WOW Learning!
During our topic Playlist, Pioneers have worked really hard to learn different genres of music, showing opinion and preference in making choices of what music to listen to. We have also been doing some really hard work learning onomatopoeia words. Pioneers took the time to decorate onomatopoeia words in artist styles that correspond with the word, using their initiative and amazing knowledge, for example, splatting paint to splat music, or sprinkling glitter to make a sprinkling sound. Pioneers have been able to associate words with noises and recreate these independently.
Balloonists have been enjoying all things woodland in the classroom and outside the classroom! We have been learning all about different woodland animals and the types of dens, nests and setts that they live in! The students enjoyed designing their own dens, exploring the different materials and creating one themselves!
Pilots have been enjoying all things woodland in the classroom and outside the classroom! We have been discovering the features that make up a woodland and going out in the community to find them. Pilots have loved learning about what makes a woodlands unique and have been continuing to ask their scientific questions…why is that? What would happen if?
Key Stage 2 Woodlands
(Balloonists, Pilots, Astronauts)
This Spring term, students from key stage 2 have explored a variety of materials found in a woodland environment. Each student has had the opportunity to create some fantastic, very tactile and sensory based items of work. These include a woodland collage, a tree Bogart/owl, made with clay, a modroc toad stool. These items are going to be used in a school display within the school. Students have shown individual creativity and independent work this term.
Well done guys!
Penny.
Globetrotters and Trailblazers – King Lear
(Drama, Music, English)
As part of the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation Theatre Festival, students from Globetrotters and Trailblazers performed their version of King Lear to an audience at The Capitol Theatre. The process began with learning the story, then auditioning for parts, before lots of rehearsing, learning lines and practicing with costumes, hair and make-up. The students told the famous story of King Lear alongside powerful music including Stormzy’s ‘Heavy is the Head’ and Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’. Everyone loved having the opportunity to perform in a theatre and the final performance was a huge success!
Sailors and Beachcombers Class have been enjoying learning about Diwali. We have made Diwali lamps using clay, cooked samosas and practiced Diwali Rangoli patterns with Numicon. We enjoyed practicing Diwali dances and made patterns with coloured rice!
Globetrotters – Developing Community Participation Skills
The Salvation Army
Globetrotters students delivered the school Harvest donations to The Salvation Army where they were gratefully received! The staff explained to us that people in the community benefit from our donations and really appreciate them. We all felt good that we had been able to give back to our local community.
This week we prepared for our medieval banquet. We decorated shields and made invites and chose music. We then prepared mushroom pastries, chicken drumsticks in a marinade, cheese and pickles and various other medieval snacks. We then all came together to celebrate and explored a medieval village on the VR.
Sailors Topic Work
(Forest Schools, Bucket Time, Sensory Play, Literacy, Maths)
As part of our topic ‘Are Carrots Orange’ Sailors class enjoyed engaging in a range of activities from practising our mark making with brushes in coco powder to exploring leaves, vegetables and other natural items in our sensory tuff tray. We also enjoyed weighing different vegetables using our balance scales and identifying which vegetable was the heaviest or lightest! As part of our Bucket time session, we put out a pretend bonfire with water sprays! We also had the opportunity to visit Forest Schools, mark making in paint using herbs and sticks, developing our physical development through climbing and most of all enjoying playing alongside one another and having the freedom to explore!
Bird Boxes
(Globetrotters, Art, Outreach, College)
Six students from Globetrotters have been attending weekly outreach sessions at The Butterfly Project where they have made their own bird boxes. They began by designing their boxes, then cut all the pieces of wood themselves. Next they sanded the wood before assembling their boxes. Finally they painted their designed. The students loved using all of the equipment and learning the different processes involved with woodwork. The finished products are fantastic!
(Beachcombers, Sensory Story)
(Beachcombers)
We have been exploring our senses in our topic, the Scented Garden. We have been using our sense of taste and smell to explore and describe different types of plants. After learning about Helen Keller, some of us tried wearing ear defenders or blindfolds to find out how losing a sense can change how we experience the world.
We have been learning about plants and plant based diets. We were curious about whether animals eat plant based diets too so we went to Tilgate Nature Centre to find out more. We found out information from the signs and observing the animals in their enclosures. Some of us learned that plant eating animals are called herbivores and spotted herbivores, carnivores and omnivores around the centre.
(Astronauts, Literacy)
Astronauts class love to read! We enjoy choosing our own books from the library and exploring our own interests. Astronauts class like to read with adults, friends and on their own. We are always keen to read more so if you would like to volunteer, please contact the school to come and read with us!
Diwali
(Astronauts, RE)
Astronauts class created their own Diya lamps for Diwali, using clay and paint. We looked at pictures of Diya lamps and talked about the colours used. We read the story of Rama and Sita to learn about why lights are important parts of the celebration. We used pinch pot techniques to create our pots then used inspiration from our Diya lamp pictures to choose colours to paint them.
