Articles
A seek peak to some of the learning experiences enjoyed by Roe Green Junior School students.
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School Councillors participate at Faces of Climate Change at Brent Civic Centre by Darsh 5R (school councillor)
On Tuesday, 6th December, the school councillors from years 3, 4, 5, and 6 went on a trip to the Brent Civic Centre with Ms Loosemoore, Ms Siva, and Ms Robinson. There was a talk about how climate change is becoming a huge emergency, and we would make pop-up cards using cardboard instead of paper as the decorations.
The years 3 and 4 school councillors were first picked up by Mr Gary, and then the years 5 and 6 school councillors. It was a 20-minute journey to the Brent Civic Centre in Wembley. When we arrived at the Civic Centre, we were shown to our tables where we were to display all our incredible posters and cards to explain how bad climate change is. We had two tables booked.
We were the first ones arriving and attracted a few customers, one of whom was interested in and very upset about climate change. She thought our table displayed many facts about why climate change needs to stop now.
After around ten minutes, another school called St Gregory’s High School arrived, as did many customers. They attracted a lot of attention. They were making sustainable Christmas tree decorations out of old wood. Soon, the whole corridor was full of busy tables and many customers.
At around 11 am, we got to eat our snacks. We were making great progress, and at one point, we had 6 customers on one table and 6 on another. There was this one very kind gentleman who came up and thought the school councillors' work was splendid, and he left us a donation.
At around 1 pm, we were getting a bit peckish. The teachers said that it would only be a little while until we ate and that we just had to watch a film and some entertainment, and then we would get lunch. The school councillors were excited about the entertainment. Three governors came and were very intrigued by the card-making and our facts on climate change. One of the governors went to do the card-making, and it turned out pretty nice! The other two governors were asking us hard questions which we answered and followed up with hard questions of our own.
At 1:45 pm, there was an announcement that the entertainment was about to start. We were all very excited. We all lined up and were led to a big seating area where we were to watch the show. First, we were given a quick introduction and a few pieces of information on what we were about to watch. The person speaking was Nadia Khan, who tackles climate change and engages the community. Then the entertainment started: the first dance was a traditional Indian dance performed by a mum and a village school student (it was very good, the dance lasted around 2–3 minutes); the second was a poem performed by two girls who received an award for the poem from St Gregory's High School by two twins who described how bad the climate change state is in (an absolutely brilliant poem); then there were more poems performed by a year 2 student, a year 5 student from the Village School (they all did a sensational job), they stated how bad the climate change state is, in an inspiring poem; a dance so good the school councillors thought they were professional dancers, it was performed by years 7–9 from Preston Manor High School (it was truly spectacular, they did around 5 dances); finally, there was the Somali dance, the two dancers held beautifully decorated umbrellas and performed a dance, which showed what they thought the earth was feeling about climate change in a truly spectacular way. After the congratulations and the clapping, there was another announcement that we were going to watch a film. At this time, the school councillors were getting very, very hungry.
It was a very long but interesting film. There were two girls and a boy from Kingsbury Green Primary School (KGPS) who spoke about how they wanted to improve the world and how bad they thought climate change was. It was an inspiring film.
Afterwards, we had a speech about the sponsors and other stuff; they announced the winners of the Faces of Climate Change. They went to 9-10 people, and we received an award for showing great determination to prevent climate change from becoming the downfall of humankind.
It was 2 pm when we finally could go and have some lunch. You can imagine how hungry we must have been. Once we finished, we packed up the tables and were congratulated by many people. Ms Loosemoore, Ms Siva, and Ms Robinson were so happy with us, as would any teacher because we did amazing. We ate our lunch, and then, before they knew it, Mr Gary was there again to take us back to school. We arrived back at school at around 2:45 pm.
Year 4’s Exciting Trip to St Alban's by Eliza 4R
On Wednesday, 11th of October, 4R and 4J went on a trip to St Albans. Parent helpers were Mr Qureshi (Eliza's father), Ms Alassam (Judy & Jaffar's mother), as well as Ms Jamila (Ayat's Aunt).
First, everyone lined up in their groups. Then we started walking to our coach, which was big and white, parked outside of our school. It took about 45 minutes to get there.
When we arrived, we took all our belongings with us outside the Verulamium museum. 4R started walking to the Roman wall while 4J explored the museum. The Roman wall used to be 73 miles long, but nowadays, all we can see is about 25 meters! Here we learnt some facts about the wall. Afterwards, we went inside the museum and stored all of our belongings.
