It is pleasing to see school outings return at last. Year 5 & Year 6 enjoyed a visit to Leicester this week to enhance their learning and understanding about Richard III. Fraser, Jack and Freddie have shown courage this week leaving home, to join a group of children from all over the world at a football camp in Madrid and Henry enjoyed a hockey camp over the Easter holiday.
Not every child can take every opportunity, but enriching outings do strengthen a child's understanding of the world around them, improve their skills and can increase their understanding of different cultures and their beliefs and values.
After the pandemic we want our children to regain their confidence and independence and support their personal development in every way we can. Later in the term some of our juniors will be away on a Residential activity holiday and we are very grateful to all colleagues, willing to take responsibility and care for the children when away from home.
This week classes 5 and 6 had the opportunity to go to the Richard III centre in Leicester. The museum showcases the life of King Richard III and the story of how his remains were discovered in 2012. The children had a chance to look around the exhibit before becoming detectives and learning how Richard III's skeleton was proven to be his through the use of DNA, with the children getting to extract DNA from a banana (which shares roughly 50% of the same DNA as a human!). The children also had a chance to see the land where his body was discovered along with the story that ultimately led to Richard's death on the battlefield of Bosworth in 1485.
The children also had a chance to visit Leicester Guildhall, the oldest building still in use in the city. It was Leicester’s first police station between 1876 and the 1900’s and saw many unsavoury characters pass through its doors. The Great Hall itself was built in about 1390!
The children must be commended for their exemplary behaviour and attitude on what was a fantastic, enjoyable day!
It was lovely to see the amount of pupils awarded 'Highly Commended' in the Art Exhibition - so many we struggled to fit them all in the photograph!
The 'Highly Commended' awards were given to pupils who achieved something just a bit special in their art work - and as Mrs.Korcz mentioned, it was very hard to choose, as the response from all pupils this year was fantastic.
The 'First Place' awards were given to pupils who we felt had the best work in their year group - so as well as a certificate, pupils were awarded with an 'arty' gift, which we hope will be enjoyed and encourage further excellence.
Our 'Best in Show' award was given to Katherine - and she obviously has a super talent in art and design, as her artwork was also chosen to decorate the front of the Friends of Grantham Prep recipe book.
Another budding artist from the infants, Sybil, had her lovely illustration of a watermelon chosen for the back cover, as well as receiving her prize for 'First Place' in her year group.
Well done everyone, we have the ISA art competition to look forward to next!
On Wednesday 27th April we started the Cricket season, with the U8's and U9's playing against St Hughs. Unfortunately, the weather was not reflective of a warm summers day, however despite the cold, both teams batted, bowled and fielded well and St Hugh's provided a very equal opposition to both teams.
This week class 6 have started their new topic on medicine through time. The children began by looking at treatments and health during the prehistoric time period. The children were keen to learn and asked very inquisitive questions to further their own understanding. The children took part in a variety of different role playing scenarios playing the patient and doctor.
Daniel and Gabriel in the pictures are showing how a patient with violent headaches would have been potentially treated during this time period. The children had a good giggle finding out that first of all the patient would be chanted to sleep. Then the medicine man would rub armpit sweat onto the patient's head followed by sucking out the bad spirits. Finally the medicine man would hit the patient on the head with a rock thus curing the patient. Well done class 6!
The class have had an exciting first couple of weeks back at school, including a surprise visit by Mya. We have continued our work on Imperial measures in Maths, this time turning our attention to pounds, ounces and stones. We have worked on some Money problems too, and have just started some data collection to work on graphs, charts and tables. In English, we have reached the critical point in our book, 'Holes', where we will now work on an extended piece of creative writing, linked to the characters in the story, and considering what might happen to them next.
We are really looking forward to our trip to Leicester too; and Fraser is off on his travels to Real Madrid.
Class 3 and 4 were set the seemingly impossible task of making one small A5 piece of paper 'fit' over their whole body, by just cutting or folding. No glue, sellotape or anything else was allowed.
After much pondering and head scratching, a few failed attempts, we had success!
As Eva and Emily discovered, cutting the paper into thin strips, and carefully folding them together worked (if they were very careful!)
However, there is a solution, which when shown, allows the one piece of paper (not separate strips) to go completely around the body. Jack and Henrietta demonstrated this well, then experimented with A4 paper and different cut widths.
A good lesson, with even better tidying up at the end! Well done everyone!
Time has been our focus over the last week in Maths. The children have been telling and writing the time from an analogue and a digital clock to the nearest minute. They have also looked at using Roman numerals from I to XII, and 12-hour and 24-hour clocks.
