LATEST NEWS AT SCHOOL 21:
School21 presents… West Side Story- Featuring students in Y5-Y13!
Wednesday 28th Feb, Thursday 29th Feb, Friday 1st March- 6pm start.
Tickets are available to all members of the community via Reach More Parents (Weduc) now!
Sign up to the 'Friends of the Music Department' membership scheme via the link here and you can also get 2 free tickets to either the first or second night of the show!
Safer Internet Day 2024!
Next week, Years 1-6 will take part in some lessons around Safer Internet Day.
Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year we cover an online issue or theme that speaks to the things young people are seeing and experiencing online.
Check out this website for some top tips for parents and carers to keep your children safe on the internet at home.
Netball Update (Year 7 – Year 10)
Since September, some of the girls in Year 8, 9 & 10 have been busy training in the netball club. It has been great to see so many students get involved. Last night we played against Plashet in a home game. While we didn't come away with the result we were after, the girls showed great team spirit and resilience. Next week is our first away match, playing against Eastleigh. Netball club trainings will be back next term and all year 7-10 girls are welcome (no prior experience needed!) Held every Thursday from 3:45pm-4:30pm in the Sports Hall. See or email Miss Lewis [email protected] if you are interested in playing.
Bertha Earth Programme
The Year 7 Bertha Earth Ambassadors have completed week 10 of the programme. Over the last 10 weeks we have: built an amazingly strong community using the principles of Ubuntu; spent a day at a farm learning about growing fruit, vegetables and flowers as well as digging beds and planting some flowers of our own; making board games focused on saving the environment; making seed bombs to utilise around school in the spring; spending an afternoon connecting with nature at a local park. Next up we will be thinking about how we can personally make a difference to the natural world with our own projects – watch this space!
Quick Reminders!
A quick reminder to please complete our Parent/Carer Survey 2024, link shared via Reach More Parents (Weduc) and available as a QR code on the Primary classroom doors and in Front Office.
Our term dates for 2024/25 are available in our previous Community Newsletter 26/01/2024.
LEARNING AT SCHOOL 21:
Reception
This week we have been busy in Reception, building houses for the three little pigs! We have explored different materials and used our Drawing Club skills to label and write on our drawings and models. In Maths, we have been learning about equal and unequal groups and we have started to learn pairs and find matching pairs of items. Can you find any matching pairs at home?
Year 1
All About Addition! This week in year 1 we have been learning lots of strategies to help us add numbers up to 20. We have been steadily building our toolkit of strategies to include: make-10 strategy, recognising near doubles, counting on and using fact families/known facts. We are all becoming mathematic Wizards!
Year 4
Year 4 have been learning all about electricity as their Science topic. This week we carried out an investigation to see which materials are electrical conductors or insulators. Once we carried out our investigation we wrote up our investigation and explained what we found out.
Year 5
This week year 5 started to learn about angles, using geoboards we made a variety of shapes such as quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons and made shapes with acute angles, right angles, obtuse and reflex angles.
Year 6
Five children from Year 6 at #School21 were privileged to join Newham in the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday 26th January. The children were asked to write poems on the theme of 'Fragility of Freedom' and performed them in front of a large audience in East Ham Town Hall. The children were incredibly honoured to take part in this important event, remembering the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and represented the school very well.
Year 7
Year 7 have been studying Weaving in Art this half term. We have explored the cultural origins of Weaving, particularly the colour and symbol meanings in Ghanaian Kente cloth. We have been practising our own weaving using paper and more recently with thread on our own handmade looms. The final end of our project will include designing our own personalised weave and finishing this off in either fabric strips of threading.
Year 7 have shown huge enthusiasm for their Geography this half term, where they have been exploring hot deserts and the cold desert of Antarctica. The students were shocked to find out that the biggest desert in the world is actually… Antarctica! This is because it is the largest area of land, on average, to receive less than 250mm of rainfall per year. The students have been showing great interest in learning about climate, animal adaptations and of course, our daily 'Which country's flag is this?' As you can see in the image below, we have a new humanities teacher on the block. Sir showed great potential with the students of 7 Jemison and we can't wait to have him teaching again soon!
