit in the near future.

This week, three representatives from our Year 6, took part in the Helen Romanes public speaking competition.  Henry, Fergal and Samuel did fantastically well speaking about “Consumerism”.  Unfortunately they didn’t win but presented their thoughts and opinions very well. 

Attached are some pictures of the children clearing the pond at the weekend......

 The children and teachers were treated to an assembly on Judaism, just before the half term holiday. Our visitor, then spent some time in year 2, extending the children's knowledge of the Jewish religion by telling them a story, showing some Jewish artefacts and answering the children's questions.  Mr Klein spoke very highly of the school and the warm welcome that he had received. He also commented on the thoughtful and interesting questions that he was asked when working with the year 2 children.

EYFS children experienced or heard about lots of different modes of transport this week as part of their topic.  This involved visits from pilots, cabin crew and an uncle with an air wheel and had a visit from a tractor and a farmer!  Last week there was also visitors from Air Ambulance and a Policeman telling the children all about the different types transport the emergency services use.    

As part of their topic, Year 3 dissected some fish this week.  It was a fantastic lesson seeing Science come alive in the classroom. 

The school choir was in fine voice for the Great Dunmow Christmas Lights event last Saturday on the High Street, singing a number of songs and performing Little Donkey using hand bells. 

Children from Year 6 laying a wreath for the Remembrance Day service...

Here is the mosaic that was designed and created by our "gifted and talented" artists to celebrate the school's 10th Anniversary.

The school represented Uttlesford district at the Essex County final of the Key Steps Gymnastics competition on Thursday 20^th June in Basildon Sporting Village with 2 KS1 teams and a Year 3 & 4 team...