Year 2
Our Transdisciplinary Theme this term was ‘How We Organise Ourselves’ and the central idea was ‘The lives of significant individuals affect society today’. Year 2 began their provocation by taking a timeline walk across all three classrooms, exploring key vocabulary and facts about the 3 significant people we explored this term - Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King and Mary Seacole. The focus was around ‘change’ and the impact these individuals have had on our lives today. The timeline walk stimulated many questions and the children were curious to find out how each of them had made a change. Their curiosity allowed them to explore their lives in History and drive this term's learning.
In History, the children went back in time to visit Scutari Hospital and saw the condition it was in before Florence Nightingale made her changes. The children were shocked to see there were no beds, medical supplies or treatment to help the wounded soldiers from the Crimean War. This knowledge allowed them to explore more deeply into the impact Florence Nightingale has had in nursing today and the significant role she has played for women and nurses across the world. Her story links greatly to their English as they wrote a narrative describing the changes she had made.
In DT, the children learnt how to do the running stitch in order to make hand puppets. Practising the running stitch was a challenge at first but the results were amazing. They then designed their puppets to fit into this term's theme where they created characters from the story ‘VLAD and Florence Nightingale Adventures’. All the puppets were unique and met the design criteria specified.
They also explored the life of Martin Luther King. As a school that drives cultural diversity, the children could not believe segregation existed and were saddened to hear his story. Many of our children spoke about the ‘wrong’ way to treat people which was a reflection of their learning in PSHE where they explored ‘celebrating differences’. The children were able to make connections and speak about the ‘right’ way of treating people despite their differences.
Finally, Year 2 wrote letters to Mr Mitchell to choose a charity to celebrate his hardwork and the remarkable impact he has made at DPA. Donations from ‘Own Sportswear Day’ will support the charity, Refocus Project ltd. The charity helps children in our local area to make the right choices when faced with the involvement of crime. Thank you for your support and we hope you have a lovely Easter break.