Blog : Pupil Premium budget

Up, Up and Away!

Up, Up and Away!

Year 5 children from Kingsland Primary School explored the idea of space and used chalk to draw Alien portraits and spacecraft before sending their very own Space Tweet, inside of a helium filled balloon, high in to the sky and beyond!

IMG_0701-630x420

IMG_8809-630x420

IMG_0615-630x420

Rocket to the Moon!

Rocket to the Moon!

IMG_9126-630x419

The Reception class at Kingsland Primary School concluded last weeks Family Art Workshops by designing and building a Rocket with their Parents! The children became artists, engineers and designers and created a large, living willow sculpture of a rocket that will remain in Reception’s play area for years to come!

We really enjoyed our week at the school and look forward to the Alien Picnic in July

IMG_9093-630x420

IMG_9085-630x420

IMG_9056-630x420

IMG_8918-630x419

Amazing Aliens

Amazing Aliens

IMG_9779-630x420

The latest Family Art Workshop saw Year 4 invite parents in to School to help create fantastic sculptures for the Alien Picnic. Each class drew Alien portraits and later designed and built miniature cardboard models that informed a large class sculpture that will be on display in July.

IMG_9791-630x420 IMG_97441-630x420 IMG_9673-630x420 IMG_9838-630x420

Brilliant Blanket

Brilliant Blanket

IMG_0134-630x420

Year 2 children at Kingsland Primary enjoyed a day of drawing, painting and imagining the possibilities of what Space holds as the Family Art Workshops continued this week. The children each designed a spaceship to help them navigate the Universe before being given the task of creating a panel to be used on a Picnic blanket at this Summer’s Alien Picnic. We’re certain it will look great and thank you to all of the family members that joined us today.

IMG_0241-630x420 IMG_0333-630x420 IMG_0264-630x420

Marvellous Mondrian

Marvellous Mondrian

Our latest Saturday morning family art workshop  was once again really well attended and we looked at the work of the Dutch artist Pied Mondrian. His well known unique style evolved through his career and his use of geometric patterns with primary colours is recognised all over the world. The collection produced by our children and their families is absolutely stunning and will soon be added to our Art Gallery and our preview event for the collection will soon be announced. THis slideshow shows the workshop and the wonderful artwork in progress.

Solar Sculptures

Solar Sculptures

IMG_9612-630x420

Children from  Year 1 at Kingsland Primary School have been taking part in a Family Art Workshop inspired by Space to create Solar Sculptures for an Alien Picnic in July. We were joined by Parents for the day as each class created models, drawings and paper mache planets. The workshop is part of a week long residency as we work with each class throughout the school to create artwork for the celebration event in the Summer.

IMG_9521-630x420

IMG_9348-630x420

IMG_9562-630x420

The Journey To Outstanding

The Journey To Outstanding

KingslandStaffCoaching2-630x420

Today the Staff at Kingsland Primary School have spent the day working in partnership with Universal Learning to help identify how the school can achieve outstanding teaching. Staff have identified key skills within their team and have introduced the idea of buddying up with other Staff members to share and help encourage the development of their working practice.

KingslandStaffCoaching-630x420

During the day the Staff worked in groups. Using Digital Tools, that can be found in the classroom, such as the greenscreens, flip cameras and microphones to share with colleagues their ideas and aspirations of how to grow and share the skills within the teaching community to impact upon the children and their desire to learn.

KingslandStaffCoaching4-630x420

We would like to thank the Staff team at Kingsland Primary School for a great creative coaching day.

Be the Best you can Be!

Be the Best you can Be!

17

On Monday, the Staff team at Hurst Hill Primary School took part in some exciting and enriching professional development by enrolling on the ‘Be the Best you can Be’ programme. The programme explores the journeys of Olympic & Paralympic athletes and how they have been successful in their fields, then applying the same techniques to raise aspirations for both the children and the staff.

21

The programme was led by Suzanne Hayes-Jones from 21st Century Legacy who talked about personal goals and targets as well as planning in a date for Danielle Brown, a Paralympic double gold medalist (and gold medalist at the Commonwealth games) to come and share her story with the Children in a fortnights time.

Don't Read the Label…..

