Each year more than 200 parents of children in Coventry fail to apply on time for a Secondary school place, meaning their child may end up not getting a place at the school they want. Chris Firth, Coventry's "Choice Adviser", is here to help parents apply for secondary school places for children entering their last year at Primary school.

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Now the summer holidays are upon us, you may be looking for something to do during the break. Download the three PDF files below to see activities happening in and around the Coventry area.

Short Breaks For Children with additional needs

Summer Holiday activities in Coventry

Activities for ages 11 years upwards

Creative Workshops Drop in sessions FREE

Content suitable for 4+ but all are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. At busy times you may be asked to wait.

Tuesday 2^nd August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Castles in the Sky

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Make a magical castle or palace inspired by your imagination and the far away lands above the clouds.

Wednesday 3^rd August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Cloud Bursts

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

What would a cloud contain if it exploded? Glitter dust? Colourful gems? Join us to squidge and stick all kinds of sparkly materials into paper pulp, to create a piece of hand made paper from an imaginary exploded cloud!

Thursday 4^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Drifting clouds

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

If you could capture a cloud where would you take it? Make a special cloud that can be blown around the museum. Where would you take the weather?

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Tuesday 9^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Creatures of the Deep

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

What strange creature might live in the darkest depth of the ocean? Can you create a unique creature that has adapted to life in the dark?

Wednesday 10^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Magical Water Painting!

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Create an underwater painting, by spraying and speckling with inks, water and iridescent paints.

Thursday 11^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Floating Fish

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Make a 3D fish which can be floated away around the museum or played with in our wild Worlds exhibition!

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Tuesday 16^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Bean Bag Birds

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

A special bird to take with you as a companion on your adventures to far off lands!

Wednesday 17^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Forest Warriors

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Camouflage yourself and make a unique headdress of materials from the forest.  Can you creep around the museum or up to our Wild World's exhibition?

Thursday 18^th August 2011

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Forest Fairy Cakes

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Forest Fairy Cakes

Imagine a picnic made from the things you find in the forest, what would there be? Make a tasty fairy cake out of foraged forest materials!

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Tuesday 23^rd August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Aliens!

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Make an extra terrestrial creature to play with in our Wild Worlds Exhibition

Wednesday 24^th August 2011

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Moon rocks

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Make and decorate a precious rock, from an undiscovered moon. What might it look like?

Thursday 25^th August

Wild Worlds Creative Workshops: Jet Packs

Drop in anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-3:30pm

Make a jet pack for space exploration or to fly around the museum!

On Thursday 9th June Phase 3 4 went on a imaginary journey to the Rainforest. We learned to sing Rainforest songs, we painted our faces as if we were tribal members and we used art straws, branches and leaves to create our own rainforest shelters. We even had a bush tucker trial to taste unusual foods. As we were blindfold we had no idea what we were eating! Most people said tasting the olive was the most disgusting. We all enjoyed learning about the Yanomami tribe and we even chose a chief and held a tribal meeting. Click here to see what we looked like!

Click here for a video slideshow of the photo gallery

Click here for a video of the whole school singing the National Anthem

Click here for a clickable gallery of the day!

Friday 18^th March saw monsters arriving at Walsgrave School! The children looked absolutely fantastic, as always. The costumes were so imaginative and original. I dread to think how early some of you got up to achieve the stunning hair and makeup that some of the children were sporting.

We had a very enjoyable day and raised more money than we have ever raised for Red Nose Day, with a grand total of £736.55. The children designed monsters and made a 'monster' paper chain. A very big thank you to you all for your incredible generosity and to Miss Matthews for coordinating the day's events.

I am absolutely delighted to inform you that Coventry Cathedral has awarded the Cross of Nails to Walsgrave School at a memorable service on Thursday 9^th March. The children celebrated the event through dance, song and prayer.

As you know Coventry Cathedral was destroyed during the Coventry Blitz on 14th November, 1940.  In the morning, after the bombing, a cathedral worker went to the charred remains of the Cathedral and noticed that, by the High Altar, two beams from the roof had fallen in the shape of a cross. The worker found some nails from the smouldering timbers and nailed the two pieces of wood together to preserve the exact position of the beams in the shape of the cross.

Since this date, Coventry Diocese and the Cathedral have used the 'Cross of Nails' as a symbol of reconciliation. The cross is given to those who work for peace, reconciliation and understanding. Under the guidance of Mrs Couch, Stella and Gemma (from the cathedral) the children have explored these themes in detail.

The first crosses of nails were presented to Kiel, Dresden and Berlin, cities shattered by Allied bombing.

We are extremely honoured to have joined the Community of the 'Cross of Nails'. I would like to say a tremendous thank you to Mrs Couch for her hard work and guidance

The children started by thinking about what type of dinosaur they would be and so they created their own dinosaur design, name and label.  They then worked together to paint large dinosaurs and a volcano to create a dinosaur display.  The children then researched Mary Anning, the famous fossil hunter from Lyme Regis, whom the tongue twister "She sells sea shells..." was written about. They enjoyed getting into role and acting as Mary Anning to show what they had learned. The children have also explored using charcoal, paints, sketching pencils, chalks and pastels to sketch and draw fossils and dinosaurs. We have linked our learning in Science by investigating different Rocks and Soils and how fossils are preserved. The children were particularly interested in finding out that there is fossilised dinosaur poo! The children are now beginning to create dinosaur feet and an advert in order to sell them as souvenirs in a dinosaur shop in their class dinosaur museum.

This spring term, our creative curriculum topics have been; the Ancient Greeks in Year 5 and Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Year 6. As part of the Ancient Greek topic, year 5 have taken part in a video conference session learning about Greek Myths and have been finding out about life both in modern and ancient Greece. Year 6 have been linking their Earthquakes and Volcanoes topic with their SATs preparation, using the topic as a basis for their explanation texts and newspaper reports.

Yet again we have had a really exciting start to this term in Year1! Our Theme for the start of 2011 is Day & Night...

We've been busy investigating with Discovery Dog again. This time he asked us to help him find something suitable for Nora to have on her collar to help find her in the dark! We have got an exciting Dark Den to explore in and we experimented with lots of different materials and torches to solve his problem. We have also learnt all about different animals and found out the ones who come out at night are called nocturnal.

We have particularly enjoyed reading books about nocturnal animals - one of our favourites is The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. We really enjoyed learning about the different characters and how they persauded Plop that dark's good fun! We have started to plan our Golden Moment - an After Dark  Party - we have made posters and thought about the food we want.  We are very much looking forward to it!

Children are really excited about topic work this term.  The transport theme has really inspired their learning.  We have used the theme to compare transport in two locations, Coventry and the fictional Isle of Struay featured in the Katie Morag books.  Children will lead their own learning as they have asked to find out more about the 'Titanic' which was inspired by a non-fiction book discovered in our reading corner.  There are two golden moments planned including a children's transport day.  We will encourage careful drivers but BEWARE you have been warned!