We were very much in a jubilant mood as the sun shone for the final week of the first half of term. After carefully observing the life cycle of a butterfly, including taking home the caterpillars over the weekend, Year 2 eagerly awaited the release date. The time finally came and with Reception as happy onlookers, our little companions were set free in the Memorial Garden, where a host of beautiful flowers were waiting. The run up to the Jubilee Picnic planned for Friday included a cake competition. Pre Prep children were tasked with creating a new cake or pudding to honour the Queen - a celebratory alternative to the Victoria Sponge. The mouth watering task of choosing the finalists began and Chef John was presented with a fantastic selection of recipes. He was so impressed with the standard of entries he not only chose a winner, but also made desert for everyone based on one of the common flag designs. The winning cake was proudly displayed at the picnic and as Anoushka in Year 1 queued for her food, she turned to her teacher and said modestly, “That looks a lot like my cake.” What a lovely surprise for our well deserved winner! Anoushka and her guests joined Miss McDonald for tea later that afternoon with the cake as the well deserved guest of honour. Pre-School enjoyed a stroll along the bridal path to join us for the Jubilee Picnic and fortified by the lovely food, enjoyed an afternoon of fun in the grounds. Their smiley faces and happy shouted greetings added a little more sunshine to an already glorious Edge Grove summer term day.
Year 3 - Year 3 were working hard this week to solve problems involving time. We explored how to find the duration of events by counting around analogue and digital clocks. Why not challenge them to create their own time word problems? In English, we created our own dilemma stories based on the book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ by Lynne Cherry. The children used their knowledge of persuasive devices and descriptive language to create some very thoughtful stories which they shared with their peers. On Friday, we were treated to a picnic lunch at the front of school before taking part in a whole host of jubilee themed activities. The teachers were particularly impressed with the children’s dancing! Year 4 - The final week before the half term was filled with lots of fun activities including Shang Dynasty day and the Jubilee picnic and Jubilee activity afternoon. The Shang Dynasty discovery day was packed full of interesting enquiry tasks. In the first task of the day the children were analysing Ancient Chinese artefacts. The children were being true historians by questioning the evidence and its reliability by discussing primary and secondary sources. The day ended with the children making oracle bones and inscribing them with questions to the gods in ancient Chinese writing they had learnt earlier that day. The week ended with a thoroughly enjoyable Jubilee themed day and in English the children completed an investigative task to learn more about the monarch.
Year 5 - As the half term approached Year 5 have got themselves ready for the Jubilee celebrations. The week began with a Jubilee assembly led by Miss McDonald where we learnt lots of new facts about Queen Elizabeth. In maths lessons the children were looking at probability. They solved problems involving dice and spinners. In English we were looking at the poem ‘The Highwayman’. Year 5 discussed the themes within the poem and used this to inspire their own wanted posters and freeze frames. In science lessons the children concluded learning about solubility with an end of unit assessment. They really enjoyed taking part in all of the various experiments this term. In Classics lessons the children listened to the final part of the Trojan war. On Thursday evening the choir led a beautiful Jubilee service, this was marked with the planting of a tree. Well done to all of the pupils involved. It was a royal extravaganza on Friday when the children came to school dressed in their white, red and blue outfits. It was a wonderful day, filled with jubilee picnics and activities. What a royal way to end this half of the term!
Year 6 - The final week before half term was filled with activities for Year 6 including; cricket matches against Beechwood Park, a Jubilee Service that showcased performances from the Chamber Choir and readings from Artem and Billy along with a brilliant Friday afternoon off-timetable completing Jubilee celebration activities.
We hope the pupils have had a restful half term and are looking forward to all the fun activities that the final summer term weeks bring.
At the end of last term, our Year 8 pupils hosted a Maths Probability Fair in the Sports Hall, and invited pupils in Years 3 to 7 to come along and join in the fun. As part of our unit on Probability, the Year 8s were tasked with creating a game of chance, calculating the probability of all possible outcomes for their game and then setting up a fairground-style stall for others to visit. The event proved to be a roaring success, and although the probability of winning lay firmly with the hosts, many pupils were still able to beat the odds and win prizes. Well done Year 8!
Music - A huge well done and congratulations to the Chamber Choir and Prep Chorus who performed stunning renditions of The Lord is My Shepherd, The Lord Bless You And Keep You and There’s No Business Like Show Business at the Platinum Jubilee service.
We look forward to the Year 3 & 4 Dragon Days concert in a few weeks. This concert will be an abridged version of their very belated Christmas show and it is lovely to hear these tunes being brought back alive!
