There’s a chance to see some of the wonderful work of children from Hill Mead Primary school’s Fine Art club, currently on display at Pop Brixton. The children’s work is of exceptional quality, guided by Fiona Reid, Senior Teacher at the school.
Fun, creativity, learning, sharing, acting: this week the Reception class children at Jessop went on a hunt for hidden objects and props to talk about and photograph as part of their project using photography to support their learning particularly in literacy. The children will use their objects, role plays, emotion images and props, into a variety of settings next week to weave together stories through images.
More activities for families in and around our area this weekend.
This week the 2 Reception classes at Jessop Primary School began their 4 week project with Fotosynthesis, the photography experts, to explore how they can create stories through images and photography. The children learnt lots of techniques: framing, close ups, understanding when to use landscape or portrait. They based a role play on a single photo they were given and took a series of images to display the action and emotions from the image. After lots of discussion and great team work the children sat down and wrote key words from their stories, ideas and thoughts – lots of writing going on after a varied and stimulating session. Next week there will be more story development and use of cameras in the classroom.
Last night several BLC year 5 and 6 teachers got together to work with Steph King from AK Mathematical Solutions on Maths Problem Solving and Fluency. Steph took the group through a series of examples and activities to show how to develop children’s skills in problem solving and reasoning: asking the question – ‘what can’t the answer be’ was a useful way to work through some of the problems and to encourage children to explain their reasoning:’ it can’t be x because….’. Steph recommends the use of resources such as Cuisenaire Rods and Numicon tiles right through to KS2, so children can experiment with problems and visualise answers. Teachers commented on how they would use more questioning in their maths lessons, asking children to write a problem for a calculation and encourage more talking through word problems. Everyone felt it was a really useful session.
Today 44 children from years 3 and 4 across the cluster have come together to to explore the Science and Maths that went into making Southwark Cathedral and use some of the techniques that the master masons used when the first cathedral was built on the site in Medieval times. In the morning, Maths was the focus, as children made their own clinometers to measure angles and elevation. They estimated the height of the building, which they checked by sending a balloon on a string to the ceiling, then measuring the string length with a trundle wheel. The children also demonstrated their skills in using a set square and a pair of compasses.
Reception teachers from St John’s Angell Town and Jessop along with colleagues from the Windmill cluster got together to participate in activities and prepare for their workshops with Fotosythesis, starting after half term. The project has been put together to support literacy and learning for Reception classes, using Photography as a tool and an inspiration. Teachers put together photo stories and took photos of thoughts and feelings they ‘staged’. The children will get a chance to learn technical language and to use photographs and images to tell their own stories. There will also be Family Learning opportunities during the programme.
This week the BLC Early Years Forum were delighted to welcome Clare Bradley, formerly EYFS Advisor for Lambeth and now Deputy at Effra Early Years Centre and part of our cluster. Clare gave an excellent presentation and facilitated discussion on the teaching of reading from Nursery through to Reception. The Forum agreed that using a good core book was a great way to immerse the children in reading, stories and to link to all sorts of other activities for learning – enjoyable for both the children and the teachers. Imaginative ways to get children to discuss setting and characters were really worth developing. Clare also recommended encouraging reading by developing children’s knowledge of those familiar signs and words they know: their own name, Tescos signs, the Frozen logo and the like! Favourite core book titles from our forum included: A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton, Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom, The Stick Man and The Gruffolo, Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, The Bog Baby by Jean Ellis and Gwen Millward and The Dark by Lemony Snicket to name but a few.
The Brixton Learning Collaborative 