Welcome to another blog. Last weekend, Vincent in Mrs Lomax’s class and his family celebrated Chinese New Year – The Year of the Rooster. Mrs Lomax would like to share with you what her class have been up to..

In my class we have been enjoying learning about other cultures and traditions and this week we have been having a timely look at Chinese New Year. The class have found out that the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar and the new moon this year was on Saturday 28th January. The children have also found out that this year is the year of the Rooster and through reading about the Chinese Zodiac story we have learnt that the Rooster came 10th in the Emperor’s race. We have also learnt that Rooster is hard working so we are going to make sure that we are hard working all year in school! We have already worked hard together making a giant sized Rooster which needed a tail. We were kind and made him a tail out of our hand prints..

 We have also been finding out which animal sign we are and what type of person that may make us. In addition we have also made masks and enjoyed trying to eat traditional Chinese candied fruit with chopsticks..

..as well as doing lots of writing about the story and ordinal number work!!
The children would like to say a big ‘thank you!’ to Vincent and his family for their kind gifts and hope they had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year..

This week I asked Miss Louden in primary and Miss Rudge in secondary to let us know what they have been up to. Let’s start with Miss Rudge, one of our Key Stage 3 tutors, who as well as having a form class, also teaches Dance, Drama and Art to some of our primary classes. This week she has decided to share the work that her primary pupils have been doing..

During our Key Stage 1/2 Dance lessons this half term we have been focusing on Salsa dancing. This week, we were designing Salsa costumes and had lots of fun with arts and crafts! The children were able to use a range of arts and crafts materials to create some of the most amazing costumes I’ve ever seen..

During Drama Therapy in Key Stage 2 Nurture, the class have been exploring characterisation techniques with a key focus on ‘Empathy.’ Some beautiful role-play here from Daley and Tobias..

Mrs Chappell and Miss Rudge have been working with Stride Dance who have come into school to promote dance with some of our Key Stage 3 boys. The workshops are fantastic at getting boys moving without feeling embarrassed and also promoting positive male role models. All the pupils will have the opportunity to engage in workshops during half term (run outside of school) if they would like to, and we are actively promoting this (watch out for the flyers which will be going round) as it is a fantastic opportunity to challenge both our own and the pupils’ perceptions of dance and who can dance whilst also keeping them out of trouble!

Let’s see what Miss Louden’s class have been up to.

Every morning the children collect their individualised busy box and learn to work independently on tasks. Tasks may consolidate learning or act as a pre learning and assessment tool..

Every Monday the children enjoy cooking. They learn vital life skills, how to operate equipment safely and how to follow instructions..

This term we have been reading Hansel and Gretel. The children have enjoyed the role play area, showing their understanding of key elements in the story..

 The children also enjoyed decorating the witch’s house this week, coming out with key phrases from the story as they did so..

Next Tuesday 7th February is Safer Internet Day 2017 – find out how everyone can get involved with lots of fun activities here.

Our ‘Stars of the Week’ are…

• Mrs Dunsdon: Myla for settling in to her new class
• Mr Corrigan: Charlie for being a good friend and coping with change..

• Mrs Lomax: Jack for trying hard with his learning and letting teachers help him..

• Miss Louden: Alivia for playing with her friends in the water area without support
• Miss Parkinson: Lana for trying her best to concentrate on herself
• Mr Heap: Joshua for fantastic work in PE and Aaron for working hard and trying his best in Maths..

• Mrs Halkyard: Kyle, Leon and Ethan because they have all formed positive relationships and been good friends..

• Mr Rawson: Daley and Tobias for both working hard with their learning

This week my Head Teacher’s Award has to go to three children:

• Jack in Mrs Lomax’s class because he has begun to show that he can ask for help
• Daley and Tobias in the Nurture Group because I have been so pleased with both these boys. They have been trying hard with their learning and thinking about their behaviours and definitely deserved their certificate from me.

Well done, everyone!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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