Year 5 Greek creativity

A fantastic display has appeared in the main school corridor - all due to the year 5 homework linked to their topic on Ancient Greece. It is certainly being admired by all!

Musical creativity in Foundation stage

I had another wonderful afternoon with the Foundation Stage children exploring and designing musical instruments. Some excellent creativity, exploration of the sounds different things make and a definite desire to perform!

Our garden in the Sun

The school garden is certainly responding to the rain and sun - all wonderfully supervised by our year 6 volunteers!

 

 

Love is best demonstrated by our actions

This week in our assemblies we have been considering how serving others can some time come at a cost. Every so often we come across someone who inspires us through the way in which they have made a real difference in people’s lives through their dedication and commitment to making a difference. One of the questions I asked in assembly was ‘who inspires you? ‘ I wonder what our own individual answers would be and what impact those people have had on our own lives.

 Pausing to reflect on this in our assemblies, helped us to consider what difference we can make not just on our own, but together. Maybe we won’t achieve such a significant impact, but through our choices and our decision to demonstrate our response to Jesus call to love our neighbour through action, even if it is just in small ways, a difference can be made.

This has been our prayer this week – asking God to help us to make a difference in whatever way we can, big or small. The result of this, as we considered when looking at the life of Joe Homan, was that the end result, can change lives and if nothing else bring a smile to someone’s face.

Pond dipping in Foundation stage

To support our literacy and understanding the world this week, we went pond dipping.

Our books have been about frogs and their life cycle.

Despite initial predictions that we were going to "a lake" and we might see "a shark" no one returned disappointed.

By the pond we created frogs and tadpoles from the natural items around us, filled in a nature check list, and had a go at pond dipping - a first for many.

Great fun was had by all and the newts, snails, and tadpoles we found all seemed quite happy!

Beatboxing in Foundation stage

Yesterday we had a special visitor in FS2 from iCAN Education - we wore our cool hats and funky shades as she introduced us to beatboxing.

 

Incredibox is a musical app in which you can quickly and easily create a mix by running a band of beatboxers.

 

Enjoyed by music teachers Incredibox is used in schools to introduce rhythm and music mechanisms to children.

 

We listened carefully, then had a go at making up our own beatbox tune in groups of 3.

A great afternoon!

 

 

In memory of Joe Homan

 

As a school we have for many years sponsored the work of the Joe Homan charity, that seeks to make a real difference in the lives of children in India.

 

 

 

 

Charity President and Founder, Joe Homan started a single project in 1965 for destitute boys, just south of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, South India.

 

From humble beginnings, his work has grown over the last 40 years.

Today there are 7 residential homes for boys aged 11-18 in South India and one in Thailand, each housing 70 youngsters, as well as 5 similar projects for girls and younger children.

The charity also helps hundreds of children in community projects, giving them valuable support in their education.

 

It was with great sadness that we learnt of Joe's death in March this year and as we continue to consider our theme of loving your neighbour, it seemed right that as a school we should once again reflect on Joe's work and the continued difference that his vision makes through the charity he set up.

 

If you would like further information about the work of the charity then this can be found @

 

http://www.joehoman.org.uk/

Fun in the sun in FS2

A wonderful sunny day in foundation stage on Thursday afternoon!

Digital art

Yesterday I enjoyed exploring with the year six children their interpretations of a piece of art inspired by film. We undertook a process of listening to a sound track, visualising and decoding what we thought might be going on. This then led us to watching the clip and producing art work based on still frames from the movie.

Our art specialist worked with the children to then develop these into some really powerful pieces of visual art. All based on the parts of the movie the children were most captured by.

The film clip was from a film called Agent Cody Banks, in which a teenage secret agent dramatically rescues a child in a run away car on his skateboard. All fast paced and dramatic - of which the individual pieces of art work has certainly captured.