This week, they were applying this knowledge to design and present their own animals with the best adaptations to survive in a desert. Here are some of the spectacular, outrageous, beautiful and horrifying creatures that Mr. Selwyn's class created!
We have loved seeing students' creativity, as they have applied their geographical understanding to create their own unique creatures! Through giving feedback to others and listening to feedback on their own work, students have been able to improve their own creations and ensure they are ideally suited to the challenging climatic conditions of hot and cold desert regions.
This week, Year 7 Food Technology students learnt how to use the oven safely and made a tropical granola bar.
Year 8
On Friday, performers from the Museum of London visited to perform for the Year 8 students. The interactive performance shone a light on the diversity of families within London and is part of a collaborative project between School 21 and the museum called 'My London Story'. The aim of the project is to collect real stories from students across London, aiming to represent the diverse lived experiences of London students in the 21st century. These stories will be used in future exhibitions, displays and programmes at the museum and will form a historic archive of what life in London is like for students of today. Students are encouraged to express interest so if this sounds like something your child might be interested, or you want to know more, please email Miss Lewis – [email protected].
Read all about the project here!
With one week to go until the half-term break, it is almost time for our Celebration Assembly! This will be held on Wednesday morning, with a focus on progress, improvement and Humanity. With so many students making incredible progress in many different ways, the teachers have been very busy nominating for the 'Step Up' awards. Meanwhile, the students have been busy spreading kindness by nominating each other for the 'Choose Kind' awards. Please remind your child to vote if they haven't already!
This week, Year 8 Food Technology students learnt how to make a bread dough and then applied this skill to make garlic dough balls.
Year 8 English lessons this week have had students thinking deeply about their play scripts and the way in which they are choosing to stage them with lighting, props and sound.
In the gallery above you can see students playing the infinite why game, where students interrogate their peers’ decisions and ensure that every stage decision is meaningful and symbolic in some way.
Year 9
Year 9 geographers have been exploring resources this term, and are currently deep diving into a number of resources and their impacts on our lives. This week students were learning about uranium, its potential to create nuclear energy, and the challenges that uranium mining can cause for aboriginal Australians. They're demonstrating fantastic geographical skills- showing their understanding of the numerous and complex connections between the physical and human world. This unit will culminate in students presenting to the class, in a format of their choosing, about a resource that interests them. They have submitted their initial enquiry forms and will be teaching us all about an eclectic mix of resources, from diamonds to strawberries to silk- we're excited to learn from them!
This week, Year 9 Food Technology students learnt about Italian cuisine. In their practical lesson they made a Margherita pizza.
Year 10
In Year 10 Maths, students have been diving into the world of similar shapes. They've been figuring out how to spot relationships in scale factors between lengths, areas, and volumes of similar shapes. It's been hands-on, with lots of practical activities. The students aren't just memorizing formulas; they're really grasping how to calculate and use the scale factors in real-life situations. This isn't just important for geometry – it sets them up for tackling more advanced math down the road. A big shoutout to our Year 10 students for approaching this with enthusiasm and delving into the nitty-gritty of similar shapes.
Year 12
Year 12 Politics students had a fantastic Harkness discussion this week, using the stimulus point of 'nationalism has been a force for good in the world'. They maturely and eloquently led the discussion themselves, with everyone's voices being heard. Students demonstrated their thoughtful understanding of the subject and ability to consider countries including Tanzania, China and the UK in relation to the topic. A stimulating lesson for all involved!
Year 13
This week has been busy for our hard working Year 13's! For the last few months they have been working tirelessly on their UCAS applications and they finally made it past the deadline this week. Lots of our students have already been receiving offers or interviews, with some even from Imperial and Oxford! They have earned every offer they get and we are so proud of all of our wonderful students. We hope that you will join us in wishing them the very best of luck in their future endeavors!
They have already started looking at the next steps this week with an assembly from the outreach team at Goldsmiths University. They looked at the details of Student Finance and how it all works as well as budgeting, travel costs and university accommodation. We still have a little while left until the students need to worry about Student Finance, but it was great for them to be well informed about what is to come. We'd like to give a massive thank you to Jack and the Goldmiths Team!
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