Show me a little person who doesn’t love exploring in their wellies! It was an absolute delight to welcome our intrepid Pre-School ramblers at the front of the main house on Wednesday morning as they completed their sponsored walk. I was so proud of them and together with the whole of Reception, the senior leadership team and most of the admin staff we loudly cheered and clapped their achievement; however, I think that they were a little overwhelmed by the strength of the welcoming committee! Of course the whole school came together on Friday for yet more charity work as we joined the nation to raise money for Children in Need. Our overarching theme this year is ‘children helping children’ and adults work hard in school to ensure that even our youngest children begin to understand the concept of helping those less fortunate than ourselves. We have also had a focus in assembly on friendship and appreciating that to have a friend means that you first of all need to be a friend. Edge Grove pupils thrive outdoors and it is always a pleasure to join them at Forest School or in our wildlife gardening club, where it is not unusual to spot a child getting busy with a hen under one arm and a spade in the other.
Year 3 - In English, the children have begun to read Escape from Pompeii. They have been exploring the characters of Livia and Tranio, and thinking about what it may have been like to be a Roman living under the ominous shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
Our English work has linked superbly with our study of volcanoes in topic, where we have examined the more recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. In science, Year 3 have been learning about the main types of rocks and how they have formed. Why not ask your child what links Starburst to sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks?
Year 4 - Year 4 have had a busy week with rehearsals and are making great progress in preparation for the opening show. Now the children are working hard to perfect their acting whilst on stage. It is going to be a wonderful show. In maths the children have been learning about perimeter. The children have taken to this well and have spent time carrying out practical lessons measuring rectangles and calculating the perimeter.
In English Year 4 have continued their work on Fables and have begun planning and writing their own fables. The children have had some great ideas when thinking of their own morals to inform their fables. Next week the children will finish their fables and perform them to other classes.
Year 5 - It was a challenging week for Year 5 as they took part in the primary maths challenge. The whole of Year 5 used their reasoning skills to answer tough mathematical questions to try to win a bronze, silver or gold award. 5AB led the way with the first class assembly of the year. This assembly coincided with Anti-Bullying week, it taught the children valuable lessons on kindness and asked the children to think about people at school who deserved messages of thanks. In English lessons the children continued to study ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This week they were analysing and performing scenes from the second act of the play. After looking at several extracts the children then wrote descriptions about the personality and appearance of ‘Puck’. Alongside the maths challenge, Year 5 were continuing to look at fractions, focusing on improper and mixed number fractions. The purple and red groups had a lot of fun this week as they combined their classes to work as a team to complete a maths quiz. In science lessons the children were investigating the effects of various forces, in particular upthrust. Year 5 had lots of fun in music lessons investigating percussion. They used different parts of their bodies to create rhythms and beats. In computing lessons the children were taught how to use google sheets and Microsoft excel to input various series of data. This week also saw meetings taking place for pupil council members and the environmental committee representatives. Staff were thoroughly impressed with the proactive and enthusiastic attitude of these representatives during these meetings.
Year 6 - This week Year 6 became the audience for the first form assembly presented by 5AB on the topic of Anti-Bullying Week. 5AB explained why kindness is so important and gave the pupils three cards to write messages of kindness on, one for a fellow pupil, one for a teacher, and one for a member of support staff. I enjoyed seeing the pupils distributing these this week. The Black History Month Museum was up and running in the Apthorpe Hall, this gave the pupils a chance to look at the projects that were not presented in assembly. The range of projects was incredible with pupils creating posters, models, drawings, collages and fact files.
In science they have been continuing their topic of energy, creating speeches similar to that delivered by David Attenborough at the COP26 climate change conference, explaining why we must be reliant on renewable rather than non-renewable energy sources.
We also had another great week of fixtures last week. You can view all the Match Reports here.
In Music, preparation is under way for Christmas and the Chamber Choir and Prep Chorus are already sounding great - not to mention the addition of the staff choir on top!
Year 3 & 4 rehearsals are now full steam ahead ready for their opening night of Dragon Days in just under 3 weeks! We can tell they specifically like singing ‘You Couldn’t Make it Up!’. All ticket information was released in the Information Letter last Friday.
A big thank you to Year 4 pupils who attended the Apthorp Donor Recognition Event last Saturday. This gave them a taste of what's to come with performing to a big, live audience!
In music lessons, Pre-School pupils are practising their singing for their upcoming Christmas concert. They are going to make the cutest little donkey’s in town! They are also gaining great expertise at listening and responding to sung instructions as well as responding to musical instructions without words. They have become specifically fond of our class mascot ‘Nelly’ who is a very cute elephant!
Year 6 have been continuing to explore different rhythms and are now more than capable of composing their own rhythmic patterns with the knowledge and creativity they have gained. Next stop… the introduction of the djembe drum! Fancy learning the trumpet or flute with one of our professional peripatetic music teachers? Or any other brass/woodwind instrument for that matter? If so, spaces have become available should your child want to sign up. Please email kleutfeld@edgegrove.com or jsaville@edgegrove.com to find out more.
In Photography Module and Elective have both been working on using Opacity whilst editing photographs, these are also known as ‘ghost’ photographs as you are able to shadow an image on top of another one.
Great work this week from Ami and Caitlin in Module and from Elective, Max C and Joseph.