What a wonderful week with our littlest pupils who have been discussing the season of Winter and making links to their book of the week, Stickman. The children have been creatively designing and making beautiful stick families in art and even helped Stickman to escape from the ice by exploring freezing and melting!
Animals have been the name of the game in Reception classes this week. In Literacy we have been using ‘Dear Zoo’ to learn about describing words and writing letters to the zoo about what pets we would like. Some of the wishes were jaguars, dragons and even unicorns amongst many others. The children have been developing their creative skills and drawing beautiful animals carefully following a given set of instructions.
In art, Year 1 have made a good attempt to replicate Van Gogh’s well-known ‘Starry Night’. The children have been experimenting with tone and colour by using oil pastels and smudging their fingers on the paper to create a shadowy effect. They used yellow specks of colour to create the stars and then they used blue and white swirls to create the night sky. Their completed works will be an eye opener!Year 1 also conducted a very interesting experiment all about forces. They enjoyed bringing their toys from home into school and seeing which forces were needed to make them move.
The Year 2 children have loved designing, planning and investigating their own sledges to test as part of a science investigation. They were so happy and excited thinking about how they could create a sledge to travel the furthest down a ramp after being pushed and found genius and creative ways to develop their sledges.
It has been a windy cold week down in the woods at Forest School, but that hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm to participate in some exciting outdoor activities. The children have revisited some of our woodland safety practices, and after collecting suitable materials have built some very effective fairy fires. We have also been developing our mini construction skills by making homes for our very own pebble animals.
The favourite story of the week is most definitely the Owl Babies. In small groups the children have made nests out of twigs and moss and added their very own owlets.
Just as a reminder, are you participating in the Great British Bird Watch this year? We would love you to share your findings with us.
It was our first full week back at school for the Spring term and the children were as busy as ever. The first house meeting of the new term took place on Wednesday with the pupils splitting into their house groups to discuss all of the upcoming events such as house badminton, board games and photography. We are also eagerly looking forward to seeing them perform in the qualifying rounds for ‘Edge Grove’s Got Talent’. Remember all submissions count towards house points!Year 3 continued their detective work in English lessons as they delved deeper into the case of the missing author. Year 3 worked on creating mysterious openers and diary entries featuring the present perfect tense. The children opened up their writing with descriptions of creaking antique floorboards, cursed wooden chairs and thick drops of thunderous rain. All very appropriate for the dark, wet weather we have had this week!
In maths lessons the children were recapping their understanding of time. Year 3 used analogue clocks to tell the time to the nearest quarter hour and 5 minutes. Pupils were challenged at the end of the week to use their understanding of time to answer two step word problems.
Year 3 had a hands-on science lesson this week as they investigated light and how it is reflected. The children were challenged to explore how light reflects when using mirrors and uneven surfaces.
This week saw the start of the new humanities topic for the term- Egyptians. Pupils had been hard at work over the Christmas holidays creating wonderful projects to share with the rest of the class. There were very creative hieroglyphics, bandaged mummies and exciting diary entries documenting the discovery of Tutankamen’s tomb.
In PSHEE lessons this week the children were sharing their own definition of ‘community’. We discussed the various clubs, groups and families that they might be a part of and how these communities can support and help us.
This term Year 3 have started to use Ninja Vocab to introduce them to some new exciting vocabulary. Do you know what ‘coddiwomple’ and ‘wontytump’ mean? Perhaps your child might be able to share their definitions with you. In Year 4 English, we have started studying the book, Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. The book is set in Anglo-Saxon times and links beautifully with our topic this term. Children have had great fun learning about the character of Grendel and worked collaboratively to study all aspects of his being. This culminated in them writing their own character descriptions. He is a terrifying monster so teachers will be sitting tight when marking these.
In maths, we have been dividing by 10 and 100. The children have used place value grids to allow them to move the digits to the right and they are developing their understanding of using zero as a place holder. The children are continuing to have a weekly arithmetic lesson which focuses on the four operations.
Communities have been the focus of our PSHE lessons and it has been wonderful to hear the children sharing information about the communities they belong to and are proud to be a part of.
The new topic of Anglo Saxons has been thoroughly enjoyed by the children. It is great to see how many of the children are still interacting with the optional Topic prep on google classrooms. This has built a really good foundation of knowledge for many of the children before starting this topic. It has also been great to see the children beginning to make historical links between different ages and to be able to recall key historical dates unprompted.
It has been an exciting week for the children in forest school. They have learnt how to make rich compost ready for planting up next week. They ended their forest school sessions with a worm race!
We all need to be able to write a formal letter, and in English lessons this week, Year 5 have been learning how to layout a formal letter, and how to choose vocabulary and grammar to create a formal tone. We suggest that they be very excited to share their understanding of the subjunctive verb form with you!
In Maths we have been revisiting long multiplication and learning how to multiply decimal numbers. In science this week Year 5 have been investigating how shadows change position during the day. They used a shadow arch to change the position of ‘the sun’ and recorded the length of the shadow in a table.
