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There are lots of free or low cost activities for families to enjoy over the summer break. Enjoy!

71. Low Cost No Cost July & August 2018.docx

To whet the appetite for last night’s England match, 5 teams of girls from our area got together to play an action packed tournament hosted by Archbishop Sumner Primary. BLC teams welcomed a team from our neighbouring cluster, Vauxhall Primary for 3 hours of matches. The standard was consistently high during all 12 matches, despite the high temperatures. The final between Archbishop Sumner and Vauxhall went to a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, with Vauxhall getting the decisive goal. Congratulations to every player yesterday – it was a real pleasure to watch. A particular well done to Zamyrah from Christ Church Primary SW9, Player of the Tournament, for outstanding play in goal and of course to the winners from Vauxhall. A big thank you to all the staff at Archbishop Sumner Primary for hosting and to their staff member Katy Fitzpatrick for her brilliant organisation. Looking forward to more play next academic year when we hope to hold training days and start a league.

70. Low Cost No Cost 7th July & 8th July (1).docx

Four partnership schools from the Brixton Learning Collaborative (BLC) came together on Thursday 21st June 2018, to take part in the able and talented dance workshop. The aim was to put together a collaborative dance routine, culminating in live performance to a 250 strong audience. Professional dance instructor , Mr Ricky Blackett led the session.

The theme centred around the football World Cup in Russia The aim was to create a dance routine that was reflective of the sport and the customs and traditions of the host country. Each school had eight participants. The workshop provided an opportunity to showcase individual talent and dance skills as well as develop team work and collaborative working. The students were the creators of the routine. Adult were facilitators, helping to bring all individual routines together as one. The performers had the additional challenge of working to tight time frame.-less than two hours in which to devise , practice and perform.

In the end, the dance routine was a great success. The audience was able capture the passion and excitement that would be felt during a real live football match. It was interactive in that the audience performed the role of the football supporters within the stadium and the dancers acted out the story of the football match.

The dancers were asked to evaluate the day. Here are some of their recollections:

Four partnership schools from the Brixton Learning Collaborative (BLC) came together on Thursday 21st June 2018, to take part in the able and talented dance workshop. The aim was to put together a collaborative dance routine, culminating in live performance to a 250 strong audience. Professional dance instructor , Mr Ricky Blackett led the session.

The theme centred around the football World Cup in Russia The aim was to create a dance routine that was reflective of the sport and the customs and traditions of the host country. Each school had eight participants. The workshop provided an opportunity to showcase individual talent and dance skills as well as develop team work and collaborative working. The students were the creators of the routine. Adult were facilitators, helping to bring all individual routines together as one. The performers had the additional challenge of working to tight time frame.-less than two hours in which to devise , practice and perform.

In the end, the dance routine was a great success. The audience was able capture the passion and excitement that would be felt during a real live football match. It was interactive in that the audience performed the role of the football supporters within the stadium and the dancers acted out the story of the football match.

The dancers were asked to evaluate the day. Here are some of their recollections:

I really enjoyed working with children from other schools.

We were able to learn from each other.

It was so much fun. I wish we could come back next week

The whole day was really exciting! I was able to demonstrate lots of different dance moves.

Thank you St John’s for hosting a great event.

On 27th June, the Partnership Manager attended the ROH Bridge Conference The Paths Children Take. This was a great opportunity to network with schools from other parts of London as well as with leading Arts organisations and to discuss the opportunities that the UK has for children and young people to access careers in and related to the Creative Industries. It was also a time to reflect on the value of the Arts across the curriculum and for young people’s well being. One in eleven jobs in the UK are in the Creative Industries and it is forecast as one of the most future-proofed areas in a climate where AI is likely to dominate and reduce job opportunities. The conference themes fit well with our new Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded programme Developing a Growth Mindset through the Arts.

Our annual BLC Spelling Bee, hosted by St Gabriel’s College, took place last night. As always all the children were on top form showing their exceptional spelling skills. A big thank you to the staff at St Gabriel’s for providing this opportunity for the pupils and congratulations to the winning primary team – Jessop Primary School.

69. Low Cost No Cost 30th June & 1st July (2).docx

68. Low Cost No Cost 23rd & 24th June (1).docx

We are delighted to have been chosen as one of six recipients of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Teacher Development Fund.

The Teacher Development is a new initiative that supports the delivery of effective arts-based teaching and learning opportunities in the primary classroom, and embeds learning through the arts in the curriculum.

Grants have been awarded to partnerships of schools and arts/cultural organisations and will support teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience to teach non-arts subjects using arts based approaches. The work is delivered over two academic years.

Schools from our cluster in partnership with the Windmill cluster, will investigate the impact of using opera and visual arts to develop Growth Mindsets amongst their pupils. The approach will explore how arts-based learning can encourage higher-order questioning, risk-taking and problem-solving skills to raise attainment for pupils experiencing disadvantage. Working with Pegasus Opera and artist Liz Atkin, the teachers will experiment and take risks alongside their pupils. This approach will embed a cycle of analysis, experimentation, reflection, refinement and application.

We very much look forward to this exciting piece of work starting in September.

Last Thursday RE leads from 4 of our schools met to moderate children’s work across a range of year groups. They also shared planning and it was very interesting to compare a church school to a non-church school’s approach with learning from both. One church school had set up a faith group of children who helped with the co-ordination of various activities in the school. These 6 children had worked with the RE lead over their time in school and it had helped them be very involved with school life. Schools were using classbooks as well as individual books to track children’s work and discussion on RE themes and ideas, as well as including trips and visits and using artifacts to stimulate lessons. In the Autumn the group will meet to work much more closely on assessment,as at the moment this is a challenge for many settings.