School Blog

Persuasive Writing in Years 5+6

 in English / Scafell / Whole School by

Pupils in Scafell have been undertaking a unit of work on persuasive writing which is linked to our current science topic on health and the human body.

We began with an apprentice-like challenge where we had to create a new toothpaste, develop the name of the product and the branding.  This involved some research on current toothpaste brands and their marketing techniques.

Once ideas about new products had been developed, we enjoyed some market research tasks to find out how our peers viewed our designs.  We then set about developing a poster campaign and radio advertisements to market our exciting, new products.

Our final piece of writing in this unit of work, is a more formal online magazine article informing young people about the detrimental impact of smoking on the human body and persuading the reader that it is never a good idea to smoke.

Which advert catches your eye?   Which toothpaste would you buy?

Green fingers in Scafell

 in Scafell / Science / Whole School by

Scafell enjoyed planting our seedlings in our new outdoor classroom this week!! We are looking forward to seeing them flower over the next few weeks.

Year One explore algorithms

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

This week Year One began their computing topic about algorithms. They had to think logically about how to give a robot the correct instructions to brush its teeth. The next challenge was to work together to build Lego models, capturing picture instructions at each stage for another group to follow.

Our Amazing Earth

 in Geography / Skiddaw by

To understand about how mountains are made, how volcanoes erupt or what earthquakes are, we first need to know that the earth has different layers inside. We have been having great fun creating playdough earth models! The middle layer of red is the core, the orange is the mantle and the brown the crust. Land and sea have been added too. We know that the mantle and outer core are made from rock that is so hot that it is liquid and so it really would be impossible to dig a very deep hole and pop out on the other side of the world! We decided to slice our earths in half instead to reveal the hidden layers. Here we are making our playdough worlds…

 

Bowfell’s sensory space

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Nursery and Reception children have enjoyed exploring Bowfell’s new sensory space on our mezzanine level in the classroom. The dark den cave was a huge hit as well as the fascinating bubble lights and goo tubes!

Problems With Plastics

 in Science / Skiddaw by

Skiddaw class are learning all about materials in science. We watched a live BBC lesson all about the problems of plastics in our oceans. This inspired us to make posters to help others understand what they can do to help. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a clear and easy way for everyone to make a difference.

Here are some of our designs.

Around Europe with Scafell Class

 in Geography / Scafell / Whole School by

Flights to another country may be all but a distant memory right now, but Scafell are getting stuck into their new geography topic on Europe with great gusto. For our first homework, we’ve been collecting photographs and mementos from around Europe. We’ve now placed all of these on a world map so that we can see where the different countries are in relation to each other. Take a look at our map below – from Scotland to Slovenia, London to Lanzarote, you can see great examples of both physical and human geographical features.

Thanks to everyone who bought in something for the display. Most original items have been photocopied to keep them safe, so they will be returned soon!

Experience Easter 2021

 in Bowfell / Church / RE / Scafell / Skiddaw by

This year, our new outdoor classroom area was the main focus for Experience Easter. Each day this week, classes have taken time to reflect on different stages of the Easter story – The Garden of Gethsemane, Caiaphas’s Courtyard, Golgotha and the Garden Tomb. We finished with planting seeds and colouring butterflies as signs of new life. Thank you to Pam Martin for providing all the content and to Miss Butler and Mrs Haslam for preparing us in school and creating our visual scene settings each morning. St John’s Church is hosting a similar event in the church grounds this week and have extended an open invite all members of the community to Experience Easter for themselves.

Happy Easter everyone!

Bridge Building Challenge!

 in Scafell / Whole School by

We’ve rounded the end of term off in style this time – Scafell have been designing and building bridges!

From studying famous bridges around the world, we found out the types of tricks engineers use to make their constructions strong, light and as cheap as possible. We looked at lots of different engineering methods to join and construct the sections of our bridge, thinking carefully about the parts that were in tension and compression. We found out about the strongest types of shape, and how to reinforce sections of cardboard so that they are strong in lots of different directions.. We made our own cardboard ply for the decks of our bridges, used triangle beams to support them and used plates, tabs and flanges to allow us to screw the bridges together.

 

Have a look at the media gallery below to check out our creations – some were super strong and able to hold over 5 kilograms, others had a massive span of over a meter! Well done to everyone who took part, especially those who tried, failed and tried again until their design was just right!

 

 

 

Eggstraordinary Eggs and Hats!

 in Bowfell / Church / Scafell / Skiddaw by

Lots of our pupils have risen to the challenge again this week with some incredibly inventive, original and carefully crafted creations.  Thank you to everyone who took part!