Money
(Astronauts, Maths)
In Spring term, we have been learning about money and developing our money skills. We set up a shop and chose animals we would like to buy. We used a variety of coins to make different amounts and some of us learned how to give change too.
(Astronauts)
February is LGBT+ History Month! We learned about what LGBT stands for and talked about why it is good to all be different. We looked at the pride flag and talked about how important it is to be proud of who you are. We worked independently or with a friend to make our own rainbows to show our pride!
As part of our topic, The Scented Garden, we have been learning about lots of different plants. We learned about where our food comes from and different types of diets, including plant-based diets. Astronauts class were set a challenge to make their own plant based meal! The children chose recipes they wanted to make, created shopping lists and used their money skills to buy ingredients at Sainsbury’s. In school, they followed the recipes to make plant based pizzas and pancakes!
(Astronauts, Computing, Coding)
Astronauts have been working on programming mousebots using simple commands. Some of us have been learning how to create an algorithm, a set of instructions, to tell the mousebot what to do. We have also been looking at how to spot and solve problems in our code.
Globetrotters and the Senior department had an amazing day with 'Daisy First Aid' coming in and teaching us all valuable life saving skills. We enjoyed the CPR best!
Pioneers class had the most amazing day exploring money, patterns and number on this years 'Number Day' we also loved getting dressed up and being super mathematicians for the day!
(Seniors, Trailblazers, Pioneers, Science, Topic)
Seniors have been learning about the digestive system of a cow in science! He they are creating models of the ruminant digestive system using different coloured playdough. The had great fun working together to create their models and were able to explain what each part of the system was for!
Pilots Class went to the local garden centre, as part of their new topic ‘The Scented Garden’. They explored the different plants on sale and all showed brilliant safety and independence skills in the local community.
Digestive System & Teeth
(Adventurers, Topic, Science)
Adventurers class have been learning about the digestive system. We have placed organs inside an outline of a body. Asked Jenny questions about being a dental hygienist. Practiced using a tooth brush and demonstrating good oral hygiene and have explored a balanced diet.
Trailblazers carried out an experiment to show how different drinks affect our teeth. We played pieces of eggshell in water, coffee, tea, coke, milk and undiluted squash and left them for a week! We monitored the changes each day and recorded these on our recording sheet. We found out that the eggshell changed the least in water and it changed the most in coffee- it went brown!
(Globetrotters, Art, Topic, Science)
As part of our new topic ‘Gallery Rebels’ we have been investigating how coloured ink is made up of lots of different colours. We used a process called Chromatography to separate the ink into different colours. We began by cutting kitchen roll into strips, drawing on a line of coloured ink and then dipping it into water. As the water was soaked up the ink began to separate out revealing the component colours.
Students across the school had the opportunity to take part in "Wildheart", an immersive sensory show presented by Different Planet Arts and Same Sky. The show was presented in our Studio, which was converted to a magical forest for the duration!
The show is described by Different Planet Arts as "a fun, tactile, interactive themed installation space, crafted to stimulate the senses of participants, through sound, light, colour, texture and play. Our specialist performers and facilitators will take the form of magical characters of the Wildwood who explore and animate the installation with storytelling, theatre, film, music, play and puppetry, following the lead of the participants.
The performances are aimed and tailored to children and adolescents with complex needs and SLD, but open to all. The environment specifically caters for the physical needs of participants, creating a safe, secure and creative space. We have worked closely with MENCAP, Scope, Autism Sussex, advocacy charities such as Amaze and parent groups in developing...Wildheart."
(Divers, DT, Art, Topic, Computing)
(Seniors, Adventurers, Pilots, Trailblazers, Topic)
Seniors visited Horsham term to kick off our Urban Pioneers topic. We asked people questions about why they like Horsham and what they would change. We visited significant places such as the band stand and made sketches. We also looked at the amazing art work by the station to get some inspiration for our art.
(Oaks, Pines, Limes, Cedar, Elms, ICT, Digital Media, Photography)
(Seniors, Pines, Limes, Cedar, Topic)
The Senior’s Summer Term topic is ‘Hola Mexico’ and as part of this they have learnt about the ancient Maya, a diverse group of people who lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The seniors learnt about the traditional Maya way of making hot chocolate and then had a go at making it themselves.
The main ingredient is cacao beans, the students crushed these using rolling pins then added sugar and chose from a selection of add-ins; chilli, white chocolate buttons, orange, black pepper and allspice. Next they added hot water, stirred to mix it all together, and then tried their traditional hot chocolate.
After the students made their hot chocolates, they evaluated them and compared them to the hot chocolate that we have in England. Some of the students thought the Maya version was delicious and some of them thought it was disgusting!
(Oaks, ASDAN)
Oaks’ Personal Progress ASDAN group took part in a flower arranging session as part of the unit ‘New Creative Activities’. They explored the colours, smells and textures of a range of flowers including roses, chrysanthemums and gerberas. They then selected which flowers they would like to group together and display in decorated jam jars filled with water. Each jar was filled with flower food and water before the flowers were added. They made beautiful decorations for our lunch tables!
