Today, the children in Team Endurance have been putting their animation skills into practice as a culmination to their art topic. They had great fun learning about just how difficult and time-consuming the process of animation can be whilst telling their own stories in moving images.   

We've been like piggi-wiggies slopping round in the mud this week, but it's been slip-tastic fun - also an excellent opportunity to develop the balance part of our interoception (we had a few fall over mind so more mud and practice needed!).  

Lower School have started their sessions this week with a measuring challenge - our aim was to find the Lower School MEASUREMISTER - a highly sought after accolade which comes with the coveted golden ruler award (GRA!).  

After honing skills with some 2D measuring challenges, children had to search the wood for items that needed to be measured to the nearest mm (this supported work back in the classroom in maths).  

Following their hot chocky and story, they then undertook the alternate challenge from last week, namely African mask hairation and the Ghanian animal hunt.  

Upper School children have used their final session of the term to complete picture frames, make animal traps or complete HMS Beagle watercolours.  Additionally, Endeavour and Endurance have undertaken a challenge to draw and identify a range of tropical animal footprints.  

Well done to the boys and girls who received certificate and awards in today's Achievement Assembly. You have continued to work hard and demonstrate the skills and qualities we try to develop in our pupils.

A wet week outside but the weather in school has once again been sunny and bright.

After an amazing, exciting and informative visit from Steve the Animal Man from DWAEC, the children in Upper School have been writing their own information texts about animals they met.

In class, we begun by all writing about Tigers as part of our shared writing. In Team Equality, the children were allowed to choose which animal they wanted to research using their fact finder sheets and then write about. I'm sure you'll agree that the writing they have produced is absolutely fantastic! The children worked incredibly hard to include their chosen success criteria and show off what they knew whilst writing to inform. Well done!

Well, well, well...the first blossom was peeping out on the plum trees this week...when I saw it, I actually said: "Think you're being a bit optemistic there, Mrs Plum Tree!"...and she was, as the blossom has been blown clean off the tree this morning!

The kids have been awesome again this week...they've flourished in some cold weather and produced some wonderful and accurate work.  

Lower School children have started their sessions this week with a Ghanian animal-foorptint challenge...they had to find thirteen footprints hidden around the wood, sketch them, and then move to an ID station and identify which animals the prints belonged to - woudl their sketches be accurate enough to enable them to do this?  

We had a big focus on presentation, ensuring sketches were precise and well shaded, that spellings were accutate and that handwriting was to the standard expected in the class-room (music to Mr Hull's ears).  

Following this, children either finished their Ghanian-themed masks or set up and undertook a rainforest hunting challenge (rest assured, no animals were actually harmed).  

With the masks, children were experimenting with patternation in the clay and with techniques for adding necklaces and facial hair - we had to learn to reliably tie an over-hand knot and to delicately and precisely insert these knots into the clay using a Highly Technical Surgical Device (HTSD) aka a tent peg.  

Upper School have moved straight into their main challenges this week, as they were set to take longer to complete than an hour: picture frame finishing; water colour exploration; animal trap construction (note: exception here was Endeavour, who had a quick walk to the site of the proposed building development to gather information to support their work in English with Mr Wilby).  

Picture frames should have started to arrive home this week, and in them you will find the charcoal pictures the children completed earlier in the term.  Please note the craftspersonship needed to make the frames - the children had to be exceedingly precise with measuring and tool use, and show oodles of communication, organisation and safety skills in order to be successful (we used rulers, vices, sheath-knives, mallets, folding saws, hammers and loppers).  

Embarrasingly, I was unaware of the name of the joint we employed in the frame's construction, but our resident master carpenter, Mr Hull, informs me that it's called a cross-halving joint.