Primary Years Programme

Skills Week

This week the whole school has been developing their knowledge about the different skills used to be a Mathematician, Linguist, Geographer, Historian, Designer, Scientist, Artist and Musician.


Central Idea - Identifying subject skills helps me to be the best learner I can be.

  1. An inquiry into what a subject is.

  2. An inquiry into skills related to subjects.

  3. An inquiry into role models that demonstrate these skills.



Each class chose a theme or a focus for this inquiry:



EYFS

The Colour Monster

Reception have been using the story ‘The Colour Monster’ to identify how they feel at school and how they need to feel, so that they are ready to learn and achieve their full potential! They have been learning the class routines and gaining an awareness of what makes us successful at school!


Year 1

Ellen MacArthur

Year 1 has been researching about Ellen MacArthur, who is a British sailor. She sailed solo around the United Kingdom which took her seven days. Through a maths and linguist lens, the children explored the days of the week in English and French and they made connections with how long it took Ellen to travel around the UK. Following on from this, through a history lens, the children learnt about the personal history of Ellen. They then reflected upon their own personal timeline and how Willow has changed overtime. Through a Geography lens, the children inquired about the different places around the UK. They developed their map skills and began to recognise where Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland are. This led the inquiry to demonstrating science and designing skills through their boat making. The children tested their ideas to see if their design floated. Through a music lens, the children explored the instruments to see which instruments made sounds similar to the sea and oceans.


Year 2

Captain Cook

This week we have learnt about Captain James Cook who was an explorer. He discovered the country/continent of Australia. Through Geography we have been using maps to explore the countries and cities of the U.K before using a world map similar to James Cook to explore continents of the world. Through history we used the skill of chronology to explore James Cook’s personal history. We then reflected upon our own personal timelines and how we have changed over time. Through art we have looked at how Aboriginal artists produced there work and we have produced our own.


Year 3

Year 3 have used the book Dear Teacher to look at how different people learn. We have learnt all about different skills different learners need and come to the conclusion most skills are needed for most subjects. We have used our book to inspire us when writing a letter to our teachers to explain the best ways in which we learn. We have explored each subject, watched videos and communicated our ideas. We have created mixed Year 3 group art work to show what the different subjects may look like.


Year 4

Year 4 has focused on skill building in each subject area and writing formal reference letters. We have learnt about the core skills needed for each subject from how to mix colours in art, to timelines in history, to classification in science. The core of this is then explored in our letter writing, with each pupil writing to their teachers with a reference for another pupil. They are telling us their top learner profile attributes, best and favourite subjects, and their work ethic, as well as a few stories about their friends.

Year 5

Year 5 have been learning new skills and developing previous knowledge to enable them to understand and access the Year 5 curriculum. Throughout the week, we focused on skills to support the learning for Term 1. For English, we worked on sentence structure, dictionary and thesaurus skills, identifying types of nouns and the features of instruction text, which we put into practice by writing and cooking our own cake recipes. We explored Google Maps to develop our geography and ICT skills and learnt the correct procedure of calling emergency services and how to put a casualty into the recovery position as part of PSHE. To develop our art skills, we mixed colours to create a colour wheel and learnt a range of shading techniques and for History we researched and completed timelines on the monarchy. In the afternoon we worked in groups to complete activities to help us survive on a desert island. We combined our subject skills and knowledge to carry out tasks such as setting up camp, shelter designing, filtering water, finding a power supply, diary writing and bottle flipping methods to pass the time.


Year 6

Year 6 has been using Charles Darwin and David Attenborough as a stimulus. We have taken the children on a Learning Journey following Charles Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle. Firstly as geographers and explorers they plotted 17 main stops of the voyage and researched three of these destinations in greater detail. The children have been Samba dancing in our stop in Rio De Janeiro, learning the general skills needed for dancers and musicians, with rhythm and timing being key skills. Moving onwards with the journey, we stopped at the Galapagos Island where the children discussed and compared the work of Charles Darwin and David Attenborough. They identified as inquirers that they recorded their findings differently as their work was conducted in different time periods, however from this they still concluded that they shared many of the same skills as naturists and scientists. The children then stepped outside to explore the local environment and recorded all the creatures they could find. With David Attenborough for inspiration, they presented their findings in any way they wanted. Staying on the Galapagos the children sketched and documented up to four creatures that lived on the Island, these will later be used to create clay sculptures.


Gallery of learning: