Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC): Blog items
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 10:43am
It was fantastic to open our Reception classes up and invite parents in to see the wonderful work the children have been doing over this half term. The children enjoyed showing their adults around the classroom and involving them in lots of different activities including phonics and number. We had a record number of people attend which is absolutely amazing! Thank you for all you hard work in supporting your children's learning both at home and at school.
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 7:47am
Bracken class have been lucky enough to have samba lessons this half term. We have been learning about a variety of instruments and learning to play in time with each other.
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 7:21am
Yesterday, Year Two enjoyed using the Now Press Play equipment to explore different habitats and the animals that live there especially thinking carefully about how these animals are adapted to survive in their natural habitat. We pretended we were aliens in a spaceship that crash landed on planet Earth and had to find a suitable habitat for the aliens to come and live. Whilst we were unsuccessful finding somewhere for the aliens to live we did manage to explore a variety of habitats which we have been learning about in Science. Firstly, we took a swim in the ocean and had to morph into sharks to survive with gills and fins. Next, we went to an incredibly cold place called Antarctica where we had to grow feathers and huddle together like penguins to keep oursevles warm. Then, we left Antarctica and found a jungle surrounded by tall trees and monkey's who we swung around with for a while before taking a journey to the hot desert where we met a camel. It was here we had to adapt and get a hump to store water and change our feet so they were wide to walk on the hot sand. It was great fun and helped consolidate the learning we have been doing in Science this half term.
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 2:40pm
We were so pleased to be able to hold our first Stay and Play session for parents since Covid! It was womderful to see so many parents in the setting playing with their children and having a look at all the exciting things we have been learning this half term! The children really enjoyed the session and we even treated the parents to a mini concert and sang the nursery rhymes we had been learning.
Year 6 Adjectival Agreement in French
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 1:01pm
In the final session of our grammar unit we focused on adjectival agreement. In French, adjectives are spelt differently depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or plural. We finished the lesson by using our dictionary skills to find the gender of nouns before describing them using their colour.
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 12:47pm
We are very fortunate to have experience Peripatetic teachers who come into our school and support our extra learning. We have KS1 Singing Club, KS2 Choir and Schools Alive Club running this year, as well as Drumming and Guitar for pupils who have chosen to learn these instruments.
Year 5 Royal Shakespeare Drama Workshop
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 12:32pm
As an introduction to William Shakespeare and The Tempest, Year 5 had a drama workshop with Hal from the Royal Shakespeare Company. We did some warm ups for our brain, body and voice before moving onto making 3 freeze frames representing the sailors arriving in Blackpool. We all had lots of fun and created some interesting stories for our characters.
Year 6 Creative Movement & Performance Festival
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 9:22am
On Thursday morning 10 pupils from Year 6 took part in a Creative Movement & Performance Festival at Blackpool Sixth Form. They were taken through a series of workshops, looking at acting, singing and dancing all based around the production "The Greatest Showman". This was held by Active Blackpool, using Sixth Form Leaders who taught the children lots of different performing arts skills.
The children worked hard putting on their best performances of clowns, strongmen and acrobats in their acting workshop. They then learned the lyrics to This Is Me in the singing workshop showing fantastic confidence, before moving onto a dance to the same song at the end.
The event was rounded off with a fantastic show from the Sports Leaders with a compilation from The Greatest Showman which the children thoroughly enjoyed.
Year 5 Blackpool Zoo Orienteering
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 9:20am
Active Blackpool run a number of physical activity programmes aiming to improve the physical wellbeing of all children across Blackpool. We were invited to take part in two fun festivals within Blackpool Zoo where each school will be given a map of the park to help them to solve the clues to find the right animals. The intention for the event is to get the children out walking in the fresh air whilst having a look at the animals along the way.
The children, chosen from Year 5, had a great morning with Mrs. Millar and Mr. Parsons supported by Leaders from Blackpool Sixth Form. Efficient map reading and a keen sense of time meant that we returned to the finish before the other schools – having even had time to visit some of the animals not on our list (and the dinosaurs too!).
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 9:17am
Today, nine children from Year two represent Boundary for an orienteering activity at Blackpool Zoo in conjunction with Active Blackpool and the School Games.
The children had an amazing time, finding out information about animals to answer the clues on the activity sheet. They used their reading skills and previously taught knowledge to identify the key information around the Zoo to answer the questions in regards to each animal and used the map and signage around the zoo to locate the animals. We all learnt so many new facts; who knew a giraffe’s neck is 2.4 metres long!
All participants demonstrated persistence, teamwork, and resourcefulness.
Date: 18th Oct 2022 @ 7:47am
Today we had our first Now Press Play session and we chose to listen to a Maya story. It involved the tale of a young Maya child, who is forced to leave their village when drought hits. On route, their mother is kidnapped by warriors from Tikal. Along with their friend - Ixcel - and your pet jaguar - Soft Paws - they make their way to Tikal to get their mum back. We enjoyed the session as it allowed us to imagine what life was like in a Maya village.