Limes Class learnt about the Blitz and how people tried to keep safe during the bombings. We focussed on Anderson Shelters and built our own miniature versions in shoe boxes and discussed what we would want inside if we had to stay there overnight. Then we created some vegetables for our Dig for Victory garden out of fondant icing, we learnt that people had to grow their own food if they could because the war meant importing food was much more difficult.
Seniors have had their Stargazers Innovate week! The pupils split into three groups to explore resources and design their own rockets. They then put their design to test and make their rockets using a range of products. There were some brilliant and creative ideas! Some of the pupils also had a go at launching shop bought rockets to see how they travel. At the end of the week we all came together to launch our rockets! There were two winners. Fleur won a prize for having the rocket that travelled the furthest and Oliver won a prize for having the most creative rocket.
Our topic for Autumn 2 is Rio de Vida! We have been learning about Brazil, its music and celebrations. Here we are using our Physical Education time to experiment with different ways to move to samba music. We tried out twists, turns, shakes and shimmies!
Our topic for Autumn 1 was Moon Zoom. We loved learning all about space and space exploration. These photos show our Design Technology project for the term, designing rockets. We used real and cartoon rockets for inspiration, incorporating our favourite elements into our own rockets. We chose appropriate materials and explored the best way to fix the rockets together. Then we evaluated our rockets and made improvements. We finished with imaginative play, blasting off into space just like real astronauts!
At the beginning of every new topic, we celebrate with a ‘brilliant beginning’ which is a memorable experience intended to engage the students in their learning.
This half term, the topic in primary is ‘Rio de Vida’, and we are learning all about Brazil, Rio and carnivals!
Chestnut class had their own colourful carnival to kick-start the topic! We dressed in bright colours, made carnival masks and decorated carnival bunting. We then moved and danced to carnival music and played percussion instruments. Everyone in chestnut class is very excited about their new topic!
We brought Caterpillars and we watched them grow, then they went into their Crysalisis.
Finally they turned into painted ladies butterflies. We released them and watched them fly away!
We made a life cycle of a butterfly using paper plates and pasta.
We made butterfly feeders to feed our butterflies.
We found out facts and wrote reports.
Written by Abby in Oaks classDid you know, that the European Day of Languages has been celebrated every year across Europe since 2001, on the 26th of September- together with the European Commission? You can find out more about European Day of Languages here: https://edl.ecml.at/
Chestnut Class celebrated this year in a variety of ways. They learnt some simple phrases in other European Languages. They then tasted some different foods from other European countries including Salami, brioche and Greek yoghurt! Everyone worked hard to communicate what they wanted to taste, some by using Aided Language Boards. After learning about some of the countries in Europe, and looking at their flags, they then made their own flag biscuits with icing! The students even had time to ‘visit’ some of the countries via green screen!
Limes Class have explored our solar system and found out lots of exciting facts about the planets that revolve around the sun. We used fruit to represent the planets so that we could see how different they all are in size. Next, we took our fruity solar system out to the playground to make a model of the planets revolving around the sun and spinning on their own axis. We got a bit dizzy but it helped us realise why some planets have years that are much longer or shorter than ours is here on Earth. We used non-fiction text to gather information about the planets and created a fantastic fact file about each one, we have them displayed in our classroom. Some of us wrote out the facts in our own words and some of us used symbols to describe them. They help us to remember the order of the planets and some fun facts about each of them.
Our topic this term is Moon Zoom and Cherries Class have been learning about space. We found a crashed rocket on the playground, which we investigated. We followed the alien’s footsteps and we think the aliens may have gone into Oaks! We have made ourselves into aliens and used lots of descriptive language to talk about what we think the aliens look like! In Drama, we have also been learning about Beegu who came to earth by herself and exploring different planets!
Chestnut Class always work hard in their Bucket Time (Attention Autism) sessions.
Attention Autism is an intervention model designed by Gina Davies, a specialist speech and language therapist. It aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities. Our sessions aim to engage attention, improve joint attention, develop a shared enjoyment in group activities, and increase attention in adult-led activities.
You can find out more about Attention Autism on Gina Davies’ website: https://ginadavies.co.uk/
On the 24th of September, Chestnut Class explored a space themed Bucket Time, linked to our topic, ‘Moon Zoom’. In Stage 2, we watched in excitement as Helene splated paint and glitter to make a space picture! We all thought it was very funny when Helene got paint all over the floor! In Stage 3, we took turns to dress up as an astronaut. We enjoyed being jiggled in ‘the rocket’ and blasting off!
Cedar have been learning about night and day. We made a model to represent this using a small globe and a torch.
In Pines class we hit the ground running with our first Forest Schools session. Despite the rain we made some delicious smores and savory crackers on the firepit as well as crafting wooden pendants, building a den and creating some amazing artwork using the natural resources around us.