As soon as I set foot in Pre-School this week a flying potato zoomed across the room! The pupils were inspired by the book Supertato by Paul Linnet and Sue Hendra and had made their own versions of this particular superhero. They were all looking forward to trapping the pesky pea in a pot of jelly; what a sensory delight. Reception have very much enjoyed exploring number and the Early Years provides inspiration for us all when we witness learning in action. Not a worksheet in sight, every child was engaged in working with concrete materials to demonstrate their understanding of the part/whole model. What I enjoy most is the fact that the pupils never shy away from a challenge. When I was told that 2 and 18 make 20 I shouted “prove it” and that’s exactly what a group of children did. Year 2 have been handling data in their maths lessons. Conducting surveys and doing their own research centred on the Winter Olympics, they were then challenged to present their data in a variety of ways and analyse it like experts. They too never shy away from a challenge and are only too pleased to take advantage of any opportunity to explain their learning.
I never cease to be amazed at the energy of Pre Prep pupils as they throw themselves wholeheartedly into their busy days. There is always so much rich conversation too. It was therefore unusual for me to pass by 1 Larch this week and not here a sound coming from their room. I just had to venture inside and reassure myself that they were in fact in class and see what had inspired this mindful moment. There they all were painting beautiful pictures of the Northern Lights, a phenomena that they had studied in Topic lessons and were completely absorbed.
Year 3 - This week the children have been learning about the importance of a balanced diet. The Flourish Focus for this half term is to eat well. The children also had a chance to share their favourite book during a ‘Book Talk’ session. Year 3 have enjoyed telling each other about their favourite parts of a book and making recommendations to their peers. We have been super impressed with the effort made by the children in their optional prep and they have enjoyed presenting their work to the class. In maths, we have been exploring money including adding, subtracting, converting between pounds and pence and giving change. In English, we have explored two poems by Lewis Carroll identifying rhyming words and retelling the narrative of ‘The Carpenter and the Walrus’.
Year 4 - Year 4 have had a brilliant start to Spring 2 kicking off with Beowulf. The year group found themselves in the Apthorp Hall creatively annotating large scale illustrations of Grendel beast from the novel. The notes made during interactive session were used to inform their character descriptions in the latter part of the week. We look forward to our setting descriptions next week and have some activities planned for this writing task.
We have had an exciting start on our topic on Fractions. Children explored the concept of equivalent fractions through visual representations, practical explorations and methods of calculation. Next week we will be furthering our understanding of adding and subtracting fractions.
Science saw an action packed lesson exploring how sound moves through different materials. Children also followed an enquiry route by exploring how to make different sounds and writing observations of how vibrations makes sound. Year 5 - The children returned to school this week full of enthusiasm after a restful half term. This week saw the start of our new Flourish unit ‘Eat Well’ and our PSHEE unit ‘Healthy Me’. In form time year 5 were discussing balanced meals and discussing the various food groups and the impact that they have on the body. Pupils were challenged to create their own healthy plate of food and to keep a food diary for a day.
On Tuesday the children had an assembly on fair trade led by Miss O’Hare. The pupils were very interested to hear that some workers are treated unfairly in other countries and they were very keen to think about what they could do to help. In maths lessons this week the children were looking at transformations. They were asked to describe how a shape had moved around a four quadrant grid. They also looked at reflecting shapes using a mirror line. The children continued to read ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ in English lessons. They were encouraged to think about the story so far and how the characters had developed in previous chapters. Each class asked some children to be ‘hot seated’ as the characters of Kensuke or Michael. They were then asked questions by the rest of the class and challenged to answer them in character. We had some fantastic accents being demonstrated by some of the children! Year 5 then used their understanding of both characters to write an empathetic piece of writing from each character's perspective. In history lessons the children were learning about Eleanor of Aquitane, the Queen of France. See if they can tell you a little bit about her life. The children have started to create their own carnival inspired mask. We can’t wait to see what they look like! Year 5 continued to look at the planets in science, sharing fun facts about each one. Rehearsals for Peter Pan continued this week, the children were practising the songs in their music lessons and they sounded terrific!
Year 6 - It was lovely to welcome the pupils back after what I hope was a windy, but restful half term. It was great to catch up with them in the morning on Monday morning and hearing stories of how many fence panels blew down! This week the year 6 girls were lucky enough to be invited to a Drama day at Downe House school, an independent boarding school for girls in Berkshire. Miss Neale has circulated the video of the girls' performances and I was wowed by the professional nature of their acting and singing. In PSHE the year 6s have begun their topic ‘Healthy Me’ and have been discussing their normal eating habits as well as learning about the food groups and creating balanced healthy meals. In science this week the pupils have taken their Bunsen burner licence exams and have all passed the practical as well as written elements of this with flying colours. They then used their Bunsen skills to carry out an experiment, separating the salt and sand in rock salt. The photos below show 6EL undertaking the practical.
7 Red embodied Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes today, using their ''little grey cells'' to observe and carefully note details of Edge Grove School: the setting for their crime fiction novella. As the many model texts have shown, 20th Century crime writers describe their surroundings in considerable detail, dropping clues and red herrings for their readers. 7 Red noticed many minute details about Edge Grove today, from the pine needles hanging low over the pavilion, to the weathervane signalling a leaden sky, to the secret passages in Mystery Wood that could provide a narrow escape to one who knows the grounds well. 7 Red showed excellent behaviours for learning and they will now use their notes to create long, complex sentence structures which mirror the writings of Christie and Sir Conan Doyle.
