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We were so lucky to end our week with some more experts. We welcomed Mayor Ros Jones along with the Civic Mayor of Doncaster. We loved learning about their roles and finding out even more about Doncaster. We are looking forward to using our learning to answer our guiding question for this term – Diverse Doncaster – Where do I belong?
We have been working really hard during hook week learning all about position and direction. We used positional language to direct people around Doncaster and we used Donny Dog to learn about turns and clockwise and anticlockwise.
Class 2 have been very excited about finding out about creatures that live under the sea. They wanted to make a giant octopus to display in the classroom and worked really hard collaboratively over two days to achieve the finished product. Great teamwork Class 2!
The children have enjoyed hooking into our new expedition ‘What happens where the sea meets the shore?’ We have been busy immersing our classroom and have been very creative…
The children have used their drawing skills to draw a fish. We then critiqued our work in crew, being kind and specific so we know how to make them even better on our next draft!
We ended our week making our ocean bottles…
We’ve had a great first week back hooking into our summer term expedition titled ‘What happens where the sea meets the shore?’.
We have been reading Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae and learning some really interesting facts about lot of different sea creatures. Did you know that an octopus has three hearts and blue blood? The children in Class Two do!
This stimulated lots of exciting discussions about how we could immerse our classroom to represent out new expedition. The children chose to make an octopus along with lots of other sea creatures! Beautiful work Class Two!
The G29 students speeches answering our guiding question “What does it mean to be human?” is now live on our website.
You can listen again and relive the POL speeches here!
This beautiful work is also available to visitors to the QE Hospital at the Windy Nook Entrance via a QR code on the art installation. This is important work matters, raising awareness of the importance of organ donation. A work that chimes with Olivias’ concluding remarks to our POL.
“…being human is about our social structures and relationships. How we connect, understand each other and have a sense of understanding and acceptance for ourselves and others. We build our world through our memories and experience to decide where we want to go in the future. Humans grow through our community and others around us.”
In Spring 2024, students from Years 5 and 6 at Carcroft School embarked on an Expedition to explore the 19th century’s impact on our lives today, examining whether its influence has been positive or negative. Students immersed themselves in the era by creating African pattern-inspired book bindings and sculptures. They delved into the work of British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonabare to understand cultural identity and globalisation. The history case study focused on the British Empire, particularly its effects on South Africa and the Zulu people, comparing Victorian society with Zulu society and discussing the legacy of these interactions. The science component of the Expedition related these historical impacts to the concepts of reversible and irreversible changes, using chemistry to draw parallels between the societal changes and scientific processes.
The Expedition’s culmination was an art exhibition-style event where students showcased sculptures inspired by Yinka Shonabare, reflecting on cultural identity and personal, cultural, or ethnic adaptation in an ever-changing world. This final product, along with literacy-based assessments and case study reflections, demonstrated the students’ learning and understanding of the 19th century’s influence. Throughout the Expedition, a diverse range of texts, including graphic novels and classic literature, enriched the students’ experience. Despite limitations on fieldwork due to economic conditions, video calls with South African residents offered insights into the lasting impacts of the British Empire on the Zulu people, enhancing the students’ global perspective and understanding of historical legacies.
In the last week of term, students in UKS2 at Plover celebrated their work from their Expedition ‘The Power of Change’. Their guiding question was ‘How did the 19th century influence our lives today?’ and their final product explored significant locations in Doncaster, creating a history trail for members of the community to follow to learn more about the City’s history.
Last term, students in KS1 at Norton infants explored ocean pollution – contrasting clean and polluted waters and their effects on wildlife, leading to local litter collection activities and artistic recycling projects, culminating in a family event promoting the reduction of single-use plastics. They delved into the science of this by examining the characteristics of living and non-living entities, focusing on animal needs and dietary types, and assessing human impacts on ecosystems, resulting in a detailed report on local fauna. Their geographical studies spanned identifying global continents, oceans, and specific habitats, enhanced by a narrative exercise based on “Somebody Swallowed Stanley.” Art skills were honed through various mediums in creating a sculpture and alternate story settings from “The Tin Forest.”
The students’ final product drew together learning from all three of these case studies. They created these activity booklets, which contain examples of beautiful artwork and written information, and include activities for children to complete – here’s a sample of their work below!
We would like to donate these booklets to local places so that children can complete them whilst they are out in our community! If this is something that you feel you would like copies of, we can send them to you! Please send an email to [email protected] and we will organise sending them to you!
Beautiful Work from Scarlett @ XP Gateshead
We are Sea Explorers @ Norton Infants
Class 7 found a time capsule @ Green Top
New Reading Challenge @ Carcroft School
‘Hats on for Hope’ @ Norton Juniors
We’re looking for Cleaners and a Cleaner in Charge to #JoinOurCrew at XP Doncaster – find out more and apply here!
We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.
It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
As our hook week has rolled out, Nursery have had lots of fun exploring and immersing themselves in all things lurking beneath the surface of the sea, underpinned by our hook text, “Commotion in the Ocean” By Giles Andreas. The children have searched around Nursery for clues of what they may find in the sea? They have learned about how these sea creatures survive and their anatomical features such as; gills, scales, fins and flippers.
The children then created fabulous sea creatures of their own using various craft materials, mediums and techniques. These include jiggling Jellyfish, Octopuses and shimmering Fishes – just look at our beautiful work!
Finally the children have worked hard on beginning to understand and explore our guiding question for our new exciting summer expedition “What happens when the sea meets the shore?”
As part of our Thoughtful Thursday Crew the children used their own experiences to draw pictures of what they recall visually about the seaside and talked about, What does the sand feel like? How does it look on the beach? Their ideas were collected in crews to form spider diagrams.
We then practically explored how the sand and water make the shore by creating sensory sea bottles using sand and blue coloured water. The children were thrilled to experiment and see how the sand and water mixed and then settled separately, creating their own beach in a bottle. It was a fabulous experience for all.
We have shown amazing determination and perseverance in Year One whilst creating our stained glass windows. We are really proud of our hard work and how well we drew lines and coloured in staying inside the lines. We think they will look beautiful in our classroom.
Key Stage One had an exciting visit from the author Phil Sheppard this morning. He told us all about his love of stories, books and reading as a child and how he became an author. He introduced us to his non fiction books all about Doncaster and shared some of his stories with us before holding a book signing. We’re looking forward to sharing some of our own work with him at the end of our expedition.
