Read on to learn about some of our recent fun outdoor activities in this week’s newsletter. Including School 21 herb garden, planting seeds with Reception, a trip to Jamie’s Farm for Year 7, and more!
LATEST NEWS AT SCHOOL 21:
8 Days of Great Attendance
All students who attended school every day in the final week in the Spring term, and every day for the first week in the Summer term were entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Westfields voucher.
Congratulations to our winners Amjad (Rec) and Emela (Y7)!
Primary (Reception – Year 6) Free Dress Day – Friday 17th May!
Year 7 Jamie’s Farm Retreat
Last week saw the now annual Year 7 Bertha Earth retreat to Jamie's Farm in Bath. The 24 students had the most wonderful week full of new sights, smells and experiences.
The farm was in the final throws of the lambing season, so lots of time was spent feeding, cleaning and playing with the new additions. Other activities included: milking a cow, feeding the pigs, chopping wood in the woodshed, gardening, cooking for the humans, bush craft, bee keeping, a 3 hour hike through the forest, arts and crafts and toasting marshmallows on an open fire.
As well as all the physical activities, we spent time every day reflecting on our new experiences, how we were feeling and celebrating our successes. A great week was had by all!
School 21’s Herb Garden
The new School 21 herb garden is flourishing! The herbs have been grown from seed by Year 6 students, they have been; patiently weeding and watering regularly (the copious amount of rain recently has helped!) and last week's sunshine has lead to a growth spurt!
The salad leaves and herbs will be harvested and used during preparation of lunch for the students by our wonderful kitchen team. We hope for more sun to come!
Recycled Art Challenge!
Congratulations to Sofia in Year 6 for her imaginative response to our Recycled Art challenge. If you like the idea of optical illusions and shadow play, check out the work of artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster.
LEARNING AT SCHOOL 21:
Reception
This week we have been spending a lot of time outdoors planting seeds in our garden and making different things out of natural objects in forest school. We have been talking about how important it is to always bring a bottle of water to school to stay hydrated and the need to start wearing a sun hat too. We are working on knowing when we need a jacket or jumper (when we feel too hot) and when are bodies feel just right. Children can now begin to wear the summer uniform: grey shorts or a skirt and a white polo or a purple plaid dress.
Year 2
Year 2 have been cooking this week! We made soda bread using wholemeal flour and found out where the ingredients came from. We can't wait to cook our next recipe!
Year 6
In between revising for the SATs tests, Year 6 have been refining their skills as expert coders. They have programmed their very own stepometers which were programmed to calculate every step they took. We then took to the playground to compete to see who could walk the most steps in the space of 10 minutes.
Year 7 Project Group: Biodiversity Ceramics
Welcome to the new Summer Clay Project group in year 7! We are a new group for this term and we have just started to research how art and nature can be interconnected. This project will see students take items from nature and turn these into designs on their own ceramic pot. They will also be making this pot entirely for someone else. Our enquiry question for the project is – How can love and kindness impact our making?
Year 7 Maths Motion Challenge
This term some of our Year 7 students have been taking part in the Maths in Motion Challenge. The Maths in Motion Challenge is a software based mathematical challenge and an excellent way of engaging children of all ages and abilities in an exciting and motivating mathematics based project. The Challenge involves students working together in small teams. These teams set up virtual racing cars and then compete against each other in a series of Grands Prix type races, the activity involves a wide range of basic mathematical skills, some practical, being used and applied.
This week we completed our second ever race, it has been quite a steep learning curve but students have taken the challenge head on leading to a very exciting race!
Year 7 Food Technology
This week, Ms Jenny Martin, Public Health Strategist at Newham Council offered her time for Year 7 Food Technology project students. She gave an amazing presentation on healthy eating, particularly for teenagers. A discussion on the topic with our enthusiastic students followed this. We are thankful for her collaboration and support to run the Project on the Schoo2l Tuck shop.