In our groups, we then walked to a room in the gardens, which were full of old and rusty mosaics. There was a little wall on the side where the whole class could sit, and Ms Haliti took a group photo of everyone. We all sipped water and admired the mosaics a little more.
Later, we all had a play by rolling around on the grass hills and chasing each other. That was fun! The children couldn't stop asking the teachers when it was time to have lunch. Luckily, it was time for lunch at 12:30. Everyone walked into the museum and went to a room full of tables and chairs. I have to admit we were very chatty while eating. Ms Haliti was giving her Pringles out to everyone.
At around 2 pm, we were all stuffed after a good meal. We all got excited when we found out that it was time to go to the workshop. In the workshop, we met 2 men whose names were Sam and Mark. First, they turned off the lights and opened a powerpoint that showed archaeologists digging up some old artifacts from Roman times. We also learnt about the Boudica times, how she died in 61 AD and how she fought the Romans in 60 AD. We also learnt about some important people who lived in the past and are still living now. It was only a little while later that we noticed that there were some objects on the table, and we were wondering what they were. Mark told us that the objects were from Roman times. Some of them were really from Roman times, and some were replicas. The objects were household objects from different rooms, including the kitchen, living room and bathroom. We were looking at the objects and describing them in different and exciting ways. We shared those ideas with Sam and Mark, but when the workshop finished, it seemed time had flown by.
Before Sam and Mark said goodbye to us, they gave out some activity booklets for us to fill and take during our hunt around the museum. But first, we watched a 20-minute video telling us how to behave and how to use our booklets. Straight away, we were searching for different rooms, in different places at the same time. We were looking for objects, clothes and even jewellery. Before we knew it, it was time to go to the park. HOORAY!!!
We quickly went to the toilets and got our stuff ready to go home. We walked to the park, which took about 20 minutes. All of us were excited when we met 4J at the park. We had such a good time playing together. The playground had slides, swings, flower communicators, an adventure climbing wall and even a zipline, which was very popular. After half an hour of play, it was time to go home.
We waved to our coach, who came to pick us up. Everyone was talking about the amazing time we had. We were all looking at the landscapes on the way back. When we arrived back at the school, we were all tired after a long and exhausting day. Everybody went home and the next day was back in class, as normal.
4G & 4S went on the the following week, on the 18th October.
Mr Egypt Workshop by Indiya-Rae 5G
This workshop was about Ancient Egypt and learning about artefacts and life during that time.
In November, the year 5's met Mr Egypt. Our first half of the lesson in the morning was interesting. We learnt about the names of people who still live in huts and the steamy, scorching desert.
Mr Egypt told us about Egypt, such as Cairo, Luxor, and the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a special place in Egypt. It has very important tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, and Khufu. We learnt about stories of legends in Ancient Egypt and held artefacts from about 3000 years ago. The artefacts were delicate, so we could not drop them or be rough with them. They were amulets and a very fragile, one-of-a-kind Egyptian coin, which is claimed to be one of the only 6 in the world!
Next, we talked about the fun parts. Mr Egypt taught us how to dance as the Ancient Egyptians would during their festivities. First, they would raise their arms, then they would twirl around in circles about 5 times.
At the end of the day with Mr Egypt, we had toilet paper (which Mr Egypt called "expensive"), and we carefully wrapped a chosen student from our group in the toilet paper like a mummy.
Our time with Mr Egypt was extraordinary, and we all enjoyed it. We all learnt something new that day. Mr Egypt was very funny and made good jokes about himself and his life in Egypt as an Egyptologist.
It was an excellent lesson throughout the whole day. One day, I would love to visit Egypt. You should too.
RAF Air Raid Online Workshop - 06/11/2023 by Chhaya
During this term Year 6 has been learning all about the horrible, terrible World War II. Therefore, they had online workshops to increase their learning experiences. This article is about what they have learnt and did during one of their online workshops. Keep reading to find out more about this interesting workshop and to discover a snapshot of things that Year 6 students have learnt.
On Monday, 6th of November 2023, Year 6 had an online workshop with a person from the RAF museum in Edgware named Mike. We were told to take notes in our history books. We learnt about the Blitz, the different bombs used, air raid wardens and their job, air raid shelters and blackout curtains.
We talked about the Blitz, an intense bombing that started in September 1940 and ended in May 1941 and caused extreme chaos in England. We also talked about different bombs like fire bombs, small bombs, and gas bombs. We learnt about how every person should carry a gas mask in case a gas bomb dropped and how people made a Mickey Mouse gas mask for little children who would refuse to wear a gas mask and make it more fun.
