Focus Weeks
As part of our rich and varied curriculum we hold termly focus weeks, during which the whole school comes off time-table to take part in planned activities linked to a common text…Take One Book! The focus week is led by a staff team, made up of different subject leaders:
- Creative Team – Art & Design, Music, PE and English
- STEM Team – Science, Design Technology, English, Maths and Computing
- Discovery Team – History, Geography, RE, PSHCE and English
Examples of our focus week activities
STEM Focus Week
As part of our STEM Focus Week activities, each year group has been asked to report on a day for the school newsletter and website. Below are the children’s thoughts and words about their Focus Week.
Year 2
STEM focus week was kicked off by an exciting maths quiz. We all split into our year groups and nominated one person per team to answer some maths questions. When we got to the hall, it was set up like a real quiz with noisy buzzers! Some of the questions were quite tricky but we managed to answer all of them. Gade team won because they were super quick at answering the questions and didn’t hesitate once they had pressed the buzzer.
“I enjoyed answering the questions because I liked the challenge.” (Fariah)
“I loved watched to see who got the most points, it was really exciting!” (Dylan)
“I wasn’t the nominated person but I enjoyed answering the questions in my head whilst being an audience member!” (Alfred)
After taking part in the exciting maths quiz, it was time to go back to our classrooms where we read the focus story ‘The Nowhere box’. Once we were familiar with the story, it was time to design our own ‘Nowhere box’. We worked in teams to come up with a design.
“I enjoyed designing the different features, like the draw bridge.” (Sacha)
“I enjoyed reviewing our designs and seeing if we could make them better.” (Ingrid)
What a great first day we have had! We can’t wait to actually MAKE our Nowhere boxes!
Nursery
We enjoyed hearing our STEM focus week story of ‘The Nowhere Box’ and have started creating our own nowhere boxes. So far we have a train, a rocket and a ‘frog in a box’!
Reception
We are having a very busy week…yesterday The Canal and River Trust visited our school to talk to us about different ways to stay safe around canals and rivers and how to look after our local environment.
“We learnt in the hall with our visitor about the canals” (James)
“We learnt not to go near the canal so that we don’t fall in” (Adam)
On Monday we designed our ‘Nowhere Boxes’, inspired by the story written by Sam Zappardi…Can you guess where they might take us?
Children in Owl class said…
“We loved designing and making the boxes, making it into a rocket, fridge and time machine.”
“We loved reading the book.”
After we finished our designs, we set about making our ‘Nowhere boxes’. We really enjoyed getting creative and working like Bee!
“I made a castle…with a floppy door.” (Freddie)
“I liked making my Nowhere Box. We made a hotel. We liked making the food.” (Jasmin)
“We liked measuring our boxes and ordering them from shortest to tallest.” (Owl Class)
“I liked making the nowhere box. I made a time machine. I used CDs because it looked like a rainbow on the back.” (Israa)
“I liked making the nowhere box. I made a car. The car goes to Nowhere.” (Kiyaan)
“My favourite part was making the nowhere box. It was a castle rocket. I used foil and tape to make it.” (Bhargav)
As part of British Science Week, we have been using our scientific skills to try & work out what might be in the mystery box. We had to ask questions to work out what it could be!
“I liked when we all thought about what was in the box. We asked questions and then had to guess. It was a fox.” (Simi)
We have also been using our Maths skills…
“We liked measuring our boxes and ordering them from shortest to tallest.” (Owl Class)
Year 1
This week in Year 1 it was STEM focus week. We had a Maths Quiz and in it Chess Team won. My favourite question was “Is it a pentagon?”
We have been reading the story “The Nowhere Box” by Sam Zuppardi. It was a bit exciting because we were going to make our own Nowhere boxes. But we needed to know the story because it was the story of the focus week. We designed our Nowhere boxes to build. Mine was a rocket, ours was a flying car and mine was a castle with a balcony. The best part of making the boxes was putting string on it, decorating inside the box and putting the flag on one of the turrets.
The teachers took a video of us holding our Nowhere boxes in front of a green screen. We had to say what our box was and how we decorated it. It was fun!
We also went on a trip to Cassiobury Park and we made boats. We floated them on the River Gade. They were made out of cork, elastic bands and a thin lolly stick with some red foil. Did they sink or float? The all floated because they were light and made out of very light materials which were buoyant.
Today it is non-uniform day and I came as a garden (Poorani). I came as a dragon (Joe) and Kush is going to put out my fire if it gets out of control with fire everywhere! (Joe). I’m a rocket and it says so on my t-shirt (Senna).
The best bit of the week was when we made our Nowhere boxes, then lifted them into the hall and took the video.
Reporters:
- Poorani from Hedgehog class
- Senna from Kingfisher class
- Joe from Robin class
We rounded off our focus week with a visit from Parth and Simran’s dad who taught us about drones and their uses in a special assembly. We found out a drone can fly up to 400m high! The WHOLE SCHOOL then went outside to watch him fly the drone…the children were so excited and had a great morning.
Creative Focus Week
Our Creative Focus Week was planned around the text ‘The Great Fairy Tale Disaster’ by David Conway. All of the learning activities for the week were linked to English, Art, Music and PE. As part of our Creative Focus Week activities, each year group has been asked to report on a day for the school newsletter and website. Below are the children’s thoughts and words about their Focus Week…
Year 2
Once upon a time, three Year 2 classes started the day by taking part in a dance workshop with ViBeatz. Megan exclaimed that “It was amazing because we did different dance moves like the snake!” Tia thought “The dance was quite challenging because there were lots of steps, but it was really fun.”
Later that day, they read and acted out a variety of fairy tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, the Ginger Bread Man and the Three Little Pigs. They also explored the features of a fairy tale…do you know what the features of a fairy tale are? We will tell you! The first feature is that all fairy tales begin with ‘Once upon a time’.
