Reception children have been focussing on the story of Handa’s Surprise. The story which is set in Kenya provided us with invaluable opportunities to discuss and compare life in other countries and supports the question, ‘would you prefer to live on land or under the sea?’ The children were delighted to discover that they would get the opportunity to taste some exotic fruits from around the world. The children used their senses to smell, taste and feel the fruits and discussed with each other which ones they liked and disliked. The overall favourite was the passionfruit.

Rosie Snagge, Reception Class Teacher

Year 1 have been focusing on teamwork and leadership this week. They have been exploring the roles of leadership and what makes an effective team player. As classes the children worked together to use these skills to play a game where they jumped from spot to spot to grab bean bags and get them back in boxes. The children communicated and took on different leadership roles passing on the bean bags to one another, and working cooperatively with others to achieve their team goal. As the first classes finished the children cheered and supported each other showing true teamwork and sportsmanship.

Hannah Feery, Year 1 Class Teacher

In literacy, the children are learning to use time fronted adverbials to expand the content of their starter sentences. Working collaboratively, the children took a positive approach to this new and tricky challenge, encouraging each other to think of new words to transform their plain sentences into much more interesting and imaginative work and took pride in their achievements.

Charlie Millsom, Year 2 Class Teacher

Year 3 didn’t need any ‘kelp’ when they got creative in their Life Below Water topic. Thinking about how humans impact the oceans, the children used their imaginations to plan, design and create a picture of the different layers of the ocean. After thinking carefully about which materials or resources to use in order to bring their ideas to life, there was much discussion about the huge biodiversity within our oceans and the importance of protecting it. This required them to use their speaking skills by ensuring the points they were making were in a logical order.

Henrietta Platt, Year 3 Class Teacher

中文课 Year 5 students dived into the vibrant world of Mandarin with a lesson focusing on expressing their food and drink preferences. After brushing up on vocabulary in their workbooks, the children moved around the classroom, using their speaking and listening skills to ask each other questions and respond with the appropriate answers. The class approached the challenge with great enthusiasm and was successful in mastering the correct pronunciation for food and drink phrases. Why not ask your child if they can recognise the Mandarin in this write up? 做的好

Annabel Keville, Mandarin Teacher

“Be quiet. Sit down. Don’t go to sleep.” These words greeted Year 6 as they came into Latin, silently, sitting down and not daring to fall asleep. Looks of concern gave way to smiles as the learning objective was revealed as commands and comprehension dawned. Instead of the usual endings for I, you, she/he/it that they have spent the year mastering, this week the children had a chance to practise being bossy as they worked on sentences that give commands.  “It’s a tiger – run away” or “don’t annoy the dog” could be heard as the children challenged themselves to make their sentences. The lesson concluded with a read of Virgil’s Aeneid, the epic of Rome in the style of Homer (who they’ve already read) – invaluable cultural capital as well as a cracking tale of love, war and monsters – ask them about it!

Alex Walker, Latin Teacher

Year 7 travelled to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre where they experienced a guided theatre tour and enjoyed a matinee production of Much Ado About Nothing. The year group is reading King of Shadows which is set in both the modern and Elizabethan theatre and the trip provided valuable historic context. Watching the play was a wonderful introduction to a full Shakespeare text and the students showed great maturity as they listened and focused throughout the play.

Katy Warner, Head of English

The Year 8 pupils have been putting the ‘polish’ to their independent projects as we draw close to the exhibition on Saturday 11^th May. This will be their first experience of exhibiting, developing the skill and art of summarising their findings and opinions in conversation with visiting adults. They will showcase what they have researched and learnt along the way. It is a credit to them for how much resilience, passion and determination they have given to the process of completing their projects. I am especially proud of their focus and improved time management throughout the process, which is often a purer measure of success than the final product.

Ian Nicholas, Deputy Head (Academic)