Aztec art in year 5

A fantastic, bright and creative display -  great to see as you walk down the KS2 corridor - welcome to the world of the Aztecs!

ENGAGE art

The Buntings have continued to work on their Elizabethan art this week with our art specialist and  some very keen parents as well. The pictures are really developing well and the project is clearly being enjoyed by all.

Buntings art project

As part of our ongoing ENGAGE strategy with children in year 1 and 2, we have been working on a topic about monarchs. With the help of our art and design specialist, we invited parents in to work alongside their children to support and learn ways to help and develop them further at home. We are aiming to encourage some higher level, quality art skills during our sessions. Techniques included in the lessons were printing to create the hair of Elizabeth I and then, using their fine motor skills, the children designed their own intricate patterns to represent the lace design on the Queen’s collar. The next part of the sessions will focus on how to draw the correct proportions of the face and the final result will be individual portraits of Elizabeth I. An excellent session of engagement!

Respect for authority

This week we will be considering how we show respect to those in authority - interestingly Paul in his letter to Timothy urges us to demonstrate our respect through prayer when he encourages us to pray for those in authority.

As we consider to reflect on the Lord's prayer as part of our theme of respect, we are reminded about how important and central prayer is in both our relationship with God, but also how central God makes it to our relationships with each other.

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness

Respect your parents

This week our respect theme deals with the call to respect your parents and those who care for you.

In assembly we considered why we sometimes find it so challenging to do this. I shared a few stories from my childhood and also some of the things I had reflected on since that time. These were as follows:

When I was cross and angry with my parents, it was sometimes

because they were right and I was wrong.

When I was really young I trusted that my parents knew better

than I did. But when I began to grow up, I thought at times that I always knew better.

I was wrong!

Saying sorry was hard but it was always the right thing to do.

Despite my behaviour, my frustrations and my disagreements

my  parents never stopped loving me.

 

 

Respect yourself

On Friday we will be thinking of the powerful story of the prodigal son, who chose to demonstrate his lack of respect for his father in dramatic fashion. The story we will be using is an updated version that reflects modern times, but it still communicates the same message that Jesus intended in the original.

The story is not just about lack of respect for a parent, noticeably not just by the brother who was the prodigal, but also I would suggest by the brother who stayed behind. It is also a story of self discovery, mercy and forgiveness. The prodigal chooses to run away, looses everything, comes back prepared to be a slave and finds himself reinstated as a son. A complete shock to his system no doubt!

In accepting his fathers forgiveness, he undoubtedly had to learn to respect himself again, to put aside all that he had failed to achieve, the pain he had brought to his father and family and the ultimate sense of failure that he must have experienced. Instead he had to accept that he was forgiven and restored to his place within the family, that the past was gone and that once again he could live in full knowledge of his fathers love. Its a powerful story and one that can become too familiar to us, but it is important that self respect sits along side our respect for others.

In a world where our children are bombarded with things that seek to make them feel inadequate and in need, self respect is a powerful force that we need to instil in all of those we care for and work with.  To enable them, as Nelson Mandela once said, to cast off their chains and find freedom to be who God created them to be.

What has been going on in Foundation stage?

New in FS2 we have a jungle area to help warm us up inside now it's getting colder outside. We have been learning lots about animals that live in jungle rainforests.

We also have some new photo props, if we make funny faces with them our friend can use an iPad to take a photo of us, they have to make sure our head and the props are lined up in the middle of the screen. After a few shots of knees we're getting the hang of it.

On Friday we were able to watch Major Peake step outside the International Space Station's Quest airlock just after 13:00 GMT, Tim Peake is carrying out the first ever spacewalk by an "official" British astronaut - in FS2 we watched it happening live and some children chose to keep coming back to watch more of the live feed throughout the afternoon - history in the making.

The astronauts  completed the primary goal of the spacewalk: replacing a faulty component on the station's exterior.

 

 

Recycling RAP

Year 3 have been exploring their musical skills by using our iPads and the Garageband application to create some rapping tunes!

The current topic is God's wonderful world and they have been thinking about our responsibility to look after it. Their recycling topic gets to the heart of this matter and they have all been inspired to write their own Raps to encourage us to change our ways and recycle more.

They have certainly enjoyed getting to grips with the App and have become amazing composers, building multi track compositions to rap along to!

I have just had the pleasure of listening to their work - all they were missing was the dark sunglasses and they were definitely on their way to future stardom as rapping recyclers!

The snow man

In KS1 children have been enjoying creative, artistic activities linked to the snowman theme.

Individual snowmen and artistic impressions of the famous Snowman story are beginning to appear across the classrooms - just no real snow at the moment to go with the theme!

So why do we respect?

In assembly this Friday we took time to consider this question. It's ok that we tell each other to respect and love, but why?

We considered lots of different reasons, all of which are really good and true, but finally we came down to one reason -  the fact that God created us and that we are all
unique and different - a rainbow nation as Nelson Mandela once described one national group of humanity !

This difference and the fact that God declares His love for us as individuals sets the scene for our response to Him and to others. Our reflective response reminded us of all these things and we took the time to ask God to help us to practically put respect into action each day.

 

The sun comes up

The sun comes up

Its a new day dawning

Its time to sing your song again

 

 

This morning we all awoke to a cold and frosty start, making the journey to school slightly more delayed, especially if you hadn't allowed time to scrape the car windows!

 

The school grounds always look special when the frost paints its picture and as the sun comes up we are reminded once again of the verse in Psalms

 

 

Psalm 59: v 16

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love;

 for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

 

 



A time of peace

Class 1/2 F , the Finches have been producing some wonderful art work linked to their New Year reflections on peace. Hands joined together to bring peace to our world!

Year 6 visit Warning Zone

Today our year 6 children have enjoyed a visit to the Warning Zone, an interactive learning centre that helps pupils consider how to keep themselves safe in various life situations, with a particular focus on internet safety this year. This is always a really thought provoking trip, which is one of the highlights of the school year.

A time for respect

 

 

 

 

This half term our assembly focus is on respect - celebrating our gifts and talents, looking after ourselves, nurturing the best we can be, honouring how God has made us, being confident about who we are and earning the respect of others. So just a few things to think about!

This week we  will be considering how respect needs to start with respecting ourselves and the unique contribution that we each make to our homes, schools & communities.

So we will be looking at what we are good at, how can we use those gifts, skills and talents to help others as well as how we make a difference together.

 

Most importantly we will also be reflecting on the fact that God has made us all to be unique and different, that is something to celebrate and be confident in and actually this is what should be the basis for our respect for ourselves and our respect for others.

 

Music is a vibrant part of our school community and in particular our assemblies. We are great fans of a group called REND collective and we have begun to listen to and learn some of the new songs from their recent album - As family we go.

 

This Friday we will be learning some very energetic actions to the last song on the album - Celebrate! Its worth a listen to and if your child is in our school worth asking if you can learn the actions! An excellent morning workout!

 

Simply search YouTube for 'rend collective and celebrate' to enjoy!