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! 

 

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!

Viking Coronation

To support all the hard work they have put into their topic around the Vikings, upper school held a special Viking ceremony to crown the new "King Hiccup Horrible Haddock III" today. The children all got into the spirit of the day, preparing songs, a play and a dramatic retelling of a raid on the Monastery on Lindisfarne. The children demonstrated their fantastic learning and also had a lot of fun too. As you will see from the pictures, the children all looked fantastic in their Viking costumes...

Click on the link above to see some more pictures of the day!

Super Shading

Last half term, Upper School developed their drawing skills. In the final week, the children drew their own portraits of Charles Darwin.

Inspired by our learning, Letty decided to draw some of her own pictures at home and tried really hard to consider how she shaded different parts to create the best effect. I'm sure you'll agree that her drawings are impressive and very detailed! Well done, Letty!

 

Dragons invade the classroom!

This term, Team Equality are reading 'How to Train a Dragon' by Cressida Cowell. This morning they met a rare Sluggish Sky dragon and then learned how to make a dragon using plasticine.

The children did a truly outstanding job of creating their own dragons. Their creativity was marvellous, they listened carefully to top tips and were very careful with all of the resources too. They really blew all the staff in class away! 

We haven't got around to training the dragons just yet but I'm sure we'll get there soon...

Musical melodies

This afternoon, Upper School explored different time signatures and rhythms through 'The Piglet Polka'. We spoke about the importance of maintaining a steady tempo and playing the notes to their full length. The children worked together to improve their overall sound. It has been brilliant to see them showing good progress and improved understanding each week, within their lessons. Well done!

Developing characters

Earlier this week, Team Equality explored characters from 'Giant'. Through drama, they considered how they could show a character's emotions and feelings through actions and the way they delivered lines. It was brilliant to see the children's confidence grow during the session and also the way in which they have applied their new knowledge back in class since then. Keep up the good work! 

Silent Night

Upper School have been working hard in their music lessons this afternoon. They have been echoing and moving to help them rehearse a variety of songs. 

They've also been considering how songs may sound in other languages. To fit in with our work around Peace and Conflict in World War I, the children have been singing Silent Night. However, they've been singing it slightly differently today as they've sung it in German! You can see the first verse below. Well done, children. 

Exploring our topic!

Earlier this week, Callie and Caleb both brought in some additional work from home. Callie found out lots of brilliant facts about World War I. She used these within one of our lessons later in the week to help her, which was great to see! Caleb produced a lovely collage of Lego scenes he had created to go alongside some of the more memorable lines from John McCrae's 'In Flander's Fields'. Its brilliant to see both children exploring their interests around our new topic at home! Well done!