Blog : Pupil Premium budget

After the recent success of our Jackson Pollock inspired Family Art Workshop at Hurst Hill Primary School where attendees created their first art collection for their new gallery, we were at it again this weekend. This time we were inspired by the emotion paintings of Mark Rothko, an artist famed for his floating rectangles of colour. The children and families really engaged with the process and let themselves ‘experience’ their creativity and produced outstanding artwork to add to the gallery. The workshops are a great way to enable families to become integrated into the life of the school and theses activities are part of a wider programme of family learning in partnership with the school.

Year 5 and 6 children from Star Academy are exploring what makes their school special with a range of cross curricular creative learning workshops we are leading. In an Art and Poetry workshop. Jacob, (pictured above) ,produced a great abstract painting and also presented as a bit of an unpolished diamond with his lyrical style. He is a very interesting character with many things to say but Literacy isn’t always considered his strong point and he is challenged by his dyslexia. However after realising several poets don’t necessarily write their poems down to start with ( like the brilliant Benjamin Zephaniah) Jacob discovered his ‘inner poet’ and was happy to record himself into a phone and bluetooth his work into class computer to share it with everyone. He also wrote his poem into his workbook and headed straight for the Head Teachers office to proudly share his creative writing.

Jacobs poem was one of 27 produced within the art and poetry workshop, we loved it and see it as hard evidence of his ability to produce writing of the highest standard. Have a listen to his poem below and see what you think: If you like it and find it inspiring please share it with someone.

Cool School by Jacob

Kingsland Primary are working with us on an innovative  radio station project that is producing some great spoken word content, cutting edge journalism and a live ‘music lounge ‘ slot. The kids are taking the creative project very seriously and have nervelessly embraced being ‘on air’ and producing Kingsland News, Book, Film and Media reviews, Thought for the Day, Teacher Interviews  (inspired by desert island discs), a comedy slot and problem solving competitions.Our first broadcasts from Kingsland Radio have been recorded today, below is the recording by our broadcasters Alex & Sydney.

Alex & Sydney

The kids at Star Academy are thinking about what it is that makes their school special as they prepare for their official academy status launch in February. They are using digital tools to explore and share their ideas and this creative news broadcast example is a little of bit of history in the making. It’s their first ever attempt at Green Screen and we hope you enjoy it.

Continuing with our MEN AT WORK campaign to showcase outstanding male teachers working in primary schools. We are committed to raising awareness of the positive impact male teachers have and try to encourage more people into the profession. There is huge opportunity to improve education by attracting men into teaching assistant and teaching roles and our observational short films will highlight how important it is to get MEN AT WORK in primaries. Our second film shows Mr Linley working in Year 6, it’s a lovely short film showing the joy of learning and teaching, we hope you enjoy it and that you will support our campaign to get blokes teaching.

Year 5 children used reflexology to develop team working skills in a positive, trustful learning experience.

More and more schools are enjoying our reflexology workshops and are commenting on the positive impact upon learning, behavior and well being. The workshops are integrated into the curriculum and are informative and very enjoyable. Tactile experiences have a resonance that reinforce all of the principles of learning and the values and attributes we are trying to encourage children to acquire.

“It was amazing to see the level of engagement and it was quite an emotional experience to see the children get so much from something that was so simple”  – Annette, Year 5 Teacher

“This was the most relaxing day I have ever had in my life” – Harvey, age 9

Year 3 at St Augustines produced a music video for anti bullying week within an hour session, great teamwork and really enjoyable learning experience.

Hurst Hill Primary School in Sedgley has opened it’s very own art exhibition inspired by the abstract work of Jackson Pollock. The school community came together for a family art workshop and got busy being creative to produce some stunning works of art which are now on display within the school.

The short film above shows how the families became artists for the day and had lots of fun in the process.

Engaged children enjoy learning and exceed all expectations in the process. Year One children began to explore different learning styles and used poetry to ignite their minds.

It was World Food Day on October 16th and after we installed a unique kitchen at Kingsland Primary School over the summer holidays we took the opportunity to officially open it. We transformed a corridor space used for storage into a new cooking area for the whole school to enjoy. With 2 ovens, 2 induction hobs, a fridge, a microwave and sink area they certainly have all the equipment needed to cook up a masterpiece and a class from Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 were the first to do just that, making a tasty vegetable soup and some delicious cookies.

We also helped to create Elsa, a chef character, who the kitchen is named after and also her recipe cards so parents and children can download the instructions from the school website to make them at home.