Community Newsletter 02/05/2024

The latest news at School 21!

LATEST NEWS AT SCHOOL 21:

Family Music and Movement Sessions

If you have a younger child, or a niece, nephew or grandchild (0-5 years), do come and join our family music and movement session on Friday mornings during term time. These are free, drop in sessions with Mrs Woolfenden in B3 classroom. Everyone welcome!

New Horizons Show at Middlesex University (Year 7-Year 8)

Dance projects class was welcomed by Dr Helen Kindred (Director of Dance and Professional Practice programmes) and her amazing team at MDX to a special viewing of this year’s Middlesex University Dance studies Graduate show.

Students watched 4 pieces, including ‘Distortion of Beauty', which proved to be favourite for year 9s. Choreographed by one of the lecturers at the university Sian Hopkins. The piece is a beautiful collective endeavour exploring beauty and the struggle of breaking away from standards and expectations. If you would like to watch the piece simply scan the QR code below where pieces will be available to watch after the final show on Friday 26th April 2024. Students also enjoyed ‘-6’ a dance for the camera piece. Choreographer Amy Taylor shared her journey of what it takes to create pieces and how to be resilient in the face of hardship.

Dance projects class will hopefully soon experience a day in the life of a dancer at MDX university. Keep an eye out for the article.

Human Rights Club

The School 21 Human Rights Club hosted its first fundraising event on Thursday to raise money for Save the Children's Emergency Appeal for Gaza. Students from across all year groups demonstrated School 21 values of Humanity and Community with a huge display of empathy and solidarity with the students, educators and families who have been affected by the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Students and staff raised £200 in less than 30 minutes, which will go to providing either 17 school-in-a-bag kits for children whose learning has been disrupted, 8 family hygiene packs, or 5 food baskets. Watch this space for more fundraising and awareness-raising about human rights issues around the world. Get in touch with [email protected] if you would like to contribute or support the School 21 Human Rights Club!

LEARNING AT SCHOOL 21:

Reception

In Reception this week, we have continued our new project by looking more in depth at the life cycle of a butterfly as we patiently wait for our caterpillars to grow. We have found out about how they will form their chrysalis and slowly transform their bodies into butterflies.

In maths, we have started a new unit all about odd and even numbers. We have explored sharing different quantities in half to see whether they are odd or even and enjoyed noticing patterns on a number line.

Year 1

Adenegan class have made amazing progress in there reading which increased their love for reading!

Proud teacher 🙂

Year 3

Year 3 have had an exciting week! We've written newspaper reports, started a new unit on angles and have been cooking! We had an exciting afternoon tasting our innovated pasta sauce recipes.

We then gave our peers kind and specific feedback about what we liked about the sauce that we tasted and what we thought needed to be done to make them taste even better. We've been so impressed by the children's openness to trying new tastes and their openness to feedback.

Year 4

Year 4 have had an exciting week, but their highlight was spending time in the forest school measuring the perimeter and deciding the place where our new pond should go. We used an array of measurement tools to do this and check our accuracy, from measuring tapes to metre sticks.

Year 5

This term, the students in year 5 explored how the ancient Greeks have influenced our modern world! During their first lesson, they learned about the importance of democracy and debating. Here they are discussing whether or not we should have longer lunch times.

Year 9

Year 9 had an epic Battle of the Bands on Friday 26th April!

They showcased their incredible songwriting skills, and showed such a heartwarming amount of support for each other as they all took to the stage. We are so proud of everyone who performed, well done!

A special congratulations to the following bands who came top of the audience vote:

First Place – Redline

Second Place – RSTA

Third Place – TBD

Year 10

Students explored virtual reality for learning with Teeside University at the Big Bang Fair!

Year 12 & Year 13

Wednesday was Six21 Culture Day.

Staff and students came to school in their cultural clothing to celebrate and share the amazing cultural heritage we have.

Many a selfie was taken, and it was a real privilege to see how diverse our student population is. The day was concluded by a cultural catwalk, where students walked the catwalk accompanied by music form their culture.