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St John Divine report back on their trip to Houses of Parliament on 20th September

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On the 20th September I had the chance to go into the Houses of Parliament. Before my group and I entered, I learnt that old name for the Houses of Parliament is the Palace of Westminster. I really enjoyed the tour by Mathew, I was especially delighted to discover the room which was decorated in exactly the same way it was before Parliament was bombed during WW1. The Houses of Lords was very inspiring as only experts were allowed to be a part of it. In the House of Commons we went into the ‘No’ and ‘Aye’ lobby and the names made me chuckle. It was an exciting trip and I learnt lots.

Haileigh – age 10

The other day I had the opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament. We went through the gate where the Queen would arrive but first we went through the airport-style security. Once we had gone through the gate with our tour guide Mathew, we went into the House of Lords. I admired the golden seat where the Queen would sit. We then went into the House of Commons which was a bit more dull, although still really impressive. Then we saw the pigeon holes for the MPs. Two were empty: Joe Cox’s (which was very sad) and David Cameron’s. I liked the fact that it was colour coded and one MP had his own colour because he was a one-man-party. Overall I thought the day was amazing!

Rebecca – aged 11

On Tuesday 20th September we went to the Houses of Parliament. It was really exciting. When we arrived and walked from the bus stop we saw other schools waiting there as well. We were separated into two groups for the tour and our tour guide was called Mathew. We were shown around the House of Lords first and we saw the Queens seat. Unfortunately we were not allowed to sit in it. Then we were shown a very interesting room. It was interesting because it was the only room that was built and decorated according to the original design. It had statues and pictures of old kings and queens. After we had seen the House of Commons as well we had a workshop. We made up our own laws and debated about how useful they were. It was a very interesting day!

Andy – aged 10

On Tuesday 20th September Andy, Rebecca, Haileigh and myself went to the Houses of Parliament. I was delighted when I received the letter for the outing!

Outside the entrance we greeted by our tour guide, Mathew. Our group were shown through the Norman Porch which had a lot of paintings of old kings and queens. We were then shown to the House of Lords which had lots of gold in it, especially the Queen’s seat. Next we were shown the House of Commons and we saw Mr Speaker’s seat. The whole room was very green and we even saw the front desks where all the most important politicians stand. It was really fun and memorable day.

Emy – aged 10

Moderation, Teacher Share

BLC steering group meeting – moderation and peer to peer learning

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Last Thursday our steering group (Senior leaders from our 13 schools) met to discuss and plan their work together for the coming weeks. Maths and Science leads will be meeting to work together on looking at best examples of Using and Applying in Maths and evidencing progress in Science. There will be writing moderations after Christmas for Year 1 through to Year 6, with schools taking it in turns to host. Our secondaries and primaries are setting up visits to our Nurseries to support reading and IT and we hope to restart our Year 12 to primary reading programme with Evelyn Grace Academy 6th form soon. In the Spring we shall be doing a Science project involving More Able pupils from St Gabriel’s working with primary pupils on investigations, using the secondary school facilities, leading to a cluster Science Fair. As always it is the expertise and enthusiasm of our great group of teachers that makes this work possible.

Able and Talented Blog

Report from Houses of Parliament by Amyah and Lucas, year 5 St John’s Angell Town

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We had a fabulous time visiting the House of Commons and then the House of Lords. It was our first ever visit to Westminster. We found out some really interesting facts, here are a few of them:
The Queen is not allowed to enter the House of Commons (the Green Room).

The Queen’s throne in the House of Lords is actually made out of wood ( but painted with gold paint).

On or around the anniversary of the gun powder plot, the cellars down below the parliament building are checked.

We learnt how and where MPs vote.

It was an excellent day and we enjoyed working with other schools.

Able and Talented Blog, Uncategorized

Amelie, Beau and Gesse from St Saviour’s report back on Houses of Parliament visit

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On Tuesday seven of us went to the Houses of Parliament. We had to leave school quite early, so that we could catch the tube. Then eventually when we got there a woman called Stella gave us a tour of the Houses of Parliament. We looked around the House of Commons, also known as the ‘Green Room’. Then we visited the House of Lords also known as the ‘Red Room’. We also learnt that the Queen is not allowed in the Houses of Commons because King Charles the first did not like what was going on so he barged in and wanted to arrest a lot of the Mps and then the civil war started. The king lost and then he got his head cut off. So now they do not let the king or queen in the House of Commons.

After that we had a session learning about how laws are made in parliament with the other children. We sat as the government and some of the other children sat opposite us as the opposition. We decided to debate whether children should be able to bring in their own technology to help with their learning. The debate was run like question time and when we wanted to speak we had to stand up and look at the speaker and he would point at us then we would say what we wanted to say. Once you had said what you wanted to say you then sit down. If Mp’s agree they say, “Hear Hear!” And if they didn’t agree they would go “mumble mumble.” In the end we had a vote on the technology debate and if it was in real life it would have been sent to the House of Lords and then to the monarch and the queen would sign the bill with a yes. We really enjoyed the visit.