Clothes Swap and 'No New June'!

Many thanks to all the children and parents who came to the Upper School's Fast Fashion Clothes Swapping event. It was great to see so many pre-loved clothes finding a new home rather than going to landfill, as we found out they so often do. The children learned a lot over the unit of work, and have hopefully been inspired to exercise their power as a consumer to make more ethical choices like a concerned Global Citizen.  

In the spirit of the event, many parents and children also 'signed up' to take part in Upper School's 'No New June' initiative. This is a commitment to not buy any new clothes during the month of June but to explore more sustainable options. The children were really passionate about this and did a wonderful job advertising this idea with badges, stickers and slogans. I hope everyone's 'No New June' is going well! 

 

DTSA students try TB

Students from the DTSA came for a taste of TB today - they undertook lots of the challenges given to our children over the past two years. 

Huge thanks to Noah, Lexi, Letty, Milly and Snotmuncher for suppporting! 

 

Angles and shapes investigations

Team Endeavour have been learning all about the properties of shapes this week, including how to measure angles. Today, we spent the afternoon conducting a number of investigations both inside and in our TB area. Firstly, we covered our tables with huge sheets of paper and identified the angles where the sheets crossed, giving us an opportunity to measure using a protractor. Next, we moved outdoors into TB to create shapes from any resources they could find in the wood (with a key learning to support them). We even had time for some outdoor reading to complete a fantastic afternoon.

This week in TB - WC 22/05/23

What a glorious week in TB...both with the weather and with the challenges we have undertaken!

Lower School experienced the culmination of their Egyptian topic - a shoal of Egyptian mackerel had made the arduous journey from the Mediterranean sea to Bottle Brook to warn Flame of an impending attack by the goblins on the Munchkin homeland (all munchkins originate from Egypt) - the goblins plan to smash the munchkin Stone of Magic which is kept there!

Sadly, after the leg of their journey in fresh water, the mackerel perished and the children of Lower School were tasked with mummifying them, in keeping with Egyptian tradition.  

Bodies were washed in oil; gills, stomachs, intestines and livers were removed and encased in salt in the canopic jars; brains were removed; abdominal cavities were stuffed with salt and saw-dust; bodies were covered in salt before being wrapped and tied in linen.  

A group then channeled the Egyptian god, Waltmun, and he helped them to prepare and perform a mummy-entombment ritual which included chanting, singing, music and dancing.  Internal organs are now located in a lion-topped tomb and the mackerel-mummies inside the Great Pyramid.  

In addition to this, some in Lower School finished canopic jars and mehen boards, or undertook pond dipping - here they found wonderful things (see what I've done there?), including tadpoles which had grown both front and back legs!

Upper School children started their session considering 'Legacy' - how do they leave school better than they found it - how they would like to be remembered by the teachers as the move to JF or into Y6.  We considered how the importance of our legacy grows as we get older, as we need references and such from adults who know us.  

Following this, some completed weaving, tried pond dipping, undertook texture art, built dens, constructed trim-trails, made natural dyes or had a go at printing with plants and flowers.  

With the natural dyes (nettles, common lilac and buttercups), we needed to separate solids from liquid, so the children had to problem solve using their learning from science the previous week!  Additionally, we looked at the environmental impact of the dying of clothing, and considered our responsibility in terms of the clothing we buy and the impact this has on the people and environment where it is manufactured.   

Football stars!

Some upper school footballers recently represented our school in a 6-a-side tournament. The team played brilliantly throughout losing just one of their four games. Warren's "top bins" direct free kick was a real highlight as the team won their last match 3-0. The children displayed our school values at all times and should be proud of themselves!

Safeguarding Awareness Week

Ultimate skills are stacking up!

During this term, Team Equality have been exploring invasion games through Ultimate Frisbee. They have developed their hand eye coordination to throw a backhand throw and catch the disc safely. The children have also learned how to stack up to help create structure for the offensive team within a game scenario. It has been brilliant to see the children enjoying the opportunity to develop new skills and apply prior knowledge of invasion games to aid their movement. Some of the Y6 children have even shared this knowledge during their mini leader lunchtime activities. Well done and keep up the great attitude! 

 

Separating Materials

Earlier this week, the children Y5 and 6 worked like scientists. A supermarket lorry had accidentally mixed up different food items and they needed to separate the different materials to help the store. Fortunately, we were able to use sieving, filtering, magnetic attraction and evaporation to separate the materials successfully.  Well done team!

Achievement Assembly Winners

We began today's assembly discussing when pupils had demonstrated the core values of the EMBARK federation: Family, Integrity, Teamwork and Success, and it was really pleasing to hear the numerous examples of these witnessed throughout the week.

Numerous music awards were also presented to pupils too, particularly children in year 4, following their Sing2gether performance to parents yesterday. 

Sports awards were also presented to children who have represent the school both 3 and 6 times this year and the gauntlet was also thrown down by Mr Barber who challenged pupils to become a Sports Elite- representing the school 9 times by the end of the year.

Finally, children received certificates for demonstrating our YOU22 attributes and for their hard work in mathematics this week- a great end to a very positive week in school.

This week in TB - WC 15/05/23

Inspired by a lovely moment helping a robin to find a juicy worm for its chicks, lower school children went on a bug hunt around the wood to see what creepy crawlies were on the menu for our nesting population of birds.  

We discussed the different classifications of common mini-beasts and where they were likely to live and why, before grabbing petri-dishes and going a huntin'!

We found an amazing range of creatures including beetles, wood-louse, millipedes, centipedes, slugs, worms, shield bugs, natterjacks...the birds at KJS certainly have plenty to choose from!

Following this, new groups started their mehen boards and canopic jars, with further groups creating a foraged soup with an Egyptian twist, pond-dipping and gardening (thanks to Ady for the bulbs). 

Upper School children started their sessions with bibs hide and seek (a treat for the Y6 after their SATs).  We then had weaving, nature printing (here we learned about the environmental cost of dyeing), den building, texture art (inspired by their in-door art topic), mini-beast hunting, cooking, munchkin-clothing designing and making and fashion-arena design and construction.