Righteous Anger
We looked ahead to the 3rd Sunday in Lent (Year B) this week, where we heard about righteous anger. At Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem and found the temple being used for commercial purposes. He cleared it, in anger, rebuking those who made it a marketplace and calling for 'zeal' (great energy and enthusiasm) to return it to a place of worship.
This is an example in the Bible where we see the raw emotion of Jesus, as a human, and are reminded that we are all human too and our emotions are valid. What is important is what we do with those emotions. We can be angry but can we use our anger to direct change for the greater good?
We have been focusing this week on supporting the children, through the classroom wellbeing areas, to recognise and respond to their emotions in healthy and productive ways.
WOW Badges
The whole school has been taking part in a competition to design the next travel tracker "wow badge". The winning design from each class is attached. The School Council then voted and narrowed it down to 3 entries to send off to travel tracker. Well done Olivia Booth, Charlotte Payne and Isla Vincent and good luck! We hope to see one of your designs on a badge soon!
High-tech!
In Computing, children in Year 2 have been learning about common uses of information technology beyond school. This week’s focus was digital content and who it belongs to. We spent some time on the Newsround website, looking at different articles and noting the owners of the pictures. This then took us nicely into our next activity, to use the iPads to take pictures of buildings, actions, distances and of course, selfies.
What did the heart say to the blood?
You’re my type!
This week in Science Year 6 had a rather gruesome and fantastic end to our lesson where we explored a pig's heart. The children were able to handle the heart, feel the weight and the strength of the muscle and see what parts they could identify. They were easily able to identify arteries leading in and see a difference in texture. Maya, who has ambitions to become a doctor, was particularly brave and put her finger down an artery, into the heart to see if she could feel inside the atrium (chamber). Unbelievably, she could and it wasn't long before other children also had a go. This anatomy session led onto a discussion about the first pig's heart transplant and why this was not successful. We also discussed how the pigs, whose organs are used, are genetically modified which raised questions about the morality of such science. Such a buzz in the classroom this afternoon - take a look at the photos - they were pulling some great faces!
The Big Bad Wolf!
This week in Reception the children have been retelling the story of Little Red. We read a wonderful retelling written and illustrated by Bethan Woollvin which inspired the children to do their own paintings in her style. We were so impressed with the details they put into their paintings, thinking about size and colour. The focus and perseverance of all children is fantastic, and a learning skill they can apply to all aspects of their life!
A little bird told me...
Year 3 has danced to the beat of Bob Marley’s reggae song, “Three Little Birds” this half term. They learnt to play part of it on the recorder before composing four-beat bars using bird combinations. The trickiest part was then playing it in time to the music!
Catch that hat!
Year 1 have been exploring the story, 'The Queen's Hat' by Steve Antony in English this week. To help us to think of exciting vocabulary for a windy day, it was important for us to experience this, and would you believe, our hats blew right off just like the Queen's!
Having this experience has definitely helped us to write exciting sentences, thinking carefully about our choices of vocabulary.
Feeling the love...
In music this term Year 5 have been focusing on musical composition and combining both musical instruments and vocals to enhance a performance. This week, the children showcased their learning through a wonderful performance of 'Make you Feel My Love' by Adele.
Eating Well
On Wednesday, we had David and Henry from Edwards and Ward (who organise our school dinners) to talk about how much sugar we should have in a day and how much sugar is in a variety of foods. It was surprising! We then heard about the Eatwell plate and how much we should have of each type of food.
Netball News
4V were beginning their netball unit in P.E. this week. They are the last class in Year 4 to complete this unit and showed a lot of promise in this first lesson, when we practiced different passes, tried to master footwork and started to learn the rules.
For some, this is not their first time playing netball as some children are members of the Year 4 netball club. It was lovely to see how the children who had played before helped the rest of the class to understand the skills that were required to play the game. The Year 4 netball club had already celebrated some success this week, when they played their first match against Holy Trinity. With one win and one loss, Miss Blake and Mrs Eadie were so proud of the way the teams worked together, playing with determination and resilience. We now look ahead to the Year 4 netball tournament, hosted at St Joseph's this year, when we hope to repeat last year's win!
Signs of Spring
This week in Nursery we have been learning about ‘Spring’. The children have been talking about how the weather changes in spring and how we can identify spring by looking for signs of spring, such as; daffodils, tree buds, caterpillars and hopefully more sunshine. We have also been learning a few new spring related songs.
Some children in Butterfly class have been given a ‘Martisor’ (a small ornamental item tied with red and white string threaded together) from Alexandru to celebrate a Romanian tradition of bringing in the spring.
In addition some of the children have been talking about their travels and have been playing in our Butterfly class travel agents, as well as discussing different modes of transport.
Emotion Coaching
Our thanks to St Stephen's Class for a fantastic worship this morning, helping us to recognise and respond to the range of human emotions that are common in all of us. Crucially, the children helped us to understand that our emotions are valid and should be acknowledged, but they don't control us. We have many helpful strategies to prevent us becoming overhwhelmed by emotion: stopping, breathing, counting. Once we are calm enough, there are very positive actions we can take to respond to righteous anger - making the world a better place! Well done 3S and God bless all of you.
Wonderful Witnesses
Congratulations to this group of wonderful witnesses, all of whom have helped us this week recognise and respond to the emotions we are feeling. Through their supportive strategies and great advice, we are making the school a better place.
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TSE Internship summer 2024 (2) (1).pdf