Special Events

Anniversary bulb planting

In the summer of 2009 we were lucky enough to win the Amersham in Bloom “Best School” for which we received £50 in garden vouchers. It is thanks in part to the planting of previous generations that the school has such attractive grounds. It seemed fitting to add to this heritage so we have spent our winnings on buying a daffodil bulb for every child to plant in the school grounds to celebrate our school’s 40^th Anniversary. We hope this will be enjoyed not only by our current school community and visitors but will also provide enjoyment for future generations.

National Science Week/ Green Earth Day

This year, as usual, Chestnut Lane School celebrated National Science Week, which was held during the week beginning 15^th March. The theme was ‘Earth’ and each class carried out exciting investigations over the week. These included designing and testing out parachutes, catapulting marshmallows, exploring issues of global warming, watching ice bergs melt, flooding a model of London, exploring energy from water wheels and moving water and much more!

The week culminated with Green Earth Day on the Friday. This special day was focussed largely on energy usage and alternative energies. Key Stage 1 children were set a challenge to move a ‘Little Tikes bubble’ car with out touching it or using fossil fuels. Mixed age teams set about to find possible solutions, which included, squirting water at them, pulley systems, using elastic to create a ‘wind up car’, throwing balls at the cars etc. The children measured the distances travelled in centimetres and the winning team used elastic to catapult their car 830 cms. We were fortunate to have two Dad’s, both engineers, to help us with both the planning and delivery of this challenge. A big thank you to them!

One of the Dads, who work for BP stayed on and talked to each year group about energy. He showed them fossils and explained very simply how oil was made. He also helped the children to develop their own solar power.

In the afternoon, Green class had a look at the electricity meter and watched it turn round as the school used power. They then turned it off for one hour to see how we would manage with out electricity. Lessons continued as usual, but with out any additional lighting or the use of computers. The office staff were also affected and had to spend their afternoon filing, as neither the phones nor the computers worked!

During the week, there were several special assemblies. A parent and her friend (both members of ‘Transition Towns’) spoke to the whole school about oil. They showed some examples of products which were either made from oil or had oil involved with their production. It was difficult to find and examples which did not. Mrs. Phillips spoke to the children about fossil fuels and the children watched a clip from ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ showing how oil was made. There was also a demonstration of a car powered by fire extinguisher.