Year 1 have expressed their artistic talents this week by producing absolutely amazing portraits of Picasso in the style of Picasso.  In Year 2, the class transformed their classroom into a Victorian style classroom with a chalkboard and their tables arranged in rows. The purpose? To learn about the Fire Service then and now and how different things were 150 years ago. The Year 3 class have been looking on Espresso news to learn about Guy Fawkes as well as writing their own newspaper reports about Stig. Year 4 filled the Upper Junior Corridor with the smell of pumpkins when making pumpkin pie with Miss Pelizzari and Mrs Crawley. Year 5 have researched The Victorians and made visual aids to present their work.

Year 6 have been performing their rainforest documentaries. Not only were they informative but very entertaining too!

A spotlight on…

Downtime. I thought it would be appropriate to share with you some thoughts since I have been reading about this topic, specifically the benefits of downtime and unplanned activities. There is a wealth of research about this. Some experts say that ‘over scheduling’ does not do any harm but Alvin Rosenfield, author of the Overscheduled Child, suggests that although there is nothing wrong with enrichment activities, unscheduled time with family without goals or plans is key to character development. Those are the times children are more likely to wonder about the world and to ask questions. As it half term now, I am sure you will have times that are not planned and these times promote questions and inquiry, something we do here through creating space in the curriculum for curiosity. I look forward to hearing all the variety of half term activities which are bound to be experienced.

I hope you all have a wonderful half term break, filled with time spent with family and friends.

Miss Barlow
 

PS Perhaps you could ask your daughter why I have included pictures of the inside of an apple…

Merit Certificates: Maia Chapman (Reception), Joanna Dunton (Year 1), Lucy Philp (Year 2), Darcie Allanson (Year 3), Olivia Maskell (Year 4) Zara Brewer (Year 5) and Laetitia Parr & Scout Stalham. LAMDA: Charlene Fleischer, Chloe Massoubre, Madeline Smith, Jessica Spencer-Smith

Bunny Awards: Zara Rasool, (Reception), always being her best self, and Lauren Kruger (Year 4) for always being kind and caring to others..

Times Table Awards:

Bronze: Libby Bann, Suhani Bhalla, Matilda Greenwood,  Georgina Hellmuth, Amelie Helm, Alia Hitschmann, Samaira Jena, Karina Mehta, Katrina O’Brien, Laetitia Parr, Claire Smith, Lillian Smith, Scout Stalham, Yana Todorova and Claudia Webster
Silver: Libby Bann, Suhani Bhalla, Samaira Jena, Scout Stalham & Yana Todorova
Gold: Scout Stalham, Rhiannon Thomas & Yana Todorova
Winning House: St Ignatius