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May 2014 community edition final

The learning opportunities within the BLC go well beyond school age, with many settings offering Family Learning courses for parents and carers giving skills to support their children and develop their own learning. Since September courses have included Helping your child with Maths and Reading, Family Animation, Kitchen Maths, an ICT course Portals for Parents and Developing skills for working with Children. Our schools welcome parents’ suggestions of courses they would like to do either as adult learners or as a Family Learning course.

We are very lucky to have a fantastic resource on our doorstep, tucked under the railway arches near Loughborough Junction by the Loughborough Estate – Ebony Horse Club. Children from our schools have had the opportunity to do taster lessons there through a funded scheme and 12 children from St John’s Angell Town Primary and Jessop Primary are just about to start a course of 10 half hour lessons to develop their skills, part funded by Peter Minet Trust with additional financial support from our schools. We hope the children enjoy a great term’s riding and make the most of this opportunity.

Ode to blank paper

Year 7 group poem

Oh blank paper!

You desert of whiteness, you warden that keeps words boxed in four corners.

You make me feel full of ideas but empty with words.

You are a blinding light blocking me from seeing my full ability.

Oh bank paper!

You make my pen write me into a knot I can’t untangle.

You are a maze with no way out.

Once you were a tree that didn’t want to be chopped down

So now you paper cut my every thought into nothing.

Staring at you is like banging my head against a wall.

Oh blank paper!

White as the clouds, you stare at me blankly, you leave me wondering.

You tell me to draw, to do something! You inspire a big knot in my gut.

You make me feel dumb because your blankness is a test I never pass.

My mind wanders for answers but your whiteness is a desert I am lost in.

You look at me with a hungry face and swallow my words, I am full of ideas but empty of sentences.

Hundreds of words run around my head but I can’t catch them to put into your mouth. Everyone in class can fill you up but I write and what I mean gets rubbed back off.

Oh blank paper!

You make me feel full of ideas but empty with words.

I’M MADE OF

I’m made of beautiful clothes that shimmer like clean glass. I am made of colours that wrap around me like a warm, cuddly scarf.
Blue, red, orange and green reminds me of a rainbow that crosses me to a magical land.

I am made of the time when I wore my mum’s clothes instead of wearing my clothes, and got into trouble. I am made of laughter and giggles and my family and friends.

What makes me me me? My sister makes me me, with her kind nice heart. She is always there for me.
What makes me me? My sister makes me me, with her… and her… she is always there for me.
What makes me me me? My sister makes me me, with her Converse and her Vans that she got for me.

We are made of friendship that helps us to create a big family.

I’m made of helping my teacher to be respectful.
I’m made of shining like the sun to make people happy.
I’m made of keeping secrets to be loyal.
I’m made of being loyal and respectful to my friends no matter what, For I will do anything for my friends.

I am made of Nigeria.
Nigeria is awesome because it’s sunny.
I get to see my family,
But I most like, no I LOVE,
Nigeria’s awesome food like eba, fufu, fried rice, ayamase and egusi soup.

I’m made of rhythm and drumbeat
Smiling twisting turning happily
Getting together, having celebrations,
Birthdays, weddings and any excuse
We jig and jingle and jangle to music.

We are made of different cultures coming together. However,

I feel that my friendship might fall apart.
I am made of angry energy building up like a volcano exploding in my belly.
I worry that all the arguments with my family might come together in my SATs and make me fail.

I have a side of me that can change any second of any day.
I am made of my heart, a rhythmic drum, always keeping to the beat. I am talkative, but I have a hidden side.
I am a small enigma. No one knows who I really am.

WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF?

Here’s St John’s Angell Town Primary’s poem from the BLC Poetry Slam, that got them a place in the final 4 in the competition. A great performance St John’s!

Gossip Demon Gossip

Gossip works with truth and lies
Gossip works like a train spinning round and round
Gossip works Monday to Sunday
Did you know Gossip works at Primark
Gossip works at supermarkets
Gossip works at all corner shops
Gossip sneaks around behind your backs.

Chorus
Gossip demon gossip
Always spreading gossip
Spreading in the wind
Spreading in the playground
Spiky like a porcupine
Laughing like hyenas
Repeating like a parrot
Story eater
Nosey talker
Gossip demon gossip

In PE he said “I’m not good at tumble turns”
It made me angry, it made me sad
But my friend said “I am super sensational”

My Uncle said “Auntie’s no good at looking after the kids”
“But it’s not true. She buys us vegetables and fruit.”

My Auntie says she has lots of money and I have none
But she doesn’t know about the £50 in my Kids Space pencil case!

Chorus
Gossip is like butter melting on toast
Gossip is patrolling the streets like teenage boys on bikes
Gossip is a door that you can’t open
Gossip stomping around like a ginormous elephant
Gossip is like a mad monkey jumping tree to tree
Gossip zooms as fast as a meteor

Chorus
What goes around comes around
Trust yourself to ignore it
Stop your gossip
Gossip is terrible
DON’T plant ideas in people’s heads
STOP! And your friends will follow

After 10 weeks of writing, editing and rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal this week saw the BLC Poetry Slam competition day arrive and our 10 school teams gathered at The Ritzy cinema in screen 1 on Tuesday morning. A fantastic atmosphere from the start as our poetry workshop leaders Adisa, Joshua Seigal, Neal Zetter and Kat Francois introduced and entertained us with an inspiring morning of poetry. Their poems were good, of course, but the real stars were the 10 teams of children who’s standard of work was extraordinary. The children not only showed their writing talents, but every child performed with confidence and demonstrated teamwork at its best. St Saviour’s CE Primary wrote and performed the winning poem and went home with shining medals around their necks – well done St Saviours. However, every child performing was a winner on Tuesday morning. Huge thanks goes to our judging panel of established theatre and poetry writers and performers Joe Coehloe, Dan Cockrill and Linda Miller and to all the school staff who have worked on the project all term, nurturing the children’s talents. Look out for the poems on subsequent blog posts!

In this week’s Maths and Photography session Y4 pupils were using digital photography to find shapes and letters in their environment.

In Loughborough Primary School pupils worked in pairs to find letters which spelt out the following 3 words: Think
Try
Friend

The letter I for example was found in a pole or a drain pipe or markings in playground.
The pupils were challenged to find multiple ways to see or create the same letter.
There was enthusiasm and excitement for this activity and some groups even managed to find up to 15 examples for the letter N.

Afterwards the pupils continued to work in pairs to work on a mathematical photography treasure hunt which included tasks such as taking a picture of: – 2 objects that measure roughly the same length
– Something with a symmetrical pattern
– something the same length as your arm
– a polygon
– a geometrical shape with at least one obtuse angle

And problem solving such as:
The tallest person ever was 272cm tall. How much taller than you is this? Show to your partner this length and take a picture of something that is shorter.

Learning outside of the classroom with a fun and imaginative approach.

here’s a taste of the Eliot Now primary poetry project