Welcome to a commitment filled blog!

On Friday the whole of the trust spent the day off timetable to focus on our Super Learning Day topic of ‘Marriage and Commitment’. The day was filled with classes looking into what this means. Our primary classes have focused on finding out what marriages look like in other cultures and religions. Mr Rawson’s class even role played a Jewish wedding, as he explains..

As part of Super Learning Day, the class have been looking at and researching wedding ceremonies from differing religions. We have looked at Islamic weddings, Sikh weddings and Jewish weddings. The class randomly chose to re-enact a Jewish wedding.

This is the start of the wedding, it is the signing of the Wedding Ketubah which is a sort of prenuptial agreement, witnessed by 2 people and signed by all..

Next is the Badeken which is the veiling of the bride to signify modesty and the emphasis on importance of soul and character of a person over physical looks..

The bride and groom are then taken to the Chupa which signifies the home that the married couple will build..

7 cups of wine are placed on the table and the bride and groom drink these. The number 7 represents the time it took God to create the world..

The groom then presents the bride with the ring and declares, “Behold you are consecrated to me with this ring according to the laws of Moses and Israel”..

Then a wine glass is placed on the floor and covered with a handkerchief before the groom stamps on it, smashing the glass. This represents the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, when the glass is shattered the guests all shout “Mozel Tov” which is congratulations or good luck..

Mrs Potts’ class planned a Hindu themed wedding as part of their celebration for Super Learning Day..

Shaun and Taylor designed the wedding cake, Jamie and Ryan S. designed the bride and groom’s outfits, Jacob designed the invitations, Logan wrote a special groom’s speech and Diego and Ryan P. researched the traditions of a Hindu wedding..

Miss Szabo used her artistic flair and gave the lads a Henna tattoo which surprisingly they welcomed..

AB4 teamed up with the Reception children for a lovely wedding cake themed afternoon, making a colourful collaged creation..

..followed by decorating some rather more edible versions..

Mrs Millard and Ms Gordon created a ‘Museum of Marriage and Commitment’ in the large conference room upstairs. Pupils were able to try on wedding attire, sign a guest book and role play a wedding..

As you will see, this proved very popular with the children! Mr Corrigan’s class joined Mrs Lomax’s class for some hands on shared learning in preparation for the Royal Wedding. They looked at different dress and traditions from different countries and religions all over the world; dressing up, role playing and studying various rituals from all the cultures..

Mr Heap’s class thoroughly enjoyed exploring the museum too..

..as did the staff!

Miss Shin’s class had a SUPER learning day..

We had a SUPER learning day in class today, starting by visiting a pop-up museum in school all about wedding traditions in other religions..

We chose to focus on Christian and Islamic weddings and compared these celebrations using a Venn diagram..

We discussed the similarities and differences and picked out our favourite traditions from both religions to plan our own wedding. After a game of boccia (with blue team winning 3 out of 3 matches! Well done Reece, Jacob, Luca, Rhys and Jayden!)..

..we held our Islamic/Christian wedding ceremony. Kia was a beautiful bride dressed in traditional Islamic dress and she married Nathan who looked super smart in his traditional Christian suit. The priest, father of the bride and best man also looked smart in their suits and the rest of the wedding party wore brightly coloured dresses and ties. Kia walked down the aisle to a Christian bridal march and after we had a feast just like Muslim wedding parties do..

Miss Parkinson’s class explored marriage in different religions..

..and then got to work creating some rather special wedding dresses..

We then held our very own ‘street party’ to celebrate!!

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”266″ gal_title=”Street Party 19th May”]

 

This week Mrs Lomax and Miss Sanderson would like to share what they have been up to. Let’s start with Mrs Lomax..

Wow, what a term we have been having! We have really been enjoying our ‘Pieces of Eight’ topic and our Pirate Day.. 

During our topic we have been travelling around the world and using Google Earth to look at our own homes. We have been exploring different geographical features and learning about the differences between natural and man made. We have been discussing what type of environments we like and why. We have been using our busy boxes to develop our thinking and fine motor skills as part of our morning routine..

We have continued our social and emotional learning and were celebrating our uniqueness and strengths. We shared a story and then we all took our turn meeting a very special person – the best person in the world – and the children were overjoyed to see themselves in the mirror!

In Maths we have been continuing our number bonds and number sentences including using +, – and =

We have also been looking at measurements and have been investigating length and height..

We have all used our class height chart and look forward to measuring ourselves again before the Summer holidays..

We have also been learning about mass and we have found lots of things to weigh!

