Over the weekend we have had someone in our Nursery! But they’ve not been playing kindly…. Just look at what they have done…..I wonder if anyone can guess who it might be?
They’ve broken our dolly’s bed….
They’ve had a snack and left their dirty pots laying around…..
And…… They’ve broken our baby’s chair!! That is most unkind. If anyone has any information, please let us know… They must’ve dropped this….
Kindest Regards, The Nursery Children, Mrs Winkley, Mrs Mortimer, Miss Kitching and Miss Gill. Xxx
Nursery have been working hard to resolve social conflicts this last week, as part of our first case study “How can the Goats and the Troll be friends?” This is within our new expedition “Once upon a time” and working towards answering our guiding question “Who is hiding in the pages of this book?”
Nursery have listened to the traditional tale of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and an alternative version of the story “The Three Billy Goats Fluff” by Rachael Mortimer. They have thought hard about the issues of both key characters; in that the Goats would like to eat the juicy, green, lush grass, but unfortunately they have to trip, trap across the bridge to reach it which in turns wakes up the Troll, who is desperate for some sleep, peace and quiet. Mummy Goat made the Billy Goats booties in the alternative story, but we wondered what if you insulated the bridge? So we have tried hard to make a quiet bridge for the Troll to live under using a variety of insulating materials. We tested baking paper, tinfoil, felt and bubble wrap. Here’s how we got on……
Some of the language and ideas expressed throughout this problem solving was amazing! The children said “the troll is grumpy because he is tired”, “the troll is frustrated because he wants to sleep”, “trip trap, trip trap keeps waking him up, because it’s noisy on the bridge”, “The goats need to be kind and go quieter”. The children spoke in depth about the materials, carefully using their senses to investigate them, some of the words used were; “Shiny”, “Crunchy”, “Crinkly”, “Rattly”, “Soft”, “Fluffy”, “Furry”, “Bubbles”, “Popping”, “Too loud”, “Quiet”, “Silent” and “noisy”.
What beautiful work Nursery – most children either came to the conclusion that the felt was the “quietest” or “softest” material or that the paper and tin foil were “too loud” or “noisy”. Some of the children thought about folding materials into layers to make the bridge even softer and one child thought about using the soft toy troll as a material, as he thought the felt was “still too noisy and the troll is bouncier”. Great experimenting!
The Staff Day in January saw the launch of our proposed teaching and learning model as part of our Festival of Learning. The event took place at XP Doncaster and was attended by staff from across all schools in the Trust. All staff had the opportunity to explore the model in more depth as well as attending other workshops on different parts of the model.
This is part of the Trust’s commitment to ensure that we expose more students to more impactful teaching more of the time.
Beautiful Curation: A Christmas Carol
There is now an awesome display at XP to celebrate the Christmas Carol Study Guide – the beautiful work of last year’s Year 11s. Be sure to go and admire their hard work on display!
Nursery have been working hard over the past couple of weeks to fasten their own zips on their coats. At first, the couple of children who could already do this, helped their crew mates to practise. Then more and more children rose in confidence to have a go and resiliency to keep on trying! Well Done Nursery, we now have a long list of children who can do this all by themselves!
In crew today we checked in with something we have enjoyed so far this week. It was great to hear the variety of activities that everyone is enthusiastic about from singing assembly and reading sessions to learning about food chains and playing emotions corners.
We shared and celebrated some of the work we were most proud of and made pledges for the week ahead. Well done Crew Goodyer keep up the great work and never loose that enthusiasm for learning.
On Friday, staff across our Trust gathered to launch the first phase of our exciting new Teaching and Learning model, with a focus on our culture of Crew, underpinning principles, deliberate & intentional teaching/learning behaviours at its heart…
Staff from our secondaries and primaries grappled with this exciting new model and took part in a wide range of workshops to develop teaching and learning at XP.
More on this next week…
Carcroft School: How Could We Help Our Planet Survive?
In Autumn 2023, Years 5 and 6 completed an expedition looking at the impact we are having on the planet and what we could do to make a difference now and for future generations. They held their presentation of learning last week!
Their final product for this expedition was a picture frame made from sustainably-sourced materials. Students then chose their favourite piece of writing from across the expedition to publish in the frame alongside (or behind) a simple piece of artwork reflecting elements of our learning. Beautiful work!
We have been learning about the importance of being physically and mentally healthy in crew. We played charades to share with our crew some great ways to help our health.
We have had the most delicious expedition session this afternoon! We were really lucky in class 5 Carter’s mummy brought us some chocolate milk in glass bottles. We thought about why it is better for the environment in a glass bottle than cartons or plastic bottles. We then talked about what happens to the glass bottles next so that they can be used again.
Miss Tinker and I enjoyed everyone’s chocolate moustaches 🤣
Class 6 have been busy this week reading to research different animal groups. After sharing their findings and creating class anchor charts they were able to work collaboratively to identify and sort animals into their correct groups.
It was great to see everyone willing to share their ideas and ask questions to clarify their understanding.
In Reception the children have been exploring different resources and creating houses for the three little pigs. The children came up with some impressive design ideas.
