Our P.E. sessions at the start of the new school year in Class 3J have been spent learning new techniques on the school trampolines. We wanted the pupils to understand how we can control our movements and carry out instructions such as how to stop. We also built into our routines different counting sequences to help us to keep our focus during the activity. The more experienced pupils added in techniques such as star jumps or tuck jumps. The Turney School trampolines are great resources in helping our pupils learn more about their own body control – they are also plenty of fun! You can find out more in the video above.

12th January – Secondary school ICT Club.

17th January – Blue Class trip to the Imperial War Museum.

19th January – Class 3J assembly.

2nd February – Class 10 assembly.

10th February – half term!

Class 11 is continuing to work hard towards our GCSE Art qualification. Part of our current work is based around identity and self-portraits. We have been looking at some of the works of art created by Pablo Picasso, and in particular, what made his form of art so unique. The pupils have studied the use of lines in his abstract drawing, and how these add to some of the self-portraits that Picasso was producing. We have re-created some of his more famous pieces of work, and then experimented ourselves with different types of materials and textures. Some pupils used charcoal; others worked in paint or line drawing.

This exercise will now move on to involve creating some abstract self-portraits by our Class 11 pupils. Using the school cameras, we will take some photographs of ourselves, and then use these as the basis in which to add in more abstract ideas. You can find out more about this process by listening to the podcast below.

All pupils at Turney School have been working incredibly hard ahead of our annual Christmas school production. This year we are proud to present a production of It’s a Party – a traditional tale of the Nativity story with some contemporary songs added in. We are keen to involve all pupils across the school in our annual show. As well as strong input from the Turney School Choir, we have found acting and signing roles for the many other talents across all classes.

Pupils across all year groups have been working incredibly hard with Miss Parker to learn all of the songs. We are now almost ready for Showtime! You can capture a sneak preview of It’s a Party in the various recordings from a recent rehearsal below. Don’t forget that the big day of 13th December, with performances at 2pm and 6pm. All family and friends are welcome!

7th December – Winter Fayre – 2pm

8th December – Class 11 assembly

8th December – Cinderella drama workshop

8th December – dress rehearsal for school Christmas production

13th December – ‘It’s a Party’ school production, 2pm and 6pm

14th December – Christmas lunch

15th December – Class 1G assembly

16th December – Last day of term – possible visit by Santa!

HMP Brixton raised £1542 from their Commando Marathon and from money raised by the inmates which the school will be spending on big bikes for the pupils.

Many thanks to them all.

As Christmas approaches, I’m sure you and possibly colleagues will be completing some of your Christmas shopping online. Turney School is registered with www.easyfundraising.org.uk, a fundraising website which donates a percentage of what you spend online through major retailers to a good cause ie Turney School!

There is no cost to the individual, the retailer simply makes a percentage donation to the cause each time you shop with them as long as you access their site through easyfundraising. All the big names such as Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and other supermarkets, clothes shops like Boden and department stores like Debenhams, House of Fraser as well as iTunes, Amazon and any other big name you can think of. There are also flight and holiday companies registered with them.

It just takes five minutes for individuals to register initially and after that they just access their online shops through the Easyfundraising site and this literally only adds an extra 20 seconds to their shopping time.

Type in easyfundraising into google or use the link here. On the blue find a cause tab – type in Turney School

Register as a supporter – start shopping through the easyfundraising site. A small percentage of the amount you spend comes to the school.

Before it became a habit, I used the find and remind facility of easyfundraising (google it!) which once you download the tool bar, picks up the retailers website and reminds you to use easyfundraising.

You will receive an email with how much you have donated to the children and young people at Turney School once you have completed your shopping.

Many thanks for taking a few extra seconds online to support the children.

Class 2S has been learning different skills that we might need when we go out shopping in our local community. Starting with a Learning Intention of: To identify different shops and what they sell, we worked together to use our knowledge to create a shopping list, and then identify different types of coins.

Our work started by asking what do we do inside a shop, and what do we need to give to the shopkeeper in return for what we buy? We worked together on the class whiteboard, to help answer a series of questions based on what we might buy from a particular shop. The aim was to help the pupils think about the differences between shops, and to understand what items can be bought from where.

We asked our Class 2S members what their favourite types of food are, and then used this information to put together a class shopping list. Our work finished with a really useful session in identifying the complete range of English currency, from 1p to a £2 coin.

Very encouraging work!

Class 3J have been focusing upon staple food items during their recent food tech sessions. We have learnt how pasta, potatoes and rice make up this group, as well as the health benefits that they bring to many sportsmen and sportswomen.

Out Learning Intention for this session was to design a healthy meal for an athlete that made use of some staple food. We also wanted to make sure that the personal food preferences of our Class 3J pupils were also catered for.

We decided as a group that a chicken pasta salad would fit the description perfectly. Class 3J wanted to make the healthy meal have an extra tasty feel to it, and so we also thought about vegetable and seasoning that we could add.

The final meal on the menu included courgettes, pepper and lemon. You can listen to a couple of our Class 3 members explaining more about their food tech session in the podcast below.

18th November – BBC Children in Need fundraising – Muffin Day!

22nd November – U14 football tournament

23rd November – Primary School Singing Assembly

1st December – Future Theatre Company working with Classes 3J and 11

7th December – Winter Fayre – 2pm

13th December – ‘It’s a Party’ school production, 2pm and 6pm

14th December – Christmas lunch

15th December – Class 1G assembly

16th December – Last day of term – possible visit by Santa!

Our science lessons in Class 1G have continued to look at electricity. We have been learning about why lighthouses are important and what role they play for sailors. Using our knowledge of how electrical circuits work, we then set about the task of building our own lighthouses out of cardboard, and then building a circuit inside to light a light bulb. We asked the pupils to think about how they would want to design their own lighthouses, and where to place the windows and the door. Each pupil has now produced a fully working lighthouse, which we are proudly displaying in our classroom.

1st November – School Open Afternoon – please contact the school office to confirm an interest.

2nd November – Orange Class assembly

3rd November – Class 10C assembly

9th November – Purple Class assembly

16th November – Silver Class assembly

18th November – BBC Children in Need fundraising

13th December – ‘It’s a Party’ school production, 2pm and 6pm

14th December – Christmas lunch

15th December – Class 1G assembly

16th December – last day of teaching before the Christmas break

Class 11 have been creating a series of self-portraits to try and understand more about ourselves. We talked about different techniques that we could use to help us with this exercise. These included placing a cross on a sheet of paper, and then using this as a guideline when working out where to place our eyes, ears and nose etc. All of the pupils were working off a digital photo that had been taken by a friend. This has proven to be a great exercise in self-awareness, as well as producing some rather fine artwork.