Dance is an art form but to dance is also intrinsically human and something that the Reception children thoroughly enjoy on a weekly basis, both during child-initiated learning time and in their ballet lessons. The weekly lessons are expertly taught by Mrs Oecken, who begins every session with a warm up to prepare the little bodies for the session ahead. Ballet helps the children think about their core strength, something which is vital in developing the children’s ability to hold their position while moving their body in an outward motion. The development of core strength helps with gross and fine motor skills, stability and balance. This, in turn, affects their ability to coordinate more refined movements which are repeated in every session so that the moves can be perfected and developed further. While refining their moves, the children are being reflective learners, adapting and thinking about how their performance can be improved while also taking advice from their supportive audience. So, while ballet takes place during one session per week, the skills developed in these sessions aid the children in their learning across the curriculum.

Georgie Hunter, Head of Reception

Our active little learners in Year 1 are always developing their fundamental movement skills.  During Games and PE lessons, weekly swimming lessons or just enjoying the play equipment at break time, they constantly have the opportunity to develop these important gross or fine motor skills. It isn’t just the children’s healthy growth and development leading to strong hearts, muscles and bones that benefit from this movement, it’s a wealth of other physical, social and moral aspects of development too. During their Games session this week the children worked collaboratively in groups and pairs to improve their striking and fielding skills in ball sports. Perhaps what was not so obvious was having to navigate complex social situations, show leadership qualities and engage self-discipline. At playtime, the children set themselves challenges on the adventure trail equipment without realising that they are improving their balance, coordination, motor sequencing skills and, most importantly, how to manage risk.

Kerri Wilkes, Year 1 Teacher

As the warmer weather is now upon us, Year 2 have relished the opportunity to become green fingered. With their science learning focusing on plants and growth, the children are enjoying getting closer to nature and have successfully collaborated to prepare their raised bed ready for planting. After removing the protective tarpaulin, the children were quick to spot a variety of animals who had adopted this micro-habitat as their home during the colder months. This provided an ideal throwback to their learning from the Autumn Term where the children were able to reflect on their understanding as to why the likes of toads, slugs and spiders had chosen this particular habitat. But they quickly realised it was tiring work; perseverance with the weeding ensued and the job of digging up larger roots using a fork or a trowel to loosen the soil around it proved challenging. Undaunted, the children were then tasked with covering the bed with compost, watering it and, finally, planting their courgette seeds. And the repotting of tomato seedlings to keep in the greenhouse prompted a discussion as to why certain plants thrive on being kept indoors at this time of year. Over the coming weeks, the children will have the opportunity to observe the plants’ growth by monitoring and measuring them before harvesting them in time for our Roman feast towards the end of term.

Henrietta Platt, Year 2 Class Teacher

We did it! Year 3 have returned from a brilliant week of fun, learning and outdoor adventure at Mill on the Brue in Somerset. On Tuesday morning, at the crack of dawn, the courageous travellers boarded the coach and headed west into what proved to be a magnificent few days full of action and delight. It has been amazing to see the children walk a little taller as they proved they can meet new challenges head on, face their fears, and help each other overcome both physical and emotional obstacles. Helping each other and working as a team have been key components of the activities this week. From building parachutes and hastily providing crates for their peers as they clambered up the Create Stack to pushing and pulling each other over obstacles such as the Giant’s Toilet, navigating a kayak in a straight line, or guiding each other blindfold round hurdles, communication and collaboration have been essential. And successful runs along the zip wire wouldn’t have been possible without a team of enthusiastic participants working in relay to return the equipment to the top of the hill for the next fearless flyer. Tunnelling also had hearts racing and friends busy reassuring their peers to burrow deeper underground, and as for avoiding the shark-infested custard, thank goodness that no-one left any of their teammates behind! With so much excitement, Year 3 returned to school buzzing, exhausted and proud of their accomplishments. Many thanks to the team at Mill on the Brue for making the experience so magical and memorable.

Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 3

Year 5 were tasked with designing and building a junkbot from recyclable materials during Science Week. This had a key link to engineering as their challenge was to design an object which would move in a straight line rather than in a circle. To make that happen, the children linked a motor to a power pack and then attached a cork to the end of the motor. This created an off-centre weight on the motor’s shaft. When the power pack was turned on, the cork’s centre of mass rapidly moved from side to side as it rotated, causing the entire bot to vibrate with it. Normally in engineering such vibrations are considered a bad thing because they can cause machines to fall apart eventually. However, they can also be used on purpose to make things buzz (like cell phones or console controllers) or, in this case, to make your junkbot move around. Designing and building the bots was only half the story and Year 5 will complete their task in their lessons next week, testing their creations against their classmates over a short distance to see who is the best designer. The overall winner will be crowned champion and earn Year 5 bragging rights!

Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science

As part of this year’s Science Week, Year 6 got all gooey and gloopy making magnetic slime. The ingredients are simple but when combined they make for a very interesting experiment. All you need is some PVA glue, bicarbonate of soda, eye-drop solution and some iron filings, plus some muscle power to mix everything up. You can also add some paint to make coloured slime but this is best avoided when in cricket whites! The children had great fun creating their slime and then using magnets to make it move around. In Set 1, they also watched a video of work being carried out at the University of China in Hong Kong investigating the potential medical use of magnetic slime. Meanwhile, children in Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 were treated to an interactive talk from father-and-son duo Nick and Orson Crescenzi-Clarke, the latter a pupil in Year 6. Nick talked about his extensive career in geology and where his love for the subject stemmed from. The children were fortunate to see first hand a real Mosasaur skull, with its razor-sharp teeth still attached to its jaws – commonly referred to in the Crescenzi-Clarke household as ‘Jeff’’. They also got to hold a fossilised megalodon tooth the size of a Coke can and a Spinosaurus claw. They were introduced to a large selection of gem stones, ranging from semi-precious minerals such as Blue John to monolithic crystals, such as Malachite. Nick and Orson were delighted to share these specimens with the children and they had the chance to handle and examine them throughout the presentation. Nick and Orson’s excellent presentation was a wonderful and insightful way to start the day.

Peter Hesselmann, Y6 Science Teacher

As Year 7 are covering body systems this term, they had the opportunity to participate in two practical tutorials as part of Science Week – a digestion demonstration and a lung dissection. 7.1 enjoyed a digestion practical which demonstrated the process as the food moves through the alimentary canal. The children discovered the relevance each digestive organ has in the process, along with the importance of biological catalysts and how they aid with breaking the foodstuffs into smaller, more absorbable, molecules. The beginning-to-end result is always met with a modicum of disgust as they see the final product emerging from the small incision in the tights (replicating the large intestine) and splashing into the bowl labelled ‘toilet’! Year 7 also had the chance to observe the dissection of a lamb’s lung. They examined the different parts of the breathing system, looking closely at the trachea and how it’s adapted to allow food to be swallowed while at the same time not restricting the air passage. They then observed where the trachea branches into each separate lung and, using a hand pump, simulated how the lungs would expand and contract during normal inhalation and exhalation. Our excellent specimen also contained the heart, and after removing this they were able to clearly see the pulmonary vein and artery leading to and from the two sides of the heart. We didn’t examine the heart any further as this will be something they dissect in pairs in the very near future.

Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science

Year 8 marked Science Week by probing a mystery ‘murder’ in the biology lab. Science department celebrity ‘Stan the skeleton’ was found stricken on the floor of the biology lab where he had been left sometime over the bank holiday weekend. Using police tape, the science department was sealed off on Tuesday morning – with only Year 8 allowed to access the crime scene in order to begin a forensic investigation. First they were treated to an exclusive CSI talk from Cathryn King, a senior forensic scientist with the Metropolitan Police Service, which introduced Year 8 to the different types of evidence that could be collected from a crime scene and how some of these can be analysed. They were then split into groups where they ran through the list of suspects – Mr Elgood, Mr Backhouse, Mr Hesselmann, Mr Hamilton, Mrs Duncan and Mr Baker – before entering the ‘crime scene’ in small groups. Their first task was to take photographs of each piece of evidence, collate it in their CSI booklets, and then try to match the footprints found at the scene with the suspects. This quickly ruled out two potential suspects but four remained.  Throughout the remainder of the week, the young investigators continued analysing the evidence using separating techniques they have learnt in their 13+ science lessons, including microscopy, evaporation, chromatography and flame tests, before they gathered enough evidence to determine who the ‘murderer’ was. Watch this space……the Year 8 detectives are on the case!

Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science