Key Stage 2

The most well known story told during Diwali celebrations is in the Ramayana, the great Hindu epic about prince Rama and his wife Sita. This important literary work has been shared orally and through dance for centuries.

Led by a West End choreographer, the children in Year 3 and 5 vividly imagined and physically embodied the different roles, dramatic situations and actions of the main characters in the Ramayana as they retold elements of this epic story through dance.

Diwali is embraced by a number of religions and is a metaphor for the idea of selfimprovement. By retelling the famous story through dance, children improved their cultural understanding and confidence in self-expression.

Thursday 2nd March saw the celebration of World Book Day.

The children were so engaged in all the activities and there was a real ‘book-buzz’ around the school. We welcomed author Sylvia Bishop into school. She has written many books including, ‘The Secret of the Night Train’ and ‘The Midnight Thief’. With Early Years and Key Stage 1, she helped the children to develop their own stories, thinking about an animal to start them off. For Key Stage 2 she talked about the importance of finding a story in everything, and what to do if you have writers block. She gave the children tips and tricks by using games and exercises.

We have also been lucky enough to buy some new dictionaries and thesauri’ and used these to write our own stories. We opened the pages randomly, and had to pinpoint a word and try and include that in the story – some of the stories took such an interesting turn based on what came out! Sharing books and stories with other year groups also took place throughout the day. Year groups were paired up and got to move around the school.

Welcome to the Wizarding World of Year 5. As you may have guessed, we have been studying Harry Potter in English.  We have been writing persuasive pieces, selling broomsticks and tickets to our very own Knight Bus; creating descriptions, of Hogwarts and the professors; producing our own narratives, finishing the Prisoner of Azkaban in the style of J.K Rowling; and writing a commentary for a Quidditch match. All these pieces of writing have been ‘magical’. The Professors have been stunned by the progress they have seen in our student wizards’ use of specific literary features.  To conclude our topic, we visited Harry Potter Studios and absolutely LOVED it! Seeing the sets and props up close was such a treat. The staff there commented on how polite the children were and, as teachers, we were incredibly proud of them.

We were so lucky to get the opportunity to have a tour of our Houses of Parliament and meet Siobhain McDonagh, our local MP.

We learnt so much about its history and the traditions it still follows.

We were able to go inside the House of Commons and the House of Lords and identify the many differences between the two rooms.

It was so interesting to find out how the votes are cast when Parliament puts through motions and laws and we even got chance to put through a motion of our own – a law against giving homework! Mrs Jones would not let it pass!

Here are some photos of our day:

Learning life skills! Our upper KS2 children were visited by Flat Stan First Aid, a training provider that deliver vital first skills in a child friendly manner. Through an interactive and comfortable learning environment, the children learnt so much, ranging from how to administer CPR, how to help someone that is choking and how to make an emergency phone call. The children finished with a certificate and a guide to take away. Thank you to Flat Stan for providing an immersive experience that taught so many important, lifelong skills!