Andy Warhol style Pop Art

The Later Years Primary have been busy creating Andy Warhol style Pop Art. We used ICT to explore different effects.

Our Wheely Good Topic Assembly

Today was the celebration assembly to end the Middle Year's topic of Wheely Good Inventions. The children spoke loudly and clearly and Mr Condon said how impressed he was with the good language that the children were using.

Belinda, Kwame and Kymani took photos during the assembly and here is what they had to say:

We thought that it went really well and we hardly made any mistakes and the audience was well behaved. The audience looked happy and they were listening really well. We hope they enjoyed our assembly and Mr Condon is looking forward to our next project.

Holy Week Mass

Today we had Mass to reflect the events of Holy Week. Several children acted out scenes from the Last Supper.

Evaluating Our Learning

Today I popped into Mr Sherwin's Class to talk to some of the children about their learning. I really enjoyed talking to Erin, Evie and Summer, who told me all about their 'Wheely Good Inventions' and their evaluations. The girls explained what had gone well and how they had improved their designs. Whe asked what they had learnt they said -

• To communicate with people
• Participate as part of the team
• Keep working hard to improve your design

They were also excited about lots of work they had done on circuits.

Well done and keep it up!

Mr Condon

Pop Art Collages

The Later Years have created their own Pop Art Collages. They were influenced by Pop artists such as Sir Peter Blake, Tom Wesselmann, Richard Hamilton and Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi.

Pop Art

The Later Years Primary have been studying Pop Art. We have looked at arguments and discussions and thought about the question - Pop Art can it really be considered art?

Dear Sir,

I believe that Pop Art is Art. This is because Pop Art is not only about drawing or painting, it is about having fun and being creative. Many children around the world enjoy making and looking at Pop Art. I will now explain the reason for Pop Art.

Pop Art is Popular Art. You can really show who you are, what your like and what your personality is. Anyone can do it, you don't have to be well trained to do Pop Art, you can be as crazy as you like! Pop Art makes people think and it gives you a 'wow'! You don't have to pay lots of money to do this sort of art, you can pick things from the floor, from your bag and even from the bin! Because of that Pop Art is also a recycling Art. Just by sticking pictures in a piece of paper will turn out into a master piece. If you think Pop Art is not art it is. Isn't collage art? Well if collage is art then Pop Art is really art.

Overall Pop Art is really art. Pop Art provides enjoyment and like I said is a creative way to make people enjoy. I am looking forward to seeing more Pop Art.

Yours Sincerely,

Mezyel Gudaca

Dragon's Den

Over the last two terms, teams of inventors in the Middle Years have been designing, making and improving their 'Wheely Good Inventions'. Their inventions are aimed at fulfilling the needs of cyclists in some way.

Today, the teams, with their prototypes in hand, gave a sales pitch to a panel of three dragons in the hope of getting some 'investment'. The dragons wanted to make as much profit as possible and turned away teams that said they would lose money by selling their invention. After a fiery time in the den four teams managed to secure 'investment'! Two dragons were particularly impressed with an invention designed at keeping pizzas warm when cycling home from pizza shop.

Well done to ALL the children for all your tremendous effort! And thank you to Mr Terry, Bike it Ben and Mr Condon playing your role as dragons so well.

Photos coming soon!

Sports Relief

Some photos of the Later Years children taking part in Sports Relief

Getting active for Sports Relief

As part of our sport relief day the children have been getting active with dancing. They really enjoyed the line dance boogie!


-- By Mr Sherwin

Sports Relief 2010

Well done to Year 1 for a great assembly celebrating Sports Relief 2010. In the assembly we learnt about how we can have fun, be healthy a raise money for children in need in other parts of the world as well as young people in this country.




Thanks to all the friends and family who joined us for this event.

Enterprise Workshops

On Tuesday, Mr Terry, our volunteer from HSBC Bank, came to work with the Year 3 & 4 children on our projects. He helped us think about why we were making our products and what we would need to say to the Dragons next week in the Den! We had to think of how to convince the 'Dragons' to invest in our products: their features and benefits. Thank you, Mr Terry, and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Cookathon

The children had lots of fun today cooking in the school hall as part of Cookathon. They cooked up Basil Gnocchi with tomato sauce.




If you are interested in food, you can find lots of links to various food websites on our old foodweek website.

