Our Art Ambassadors and resident artist from Nottingham Contemporary, officially opened our History Timeline this week!
Pupils from across the school, staff and parents contributed to its design as part of the Schools of Tomorrow project. Our Art Ambassadors, worked with a graphic designer to complete the final piece.
They certainly enjoyed the after party celebration to reward and acknowledge their creativity!
Our STEM pupils from Year 4 and 5 took part in the Rail Engineer competition in Derby. After weeks of designing, building and testing their railway engines it was time to compete. Their engines were an inspiration to all, travelling along the track and pulling a given weight.
Although our engines did not win, taking part was a success. One of Year 4 pupils, won the prize for Best Communicator – clearly articulating her model and the design to build process.
We are so proud of our future engineers. Well done to all of the STEM team!
Today, our amazing Year 5 pupils having been diving into the world of programming using Crumble software. They’ve been exploring how to control lights, motors, and sensors, all while using different variables. They demonstrated our core values, especially collaboration and perseverance. As the tasks became more challenging, our class worked together, supporting and encouraging one another every step of the way. As we progress further, we have an exciting goal in mind: the creation of a scanning robot.
Year 3 pupils have completed their nightlights! They wired up their Crumble kits, connected the Sparkles and a light-dependent resistor (LDR). After, pupils wrote a program to make the sparkle change colours.
What amazing designers and coders we have!
STEM pupils were supported by a Railway Engineer from East Midlands Railways this week. Pupils learnt about his role as a Project Manager and his career path. Afterwards, he supported with the next phase of their projects to add wheels to their chassis.
Today our engineers, worked in pairs to build the chassis for their train. They used their measuring skills and various tools to cut and saw their materials. Precision was important to ensure that the train will fit on the track!
Parents and pupils in Years 1 and 2 enjoyed using clay to create a hedgehog. Pupils taught their parents the techniques: pinch, roll and squeeze. After, they performed ‘London’s Burning’, singing in rounds. Thank you to our parents for their support. What a lovely we have had!
Parents enjoyed travelling back in time to the Stone Age. The children shared their Beaker pots and how they used the clay coiling method. Using their art skills they taught parents how to blend with chalk and pastels. Working together, families created amazing pieces of art.
Year 5 parents were invited into the classroom this morning. The pupils shared their finding to their project question, ‘How did the Victorians change Britain?’
Pupils delivered a workshop to their parents teaching the skills of Victorian decoupage. They showed great teamwork and skill, as created some unique pieces of art!
Thank you to our parents for making this morning an enjoyable experience.
Years 5 and 6 pupils learnt about diffusion in an experiment led by Leaders of Learning from Nottingham University. They observed the coloured sugar that is coating the skittles DISSOLVES in to the water and spreads out due to a process called DIFFUSION. The sugar will always move from the area where there is lots of sugar (next to the skittle) to a place where there is less, so you see the coloured sugar move across the plate.
This morning, as part of Science Week, Year 6 watched a live lesson all about wool and its properties. After the live lesson, children investigated different materials to see which material was the best thermal insulator.
Class 1 and 2 loved the live science session, learning about tractors and their link to space. It was very interactive and the children learnt just how complex tractors can be.
‘As part of the Schools of Tomorrow Project with Nottingham Contemporary, all year groups have been involved in creating icons to illustrate a Timeline through the years, reflecting British history. Our school Art Ambassadors met with our schools resident artist, Charlotte, to display the Timeline together. Children were encouraged to think about what the purpose of a Timeline is, and how to best present this, working collaboratively to share and explore ideas. This piece of work will then be digitally copied and printed to become a permanent piece of work displayed in school’
In our science lesson this afternoon we carried out an experiment to find which surfaces create the least and most friction by putting a car down a ramp. The higher the ramp was, the more friction there was between the car and the surface.
A fantastic Design and Technology Day full of designing, creating and evaluating our William Kamkwamba-inspired wind turbines. Children developed their wood-cutting skills, practised using a glue gun and revisited their electrical circuit learning before assembling their wind turbines.
A brilliant Design and Technology Day in Year 5 designing, creating and our evaluating our William Kambwamba-inspired wind turbines. Pupils developed their wood-cutting skills and revisited their electrical circuit learning before assembling their structures.
Class 1 have been looking at pop art by Andy Warhol. They have created their own piece of pop art using bus image that Rosa Parks was on. Wow! Look at the results.
In their science experiment this week, Year 5 pupils investigated the amount of force needed to move a shoe across different surfaces. They worked collaboratively to discover that tin-foil created the largest force of friction!
After sharing art packs and making videos, Year 1 parents came into school to make art with their children, led by Charlotte from Nottingham Contemporary! They designed then printed their own tote bag together to take home. So many parents got involved and it was such a special event!
Friday afternoon in the sun – we had a whole school Science (and Comic Relief) focus: planting trees and seeds, making optical illusions and completing helicopter experiments. Our pupil Science ambassadors and Year 5 and 6 leaders were amazing!!
We have some very talented designers and engineers in Class 2! Using our knowledge of wheel, chassis and axle mechanisms, we designed, made and evaluated Fire Engines that could safely carry a pot of water across 10 metres. We had lots of success!
Today we learnt how to carry out a practical scientific enquiry, which involves a comparative and fair test. We did this to learn more about human teeth and which kinds of liquids decay our enamel. We used boiled eggs to represent teeth. We placed one boiled egg in coke, one in water and one in orange juice. The liquid which damages and disintegrates the eggshell the most, must be the liquid which causes the most decay on our teeth.
Class 2 used charcoal to create drawings of different modes of transport that could be found in Radford both now and in the past. They explored using the charcoal and blended with their fingers, before drawing their final masterpieces.
Steve Brazier, an artist who is registered blind, showed us his art work, how he created it and what his favourite techniques were. He then made his interpretation of our inspiration art photo – focusing on the diversity in Radford’s community. We used his ideas and techniques to use blocks on colour using a limited colour palette (the primary colours) to create an array of skin tones to represent the diverse community in our school and our local area.
Class 5 have been focusing on places of worship within our communities – so far we have made our own mosaic creation for St Peter’s Church! We are still working on the Masjid Umar Mosque and the Dev Ji Gurdwara!
Class 2 pupils have been investigating properties of materials. Using scientific vocabulary, pupils chose a selection of materials and discussed their properties. They compared different objects and the suitability of the material used, referring to its properties. For example, pupils were able to explain why a chair could be made from plastic and not paper. Also why the classroom windows were made from glass and not brick.
At the end of the summer term, Southwold ran the Ogden Summer photo competition together with other primary schools of the Nottingham Ogden Trust. The prizes were delayed but finally made their way to Southwold. Both winners were very happy to accept their prize!
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As part of our ‘Wider Opportunities’ afternoon, Class 3 have been researching the work of artists and craft makers from the Ancient Egyptian era. We have been looking at how this has helped historians to learn about the past! The children have also learned how to create ‘tertiary colours’ which was predominant in Ancient Egyptian art 🎨
It was the turn of the year 6 pupils to get their hands dirty during Science Club.
We explored electricity, made some perfect Oobleck and looked at liquids with different densities.