The Chronicle

During the J6 Art and DT lessons this term, we have been looking at and discussing famous horse paintings - including horses in the trenches of World War 1 and horses going into other wars. We have looked at and discussed the wellbeing of horses and how to care for them correctly and compassionately. Our focus will now be on Greek war horses. We will begin by sketching horses and looking at the shapes that are needed to convey the image. Next we will move onto making 3D Greek horses using a variety of media. We can’t wait to show you the finished pieces!

In Junior 5 this week, the children have been thinking about how to engage the reader more effectively by concentrating on their story openers. All of the children have worked well and have been able to up-level their work; their teachers are extremely proud! In DT, children have begun their nail-art (and, no, this isn’t painting their nails!) Their hammering could be heard throughout the school, but we know it will be worth it when we can see the finished products. Our netballers and footballers were also exceptional this week, with all teams winning or drawing their games!

Year 4 had a fun-filled 'India Afternoon' this week. The children were all given the opportunity to have our very talented Art Teacher, Mrs Clarke, give them a Mendhi decoration on their hand. Mrs Hill helped the children to demonstrate their artistic talents by creating their own rangoli patterns out of chalk on the playground. The rangoli represents the happiness, positivity and liveliness of a household, and is intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck. We hope our rangoli patterns brought plenty of smiles to those who saw them.

Then Mrs Kaur led a cooking activity which saw the children make their own chapatti bread. Mrs Kaur had also been busy cooking at home and the children were able to taste some of her cooking with the bread. Mrs Burley took the children on a tour of a spice market in Delhi and a Gurdwara.

Year 4 then listened to musicians before becoming very important guests at an Indian wedding. All this was made possible by the VR headsets. All in all, we all enjoyed being immersed in this amazing culture and we all came away knowing a lot more about India. 

‘Time is precious’. Junior 3 have been gallivanting around clocks this week, learning how to tell the time. Children have been practising what each number of an 'analogue' clock means; improving their understanding of ‘quarter past’ and ‘quarter to’. From now on, there really is no excuse for being late to bed! Their artistry has also been used when making Greek pots for our wonderful mythical display, which has the head of a wooden board and blue tac for eyes. All the children have been excellently diligent and are all very excited about their first ever KS2 sports day – a TIMEly break from the classroom. Well done Junior 3!

Who knew that making a sandwich could help us to understand computing vocabulary such as algorithm, input, output and debug? We saw how algorithms can describe everyday activities and can be followed by humans and computers. Giving clear instructions to humans is hard enough, but we learned how we have to be really clear when we input code for computers to follow. Year 2 were able to 'debug' their instructions to make sure they didn't spread the butter on the chopping board, or place the bread on the side of the classroom! 

There was a lot of excitement for Sports Day this week as we headed over to the field to participate in a number of exciting sporting challenges, all in our houses. There was long jump, throwing a light-weight rounders ball, sprint races, shuttle races, bean bags through hoops and hurdling!! Everyone got to have a cookie too as a reward for participating, which helped to make the day even more memorable. Back in the classroom we began to look at the famous British inventor – George Stephenson and are currently creating a mini booklet of his brilliant inventions. Geography took us off to Scotland and we were able to try some Scottish delicacies in the form of oatcakes, Irn Bru and Edinburgh Castle rock, before designing our own tartan for Katie Morag to wear.

Despite the vagaries of the weather this week, Reception have enjoyed learning both indoors and outdoors. Checking on the progress of our cress seeds, we donned our blazers to award ‘Star Grower’ for the seeds which had made the most progress over the past seven days. We also took a look at J2’s plants which are growing very well indeed! In Maths we have been investigating subtraction by using ‘First, Then, and Now’ stories, which are helping us to deepen our understanding. We also enjoyed our Mandarin lesson, practising the pronounciation of the words we have learned so far. It’s been another busy and fun-filled week!