This week we have focused on what bullying means and how we can appropriately respond whether we are the ‘rock’ (bystander), ‘scissors’ (bully) or ‘paper’ (victim). We also reminded ourselves how we can be an ‘upstander’ in these tricky situations. To draw attention and raise awareness about anti-bullying week, we created some fantastic posters and participated in an anti-bullying march. We also wore odd socks on Friday and attended two assemblies about the significance of bullying.

Well done to Mohammed and Scarlett for being Learners of the Week this week!

This week was UK Parliament week and we explored the history of parliament – recalling key facts about its origin in various quizzes, including a trail during our library session. We also shared elections for class MP and class Prime Minister – the votes for which were very close!

We also observed a remembrance ceremony in which Benjamin read his canon poem for Key Stage 2 and Scarlett lay down our class Poppy.

This week, we also composed songs on charangra – employing a variety of beats to create different rhythms on our Chromebooks

On the final week of half term, 6D completed their lino printing projects and got to print their designs onto a variety of backgrounds. These prints were fantastic and showed off the range of ideas that the students had generated. Our printing project began with a case study of James Bywood and followed with some fantastic imitation art works (shout outs to Zein and Benjamin!).

What fantastic singers! Attached are some brief clips of the students performing our World War 2-based music. The music teacher and I were both very impressed! Songs featured: It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag

In September, we had the pleasure of (finally!) walking down to Meanwood Valley to discuss and explore the natural ecosystems in the area. Students collected leaves from a variety of trees, discussed the variety of flora and fauna, went ‘fish-spotting’ and did some fantastic artworks including still-life sketches of different trees and leaf rubbings.

Our first half term together saw visits to Meanwood Valley and Eden Camp. Last half term, we focused on we focused on World War Two as our central topic and thus began studying the evacuation, the British Empire and the Blitz. Students produced some fantastic posters following our Eden Camp trip – including detailed pieces on the use of gas masks and rationing during the war. Discussions were also sparked by our class novel – To the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll – and our music lessons in which we learned songs from the 1940’s.

In our final week, students also got the opportunity to attempt an Alan Turing code-breaker ‘escape room’ through which students attempted challenging numerical and word-based problem solving.

I was particularly impressed with Macy, Maddie, Majd and Sophie for their extra history research and we had the pleasure of listening to some fantastic presentations about ‘history heroes’ from World War 2.