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This term Reception children in 4 schools across the BLC have been participating in the new Active Learners in Numeracy project, exploring movement-oriented approaches towards learning in maths.

Active Learners in Numeracy is a project funded by SHINE, a charity which promotes innovation in education. A grant was awarded to a group of teachers involved in the Brixton Learning Collaborative to integrate numeracy and physical activity. Four schools took part: St John’s Angell Town, Archbishop Sumner, St John’s Divine and Loughborough Primary School.

Active Learners in Numeracy aims to promote physical development by incorporating occupational therapy exercises within stories, songs and movement. The exercises help children develop balance, core-strength, posture and coordination which all help with academic learning. Parents and carers might recognise songs such as “Tiny Tim” and “The little green frog” as some parents have told us that the children have been singing them at home!

The children also learn maths in active ways through outdoor obstacle courses. First the whole class is introduced to a mathematical problem through a story about two birds- Crackity Jack and Cheep Cheep. Crackity Jack and Cheep Cheep always need some help- for example they need towers of 10 to build a new school, or need the children to halve the amounts of fruit they have so they each get the same. Children work in pairs to make their way through an imaginary jungle in order to get to the ‘communication station’ at the end where they complete this challenge for their feathered friends.

Along the way they meet various mathematical challenges and physical challenges, requiring the children to use a range of big and small movements to practice their number skills. For instance they have been rolling giant dice and counting out corresponding treasure with tweezers. This helps children to practice their throwing, recognizing an amount on a dice, counting to match a given number and developing fine motor control. The core learning tool of a ten square is drawn on the playground in chalk and becomes an imaginary broken bridge which the children have to cross. Children have to make sure there are 10 bean bags altogether to plug all of the holes in the broken bridge. This helps children to develop their understanding of number bonds to 10 as well as hand-eye coordination, spacial awareness and visual processing.

Active Learners in Numeracy have been studying the research on early childhood mathematical development which suggests that young children learn best using real physical objects. It also highlights the importance of children being able to visualise amounts, known as ‘subitizing’, for example, dots on a dice. Another important aspect of early numeracy is understanding the relationship between numbers. For example knowing that 8 and 2 makes 10 and 7 and 3 also makes 10.

The children have done brilliantly and have really enjoyed doing their maths outside. Over the course of the term we have seen the children develop their mathematical thinking. Most of the children can know instantly recognize the spots on the dice and have become more confident in their numeracy. They have also done really well in their partner work, making sure they take turns and wait for their partner.

Well done to all the Reception children for trying their best and joining in. Thank you to all the teachers for their wonderful ideas and collaborating with us on this project and Jenny Smith from the BLC for supporting us. Thank you to all the parents who came along to the open mornings. We really value your participation and your feedback. Finally, thank you to SHINE Trust for funding and supporting the project.

Science Leads for a training session with Dr Sara Bubb and Dr Andy Markwick yesterday afternoon. The focus was supporting primary children in working scientifically – what should this look like across KS1 and KS2? Sara and Andy have worked with primary schools and their staff across the country helping them to deliver a strong, exciting Science curriculum. Staff commented some headlines on what they would take back to school: ‘making Science more quantitive and linking it to Maths and other curriculum subjects’; ‘bringing Science outside’ . Sara also suggested children using Science books as group reading texts. It was good to welcome teachers from our neighbouring clusters, Windmill and Oval to the session.

This morning, year 5s from Loughborough and Christ Church SW9 primaries were evaluating their experiments, guided by year 9 mentors from St Gabriel’s College, as part of the 4 week programme they have been following leading to a Science Fair next month.The children had decided themselves what experiments they wanted to do and a wide range of work has been tackled: from ‘How much PVA glue effects the consistency of slime’, to How do different types of pollution effect the Arctic’ .and Which length of wind turbines produce the most electricity?’
It was great to see the year 9s leading the younger students and all pupils able to explain their method and conclusions.
Next week a new group of year 5s will start the process and all the children will come together for their Science Fair on 16th March.
Huge thanks to the Science department staff at St Gabriel’s for organising this brilliant project.

