Latest News

This morning 30 Heads, School Business Managers and Admin Officers convened from our cluster and the Windmill cluster of schools at St John’s Angell Town Primary for a briefing on the new Data Protection Regulations due to come into force on 25th May 2018. Employment Law and HR Consultant Craig Stilwell, from Judicium Education, went through the new regulations with guidance on how schools can prepare, as the ICO brings out more guidance on compliance. Key messages were for schools to audit how they currently process data, to risk assess data needs, to review what policies and procedures need to be in place to comply , to train relevant staff on the new legislation and to think about employing a Data Protection Officer (an internal or external member of staff).

The first groups of year 5s from Archbishop Sumner, Loughborough and St John Divine Primaries got together this afternoon to start planning their experiments for the Science Fair to be hosted at St Gabriel’s College in March. Lots of interesting discussion was going on amongst the teams, keen to chose a question that hadn’t been done in previous science fairs. Looking forward to seeing the work develop!Here’s an example of some of last year’s work.

Some activities for families this weekend.

51.Family Fun in London_13.01.18 (2).docx

Happy New Year to everyone in our school community! It looks to be a busy term ahead. Schools from across the cluster are working together on a number of projects including:
* our Science Fair for year 5s and year 9s, led by St Gabriel’s College
*our first primary girls football tournament
*Photography to support learning in Reception classes
*Young Theatre Makers workshops with Arts Bridge including a half term drama programme
*a Make Theatre day at the National theatre looking at lighting and sound design
* writing moderations across all year groups from Reception through to Year 6
*maths moderation for year 2 teachers
* training with NACE for teachers looking at developing metacognition skills
* SBMS and SLT briefing from Judicium on the new GDPR and further networking support on this across the cluster.
*year 12s from EGA promoting reading in primary schools
*piloting peer marking in our working party schools
* EYFS forum meeting focussing on creating opportunities for writing
In addition our Heads and Senior leaders will be holding their regular termly meetings and carrying out learning walks in each other’s schools.

Looking forward to giving updates on all these activities in the weeks to come.

No Cost Low Cost 16th & 17th Dec.docx

Yesterday children from Christ Church SW9 and St John’s Angell Town began recording the songs they have written, with workshop leaders Myrtala and Charles Thomas. St John’s hall became the children’s recording studio for the day. We look forward to hearing the finished CDs in a few weeks time!

In the fading light yesterday evening, representatives from our EYFS teams met at St John Divine Primary to discuss outdoor activities and facilities in our schools. St John’s have been doing a lot of development in their outdoor space which now boasts a mud kitchen, sand pit, water play and lots of sheds for storing activity resources including art materials, dressing up clothes and books. The group discussed the merits of children self selecting activities and how it encouraged them to take ownership of their spaces. Often a few key children lead others into activities. Hill Mead have been looking at the book Diggersaurs which has inspired lots of digging activities outdoors. Loughborough take a CD player outside and children can put on CDs and dance. Some of our schools took part in a programme of active maths last year which included putting together a maths challenge obstacle course outside for the children. Next term our forum will focus on writing activities for Nursery and Reception followed by some Reception moderation across the cluster in term 4. Many thanks to everyone who attended and to St John’s for hosting.

Its been another busy week with BLC schools working together. On Monday Christ Church and St John’s did more songwriting as part of their 5 week long project with Myrtala and Charlie Thomas. Next week they will start recording their own songs.On Tuesday and Wednesday 56 children attended workshops at the Houses of Parliament. These excellent workshops are a regular part of our calendar now and the children got to watch some debating in the House of Commons as part of their tour (just before PM’s questions!). On Wednesday year 5 from Jessop did their final performances of their hip hop and reggae inspired operas that they have been writing all term with Pegasus Opera, inspired by the Black Sound Black British Music exhibition at the BCA in Brixton. The children excelled themselves with fantastic performances of their work to an audience of parents. They were joined at Jessop by classes from Holy Trinity Primary in our neighbouring cluster Windmill. This was part of a project generously funded by Ernest Cook Trust.

Just 10 days to go until year 5s from Jessop Primary perform their mini operas in reggae and hiphop style to parents and peers next week. The children have been devising their operas under the guidance of David Lavale working for Pegasus Opera. The project has unearthed some amazing talent in the classes as the children have written, composed and rehearsed their pieces. This exciting project has been supported by Ernest Cook Trust and is a partnership between Pegasus Opera, Black Cultural Archives, Brixton Learning Collaborative and Windmill cluster schools.