Exciting News for Our Out of School Club

We are delighted to announce that our Out of School Club is going to be working with the new Severn Magazine in the new year.

Our 'Teens' will be reviewing the latest age appropriate games for the X-Box 360, Kinect, Wii and PC platforms. This is a real opportunity for them to see themselves in print, who knows maybe we have a new star writer at the club.

New OFSTED Inspection

Following our inspection on November 21st 2011, we are pleased to announce we are rated 'Good' overall with our 'Outcomes for adoption of healthy lifestyles' being rated 'Outstanding'

Our full report can be found here -
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY415173

Bowling at AMF

Yesterday we went bowling at AMF Shrewsbury

Rasterizing Images

Today we worked with images using a rasterizing engine. This takes an ordinary image like this.

Our starter image

and then converts into an image that looks like this.

our finished wall art

Basically the software converts the image to dots, like you would see in a newspaper and then spreads them apart to create a massive image - in our case over 1.5m wide.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Club 0-14 Christmas Play

On Tuesday our Pre School performed their Christmas Play. The Little Christmas Tree, originally by Hans Christian Andersen, adapted for Pre School by Eleanor Gill and Michelle Hopkinson. This is the first year our Pre School has sung in both English and German.

Pudsey Came to Club 0-14

Children in Need's Pudsey Bear came to visit the nursery last Thursday

Toddle to the Quarry for Children in Need

Sealife Trip

Last year the teens got a giant bubble maker. This is a large inflatable plastic ring that you fill with bubble liquid and then place the circular bubble ring inside the liquid and slowly lift to make a person size bubble.

Last year we had problems making it work, in hindsight we didn't have enough helpers or enough bubble fluid in the ring. This year was different!

Here you can see the basic concept. The bubble ring has ridges so it holds enough of the bubble fluid to make sure the bubble lasts while it is being lifted.

The inflatable ring should contain enough bubble fluid to totally cover the bubble ring - more bubble fluid also helps weigh down the inflatable ring and flatten it out making it easier to cover the bubble ring.

Using helpers to make sure the whole of the ring is covered in fluid two people lift the bubble ring smoothly and quickly.

Everyone had a turn in standing inside the inflatable ring while the bubble ring was lifted up, surrounding them with a giant bubble.

Part way up

Almost there

Starting again

Almost up to shoulders

Over the head

Half way

Starting to look scared

Eyes shut tight

It's over my head

How high can we go

At least this high

Almost big enough to float away

Looking good at hair level

Over the head

One last try

... and over the head it is.

From the Column in Shrewsbury

Last Thursday we went up the Lord Hill Column in Shrewsbury to take some pictures for use with Microsoft's Photosynth. Between us we gathered almost 200 images. These images were then loaded onto the Photosynth web site and we have spent some time annotating the file so you can find various points of interest around Shrewsbury.

You can find the final images here - Shrewsbury Photosynth.

The Lord Hill Column is 13 feet taller than Nelson's Column in London and is a fantastic place to see around Shrewsbury. Be warned though, the column is 172 steps top to bottom and is quite steep - but the views are definitely worth it.

See the video