That afternoon they carouseled around the different classrooms to take part in art activities. In each room they developed their art skills, such as painting and mark making. The end result was a fairy tale landscape complete with characters…and they all lived happily ever after!
Nursery
On Tuesday we went on a fairy tale adventure around the school. We ran round the running track looking for the Gingerbread Man!
Pupil Voice:
“The pumpkin turned into a carriage.” (Ayla)
“We built a tower for Rapunzel” (Jessie)
“We ran on the running track” (Jake)
“There was porridge in the forest!” (Seth)
Freddie, Abbie, Sanaya (Reception)
We had a great time in Reception today mixing, stirring and rolling our bear biscuit ingredients. We used a recipe to measure the ingredients we needed. We then rolled some of the mixture, chose a shape and then we cooked our bear biscuits. Freddie predicted that they would taste ‘sweet’. Abbie thought they will taste like, ‘chocolate and strawberry’ and Sanaya said they would look ‘crispy’.
Reception Pupil Voice:
“My favourite part was the dancing workshop because of the Big Bad Wolf music. I liked being a wolf.” (Haytham)
“I liked the dancing part and I want to dance when I’m bigger.” (Layla)
“I liked making the biscuits and I made a Big Bad Wolf biscuit.” (Rohan)
“I liked the music, especially the violin. Nina played the violin with her mummy.” (Libby)
“I liked writing the story because it’s really fun.” (Diya)
“I liked making the biscuits. I liked pushing the cutter in the biscuit.” (Daniel)
“My favourite part of today was cutting the biscuits.” (Freddie)
“I liked cutting out the biscuits and my mum playing the violin.” (Nina)
“I liked making the biscuits because I mixed it.” (Hannah)
Even the teachers had fun…
“I loved the dance workshop. Everyone was smiling and having fun.” (Mrs Russo)
“I loved Nina’s mum coming in to sing to us. She sang beautifully and she chose some of our favourite songs. She played the violin and recorder too. What a talented musician she is!” (Mrs Woodley)
Year 1
Once upon a time there were three Year 1 classes, Robin, Hedgehog and Kingfisher. On Thursday they finished off their mixed up fairy tales where they wrote about different characters and unusual problems. Next they watched David Latham, an artist, paint a picture. After that they sang their Year 1 song ‘We’re Rich!’ It was exciting and fun for Year 1.
And finally…
We finished off the week with a special Star of the Week Assembly, to celebrate the children’s learning, followed by a sing-song of fairy tale songs from each class. We also announced the winner of the #CassInfReading challenge – well done to Hedgehog class who earned a bag a Golden House Points!
Thank you to all of the parents and visitors that have supported our focus week and made it special for the children… we have had a great week. Here are some of the children’s favourite bits…
Jai enjoyed making a story wheel because “We got to create mixed up fairy tales.”
“I loved making the landscape because we used different techniques like watercolour, collage and mark marking.” (Ferdie)
“I liked doing the dance workshop because we learnt lots of different moves and it was fun!” (Megan)
Our School Council ran a bake-sale at the end of the week to raise funds for the school – it was VERY popular, raising £431.80! The money will be spent on resources for children in their classrooms.
Discovery Focus Week
Discovery Focus Week based all of our learning around two texts: ‘Ocean Meets Sky’ (The Fan Brothers) and ‘Maps’ (Aleksandra & Daniel Mizienski).
The Discovery Team was led by the subject leaders of: History, Geography, R.E, PSHCE and English. We started the week off with a launch assembly during which the children were read the story of ‘Ocean Meets Sky’, as well as finding out about all of the exciting tasks and activities planned for the week. Each class were given a different country to research during the Focus Week:
- Squirrel – Australia
- Owl – Thailand
- Rabbit – Sweden
- Woodpecker – Italy
- Hedgehog – Spain
- Kingfisher – New Zealand
- Robin – Denmark
- Badger – Brazil
- Fox – Germany
- Heron – China
Mastermind Quiz
At the end of the week the classes competed against each other in a Mastermind Quiz with questions based on the country that they had been learning about.
We got up to lots of interesting activities during Discovery Focus Week…
Pupil Voice:
Did you enjoy Discovery Focus Week?
“I enjoyed learning about Brazil and the capital city Brasilia.” (Neve)
“I liked finding out where landmarks were in Brazil.” (Maira)
“I liked it because I liked learning how to speak some Portuguese words.” (Alfie)
“I enjoyed the week because I learnt when Brazilian landmarks were started and completed.” (Lex)
“I liked it because I found out all about the famous landmark Christ the Redeemer.” (Mishika)
“I enjoyed learning about Germany and sharing my information on the Reichstag.” (Leonie)
“I enjoyed learning the words in German.” (Brooke)
“I liked looking on a map and locating different places in Germany.” (Amelia)
“I love doing the Rakau – I taught my mum!” (Florence)
“I liked making the ANZAC biscuits.” (Malaik)
“It was funny learning the haka and showing the parents.” (Harrison)
“I enjoyed learning about Thailand. I liked playing [the quiz] with everybody.” (Freddy)
“I liked learning about the Grand Palace in the capital Bangkok. It was built 1782.” (Daya)
“We enjoyed learning about Denmark and some Danish words from Ingrid’s mum who came in.” (Robins)
“I enjoyed making the longboat.” (Ibrahim)
“I liked learning about the Vikings.” (Ivan)
Bake Sale
At the end of the Discovery Focus Week we held an open-afternoon for parents to come in and look at our learning from throughout the week. We also had a bake sale, run by the School Council, where we sold food from around the world that each class had made during the focus week. The sale was very popular (and tasty!); we raised £343.80 which we are going to put towards Computing equipment for the children.
