Latest News
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Y6 Pupil Diary Entry - St Clement's CofE Primary School
Wed 09 Dec 2020Dear Diary,
Today was crazy! We had a science day, which I always look forward to as they're so much fun.
Firstly, we got given the title 'Ice, Ice baby' and we had to compile ideas about the day. I was surprised at the variety of ideas, as they were completely different. To be honest, I never knew you could get so many ideas from one phrase! After some discussion, we agreed we would work out which insulator was the most effective. We all had an ice cube with a Lego man placed inside. Our main objective was to test which insulator would prevent the ice cube from melting: tin foil, bubble wrap, cloth, paper towels and newspaper.
After our predictions, we weighed our ice cubes and wrapped them in the insulator. Every five minutes we reweighed the ice cube until we had done it for 30 minutes. It turns out that bubble wrap was the best insulator and Mrs Stevenson explained why.
"It's a bit like double glazed windows - the air bubbles in bubble wrap are a bit like the air in between the two panes of glass. Therefore, it doesn't let the air escape."
Science days are always fun as we do great experiments and we never know what the answer is going to be.
Jasmin.
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'Ice, Ice Baby' event at Great Witley CofE Primary School
Wed 09 Dec 2020The pupils really enjoyed being scientists during our 'Ice, Ice Baby' MAT event on Monday 23rd November. Pupils across every year group developed their skills working scientifically, including making predictions, explaining their ideas, making accurate observations over time, drawing conclusions and evaluating their experiments.
Key Stage 2 children were investigating the effect of different materials on the speed at which ice melts - many children were surprised by their results, which did not match their predictions. Lots of new learning happened when they then went on to discuss why their results had turned out that way - it turns out that a woolly coat will not make a snowman melt faster! In fact, quite the opposite, because it is an insulating material. Meanwhile, EYFS and KS1 were investigating the effect of different temperatures on the speed at which ice melts by doing a spot of ice fishing, attempting to free little fish from their blocks of ice. -
Rivers MAT Science Day - 'Ice, Ice Baby'
Wed 09 Dec 2020On Monday 23rd November, all schools within our Rivers family took part in our MAT Science day. These days take place 3 times a year and are designed to provide children freedom with their working scientifically skills across the day.
The theme this term was “Ice, Ice Baby” and each school developed a wide range of activities to explore the theme. It was an excellent opportunity for children to design their own experiments, create fair tests and report on their findings. They had a ball!
Lots of schools took the opportunity to explore insulation and designed a test to see which material would keep their ice cube the coolest. They then used their findings to help design tents for Antarctica, capes for Little Red Riding Hood and clothes for their characters.
In other classes, children explored the melting rates of ice cubes in different locations around the school and tabulated their findings in bar charts and line graphs, developing their maths skills further.
Finally, some schools explored the effects of salt on ice and went ice fishing! They were then able to relate this to the scientific reasoning behind roads being salted in the winter.
The teachers and children love taking part in science days and it continues to promote their love of science and aspirations to develop science in the wider world, as well as their careers for the future.
We were so proud by their enthusiasm and look forward to the next one in the spring!
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Remote Learning at Cranham Primary School
Tue 08 Dec 2020The recent closure of a bubble at Cranham Primary School meant that Year 5 pupils had to make the transition to remote learning overnight. Although this could have been a difficult time, our wonderful pupils and their supportive families made this changeover incredibly smooth and an overall positive experience.
Each morning, pupils were able to sign into a live video chat with their teachers and support staff using Microsoft Teams. This allowed pupils to find out what activities they were going to be set for the day and to ask any questions. There was then a second live meeting in the afternoon where pupils could share their work with others, discuss any difficulties and reflect on their learning for the day.
All tasks were set and completed on the online learning platform, Seesaw. This was a superb tool that enriched the pupil's remote learning experience in a variety of ways. As well as being able to type, write or voice record over worksheets, children were able to upload photographs and videos of their work. Teachers were also able to give verbal or written feedback throughout the day and provide support in a variety of ways.
The effort and adaptability of our pupils has been nothing short of outstanding and they are a credit to our school, our academy and their families.
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CEO's Blog - 4th December 2020
Fri 04 Dec 2020Keeping pupils’ learning at the heart of everything we do
This week, the government announced amendments to the Year 6 SATs for May 2021 and stated that, until April 2021, Ofsted monitoring visits will take place for category schools only. Both of these changes have been welcomed by our heads. Obviously, accountability remains paramount and internal moderation across the trust will remain unaffected. In fact, on Wednesday evening, I was lucky enough to witness first-hand our internal moderation process in action via Teams.
As I listened in, I was (once again) awed and inspired by the energy and professionalism of staff as they focused on discussing and moderating pupils’ work from across the trust whilst sharing ideas and specific examples with colleagues from all trust schools. It was a fantastic opportunity for our new colleagues from Summerhill Primary Academy and Jubilee Park Academy to meet staff from our other schools (albeit virtually) and to contribute to this rigorous process.
At the end of a long term, the enthusiasm of staff on Wednesday evening was wonderful to see - a reminder to us all that, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, pupils’ learning remains at the heart of everything we do.
Have a good weekend,
Kate Brunt
CEO
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School Improvement Team - Autumn Newsletter
Thu 03 Dec 2020The autumn 2020 School Improvement Team Newsletter is available for you to read on the link below.
Rivers School Improvement Newsletter
In this edition, we are celebrating our LOVE for learning across the Rivers MAT
- LOVE Reading
- LOVE Maths
- LOVE Early Years
- LOVE Curriculum
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Tudor Week at Northwick Manor Primary School
Thu 03 Dec 2020Year 4 pupils at Northwick Manor recently took part in a Tudor week. They were able to look at and try on costumes hired from The Tudor House Museum, make their own masks, take part in group dances, design menus for a Tudor banquet and try to write calligraphy and illustrated letters using quill pens.
They learnt so much about Tudor history during the week and gained new skills in research and comparing sources of information.
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Working Scientifically at St Clement's CofE Primary School
Wed 02 Dec 2020The pupils at St Clement’s have worked really hard on developing their ‘working scientifically’ skills in science, whilst also linking it to their current topic.
An example of this is in Year 5, where pupils are learning about World War 1 in history. In order to link this topic, they developed an experiment to answer the question, “Does a larger air raid shelter withstand more of an enemy attack?”. The pupils took the question and designed a fair test by replicating air raid shelters (or in this case, cardboard boxes) in a variety of sizes. They then dropped increasing weights until their air raid shelter collapsed and recorded the results. There was a direct correlation between the size of the shelter and the weight it could withstand and the experiment disproved all of our predictions. We all had fantastic fun though!
Not only did the pupils practise their ‘working scientifically’ skills, but they managed to refresh their maths by converting grams into kilograms and tabulating the results on a bar chart.