The Chronicle

In Music and Drama lessons over the last few weeks Junior 6 have been focusing on performance skills. In Drama they have been polishing and perfecting their recitals ready for their LAMDA exams next half-term. The children have worked extremely hard securing the words of their poetry and prose pieces to memory and have been concentrating on using clear diction, facial and vocal expression and good eye-contact to communicate the meaning of their pieces to an audience. They have also thought about the reasons why they enjoy a particular piece of text and how to explain their choices and give information about the text as a whole to another person. In Music the children have been working on songs from Aladdin, The Lion King and We Will Rock You – in preparation for the summer show. Some scenes have been acted out in readiness for the auditions which are scheduled to take place at the end of the term.

During RE, Junior 5 discussed the seven sacraments and how these are powerful signs which continue to be used today. We focussed on one of the three categories, the initiation or belonging, which included the sacrament of Baptism. We explored this through art and looked at how the Baptism of Jesus has been depicted by artists throughout the centuries. We then painted our interpretation of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus during His Baptism. We thought about the symbols used in Baptism - a dove, flame, candle, baptism garment, oil and water, and used this knowledge to create our works of art. We think you will agree that they look amazing!

Junior 4 have demonstrated great stamina this week. Despite it being week 7, since the start of term they have continued their great attitude towards their learning. Their hard work has been complemented by some lovely out of class activities, including an opportunity to plant a tree, as part of the Jubilee year. Earlier in the week, the rain poured but with every cloud, there is a silver lining and that came in the form of wet weather play, where the children enjoyed watching Peppa Pig in French! In class, the children finalised their magnificent clocks that they had been creating in Art and it was wonderful to see such an array of creative ideas. Happy Half Term Junior 4!

Junior 3 have been 'walking and talking' like Egyptians this week, as our fabulous topic draws to a close. Apart from our beautiful clay cartouches (a symbolic naming-plaque for a Pharaoh), the children have been busy creating and making Egyptian crowns. We have had fun designing and building our ideas into something geometric and exotic, imaging jewels of lapis lazuli and obsidian, coral and gold. We can’t wait to see the finished display.  Junior 3V have immersed themselves in finding out all about the Ancient Egyptian process of mummification. After learning about all the elaborate steps involved and watching an amazing clip from the Getty Museum, we worked collaboratively with our learning partners to show how much we remembered by mummifying a tomato. It was a messy and fairly gruesome process. Finally, our tomatoes were ready to be left for 40 days to dehydrate and we turned our attention to learning how a mummy was covered in Mummia resin, wrapped in bandages, decorated with amulets and placed into a sarcophagus. One lucky pupil got to experience first-hand the final stages of being an Egyptain Pharaoh; can you guess who it is?

What a wonderful end to this half term. The children have thoroughly enjoyed our topic on China and it was very apt that our final lesson of the week culminated in the children delicately painting their own Willow Pattern plate for Art. In English, Junior 2 learned and performed the poem Willow Pattern Plate by Tony Mitton in true LAMDA style, they were all superstars! Everyone then went on to write some beautiful poetry based on the poem they had learnt. We also had great fun in our Maths lessons, making 2D and 3D shapes out of mini marshmallows and cocktail sticks, which really helped to consolidate the names of shapes and the language around them. In PSHE, we continued to think about our mental health and enjoyed a guided meditation using bubbles. It really helped to blow our worries away! We hope you all have a fantastic half-term and we look forward to starting our new topic on the Great Fire of London when we return to school.

A trip to the Transport museum was the highlight of the week in Junior 1. After travelling by coach, we arrived and had a workshop learning about this history of bicycles, which was very interesting. After lunch we had the opportunity to wander around the museum and find out about how types of transport have changed over time. It was interesting to see the early cars and bicycles and compare them to what we use now. There was also the opportunity to sit on a Penny Farthing bicycle and see how big it really was. In the special ‘Women in Motor Racing’ exhibition there was the opportunity to design a car and race it against another design on a simulator. There was so much to see that we all agreed to come back another day with our families and explore further.

This week, Reception went on our long-awaited trip to the farm! The children made us so proud with their amazing behaviour, asking lots of questions, being so polite and showing their caring nature to the animals. We fed alpacas, held a new-born lamb and cuddled some very fluffy rabbits! The children loved finding out about the animals on the farm and how they are looked after.