Date: 17th Oct 2022 @ 2:57pm
This month, as part of our School celebration of Black History Month we have been completing our writing journey about Rosa Parks. As part of our GPS lessons we looked at information about Rosa Parks and the influence she had on Black rights by refusing to give up her seat and wrote statements about her life and questions we would have liked to have asked her if she was still alive. We will use our knowledge to write a letter to Rosa thanking her for her hard work and determination.
Year 2's Final Forest School Fun
Date: 17th Oct 2022 @ 2:50pm
This week Forest School enjoyed their final forest school session with Jenna and Michelle. This week, we thought about ways to survive if we got stranded in the cold on a mountain and used the parachute as our shelter thinking about the warmth it provided. We also thought about the 3 things we need for a fire- air, fuel and heat and some of us used the tools to practise lighting a fire so we could toast marshmellows. We have had a wonderful three weeks in forest school and look forward to our final three sessions in the summer.
Date: 16th Oct 2022 @ 8:11pm
We had a glorious day for our rugby session this week. The children had a chance to put into practise all of the skills they had learned in previous sessions to play a game. There was some excellent teamwork on show and all of the children demonstrated excellent sportsmanship.
Date: 15th Oct 2022 @ 6:58pm
This half term Year 1 have been learning all about our local area. As part of this learning we went on a local area walk around Grange Park. Prior to leaving school, we explored photos of past and present Grange Park and discussed what we thought we might see. Whilst on our walk, we observed different types of houses, spotted physical and human features and talked about the current changes taking place. We we're also lucky enough to visit @thegrange, where we we're shown around the gardens, read a book in the library and told all about what @thegrange has to offer.
Reception Visit from SMJ Falconry
Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 11:45am
This week Reception had some very special owl visitors; Midge, Bubbles, JD and Tike. The children were very excited to meet the owls and find out all about them. The children asked some brilliant questions finding out what they eat, how they use their senses aswell as having the opportiunity to hold Bubbles the borrowing owl. What a great time the children had!
Reception- World Mental Health Day
Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 11:26am
After a whole school assembly, Reception went back to their classrooms to discuss how they can recognise their different feelings.
They learnt how to use the 'Feelings Board' in their classrooms to show how they are feeling.
"I'm feeling happy because I'm at school" Dolly-Anne.
"I'm feeling tired because I couldn't sleep because I had a dream" Lennox.
Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 8:50am
This week, we looked at keeping safe online. The children haven't done any online safety lessons since before summer, so we started with a Flashback to what they can remember about online safety. They were brilliant! This week, we looked at our identity online and how we know if someone is who they say they are.
Nursery's Close Encounter with the Owls
Date: 13th Oct 2022 @ 9:47pm
What a wonderful experience for our nursery children to meet 4 beautiful owls! We were able to get up close to JD, Tike, Midge and Bubbles. We saw them fly, eat some food and Tike is a burrowing owl, so he was running across the floor! All the children had the chance to hold Bubbles the owl and we found out that owls have no sense of smell!
Date: 13th Oct 2022 @ 9:29pm
Nursery had a special visitor from the local Library who came to read us a story and sing some songs and rhymes with us. We heard a lovely autumn story and learnt some new autumn rhymes.
Date: 13th Oct 2022 @ 12:37pm
Today we had our Now Press Play Experience which was lots of active listening and learning fun! We went on an adventure with Squidge from an alien planet, who was learning all about Solids, Liquids and Gases. We begame particles and moved through different states including water to water vapour, liquid to solid chocolate. It has helped to consolidate our science learning from this term, whilst also getting us up and moving with a little bit of acting!
Date: 12th Oct 2022 @ 7:38pm
As part of our RE topic on Christianity, today we began to reflect on where we search for guidance in how to live our lives. Christians use the Bible, the ten commandments and the Lord's Prayer. We talked about our own sources of guidance including other Gods and religious books, teachers, family and friends.
We then began to develop our debating skills by having respectful conversations about what we thought was the 'WORST' thing to do and ordered some scenarios to the 'LEAST WORST'. This proved to be a challenge with lots of conflicting opinions about what was the most 'Naughty!' We used all of our speaking and listening skills to debate and give reasons about what we thought.
Year 2: The Tiger who came to tea
Date: 12th Oct 2022 @ 12:29pm
Year Two used the Tiger who came to Tea for their reading into writing journey. We read the story, and then they used the basis of the text to write their own story about a different animal who came to their house.
We watched the play at The Grand Theatre and the children really enjoyed themselves.
Date: 12th Oct 2022 @ 10:13am
To support our learning about mountains, pupils have been researching one of the 7 Summits (the 7 tallest mountains on each of the 7 continents). We have found out which continent and country they are in, and this morning we have indicated their position on the whole school world map.
Date: 11th Oct 2022 @ 8:21am
This morning children in Year 5 visited Aspire Academy to take part in a science lesson. As part of our learning journing with 'materials and their properties' we were challenged to separate a mixture of rock, salt and water. Our first task was to filter the solution using a funnel and filter paper, which removed the rock. This left a solution of salt water. By heating the solution with a bunsen-burner, we made the (liquid) water evapourate, leaving behind the (solid) salt.