Students were also taught about the air raid shelters - where people had to go when an air raid siren went off. An air raid siren was a high-pitched siren that would alert people that bombs were going to drop soon. We learnt a bit about Air Raid Precautions known as ARPS. We watched a video about an air raid warden who would have to watch the bombs and keep everyone safe. The air raid warden in the video talked about how they had to stand outside during the falling bombs and how dangerous their job was. If people did not have an air raid shelter in their back garden, they would go to a tube station where an air raid warden would be. In the video, we played a game where we had to find clues that showed that a World War was going on, such as posters, newspapers, a sign with a big, bold letter S around that area pointing to the direction of the air raid shelter, and other clues.
Year 6 students were taught about blackout curtains, which were specific curtains that would block all daylight out of a room. The blackout curtains were used so aeroplanes from above could not see any signs of light from the windows.
The man from the RAF (Mike) showed us a few objects that were used during World War II. The students had to guess what the objects were. Some objects looked very odd, but we still tried our best to identify the different items.
All about the RAF (Royal Air Force) online workshop - The Battle of Britain by Alessia 6R
This article is all about the RAF online workshop Year 6 participated in on Wednesday, 15th November 2023. The person leading the workshop was named Crusty, who works with the RAF Museum. The topic of this online workshop was The Battle of Britain. To start, they gave us four questions to see what we knew about WW2.
We watched a film that was 20 minutes long. The film covered significant events during World War II, such as how the German army invaded Denmark and England; the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) - they had 100 fighter planes that destroyed other air forces, the RAF was next; how everyone in England would keep an eye out for an attack - little did they know the battle would escalate quickly; and how the German Air Force started the Blitz. Bombs rained down on Britain, and the sky of England darkened with the Luftwaffe Air Force. The RAF was ready to battle with them (some lost their lives), but in the end, the RAF won. Hitler finally admitted defeat. Afterwards, we had to discuss with someone from our class the film and what it means to be brave.
Following this discussion, we watched another film that highlighted the stories of some distinguished people, including John Simpson, who joined the Royal Air Force and demonstrated great courage and bravery while in combat against Luftwaffe aircraft. While flying his plane, it got shot, as was his foot, so he opened his parachute and landed. Joan Hughes, who also joined the RAF, proved that women were just as good as men. We also talked about many other brave people during World War II and how they helped save Britain from invasion.
During the workshop, Crusty showed us some toy aircraft, which were replicas of the RAF aircraft used during The Battle of Britain. We discussed how different planes have different features, especially the Hurricane and the Spitfire. The Hurricane aircraft's speed was 330mph, and the Spitfire's was 360mph.
We were given a chance to ask questions. Several students asked a lot of questions because they were interested in learning more and having a deeper understanding of The Battle of Britain.
I hope you enjoyed, finding out a little bit about The Battle of Britain Year 6 online workshop learning experience.
The RAF Museum trip by Alessia 6R
This article is about the Year 6 trip to the RAF Museum. During this term and for our history topic, we have been learning about World War II. This trip was organised to deepen and enrich our learning of WWII. We left school at around 9:15 am. The museum is in Colindale, so we took the public bus.
The museum is not just one building but several different buildings. When we went inside the main building, we were guided to a room that had a bunch of tables and an actual bit of an aeroplane from WWII that we could go inside. We put our bags in this trolley-like thing that locks up. We could walk around that room or eat a snack.
Afterwards, we got taken by a man, and he talked about WWII and the Blitz (he asked us some questions about it). We went upstairs to a room that was exactly like a classroom during WWII. It had posters about what to do in a gas attack, dig for victory and a few more propaganda posters. There was a blackboard with a few calculations written on it and a clock using Roman numerals. The desks and chairs were made out of wood, and the desks could open. Inside the desks, there was a special type of paper that you would use after you finished writing so you wouldn’t smudge your writing and a wooden pencil with a silver tip on it; the tip was sharp so you could dip ink on it. Two people sat at each desk. On the top of the desks was a hole for a small, round pot to hold ink. The man who was guiding us put on a black gown (it looked like the ones you get when you graduate) and pretended he was a teacher from WWII. We got to use the dip pen to write. We dipped them in ink and wrote in a small, blank book. In the middle of the man “teaching the lesson”, an air raid siren went off (not a real one of course) and we all had to duck under the tables to be safe. (In my opinion, this was the funniest activity).