Don't Read the Label…..

ear-trick-1024x6821

‘Class Clown, Disruptive, Able, Slow, Difficult, Problematic, Genius…….?

In this health conscious world of ours we are encouraged to read the labels on food and discover precisely what we are putting into our bodies, check we are not ingesting a harmful chemical cocktail; count the carbs, fat, sugar etc. In reality, most of us take no notice, the chances are, if we are buying processed food, we are going to eat it regardless and console ourselves with thoughts of ‘ a little bit of what you fancy’ or ‘everything in moderation’. Adults are skilled at taking no notice of product labels (think about smokers lighting up after they have just been informed by every pack ‘these will kill you’). So I’m asking why can’t we apply this to kids in school? Is it possible, what would happen if we didn’t attach labels to them and accepted kids are a work in progress? Imagine a world where they are allowed to learn and grow ‘label free’?

We all readily use adjectives to describe children in school every day and it’s amazing how quickly these ‘labels’ become ‘sticky’ and invisibly attach themselves to a child. Almost instantly the kid feels obliged on a conscious or sub conscious level to perform that role and it becomes acceptable for them and their peer group to accept and use this frame of reference. These labels can shape the way children feel about themselves and colour their perception of the world and stay with them throughout their education and beyond. I have heard so many friends say things like, ‘ I was no good at English, Art, etc or ‘I was the class clown so I didn’t learn much’ ‘ and usually this perception (which is always untrue) can be traced to a comment from a significant adult that carried a ‘sticky label’.

‘Gifted, shy, clever, slow, challenging, difficult, hopeless, trouble, polite, bright, motivated, disinterested’: these are all words I have heard used by well meaning adults sharing a few helpful tips about behaviour management. Of course, these words may have, in one moment of time, been an accurate and appropriate description of an act, but the moment that act occurred in passes and the description should be temporary too. Through experiences shouldn’t we be encouraging and inspiring children to change grow and develop to their fullest potential? If so, maybe its time to become more aware of the inhibiting, restrictive nature of labels and their impact upon learning and mindful enough to ignore them!

We are working with a production company on a television programme that will be recorded in the summer and broadcast on Channel 4 through the Autumn term that explores this issue in the context of working with children at risk of permanent exclusion from mainstream education. The programme will feature an educational ‘summer camp’ to explore how children and their families can work together to make the most of every opportunity to learn and remain in mainstream education………More on this later.

POW! – Power of Writing

POW! – Power of Writing

I’m going to start our blog with a quote from a master of words who was able to understand and utilise their immense power:

quote5

And now to introduce POW…A modern day superhero to representing the ‘Power of Writing’ who’s mission is to inspire creative literacy teaching and learning in primary schools. I had the pleasure recently of spending a day at Mahatma Gandhi’s residence in Mumbai and was very inspired by the simplicity of his approach to life and the absolute power contained in much of his writing, whether that be short quotes or letters to head of nations as part of his strategy for advocating a free India through non violence. In our technology driven modern communication network how many of us actually have the time to hand write? If it’s not a greetings card most of us type on a keyboard or smartphone and in the process, the speed of the activity may dilute some of the creative thought processes that go into our writing  Ghandi’s hand written words in simple bound journals were incredibly powerful and helped me re-connect with the importance of children discovering their creativity, finding joy in the written word and understanding the power of writing.

Shireland Hall Primary School have been developing POW resources for a while now using a range of reward driven stimulus that focus on a ‘can do’ positive child centred approach. There are no longer mistakes in writing only interference and trickery from the ‘Flerbs’. Teachers are testing this new innovative resource within their literacy strategy in both KS1 & KS2 with amazing results. The children are really inspired and engaged by POW and his cloak of many letters and how he conquers the “Flerbs”, those pesky little creatures that can appear as pitiful punctuation or infect writing with grammatical errors!

One slight unexpected drawback to this new superhero’s positive impact is that all the kids want to meet him in person and guess who has been unanimously nominated to don the lycra and bring this character to life….yes it’s me and I do admit I haven’t taken much persuading, apparently he looks a bit like me, which is slightly worrying, but hey it’s for the kids!

If you want to find out more about POW or  try it in your school, just let us know.