The House music competition is beginning to come to an end and Mr Leutfeld & Miss Saville are choosing finalists ready for the phased finals commencing next week. It has been an absolute pleasure to watch all of the musicians throughout every phase perform to their classmates, gain feedback on their performances, learn how to improve their stagecraft and enhance their presentation skills. Drama - Before half term, we were treated on Wednesday and Thursday morning by the LAMDA pupils performing their exam pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed all the children’s performances and look forward to hearing how they performed in their exams. If their Rush Hour was anything to go by, the examiners will be very impressed!
Year 3 have been discovering how to perfect their presentation skills. They have specifically been focusing on improving their projection, stage presence and public speaking skills. They have also benefited from learning how to manage nerves and how to treat performers whilst being in the audience; linking to our Edge Grove values of being principled and respectful.
Year 4 have begun rehearsing extracts ready for the Dragon Days concert coming up at the end of June. Year 5 have continued with their Just So scripts and some have begun blocking their scripts on stage. I am really excited to see these in their drama lessons and have been impressed that the children have been able to understand the key features of the stories.
We have been continuing to look at the year 6 English set text Skellig in drama; and this week we have been looking at how to stage narration and how staging can make a difference to a script. Ideas include: speaking in unison or the narrators saying one word each at a time, leaving a short pause to build tension but Michael says his lines very quickly.
15 Reasons Why Not To Be in a Play is coming along and the year 7 and 8 pupils are busy learning lines and developing their characters and scenes. Details for tickets will be in the information letter after half term.
Photography - The Upper School module pupils have been working hard this week to complete their sewing into photographs and I think you will agree they all look amazing. Photography Elective have been setting each other assignments and giving feedback to each other regarding instructions, troubleshooting and their final outcomes. It has been eye opening to see the children take on a teachers role and see what parts they have found tricky.
We finished the half term with an extremely successful and exciting Inter House swimming gala on Friday afternoon. This event was a new format and proved to be extremely successful, with the best swimmers in each age group swimming together so that all of the Year groups from Year 3 to 8 were able to compete in the same gala. The finalists were selected based on the Year group trials held during PE and games lessons which meant that every child was given the opportunity to try out for this event.
It was great to see so many parents coming along to enjoy the gala and the excellent swimming on display. The races were extremely close and the final results were as follows:
1st Hedgerows 178 2nd Churchills 168 3rd Stratton 141 4th Sarnesfield 132 5th Gills 127
This term Year 4 Ignite pupils have been working on their ‘Create your planet’ project. Before designing their own planet, students were required to do a great deal of research into our current solar system and the different climates, atmospheres, moons and temperatures that exist. Pupils were required to think about: lakes, forests, deserts, volcanoes, stars, gravity, inhabitants and more!
Dylan has recently submitted his entry ‘Planet Astro’, and even went on to create a physical model (pictured below). He has also drawn his inhabitants which he calls ‘Astrion robots’ and his planet surface which contains ‘shrewberry’ plants which have healing and medicinal properties. Well done Dylan, what a fantastic achievement!
Poetry of Science Competition
This term, Ignite pupils at Edge Grove have been creating their entries for the ‘Poetry of Science Competition’. This is a UK wide competition open to any child in the UK aged 16 and under. The poems can be based around: a scientific idea or discovery, a science lesson, a science experiment or even simply a scientific issue that’s important to them.
The winning poet and two runners up from each category will:
Poems can be a maximum of 150 words and can be in any poetry style they like and doesn’t have to rhyme. Winning poetry styles in the past have been: limericks, haiku’s, acrostic poems, raps and even sonnets! If you would still like to enter, the deadline is Wednesday 1st June. Below are two excellent entries from Rohan in Year 7 and Kaelan in Year 5:
The Future by Kaelan, Year 5 Dirty atmosphere Pollution fills the whole world In a decade, life?
Excite the Elements by Rohan, Year 7
Stir the chemicals, Mix the magnesium, Regurgitate Beryllium , Exchange the oxygen, Reduce the carbon Brush the fluorine, Bake in Aluminium Stir in the Arsenic Sell the silver, Melt the Gold, Spread the Nitrogen, Let off the Sulphur, Polish the Chromium, Wire the Copper, Sprinkle the Sodium, Rinse out the Chlorine Spend the Nickel, Light up the Neon, Recycle the Tin Holidaying in Californium, Brexit Europium, Explode the Plutonium, Charge up the Lithium, Blow up the Helium, Swallow the calcium Stir the elements Don’t underestimate The one one eight let’s go home