Last week children from across our cluster of schools joined online, from home and from school, at 3.45pm for the final virtual Maths masterclass in our current series. It was testament to the positive learning attitude of our children that so many joined this week, despite the hot days we had been experiencing. This final session involved making shapes from paper, but crucially, trying to visual how to do it, before having a go. Fran Watson, the RI masterclass lead was very engaging and the children,as always responded to the challenge and contributed throughout.
Thanks to all the RI staff who have worked with us this term. Keen mathematicians from all our schools are invited to join, with their families, on 10th July online, when the RI will host a celebration event.
Latest News
Primary school poetry semi-finals – outstanding work!
Congratulations to the 29 children from 6 BLC primary schools who took part in our Poetry semi-finals. What amazing children we have in our schools! The standard was incredible and children had written such moving poems to give us all Hope as we manage our lives now and going forward. It was incredibly difficult to choose which children go through to the final, but the final 12 poems have been chosen and the final will take place next Thursday, with special guest judges Benna (soon to be Lambeth’s Poet Laureate) and Adisa (who has led some inspiring work in our schools over the last few years). We look forward to sharing the poems in this blog, in due course.
Share a Smile boxes have started arriving at schools!
This term, as part of our Summer of Wellbeing, funded by Lambeth Elevate, our student wellbeing ambassadors are working with Emotional Literacy teacher Hannah Joyce and artist Abigail Hunt to put together a special Scroll of Smiles and Box of Smiles to share with another group at another school. This week ambassadors at Archbishop Sumner and St John Divine received their boxes, did a workshop with Hannah and have begun to collect jokes, artefacts, messages and ideas to make the other group smile! It was lovely to see the special boxes being prepared to distribute – filled with lots of goodies inside to help the children share their smile ideas – can’t wait to see what the children make and how they decorate them!
getting ready for our Performance Poetry Primary semi finals!
On Thursday 17th June, we’ll be holding our Primary Performance Poetry Challenge semi-finals! Children from 6 schools in the cluster have been busy writing their entries on the theme of Hope. At Archbishop Sumner Primary, they had over 100 entries, so have had to make some very hard decisions to select the 4 poems that will go into the semifinals this week. From the semis, 2 poems per school will go through to our final, which will be online on Thursday 24th June, with our guest judges the fabulous performance poets Adisa and Benna. This project is part of our Summer of Wellbeing, funded by Lambeth Elevate. 
Lambeth schools call to join our Dance FlashMob on 7th July!
As part of the BLC/Windmill Cluster Summer of Well Being, funded by Lambeth Elevate,schools and Nurseries across the borough are invited to join in our Well Being Dance Flashmob on 7th July, 2pm. Our arts partner for this event, The Boury Academy, has put together some tutorial videos for teachers and children to use in school to learn the choreography for High School Musical We’re all in this Together, as well as the backing track and some warm-ups. The videos are between 10 and 15 minutes long and Boury Academy dancer Kage takes you through everything you need to learn the routine and be ready to join in the dancemob on 7th. All information to register for the event (by 21st June please) can be accessed through the following link
https://forms.gle/7aPXgMy6JcCKBC8h7
Looking forward to it!
Presenting Confident Creators today at the Storymakers Festival: Reimagining the Curriculum
Today we have been delighted to present about Confident Creators at the national Storymakers Festival: Reimagining the Curriculum. Speakers have included researchers and schools across the country – including contributions about the curriculum in Wales, New Zealand and Iceland. Thanks to Leeds Beckett School of Education for organising this event and inviting us to present.
Share a Smile project launched today with our pupil well being ambassadors!
This afternoon 100 children from 14 schools joined a Googlemeet call to start their Share a Smile Campaign for this term, as part of the BLC/Windmill cluster’s Summer of Wellbeing programme, supported by Lambeth Elevate. Hannah Joyce and Abigail Hunt worked with the children to find out what they knew about the benefits of smiling – the scientific evidence, what happens in our bodies when we smile, how the children feel when they smile and things that make them happy. They will take their knowledge and ideas to start a smiling campaign in their schools, coming together in a few weeks to share across schools how they are getting on. Here are just some of the things the children noted made them smile. Thank you all the pupils and staff for sharing today and good luck with your campaigns!
Our Primary Pupil Wellbeing Ambassadors become Mindfulness Superheroes!
We have been delighted to encourage groups of children in our primary schools to become Wellbeing Ambassadors for their school, a scheme that we will be developing for the rest of this term and into next year. Last week children took part in some workshops, delivered by actor and facilitator Jonathan Brenner, developing mindfulness techniques to share with peers in their schools. Feedback from the workshops was really positive and we are delighted that children can use their training in school. Next half term we shall be doing more work with the ambassador groups and bring them together for some virtual sessions as part of our Shared Smiles project. More details to come! Thank you to everyone who made the Mindfulness Heroes workshops happen, in person, in school.
virtual Maths Masterclasses with Royal Institution – Curves
Following the success of the masterclasses we ran with Oval Learning, Windmill cluster and Royal Institution in February, we have been able to put together a short virtual series of further opportunities for some of the gifted young pupils in our primary schools. Just before the end of term we ran 2 virtual sessions, delivered by Rachel Dorris from Royal Institution, on Curves and Parabolas. The children did lots of interactive work exploring shapes and their use in Physics to invent satellite dishes etc and made their own curved stitching drawings. We are delighted to be able to continue this series, with children joining after school – either in school or at home, with monthly masterclasses into the summer. Thank you to the Royal Institution team for enabling this opportunity.
Confident Creators – teacher video resources
For over 2 years now, we have developed a programme of work, in partnership with Windmill Cluster of schools and Pegasus Opera, Confident Creators: developing a growth mindset through the Arts. This Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded programme has trained teachers to embed Art, Music and Drama into the curriculum as a tool for learning. Our arts practitioners from Pegasus Opera have produced some short, simple video resources for teachers to use, which will soon be on our Confident Creators website, along with a wealth of other materials. You can see some of these resources on our You Tube channel now:Story Pots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQvLi1UvVs
One Minute Expert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrl3yt6zwJY
Conscience Alley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hVt62QVzR8
Music
Soundscapes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hVt62QVzR8
Numbers Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0X5qHNk7ow
Graphic Scores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfNnxw1ru9w
The Brixton Learning Collaborative 
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