This week the EYFS children began their final topic of the year. Pre-Nursery have been on a journey on ‘The Big Red Bus’ this week as part of their new topic Transport. Nursery have been getting excited about their new topic ‘Summer.’ They have been exploring ideas on where they would like to go on an adventure. Reception have been discussing the seasons and weather changes this week as part of their new topic ‘Green Fingers’.
Pre-Nursery
This week Pre-Nursery began their final topic of the year, ‘Transport’. To kick start our topic we read the story ‘The Big Red Bus’s by Judy Hindley and named lots of different transport. This week we developed our imaginative role-play skills through pretending to be bus drivers, made a bus from old egg cartons, talked about how we get to school and made wheel tracks by placing cars in paint.
Nursery
Nursery are starting a new learning adventure this week. We have been talking about summer and all the different sights, smells and sounds we might hear during this season. Nursery have also been exploring the ideas of adventure and where we might like to go.
Nursery have been practicing speaking in longer sentences as well as continuing to learn new letters and sounds.
A great start for Nursery on a new learning journey!
Reception
This week we have started our new topic Green Fingers, which encompasses all things in nature. We started out learning a little about the four seasons, with the story “Seren’s Seasons” and to give the children an idea what happens in throughout those seasons and what kinds of weather to expect. The children had fun observing and taking part in their own Music Jar Science Experiment. It is always a pleasure seeing the children’s curiosity and wonder when they learn something about our world hands on. During our PSHE session, we read the book The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas, putting images to emotions in order to understand them better.
In Maths we spent the week estimating quantities. This is such a valuable skill as it helps develop reasoning. It is an everyday skill, and it helps children determine the reasonableness of their answer.
In Phonics they learnt the sounds ‘ee’ and ‘er’. They spent some time blending and reading words with these sounds, strengthening their understanding of the sound and building vocabulary. The videos provided on Tapestry also support the lessons and allow the children to learn at their own pace.
During this online learning period, we have been pleased that our students have still been able to attend a variety of lessons and improve their skills and knowledge in all areas across the curriculum. Art is fantastic way for children to explore their creative side and embrace some mental freedom: in Year 1 it has also been a wonderful opportunity to develop mindfulness as the students have created patterns within various shapes and using a range of colours.
Year 2 have linked their Art with their study about seasides in Topic and studied decorative bunting and considered how this brightens up a seaside area. They have also been developing their sketching and instructional drawing skills through sketches of various seaside scenes! Year 3 have also linked their Art learning with Topic and had great fun creating Egyptian headpieces, designing their own ancient gods and goddesses, writing in hieroglyphics, and drawing cartoon Egyptian Pharaohs! Furthermore, they have explored various technical activities such as creating optical illusions, tessellation artwork and continuous line drawing.
Recently, Years 4 -6 have been designing backpacks for different age groups and adjusting their designs to meet different specific needs. In small groups, students researched how advertisement works and how brands are established with recognisable logos and used this information to create their own logos and adverts for their backpacks. Students presented these products to each other and voted on the best ones giving reasons to support their choices.
Keep up the great work Primary!
The Key Stage 3 Internationalism curriculum is modelled on that of the Cambridge Global Perspectives Programme studied at GCSE level and is a skills-based programme which places academic study in a practical, real-world context. Through the study of various topics termed Challenges, students have the opportunity to develop transferable skills that they need to be successful at school and university, as well as in their future careers.
This term the Year 7s have been exploring the world of education and the different approaches therein. Throughout the term they have been developing skills of research, evaluation, and reflection, as well as communication and collaboration.
Additionally, the Year 8s challenge this term has been centred around aid. During this challenge, the Year 8s have been exploring the world of 'trade and aid'. Herein they have been researching aspects of what aid is, who needs it and who provides it, subsequently developing skills of research, collaboration, and reflection, as well as communication and collaboration.
Finally, the Year 9s have been exploring a serious global issue – food inequality and hunger. During this challenge they have been analysing the causes and consequences of food inequality and hunger and what solutions currently exist. They have been exploring these solutions in depth and looking at who is involved therein, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of these with the end goal of choosing a solution they feel is best and creating an action plan for the implementation thereof using the research gathered. Throughout the challenge they have been developing skills such as research, analysis, collaboration, and time management.