In our English we have been continuing the Talk for Writing strategy and we have been loving reading and working on ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ and we joined Max on his boat trip to the Wild Thing’s Island. We have also been reading ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and we have been looking at Africa with a focus on Egypt and Kenya. We have been exploring similarities and differences and exploring the landscape from the high mountains of Mount Kilimanjaro down to the River Nile!

This term we have been developing our scientific thinking skills by taking part in some wacky Science experiments and trying to make predictions on what will happen. We have had lots of fun, including all getting sprayed by lemonade and watching Mrs Lomax accidently drop her eggs on the floor during the egg experiment – ooops! The children have loved these experiments and it has boosted their confidence in making predictions, doing careful observations and then thinking about why things happen..

We enjoyed working with Mr Corrigan’s class as part of our Super Learning Day to look at wedding traditions from other cultures and religions. We worked with partners from Mr Corrigan’s class and made a traditional British cake and a traditional Creole wedding cake from the Caribbean which is known as a Black Cake – it should have had lashings of rum, which would have been great for our Pirate topic, but be reassured we left this out!

Now on to see what Miss Sanderson has been working on with the pupils at Key Stage 3 and 4..

This week in Humanities the pupils have preparing for end of unit assessments, with many of them planning essays and beginning to answer a 20 mark question..

The Year 9 Geography classes have finished investigating China and will be using the new term to begin a school project on Pollution and working together to improve our school environment.
The Year 11’s have been working to improve their essay writing in preparation for their exams after half term, as have the Year 10 in preparation for their end of year, Weimar Germany, mock exam..

Engaging with Super Learning Day and the Royal Wedding, the pupils will be looking at marriage and commitment over a period of 5 weeks. They will be looking at how culture and tradition is shown within a wedding. The Year 8 classes have finished looking at the Suffragettes and how they have influenced modern day society and will now be looking at the British Home Front during World War Two in preparation for their class trip to the Imperial War Museum.

Humanities club is on every Thursday from 1-1:35pm where pupils take part in games and fun activities..

Next week we will be creating a volcano and painting it, and finishing our Egyptian bookmarks ready to take home at the end of term.

Miss Louden could not resist sharing with you all what her class have been up to, even though it not ‘her turn’ this week..

This week during outdoor education we went to the park and as it was a nice day, we took a picnic with us. The children enjoyed eating and socialising together – our outdoor education sessions promote sharing skills, taking turns, stranger danger along with the importance of exercise and looking after the community..

The children have enjoyed story mapping their stories in English this week. The whole class has worked hard to adapt our story in English to create their own story..

Before I move on to our latest Stars of the week, I have 3 special Stars to tell you about. This week has seen the Key Stage 2 SATs across the country for all pupils in Year 6. I know for many pupils this can be an extremely challenging week. At Hollinwood, not all our Year 6 children complete these SATs, only those who we feel the tests are appropriate for. I know that I am not the only one who is so impressed with Thomas, Kyle and Luigi who have worked extremely hard to complete these tests. I have given them an extra special Head Teacher’s Award for dealing so maturely with their SATs. A special ‘Thank You!’ from me also goes to Miss Parkinson, Mrs Davies and Miss Mason who have worked hard to support all the pupils, especially these wonderful three.

Now let’s have a look at who our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Renico for doing great work and having fantastic behaviour all week..

SEAL Superstar: Jake for always having kind hands and feet and never hurting his friends..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Fatima for learning all the children’s and adults’ names in her class
  SEAL Superstar: Ijaaz for always having kind hands and feet
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Marley for doing a fantastic piece of Geography work and talking about Kenya and Handa’s Surprise
  SEAL Superstar: Marcus for using the calm place and his sensory bag  to help him feel calm and happy
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Ivy for some outstanding Geography work in soft play – recording what she had learnt about the weather in Jamaica
  SEAL Superstar: Thomas for thinking of others and learning about how we can hurt people’s feelings
• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alivia for using her loud voice this week
  SEAL Superstar: Kyle for caring about others
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luke for being resilient in Maths
  SEAL Superstar: Gabriella for a fantastic session talking about how words can hurt others
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lewis for trying hard in talk for writing and good behaviour
  SEAL Superstar: Maisha for always being kind to others
  Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is James for fantastic independent work in talk for writing. We hope you and Meerkat have a fantastic weekend and we can’t wait to hear about your marvellous adventures!
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jayden for working hard to tell the time
  SEAL Superstar: Reece for being a good friend and never hurting anyone’s feelings

Well done, everyone! I’m looking forward to welcoming families to Parents’ Evening on Tuesday, I hope you can come.

Jaina

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