The Chronicle

The children have worked hard and enjoyed the excitement of the swimming gala this week. Art provided some calm, meditative moments during an otherwise busy time. Junior 6 are working on the Zen Theory of pattern through ‘Zentangles’. The idea of art for mindfulness is becoming very popular. In a link with their Geography topic of Mountains and Rivers, pupils practised different mini pattern repeats in their Art lessons so that they become confident in abstract design in monochrome colours of black, white and greys. Not as easy as it sounds as the designs need to be small and neat. Let’s see where this takes us!

Junior 5 have been busy discovering exciting facts about Space this term, exploring the solar system and enhancing their knowledge and understanding of planets. This week, they excitedly made a model of the solar system, which they created to scale. The children were all actively involved in the lesson, all asking interesting questions to help further their knowledge. We definitely have some buzzing astronauts in Junior 5! TO INFINITY……AND BEYOND!

What a busy week for Junior 4! They enjoyed the first House Swimming Gala at Newbold Comyn, Leamington, as well as some fabulous lessons. Pupils have been working hard on their LAMDA poems, concentrating on diction and pace and they have all been doing a great job of performing them to each other and to their drama teacher, Mrs Wildey. They have been working in pairs to critique each others' performance and then to make improvements in preparation for their exams in November. Well done, Junior 4!

This week in Junior 3W pupils imagined that they had been transported back into the Stone Age and that they needed to think like a hunter-gatherer in order to survive. Owing to the rainy weather conditions, they imagined looking around the playground and forest school for assets that might help them survive. The suggested trees to help make spears, for shelter and to make fire with, animal skins for clothes and blankets, and food and water from a river to help keep hydrated and for fishing, to name but a few of their suggestioons. The children then used sheets to record their findings. We hope to get outside next week to see how far we can survive in forest school! 

This week Junior 2 have been turning their artistic hand to some wax resist painting. After creating fabulous fairytale castles out of shapes, each shape was carefully decorated with patterns in wax crayon. They then learnt how to use watercolour washes in contrasting colours, and were amazed to see the wax resist the paint. It looked fantastic and possibly even slightly Quentin Blakesque!

In their History lessons, they learnt all the correct names for the different parts of a castle; from the moat to the barbican and the battlements. If you look closely at our pictures, you will see many of these different features represented in our art.

Junior 1 are learning about the importance of their senses. They have been on a listening walk; enjoyed activities where they isolated one of their senses to heighten the other, and they tantalised their tastebuds making so many discoveries about what they liked and how their tongue could identify different flavours.

Their focus this week has been on eyesight, a crucial sense, allowing pupils to learn, explore and interact with our surroundings which impacts on our cognitive social development. When exploring eyesight, the children learnt that people without eyesight can learn through a tactile system which was developed by Louis Braille back in 1824, when he was only 15 years old!

It has been yet another busy week in Reception. The children have been talking about their houses this week, and have enjoyed using the classroom resources to make their own representation of the home they live in. They soon recognised that even though our homes all look different, there are lots of features that all houses have, such as windows, doors, roofs, bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms.  The children had a go at applying their phonics skills to write labels for the house they had drawn. In Maths, the children practised their sorting skills and applying their own sorting criteria, and in Art this week, the children painted their beautiful self portraits they had drawn last week.