Congratulations to all the pupils who took part in the Rookie Chess tournament over half term. Special mention goes to the following pupils: 1. Kishan P in Year 2 scored 20 points and won the Bronze medal 2. Dylan S in Year 4 scored 20 points and won the Bronze medal 3. Aman L in Year 2 played the opening and the endgame very well. He scored 17 points 4. Robert C in Year 5 scored 15 points. Robert played many long endgames and was commended 5. Ted G in Year 2, one of the aspiring chess players in the competition, showed good skills. He scored 15 points
The next event is to be held on Sunday 20th March at Elm Court, Potters Bar and parents can contact our chess coach, Mrs Kumar (hjccclub@gmail.com) for further details.
We are excited that fixtures have resumed and you can see all our Match Reports and photos here.
Art - We have enjoyed a fabulous week of art lessons! Before half term, Year 3 were fine tuning their painting skills and are now ready to learn how to write their names in hieroglyphics. Once this has been completed they will start their final pieces, painting their names in hieroglyphics on papyrus paper. Year 4 started their new project just before half term which ties in with their topic work on biomes. They are now busy constructing their 3D hot air balloons. Year 5 have been researching pop artist Roy Lichtenstein and will be practising drawing in his style next week. Year 6 started their new project this week and will be researching artist Bridget Riley in preparation for their optical illusion artworks. Years 7 and 8 researched Guiseppe Arcimboldo before half term and are now designing their surrealist faces. Before half term, the scholarship art pupils had a go at creating acrylic pouring artworks. We all tried to achieve the ever elusive ‘cells’ but without success. It was a very messy but equally fun session!
Photography - This week in photography module the Upper School pupils took photographs of their faces in David Hockney style to show movement. They have started to layer these of top of each other and then use the Opacity tool to create a ghost like movement.
During photography elective the Upper School pupils have started to use the Clone Stamp Tool, it is used to remove parts of a photograph. This tool is very tricky to use as precision is key as the photographs found out! Great work from Joseph and Niky this week.
Music - Peter Pan rehearsals are sounding amazing and we are now at the point where we are adding choreography to the fantastic musical score. The excitement for the first musical back after COVID is already in the air; both Year 5 and Year 6 are working towards putting this show together and the countdown has begun!
Our smallest musicians in Pre-School have been learning about their speaking, whispering, singing and shouting voices... Can you guess which one is their favourite? A clue... Miss Saville's ears are ringing after their Monday morning lesson, but in the best way possible of course! Students really enjoyed learning about fast and slow tempo's and enjoying being a snail and mouse whilst learning about the differences!
Well done and thank you to all students for attending Open Morning on Saturday and who took part in the Chamber Choir and Peter Pan rehearsals. Your enthusiasm and diligence was fantastic and you should be very proud.
Drama - Peter Pan rehearsals are now in full swing and I must say you are in for a treat! All the children in Year 5 and 6 have been working hard learning lines, working on their characterisation and learning new choreography. They are very excited to be performing in front of a live audience for the first time in two and half years. More information on tickets will be in this week's Information Letter.
Last Thursday the Year 6 girls were invited to Downe House School for a musical theatre day. The theme this year was The Lion King. Edge Grove was given the song Hakuna Matata and rehearsed a dance, some script and the song in three hours. They then performed to a live audience in the afternoon. It was a fantastic day and the staff at Downe House commented on how wonderful, enthusiastic and talented our Edge Grove girls were.
Year 7 & 8 Elective have been continuing to look at The Demon Headmaster and have been staging their own scenes in groups. It is lovely to see their creative ideas and interpretations of the scenes with each group staging their scenes so differently from the next.
On Friday 11th we celebrated International Day of Women and Girls In Science for all pupils in Years 3-8. We had two sessions with parents who came in to speak to our pupils about their job roles, the science involved, their pathways and careers in science. We had parents from a range of occupations including orthodontics, medicine manufacturing and Quality Assurance, molecular biology and cognitive neuropsychology. It was so informative and we were all (pupils and staff included!) left feeling very inspired! Thank you to those parents who contributed to this very important day.
Before half term, a selection of children in years 6-8 competed in the Linguistic Olympiad 2022. In their phases, students embarked on 3 code breaking language challenges that required them to think analytically and as part of a team. Each year the UKLO changes the languages that appear in the questions, often they are languages that people have never heard of! The trick is to work methodically to figure out how gender, person and number appears in that language. Our 3 languages this year were: Swedish, Mangyan and Italian.
In total Edge Grove had 30 pupils enter the UK wide competition and their names and results have been sent off to the UKLO whilst we await feedback. One thing we do know is that… every pupil in year 8 was awarded full marks! A very well done to all those who took part!
Year 6: Maria Alex D Ayomide Artem Yuya Kamil Andreas Noah David Andrew Summer Emily P Rohan
Year 7: Niky Shona Henry Evan
Year 8: Raneem Liam Stephie Sophie H Lucas Ariana Ediz Daniel L Kavish Momoka Louis Mark S Stephen S
We are delighted to invite you to participate in the 2022 Edge Grove Golf Day to be held on Friday 20th May 2022 at Aldenham Golf and Country Club. We would like to encourage golfers of all standards to join us. The day includes tea/coffee and a breakfast roll before you start, 18 holes of golf followed by a 2 course sit down lunch. The cost of the day is £65 per person. If you would like to secure your place on a team or submit a four ball, please click here to book your place. If you have any questions please email Sue Maughan on smaughan@edgegrove.com.