Yesterday, children from our school councils got together to discuss how to tackle some of the issues they care about for London. They were supported by the team from Free the Children. The children first heard about how Free the Children came about: how a 12 year old in Canada,Craig Kielberger, happened to read about a young Pakastani boy, Iqbal Masih, a former child factory worker who escaped his employer and spoke out against child labour. Iqbal was murdered for speaking out. Craig went into school and told his class about Iqbal and started campaigning to stop child labour. Craig’s movement is now a worldwide social action group, showing children how they can make a difference. Our children worked in mixed school groups to put together SMART plans they could carry out, to make a difference in topics they cared about:
to end homelessness: pupils pay a contribution to take part in a weekend sleepover in school to support a charity that is helping the homeless: classrooms are themed and decorated, there are fun activities for children to take part in and the children invite someone from a homeless charity to join them and tell them about how their action will help.
to help people with cancer: a sports day where schools come together across Lambeth and parents pay to attend the event to support a Cancer Charity. The event would take place in a Lambeth park.
to promote anti-racism: schools set up art workshops where they make anti-Racism t-shirts. They contact a t-shirt maker to ask for t-shirt donations. Children also write poetry about anti-racism that is performed at school assemblies.
to support the homeless: children hold cake sales and make posters in school that can be printed up and displayed around Brixton.
It was inspiring to see children working together to bring about change, and to be able to put together SMART action plans to support their aims.

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Children at Hill Mead Primary School have been working with workshop leaders from Pegasus Opera to write their own music theatre piece on the life of Nelson Mandela. The workshops are full of activities – singing (not shouting!), physical warm-ups, lyric writing, creating melodies and lots of team work. The children have a wealth of knowledge about Nelson Mandela and their piece will be in 2 sections, from boyhood to prison, from freedom to presidency and the legacy left to the world. Final performances will be on Friday 10th February, when they will share the platform with Richard Atkins’ Primary who are working on the life of another Black Hero: Ouladah Equiano.

As this term draws to a close, we look forward to a busy New Year for our cluster of schools. Hill Mead Primary will be working with Pegasus Opera on a project to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela and classes from Stockwell and St John Divine Primaries will be learning Maths through Photography with Fotosynthesis. Reception classes across the cluster will embark on programme of Maths learning movement.
Loughborough, St John Divine, Christ Church SW9 and Archbishop Sumner Primaries will be planning and working up Science investigations with St Gabriel’s College staff and students to present at a Science Fair in March.
We shall be holding writing moderations for year 1 through to year 6, with secondary teachers attending the upper key stage 2 meetings, as well as Science INSET, EYFS forum and SEND forum meetings.
Towards the end of January our School Councils will come together to work with the team of facilitators from the WE day team, and attend their big event in Wembley Arena in March.
As always our Heads and Senior Management groups will be meeting and shaping the future of our work together.
Looking forward to a very production 2017 for Brixton Learning Collaborative.

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Last night our EYFS forum met to hear and discuss a new project that Reception teachers from St John’s Angell Town and Steiner teacher Kevin Campbell Davidson have successfully bid for funding to develop and roll out to Brixton Learning Collaborative Reception classes who would like to participate. The project was devised after the teachers looked into evidence of links between neuro-motor development and the necesssary capabilities for academic learning as children go through school. There is strong research evidence that shows that physical development is important for all areas of learning. In addition the team felt concerned about the long periods they were asking children to sit on the carpet to learn and the increasingly long periods children spend doing sedentary activities. The team decided to focus on how Maths could be supported through Physical activity as there is evidence that children can develop many mathematical skills early to the benefit of their long-term learning. The programme on offer consists of a 10 minute song based warm-up of physical activities that teachers can lead indoors, and an obstacle course outdoors for children involving number work. The teachers have piloted the programme at St John’s Angell Town. We look forward to seeing how the programme develops in our schools over the coming months. Thanks to SHINE Trust, Goldsmiths’ College, Greenwich Steiner School and St John’s Angell Town Primary for their partnership in the project.