In Geography Class 3 have been using their atlas skills to locate and label counties around the UK. They have also used the 8 point compass to give directions from county to county.
During science this week we enjoyed starting a new topic. We have been thinking about what plants need to stay healthy. We have started an experiment to establish what plants need in order to grow strong and healthy. Over the coming weeks we will observe how our plants are growing. I wonder if our predictions will be correct?
This week, Class One have been working hard in all subjects. In Literacy, the children have been sentence building and carefully placing full stops, capital letters and commas in the correct place. In Numeracy, there have been a cornucopia of concepts to keep everyone busy! Column addition, digital time and making the correct money totals to be the first team to collect 5 points to name just a few. The purple team duo - Emmeline and Isla were our winners with the other teams taking them to the wire! In PSHE, everyone has enjoyed playing traditional games; taking turns fairly in activities to learn great gamesmanship. Excellent work and lots of fun have been on display throughout the week, as always. Very well done.
What an Action Packed First Week Back in Reception
In Reception it was great to have all the children back after the Easter holidays. We started off the week talking about and sharing our holiday news. The children were also very keen to show their holiday project which was about minibeast habitats. They had spent lots of time making some amazing homes for all the little creatures. It was lovely to hear the children describe in detail how they had made it and what natural and man-made material they had used. They were really excited to share these habitats with the adults and could answer all the questions that they were asked. Well done everyone!
In Art the children enjoyed some creative work in the afternoons with the focus on symmetry linked to the life cycle of the butterfly. The children had a go at painting one side of a butterfly and then had to paint the other side exactly the same. The results were very impressive. This showed beautifully how symmetry worked. Great work Reception!
Well done everyone another fabulous week of learning.
It was lovely to welcome everyone back to Pre-school and Nursery and to hear all the holiday news and everything the children have been doing.
Our topic this term is ‘Habitats’ and in Pre-school we are focusing on beaches and Oceans, in particular keeping our beaches clean and free from plastic. Part of the children’s holiday project was to bring in items of plastic in order to help bring our classroom display, based on keeping our beaches clean, ‘alive’. We are learning that ‘plastic is NOT fantastic’!
We have been learning that half of the plastic we produce is designed to be used once and then thrown away! Approximately 800 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean. As it can take plastic 400 years to break down, the ocean can be a dangerous habitat for sea life. Hopefully Pre-school’s little environmentalists of the future will help protect our oceans and beaches in years to come.
Based on the ‘oceanic’ theme, this term, the role play’ theme is based on the Titanic story. The girls have loved dressing up in their ‘evening’ clothes and walking the decks whilst the ship sails across the Atlantic. Some of the boys are enjoying being the ship’s chef and making delicious plates of food to serve to the passengers. I’m hoping that this term’s journey, in Pre-school is a smooth crossing!
During the holidays Henry took part in a 2 day MT13 hockey camp at Repton run by Matt Taylor, founder of MT13 hockey coaching and ex England International.
It was a very full on 2 days and the children were definitely worked hard. Henry absolutely loved it and was particularly excited about Matt teaching him to chip!
SEK-IES INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTION – REAL MADRID FOUNDATION
The SEK-IES International Institution offers its students not only academic excellence, but also different sports and cultural programmes as a complement to their training.
For the second consecutive year, and thanks to the important sports agreement signed with the Real Madrid Foundation, the Schools of the SEK-IES International Institution participate in football clinics in the "Real Madrid City".
During this week, more than 130 students from all over the world are carrying out a complete programme of soccer activities, elite training sessions and competitions, hand in hand with high-level coaches and one of the best soccer teams in the world.
In addition, our students have had the opportunity to meet the former goalkeeper of Real Madrid and the Spanish Soccer Team, Iker Casillas.
A unique experience, in which our students are sharing their passion for sport with other students from the member schools of the SEK International Institution; bonds of friendship forged under the same ideology, values and common goals.
Bookings for this week:
Please contact the school office to book a place for your child.
8.05am Honnington
8.10am Barkston
8.20am Ancaster Playing Field
8.25am Ancaster Leisure Car Park (The Tank)
On Fridays the bus will run 15 minutes earlier to ensure pupils arrive in time for School Band.
The school bus mobile:
07784 343749
Access to the School Building after 4.30pm
As you are all aware there is now a gate which has a key code access to the Creche in the evening. If you do not have the code, please call 01476 593293 and your call will be answered by Creche.
