Lower School
In English, Year 3 has been reading ‘The Hodgeheg’ by Dick King-Smith. Why don’t you ask your child how Max came to have such a funny way of speaking? We have been revisiting addition and subtraction methods in maths and look forward to moving onto time next week.
Year 3 made the most of the sunshine by spending their science lesson outside hunting for magnetic objects in the school grounds. We have introduced our new learning focus and have been blown away by the knowledge that the children already have of magnets and their uses.
In topic, we have started our study of the Ancient Maya and have explored how the conquistadors discovered the ruins; we thought of our own questions to ask about this ancient civilisation which we hope to be able to answer by the end of term. The teachers were blown away by some of the creative prep completed over the Easter holidays and were greeted on Monday by a vast array of pyramids, recipes and presentations. Well done everyone - it is great to see how much you are enjoying your learning.
Year 4 dived straight back into their learning with gusto. Dragon eggs are rumoured to have been found and children are writing non-chronological reports about various aspects of these incredible creatures. They are also ensuring their knowledge of the homophones ‘their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’ is rock solid. They’ve enjoyed using mirrors to explore symmetry in maths and finding out that regular polygons have the same number of lines of symmetry as they have vertices, or sides.
Sunflower seeds are being planted as we speak and children loved finding out how many species of plants they could find in the school grounds. Did you know that some plants are medicinal? In Topic, Year 4 are becoming immersed in the history of the UK up to the point where the Battle of Hastings took place. They pretended to be one of the three contenders for the throne after Edward the Confessor died, with the Wittan - the king’s advisors of the time - making the decision as to whom would be king. There was intrigue aplenty! All in all, a most enjoyable and learning packed week.
Middle School
In Geography, Year 6 have started a new topic exploring global trade. We have established what trade is and learnt lots of new words such as ‘globalisation’. This week the children are to work in groups to present to the class information on trade at different points in history i.e. the Stone Age, 17th century and 21st century. 6AO gave some great performances to demonstrate how trade has changed, as can be seen in the photos.
In Science, Year 5 and 6 have both had fantastic weeks. Year 5 started the week sitting outside investigating which items are soluble in water and identifying the evidence that proves it. They have also been engaging with the key vocabulary. Year 6 have been able to have some lessons in the science labs, this means that they have finally been able to use Bunsen burners as is shown in the photographs. They still have more exciting practical lessons to come.
Upper School
A warm welcome back to all our Year 7s and 8s who have returned to their lessons fully charged and ready to enjoy a very busy term ahead! A highlight of the first week back had to be the introduction of engineering lessons for Year 7. Part of our STEM provision, but also combined with Baccalaureate, Wednesday’s workshop saw 7W working in small groups with the challenge of designing, constructing, testing and evaluating their own electric car. However, the lesson did not come with a complete set of easy-to-follow instructions! With all the materials to hand, the children found the real test was coming up with a design that all team members agreed upon. Could they adapt their design? What improvements could be made? How could they test it? Faced with obstacles and ‘failures’ their skills of resilience, creativity and communication were also tested! We look forward to repeating this challenge so the children can build upon what they have learned so far.
Music
Year 7 and 8’s music elective have a fantastic project this term of preparing and rehearsing for their upcoming concert - a Musical Matinee! The theme is songs from musicals. They have already learnt a couple of songs from the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. After this week’s rehearsal I know it is going to be a fabulous performance! The Musical Matinee will take place on Wednesday 30th June and more details will be announced soon.
Year 5’s have a tremendous topic this term on Samba. They have already learnt all about the culture of Samba music, where it is from, the carnivals, and the musical elements used to create samba. They have started learning songs based from Brazil, and have really enjoyed making energetic, loud music whilst marching around the school!
Louie in Year 4 was invited to audition for the West End production of Matilda the Musical recently and has now reached the semi-final! He also had to perform a live monologue and learn a dance routine from the show. This is such a wonderful achievement for Louie, whatever the result the Edge Grove community is very proud of him!
Art
IAPS iArt Competition 2021 - I am thrilled to announce that Dotty Ward was awarded 3rd place in the national IAPS iArt competition! There were a record number of entries this year with 168 in total and over 45 for the Year 3-4 category. Dotty will be awarded an IAPS certificate and Amazon gift voucher and her artwork will hang on the wall of IAPS headquarters for a year. Well done Dotty!
We have included Dotty's artwork below and you can click here to view all our entries.
Royal Academy of Art Young Artists’ Summer Show 2021 - Artwork entries from pupils of Edge Grove have now been submitted to the Royal Academy Summer Show. It was fabulous to see how many children have contributed and we are very excited to see if any of us makes it through to the exhibition! Judging takes place during May and we can expect to hear soon after. Watch this space!
Lower School Winner - Dotty Ward
Drama
An exciting first week back in the Drama department! The Year 6 show is really beginning to take some serious shape. The characters which the students are portraying during rehearsals are brilliant and they will only build more! Thank you to all pupils who learnt all of their lines over the holidays - it was so impressive.
The Upper School play Animal Farm has now been cast and we had our first full-company read through. It is going to be a busy yet brilliant term ahead.
Both productions will be professionally recorded for you to enjoy at home.
At the end of last term a selection of the Year 7 & 8 pupils worked collaboratively between Drama and Music. The pupils learnt about silent movies and worked on a three week collaborative project to devise their own silent movie. Pupils also wrote their own music to accompany the acting. We had some great end results.
Photography
This week the Upper School have started working on Animal Farm. We are doing a range of Photography, Graphics, Marketing and IT. The children started to research about Animal Farm, looking at how they will produce posters, programmes as well as marketing the event. The children started taking pictures of the rehearsals in the theatre, the backdrop designs in Art, Prop making in DT and of the children in Music. It has been a great first week back getting stuck into a new project.
Boarding
On the final day of last term the Boarders were treated to a very special breakfast of pancakes, mini eggs and chocolate spread! It was a great start to the final day.
On Monday and Tuesday evenings this week we have been lucky enough to be able to be outside playing hide and seek, tag and 40/40 home. It has been great to start off the term with a few new faces in boarding as well. A huge welcome to Ariana, Lucy, Terry and Nikhil who are joining us two nights a week.
On Wednesday evening we all descended on the Sports Hall for Badminton and Table Tennis and on Thursday evening the children were outside enjoying the sunny weather playing hide and seek. Once the sun had gone down the children then played a game of Dodgeball in the Sports Hall.
We have had a great first week back of the Summer Term.