National Poetry Day this week began with Miss McDonald sharing a poem in our morning staff briefing. Year 2 spent their morning learning a poem about the Fire of London, which they performed with great expression that afternoon and then again in sharing assembly on Friday. We also explored a variety of poems throughout the day to compare different styles and I can say confidently that Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes remain a firm favourite. The book which is inspiring this week’s learning in Reception is Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. Various autumnal hues of brown and orange adorn the classrooms to compliment the woodland setting and the children have taken part in lots of creative activities to support the retelling of the story. 10,9,8,7……… the countdown to more space exploration fun in Pre-School! There was lots of rich talk around the moon-scape tray and the children were keen to explain that the sparkle I noticed was in fact star dust. In Year 1 science lesson, the children have been exploring change of state. If you are going to explore whether frying an egg is a reversible of irreversible change, where better to do that than in our Food Technology room and it was a pleasure to join them in their investigations.
The year 6’s this week have learnt about British Values in an assembly taken by Mrs Caldwell. They thought about how the principles of democracy, rule of law, respect & tolerance and individual liberty applied to their own lives inside and outside of school. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to think about their own cultures and places of birth and how their intrinsic values can have a huge impact on the people around them.
We celebrated National Poetry Day on Thursday and morning form time was used for sharing our favourite poems. Mrs Broadis set the ball rolling by sharing a video of her reading one of her favourite poems, The Final Straw by Steve Turner. Video link can be found here. In 6D Emin read a poem called ‘’Slough" by John Betjeman, and Aditya read "Skeletons in my cupboard" by Sukanta Muhapatra, both read with feeling and expression. In 6M, Mrs Modha read the very topical poem ‘’Parents' Evening" by Alan Ahlberg, Kamil read "The owl and the pussycat" by Edward Lear, Sophia read "I tried to do my homework" by Kenn Nesbit and David read two! "Sick" and "The Snake" by Shel Silverstein.
In other news, Aditya has recently taken up the sport of Kayaking. He is doing incredibly well and is even competing at Harefield Slalom wild water race on the 9th & 10th October. Good Luck Aditya! This week saw Year 5 taking charge as they acted as tour guides for their families, showing them around their classrooms and introducing their subject teachers. This week the also children explored introductions to fantasy stories. They explored the various techniques used by authors such as J K Rowling, C.S Lewis and Lewis Carroll to draw in readers in the first few paragraphs. In maths lessons the children explored the various methods they could use to solve multiplication and division problems. In technology lessons the children were inspired to create their own masks after looking at designs from across the globe. They definitely showed their competitive side in geography lessons. They teamed up to solve clues that helped them identify countries and continents from across the globe. The children have been making fantastic progress with their swimming this term, mastering the skills required for breaststroke. In drama lessons the children acted out fairy tales, working on their character development skills. This week in music the children were asked to watch a recording of themselves playing the drums. They were then asked to share ideas on how they could improve on their performance. On Thursday the children celebrated National Poetry Day in form times and during English lessons. They shared poems that they had enjoyed reading and some ambitious children created poems of their own. Perhaps over the weekend you could share some of your favourite poems with them. Year 3 had an exciting start to the week making their very own milk bottle woolly mammoths! They worked independently to follow a set of instructions and thought carefully about what makes instructions good, and what makes them bad. Next week, they are looking forward to writing their own instructions and including all the necessary features.
In maths, the children have been comparing numbers and continuing their work on place value. We have had a real focus on reasoning this half term and it has been fantastic seeing the children beginning to explain their answers and give examples in context. In Science, year 3 have started to investigate the organs of the body and have used the Chromepads to help with their research. Did you know the skin is the largest organ? It has been an exciting week in year 4. The children have been completing experiments in science, timing themselves running with and without a parachute to test the effects of air resistance. Luckily we were graced with beautiful sunshine for the outdoor experiment.
The children have been busy working on their Topic projects. Working in small groups to complete presentations based on their given continents. The children are looking forward to their work being displayed around the classrooms. In maths we have been challenging the pupils with tricky column subtraction equations. Some children were able to use this method to solve written word problems. In English year 4 have been learning about the features of an explanation text. The children have enjoyed making up technical language and labeling diagrams for the Wallace and Gromit Soccamatic machine. After half term we look forward to completing our own explanation texts about the amazing invention.
Well done to everyone taking part in fixtures. It's great to see so many pupils back on the sports field! You can view all the Match Reports here.
In Drama this week Year 5 have been performing well known fairy tales and focussing on exaggerating their voice, face and movement to portray their characters. Year 6 performed part of a script between a superhero and an evil villain and worked really hard to develop their characteristics. Both the rotation and elective group in year 7 & 8 have been looking at Medieval Theatre. Learning and understanding how in this era of the theatre a lot of the plays were based around the 7 Deadly Sins. The Rotation group were asked to create a tableaux of these sins while the Elective group took it one step further and linked it into their Soap Opera unit by creating dramatic scenes based on a sin which ends in the infamous DUF DUF moment.
In Photography this week the Upper School have been finishing off their layered photographs that they started editing last week. Great work this week from Jamie and Albert.
In Photography Elective the Upper School children have been finishing off their layering photographs this week, using up to six photographs. I look forward to sharing these photographs with you next week.
In Music, the Pre Prep, Year 3 & 4 joint choirs, Prep Chorus and Chamber Choir are all rehearsed and geared up ready to perform at the Harvest Assembly on Tuesday. We have an exciting array of performances which we hope your child has been practising for you at home as enthused as they are in school. Beautiful sounds and harmonies are evident. Pupils in Year 1 have also been having lots of fun playing the cymbals whilst Mr Leutfeld plays the piano; to try and keep the beat!
Year 6 have been exploring their rhythmic ability by composing their own rhythmic patterns based on the musical note values we have been learning. They have developed a good understanding of what the difference is between a steady pulse (beat) and a rhythmic pattern.
Year 7 & 8 have been developing their understanding of bass notes and chords. They’ve been putting their theory into practice by individually having a go at playing the bass note (with a bass guitar) whilst someone else plays the chords on the piano to develop their final performance of the pop songs ‘Wild Thing’ (module group) and ‘Let It Be’ (elective group)
*Peripatetic teachers’ news*
Mr Joseph Ryan - our brass tutor - is going to be at the the Wexford Festival Opera. Find out more here: https://www.wexfordopera.com/
The Cavatina Trust is a charity that provides young people aged 8-25 free concert tickets to selected performances. Amazing news - there will be a FREE concert from award-winning pianist Simon Callaghan at The Radlett Centre on Tuesday 19th October (half term) 8pm.
It has been already agreed that Edge Grove pupils will be able to gain FREE entry however their accompanied adult must pay £17 for a ticket. Please click here for more information and how to book your tickets.
The Friends of Edge Grove is very excited to be planning an event for this Christmas for our school community.
It will be a different format from previous years so watch this space for more information!