After we left the classroom, it was lunchtime. We ate it in the lunch room we had visited when we arrived. Then we were given a paper and a pencil and went around the museum and drew some aeroplanes on the paper and wrote some facts about them.
After that, we went from the main building to a different building. In the other building, we watched a short video - a timeline of past, present and future. There was a wall where you could put some notes on it. There was an actual bit of an aircraft, and we went inside it. Then we left that building and went to another building. In this building, there was a whole plane which we walked through. It had every little detail, including seatbelts on seats and aid kits. When we got down from the plane, there were some games to play related to WWII and planes from WWII.
We left the museum and got back on the bus. We arrived back at school at 2:30 pm. 6R and 6G went on the trip on Thursday 16th November 2023 and 6J and 6S went on Monday 13th November 2023.
WINTER PRODUCTION - 'When Sasha Got Swept up the Chimney' by Sebastian 6R
Every year, RGJS organises a production in which students from years 6 and 5 participate. This year, the play was 'When Sasha Got Swept up the Chimney'. Not everybody in those year groups has taken part in this experience. The person in charge of the play is a teacher named Ms Ash. The year 5 students were in the choir, which means they sang all of the songs in the play. The year 6 students were the actors. I took part as an actor, more precisely, Sweep 2. I am writing about my experience in taking part in the play.
Auditions
One day during the afternoon, Ms Ash came to our classrooms and held the auditions. In my class, we moved all our desks and chairs to make space; Ms Ash chose children and gave them a script with all the lines of the characters. She gave us a specific character to read the lines for. Ms Ash didn't get through to everyone that day but came again another day to continue the auditions in our class.
Rehearsals
A couple of days later, after the auditions, Ms Ash announced who had made it in the play, and I felt a hint of happiness when I heard her say my name; I found out that I was the character called Sweep 2. Ms Ash started rehearsing the next day; she would make us miss our lessons so that we could learn our lines and actions for the play. There were 7 sweeps, and we all learnt our lines and actions quickly.
Learning the dance
Even though we learned our lines and actions fairly quickly, we also had to learn a dance, which was very difficult for us. The year 6 teacher, Ms Ali, taught us our dance. The first day, we learned about half of our dance, and we were confident that this dance wouldn't be too hard, but we were wrong. The next time we missed our lessons to learn the dance, Ms Ali told us that she had changed the whole dance to something else. Unfortunately, this new dance was even harder than the old one. We practised for one hour, but we only learnt a quarter of the dance. Ms Ali decided that we would miss classes on Friday afternoon to learn and practise the rest of the dance. We worked hard and after two hours or so we finally learnt the whole dance.
Dress Rehearsal
On Tuesday, the 12th and Wednesday, 13th December mornings, we had dress rehearsals; where we performed our play to the whole school. On these days, while an assembly was taking place, the cast went to the small hall, where we got dressed in our costumes. Then we went to the large hall with all of our props. We performed in front of years 5 and 3 (Tuesday) and years 4 and 6 (Wednesday). Students were waiting for us when we got to the large hall. We got into position, and the play started. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to finish performing the play on Tuesday, but we were still proud of ourselves. Especially, when Ms Ali and Ms Loosemore congratulated us for doing such a good job.
The Premiere
The word premiere means the big day of a theatre or play. On the evenings of Wednesday, the 13th, and Thursday, the 14th of December, we performed our play in front of the parents and families who bought tickets to watch our performance. On these days, the cast had to be in school at 6 pm and the choir at 6:30 pm to open the curtain at 7 pm. When we arrived at school, there was a list that showed us in which year 4 classrooms we would stay while we were waiting to go on stage. We had to change into our costumes and get our make-up done by teachers, the elves had to get rosy cheeks, the sweeps had to look dirty, the reindeers had to have black noses, and the good fairies had to have glitter on their cheeks. Unfortunately, as I was a sweeper, I also had to get my face painted black, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We worked hard to perform the play as well as we could. During the interval, we got biscuits and orange juice. Meanwhile, the audience was also having refreshments and seeing who had won the prizes for the raffle ticket draw. I believe on Thursday, we performed even better than the 1st night because we tried not to make the same mistakes again, even though we had 10 choir members, some minor characters, and Santa (one of the main characters) that hadn't turned up. We were able to replace Santa at the last minute.
After the play, I felt proud of myself, and I can say the same thing for everyone else who took part in the play, including the choir.
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