After finishing the Battle of Hasting last term, Year 5 are now embarking on an enquiry to see how William I and the Normans established control of the rest of England. This includes looking at the impact of the feudal system. This week they have been learning about the features of early Normal motte and bailey castles.
Our study of Journey to Jo’Burg, by award-winning author Beverley Naidoo, is opening pupils’ eyes to the injustices of the Apartheid regime in the 1980s. Through the journey of the protagonists, Neledi and Tiro, to find their mother in the city, we have already been shown the fear that black South Africans had of the police, the hatred for the Pass Laws, and the unfair treatment that workers experienced on white-owned farms. Class discussions are rich, with plenty of opportunities to infer and summarise in writing.
In Maths we have continued to work through problems involving the order of operations and negative numbers.
In science this week, Year 6 have been studying the periodic table, completing a Chromebook research activity to find out lots of information about all the different elements. We also tested our code breaking skills turning element names into their symbols to spell out hidden messages.
This week in history, Year 6 pupils have been looking at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, considering whether they were fair. Some classes have already moved onto investigating how the aftermath of the treaty and the Wall Street crash of 1929 laid the foundations for the Second World War.
The Upper School Book Club were delighted to welcome Mr Balfour to this week's discussion. The Book Club swapped meeting in the library for the privilege of convening in the Headmaster's study, where Mr Balfour shared an extract from one of the novellas of his favourite author, Steinbeck.
The themes within 'Tortilla Flat' provoked thoughtful discussion, and members of the group made excellent links with the other challenging books enjoyed in the club. Thank you, Mr. Balfour - please come again!
REMINDER Edge Grove Upper School Careers Morning - We call all willing parents to support us at this term’s forthcoming Careers Morning! Across the school, this term’s PSHEE focus is ‘Living in the Wider World.’ Pivotal to this, as well as a core element of the enrichment module of the Edge Grove Baccalaureate, is exposing our seniors to the world of careers.
To ensure that we can make this as relevant, impactful and and as memorable as possible, we are keen to include our talented parent-body. Whether you are a business entrepreneur, a medical professional, an artist, actor, accountant or athlete, we would love to hear from you!
The date of our Careers Morning will be Monday 27th February at 09.00am in the Theatre. Within the format of a ‘fair’, we will be inviting the children to come and speak to you to find out more about how your individual world of work operates, the various pathways into it, and some of the skills and attributes that may be required. We know it will be a tremendously valuable opportunity, and we are greatly appreciative of your help! If you think you can get involved, please do let me know via email: awarren@edgegrove.com
The U9 girls did an outstanding job at the York House inter school cross country event. They all ran an incredible race with Edith finishing in 4th place, Sara in 6th and Olivia in 10th. With the girls all running as a team they secured the top spot and all took home gold medals. This is a great achievement for the girls this early on in the season.
The U9 boys also did fantastically in a thankfully dry, albeit very muddy afternoon at York House. They all ran really well against a strong field of runners, particularly managing to keep up with the York House boys (the eventual winners). With our top three runners placing in the top 10 (Nathaniel H in 4th, Alexander GH in 5th and Atlas D in 8th), supported well by the rest of the boys we managed to secure 2nd overall place as a team. A great event and experience for the pupils.
This Year 5 pupils took part last Sunday in the event held in Harlow and congratulations to all for their effort and level of skill. Rex came 2nd in his U13 group and in the U11 section James R came 3rd out of 5 in his group and Ben R became U11 County Champion. Ophelia finished 2nd just ahead of Amelie in 3rd place in the Girls' competition.
This follows the success of our four teams at the end of last term. All four won the District Championships thereby qualifying for the County Finals and (from an entry of over 100 schools) finished 1st (Girls U13), 3rd (Boys U13), 2nd (Girls U11) and 5th (Boys U11).
Next week we are running an inter-house competition with Year 5 on Jan 16th, Year 6 on Jan 19th and Years 7 and 8 on Jan 20th.
Congratulations to Olivia in Year 4 who took part in the John Hempenstall gala on behalf of The City of St Albans swimming club. She performed extremely well in only her second competitive gala where she was entered into three events. She was very proud to receive the following medals:
50m freestyle-Gold25m backstroke-Silver25m freestyle -Bronze
Music and Drama - This week saw our first 2 hour rehearsal for Matilda Jr and how great it was! The cast are working so hard learning the songs and their lines and we are so excited to see the show come together.
Year 8 this week have been looking at scene 1 of Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations, a play about a boy who has a vivid imagination and whose thoughts have a habit of turning into reality.
We have a very excited Year 6 who are preparing to audition for their show at the end of this term Alice the Musical. We look forward to casting the show and getting the rehearsals under way.
On another note, I know so many pupils take part in drama clubs and shows outside school. I would love to see all the wonderful things they do so please email me any photos or blurbs explaining what they have been doing to me and I can share them in the newsletter: lneale@edgegrove.com
Music Platforms (formerly known as Rush Hours)
If your child plays an instrument outside of school and has pieces which have been practised and prepared to play, please email jsaville@edgegrove.com to be added to future music platform lists.
Casting Call
Please find below a notice regarding a casting call from Rob Kelly Casting.