Mother's Day Mass

A big thank you to all the children who came to the Mother's Day Mass on Sunday. Personally I would particularly like to thank all the choir who attended and who where in such fine voice. We received lots of lovely comments from members of the congregation.
A big well done too to the readers, the children in Miss Wright's class for their beautiful pictures, the children who served, those who took up the Offertory and all those who gave up their Sunday morning to join us. It was wonderful and I am sure that all the Mummys were particularly touched by your efforts.

A Playground Visitor

We have had several posts enquiring about the wellbeing of our visitor. The RSPCA visited the school yesterday evening to check on the Fox. As soon as officer arrived the fox jumped up, ran across the playground and left the school premises. Maybe it will visit us again some day?

News?

Just kidding! This is just one possible newspaper article about our strange visit from the fox but don't worry, it's not real.
Mr Sherwin's class have been set the task of writing a short newspaper article to explain why they think the fox was in the playground. If you would like ot write your own fake newspaper article you can use fodey.com to make it look real.

A playground visitor

An unusual visitor was napping in the bushes this afternoon. It was a sleepy fox. Was he tempted by the gingerbread men being made by the reception class? Or did he come to try and join a class? Or did it come to school playground for another reason? What do you think?


-- By Mr Sherwin

National Online Quiz

Today the year 4 children are competing in a national competition online. The quiz covers all subjects in the curriculum and there is the chance to win big prizes! The children are working in teams and they are using their team work and communication skills to find answers within a short time limit.
Best of luck to all of you.


-- By Mr Sherwin

SingUp Day

Here are a few photos from our SingUp day assembly. Do you recognise the Grandma in one of them?!

All the same but different

Last week the Later Years Primary had a visitor come in to school who confined to a wheelchair. The children had asked lots of questions and were lucky enough to have ago on his basketball wheelchair.

African Drumming with Year 5/6

This morning all 3 Later Years classes performed in an excellent African drumming concert. They have been learning how to perform over many weeks as part of their music curriculum.

A Visit from Dr Bike!

A big thank you to Greg, our Dr. Bike who serviced many bikes this morning in school. Also thanks again to BikeIt Ben who was around to organise things. We had almost 4o bikes in school which was great but unfortunatly meant not all cycles could be serviced. We hope to get them all serviced next time!

National SingUp Day

Yesterday St Joe's celebrated National SingUp Day. Each class made sure that they interspered their lessons with singing- action songs, brain gym songs, songs for learning and songs for fun. During the infant playtime, the Y56 Song Leaders went outside and helped the infants play singing games. At the end of the day the whole school gathered together for an extraordinary singing assembly. Each class had prepared a song to sing to the whole school. There was a whole range of songs from '5 little speckled frogs' to 'Life is what you make it'. There was: a call and response song, a rock song with magnificent air guitarists, a rap with an unknown special guest appearance of 'Grandma!', infant songs and stirring pop ballads. A big thanks you to all the teachers for their enthusiasm and for facilitating the learning of the songs. And a special well done to all the pupils for their enthusiasm and beautiful voices. So just.... ke----ep on singing!
Mrs Marsh
PS Photos and video to follow- watch this space!

World book day in Miss Wright's class

Today was World Book Day. Many children brought in their favourite books from home and shared them with a friend. We read stories together in class; we especially enjoyed 'Pig gets lost' from the Farmyard Tales by Heather Amery and Stephen Cartwright. At the end of the day we got together with Mrs Bell's Y56 class, and the big children read to the smaller children. They had chosen Big Books from the school Big Book Library, and they sat in small groups in the hall, to enjoy them together. We also did some singing with the lttle ones 'teaching' a song to the big ones! We had a lovely day together and we all love stories.
Mrs Marsh

29 Bikes in school today!!!

The virtual bike race is going well. We'll give you a full update soon.




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World book day

To celebrate World Book Day classes have been teaming up and sharing their favourite books and authors. It's great to see how friendly and respectful the children are to eachother and how much they love reading!



-- By Mr Sherwin

Mad Science Assembly

Radioactive Rick led a great Mad Science assembly this morning. A Mad Science club will be starting next month.

Wheely Good Inventors!!

Today my class became critical friends, looking at their designs and coming up with ways to improve. I was very proud with the systematic and sensitive way they evaluated each others' work. A very complicated process that most adults would find hard! Well done. I can't wait to see our prototypes.

Our National Sing Up Day

We are having a great time singing in the hall. Each class has prepared a special song to perform to the rest of the school. Great fun!