Welcome to another week’s blog. As we grow as a school and the number of pupils at primary and secondary increase, it is important that we make changes to the way in which we work. The staff consistently strive to ensure that the provision we offer is the best for our pupils. One change has been the increase in our secondary department; we opened with only 2 classes at secondary and now we have 4 Key Stage 3 classes, a large Key Stage 4 class and a Key Stage 3/4 Nurture Group. This week we appointed Ms Gordon as the Key Stage 3 and 4 Lead. She will be working closely with staff, pupils and families to ensure not only that the curriculum meets our pupils’ needs but that what is offered during break and lunch times helps them to develop socially and emotionally.

This week it is the turn of Mrs Lomax and Mr Davies to tell us what their classes have been up to..

The focus in Mrs Lomax’s class has been on working together, being good friends, talking about how we feel and accepting people’s differences. The class have been doing lots of co-operative learning with lots of tasks and challenges to encourage working together. We’ve had a den making challenge and the class had to work together to make one den big enough for all the children to get into..

Another example of the children working co-operatively was the challenge of making a train track that included a bridge. Vincent and Reece worked hard together and used lots of problem solving and discussions and were successfully in making the track; they then invited the other children to try the track out with the trains..

The children have also been investigating our similarities and differences and this included making matching shoes and then finding pairs that had things that were the same and things that were different. We then had a class game and the children had to find the other person with the matching shoe and this was their partner for the afternoon. We then even used our work to create our own Pairs game..

 Everyone took turns to find matching pairs..

.. and Joshua was the eventual winner..

We really enjoyed making our own matching patterns..

Each day the children have started their morning by taking part in discussions about our dinner choices and then completing a morning challenge that has required working together to complete the task..

We also enjoyed having a birthday in class on Wednesday. We celebrated Vincent’s birthday with a crispy cake that Vincent’s mum had made and Vincent gave everyone a party bag! Of course we all enjoyed signing Happy Birthday to Vincent. Throughout we have been looking at our feelings and exploring different ways we can handle our emotions and this even included a relaxing session using a technique called Sherborne Therapy – the children quickly became experts in this and were very good at helping each other to relax and make good choices..

Now let’s move onto what Mr Davies’ class have been up to:

In History the class looked at how the British formed an empire. The class learned about various different events such as the Battle of Medway and Britain taking Jamaica from the Spanish..

In Citizenship the class investigated the push and pull factors of immigration. The main focus of the lesson was for the pupils to develop empathy for migrants and understand why people would be forced to flee a country..

In Geography  the pupils looked at the gap between developed countries and what makes a county classed as a Low Income Country. The lesson was linked to what the class are learning in History as they studied what effect colonisation had on a Low Income Country..

In RE the class finished off work regarding Hindu ceremonies. They were asked to write down the 16 Samskaras and draw a picture next to each one. The 16 Samskaras represent the different stages of life and the ceremonies help guide people in that journey..

During Assembly the class have looked at the dangers of taking drugs and the effect they have on individuals and society..

In Maths the group have been working on calculating the area and perimeter of squares, rectangles and triangles using formulas..

The group have been reading the poem ‘Hero’ by Siegfreid Sassoon in English and interpreting the language used during wartime poetry. Science lessons have been learning about ecosystems and food webs and how they affect our world..

 The group have also been writing chemical formulae and understanding their importance. In PE they have been working on batting, bowling and catching in cricket before playing a diamond cricket match..

During Intervention, Connor delivered a presentation on animal rights and set worksheets for the class to complete..

In Art the Year 8 half of the class have been making projects on architecture in game design, while the Year 9s have been working on portraits of celebrities for their GCSE project. During Music the group have had an in-depth look at horror music and making piano scales to use next week in their lesson. Living Skills has focused on the dangers of childhood obesity and how we can prevent it and how diets affect our life. For Modern Foreign languages the group have been looking at foods in Spanish and saying what they love, like, dislike and hate through conversation and writing. The pupils have looked at practice GCSE ICT papers so that they can get used to them, they have marked them as a class so they understand how the marking system works.

In Drama the group have looked closely at the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and they have begun recreating the opening scene from it..

Finally, we ended the week with our individual photographs and class photos, the children all looked very, very smart. I managed to get myself on the all class photographs…

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Tyler for excellent effort with communication and writing..

SEAL Superstar: George for remembering someone even when he doesn’t see them anymore..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Charlie for adapting really well to his new timetable..

SEAL Superstar: Lucas for remembering and talking about someone he doesn’t see anymore..

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Vincent for great independent writing..

SEAL Superstar: Jack for remembering someone even when he doesn’t see them anymore..

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Brooke for making friends feel welcome
  SEAL Superstar: Lewis for talking about people he doesn’t see anymore
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Nathan for fantastic writing in English this week
  SEAL Superstar: Lana for talking about people who we miss and remember
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Aaron for fantastic behaviour and being very helpful – Aaron also earnt a WOW moment..

• SEAL Superstar: Donte for sharing his happy memories
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luigi for bringing his book bag every day
  SEAL Superstar: Ethan for not getting upset when discussing how we remember people who we no longer see
  Extra special WOW moments to the girls for their super attitude towards the SATs..

• Mr Rawson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lucas for a great effort in lessons – a huge improvement
  SEAL Superstar: Daley and Tobias for remembering people even if they do not see them

I haven’t given a Head Teacher’s Award for a while but this week I gave out 5! Firstly, the whole of Miss Parkinson’s class were given an award as they have really been kind and helpful to Alfie who will be joining their class. This week has also been Key Stage 2 SATs week and 4 of our Year 6 pupils have sat the exams this week. We are so very proud of how all of them have coped with the tests – well done Caitlin, Chrissy, Tobias and Bradley!

Don’t forget that Tuesday 16th May is Parents’ Evening, I’m looking forward to seeing you all.

Have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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