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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.

Please find attached listing of activities for families this weekend including the annual Lord Mayor’s parade in the City of London.

8. Low Cost No Cost 11th & 12th Nov 17.docx

Today our songwriting project has started up again with 2 new groups of children from Christ Church Primary SW9 and St John’s Angell Town Primary. Thanks goes to St John’s for hosting the project in their school. Over the next 5 weeks children will write and record their own lyrics and music – we look forward to hearing their CDs at the end! This project is generously funded by the Walcot Foundation.

lots of activities to enjoy in London this weekend.

Low Cost No Cost 4-5th Oct ’17.pdf

This week 8 of our schools met for a very informative session led by London CLC tutor Christian Turton, guiding us through a range of apps, software and preparing children for the Computing curriculum. The CLC produce a useful EYFS ‘Get Programming’ guide on their website with ideas to get children started in Reception, ready for KS1 (www.londonclc.org.uk/help-sheets). Christian took us on a tour of apps such as Book Creator, Puppet Pals, Build and Play and Scratch Jnr. He also showed staff the range of ways you can use an ipad to support young children’s learning including using 3D maps, making stories and soundtracks and voice dictation and we explored AR apps such as The Hungry Caterpillar, Quiver which brings children’s colouring to life and Nearpod which brings the world into the classroom. Thanks to all who attended and to London CLC for all their support.