Toys and Stationery
Written by Peter
This month, our Nursery Class have been learning different things at home. To adapt to online learning, we selected to explore the concept of ‘have’ with vocabulary revolving around items that can be easily accessed at home.
Through a variety of PowerPoints, upbeat songs, interesting videos and entertaining games, students learned about toys and stationery goods online.
Toys: we compared and discussed the differences between toys now and toys from the past, as we looked at toys from both eras. Students also had the option of expressing their preferences.
Stationery items: we looked at their uses in the workplace and what they could do with specific stationery products. Nursery B have mastered the phrases "Do you have?" and "I have...".
We have also been continuing to work on our numbers - counting, writing, and recognizing numerals up to 10.
It is important that we get to greet each other and have fun in our online lessons despite being at home. I cannot wait to say “Hello” again in person.
The Lives of People Around Us
Written by Suzanne
This month, Reception Class have been extremely busy exploring and talking about the lives of people around us that help us and their roles in our society.
We get together at the start of each busy day to participate in class discussions, where we offer our own ideas, using our recently introduced vocabulary. This is a fun time where we are learning to listen to each other attentively and respond appropriately to what we hear. Where we are building up our topic knowledge and vocabulary through songs, rhymes, stories, games, and through lots of role-play and small world.
Then, we set off to do our own individual learning. We have set tasks to do and we decide when and how and in what order we want to do them. This is giving us practice in time management and the vital ability to follow instructions and carry out tasks in a given time. Thus, we are becoming independent learners, managing our own time throughout the day.
Each day is a surprise, we could be a Doctor, Vet or Nurse. The next day a Firefighter or a Police Officer. We could be a Scientist doing crazy science experiments or a Construction Worker building a bridge or the Great Wall of China.
We make our own role-playing characters and props to help us tell our narratives and stories. Then we invent, adapt and recount our stories with the help of our Mums and Dads who act as our photographers and video editors to capture our wonderful work.
Our role-play and small world play, helps us to demonstrate our understanding of what we are thinking, what we have been reading or what we have been listening to and by retelling the stories using our own words we can introduce and strengthen our use of this new vocabulary.
We are showing accuracy and care in our drawing and written work and show our work with pride on our Class Dojo. When we are doing our phonics and reading together every day, we are recognising more and more sounds and words every day. Blending and segmenting our words and sentences together as a group has also helped some of us to not be as shy anymore as we all encourage each other as we work.
Then at the end of our day we get together again to share our creations, explaining the talk about the processes we have used and most importantly we celebrate each other’s achievements.
Will a Robot do Your Job?
Written by Danielle
In their new Global Perspectives unit, the Year 5 students have been learning: will a robot do your job?' This unit encourages the students to research more about jobs they are interested in and think about the future of robots in the workplace - including the advantages and disadvantages of using them. Whilst they are thinking about the jobs they would most like to have, two members of our BIS team, the lovely Ms. Molly and Ms. Sinead agreed to be interviewed by the students and talk about their roles.
The students asked questions such as;
'What qualifications do you need?'
'Do you prefer working from home or from school?'
'Do you prefer your role in Marketing or Photography more?'
'Did you prefer working in HR or being a TA?'
'What does an average day look like for you?'
'Does speaking more than one language make you more employable?'
'What's your favourite thing about working in a school?'
'Do you think a robot could take your job?'
'Do you think advances in technology have changed your job?'
'Do you miss us?'
Ms. Molly answered their questions and even interviewed the students about the roles they would most like when they are older. Some of the options the students chose include; an English or STEAM teacher, an artist, a game designer, and a doctor. Ms. Sinead answered their questions and confirmed that she misses them!
This activity gave the students the opportunity to learn more about different job roles and to practice their interviewing skills and spoken English whilst we are online. The students learnt that the role of a Marketing Associate had (approximately) a 33% chance of being taken over by a robot and Ms. Molly explained why humans are likely to continue in the role due to their being a need for creativity. Ms. Sinead explained how it is unlikely that robots would become a TA, however, according to statistics there's a 56% chance. If you would like to check the statistics of a certain job, it can be found on this website: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34066941
The students also heard from Mr. Silard who works in cybersecurity (also known as hacking) about how he works with the police and gets to ride in a police vehicle if there's an emergency. Mr. Silard talked about the importance of continuing your learning because technology is constantly changing. He talked about how fun his job is and the benefits of speaking multiple languages. He mostly uses English in his work (his native language is Hungarian) and believes speaking multiple languages can help you to find a solution easier as if you can't find the solution in one language you can think in another!
Thank you again to the amazing Ms. Molly, Ms. Sinead and Mr. Silard for your support and well done to Year 5!
Online Maths Quiz
Written by Jacqueline
With having to study online for a month, we have had to innovate the way we teach, learn and assess in the classroom! Year 6 completed powerpoint presentations on a chosen research project for their Global Perspectives classes and also ‘wrote’ their first online Maths quiz and they were thrilled with the prospect of trying out a different way of being assessed. We did an initial practice quiz to familiarise the students with the platform and then did the actual quiz the following day. The test was for mathematical Place Value and was converted from paper to an online testing platform that learners could access from the comfort of their own homes within a set time. The Year 6 Parents have been very supportive; the test results were strong and feedback from the students was that they would prefer to have the option of doing online tests when they couldn’t do traditional paper tests. Despite the hampers of covid, this has been an interesting use of technology in our classrooms!
Problem Solution Essay
Written by Camilla
One of the lessons that Year 10 completed during this online period was a writing task, involving a problem solution essay. This was highly advanced work and it involves several skills. Of course students had to write well, to form good sentences and use high level grammar. However, they also needed to be able to find points and arguments in support of an opinion. They needed to explain these points clearly. They also needed to be able to describe a problem as well as put forward solutions for that problem! Some of the problems they discussed were: teenage video game addiction, underwater noise pollution, such as tunnel building, which disrupts marine wildlife, and the dangers of litter in the city. They also had to persuade the viewer or the listener that their solutions were good ones! This was good practice with persuasive language. As you can appreciate, this was a very demanding question that sometimes comes up in the Cambridge English First curriculum exams. The students were definitely challenged by this. They worked hard and did very well. Here is a picture of Krishna speaking in a video, explaining what a problem-solution essay is. Well done Year 10!
Post time: Dec-15-2022
