A selection of our Gold Class pupils have been working on a transition project with our very good friends from Whippersnappers. The idea has been to use music, song and dance to help integrate new class members ahead of the autumn term in September. We have welcomed this local group into our school and worked with them to help set up a series of talent shows.

Plenty of dressing up and dancing took place, with the aim to allow the pupils to feel as relaxed and confident as possible when performing in front of their friends. We took it in turn to be the judges for the talent contest, offering supportive and positive feedback. This is a great way to gain self-esteem, as well as to work together as a group ahead of the new school year.

Our talented Gold Class pupils have been demonstrating their creative talent by producing a number of outstanding pieces of artwork. As part of our class topic of looking at how plants grow, we have concentrated on still life painting with a vase of flowers as our subject matter. We asked the pupils to think about how a background can change the appearance of an image, as well as to observe how contrasting colours can add power to a picture. We have also talked about 3D images within our work. Hand painting has also been incredibly popular within Gold Class – the pupils have used this technique to help represent the image of birds in a nest.

Gold Class are having a great time in preparing to welcome a very special friend into our classroom – the Gold Class gold fish! Some of the children suggested the idea that Gold Class should adopt a gold fish. We decided that this would be a great way to theme many related activities around this project across the curriculum.

We will be baking some cakes during our Food Tech sessions. These will then be sold on during a school cake sale. Any money that we raise will cover the cost of the gold fish, as well as future supplies of food. When it is time to buy our new class friend, Gold Class will be looking online for the nearest pet shop, and then plan the best route to get there.

The mathematical part of this project will involve budgeting for the long term care of the gold fish. We will need to work out how much it costs to buy the food, and then work out how we are going to support this.

We have had a heavy focus on artwork as the term comes to a close in Gold Class. All of the children have made some wonderful Mother’s Day cards to take home. We have also been using some advanced design software to create our own images. Working in small teams, Gold Class members used the software to plot out a design, which they had previously come up with on paper. Our printed out images are all now proudly on display in our classroom.

Gold Class have been busy making some highly creative music with a very technical approach. We have introduced the pupils to some computer software that allows you to plot on screen the sounds that you would like to create. This is a highly visual approach to making music as it makes you think about the graphical representation of the music on the screen.

The software allows a whole array of instruments to be programmed, such as the piano, trumpets, flutes and a series of drum sequences. We have asked pupil to experiment with the software, and to create a short soundscape, which represents their feelings. You can listen to a short burst of one of these recordings, as well as the thought process behind the music in the podcast below.

Gold Class are having a great start to the new term, showing wonderful enthusiasm for our new class book. We will be reading and working on Where the Wild Things Are throughout the Spring term, and developing many of the themes within the story. We started off this topic by first watching the modern version of the film. This helped the pupils to become familiar with the main characters and the plot. The next stage is for some group guided reading of the text. This work will be developed as we write our own character profiles and accounts of the plot. We are hopeful of concluding this wonderful topic with a Gold Class performance of Where the Wild Things Are.

Gold Class have been getting into the Christmas spirit by making some spectacular pop up Christmas cards. We have been learning about different materials during our D & T sessions, and so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to put our knowledge to a practical use. The pupils decided which materials they thought would be suitable for a Christmas card, and then we went about making our designs. The children carried out all of the preparation and cutting out. This is a great task to help improve our motor neuron skills. With the Gold Class Christmas cards now complete, our final task is to decide who we want to send them to, and to prepare a pleasant Christmas greeting.

Gold Class have started a major new literacy project that aims to help make our school based reading and writing more relevant to our own lives. We want to try and make the children see how works of fiction can be tied in with our own experiences, and then creating some fictional stories out of ideas that we can relate to. We started this exercise off by asking the children to write an account of their half term break. We wanted them to think about what they did over the short break, and then to try and describe this in as much detail as possible. We then held a class discussion to see how events in our own lives can them become part of a fictional tale. You can listen to some of the Gold Class ideas being read out in the podcast below.

Gold Class have been focussing tremendously hard on their science work during the first half of the autumn term. We have been learning all about the food chain and what different animals like to eat. Our work has involved learning about the sequence in the chain, starting off with a food producer, and then continuing with a series of food consumers. Gold Class have been using this knowledge to compare the food chains found in different animals environments, such as in the sea or in the jungle. We finished this work by making our own food chain game. This involved placing the animals in the correct sequence, and each pupil taking on the character of particular animals, and then seeing whereabouts they fit into the overall food chain.

This is an important year for all of our returning pupils in Gold Class as we have many new areas on the school syllabus in which to explore. We have spent our first few days back by recounting the knowledge that we learnt during the last school year. Maths has been the main focus, with the pupils carrying out some problem solving involving addition and subtraction. We wanted to see how many of the strategies we could remember, ahead of the new work coming up over the next few weeks. Gold Class were able to use number grids, tally charts and number bonds to help them with their sums. We progressed from two digit numbers to three digit numbers, as you can see from the video above.

Gold Class had a brilliant end of term trip to the nearby Brockwell Park this week. We brainstormed first where we wanted to go for our afternoon out. The pupils had to come up with a number of possible locations, and then list the pros and cons for each. Brockwell Park emerged as the winner as it was nearby, free of charge and great fun! When we arrived at the Park, we explored the area and found out what facilities were available. The playground was the favourite place for the children to play.

Elsewhere around Gold Class and we have been preparing for the transition that some of our pupils will be undergoing at the start of the new school year. We have been getting familiar with our new teachers and surroundings, as well as helping to organise the resources that will be needed back in Gold Class come September. Have a great summer break, Gold Class!

Gold Class are incredibly excited about a project that they are involved in with the wonderful Whippersnappers organisation. Based nearby at Brockwell Park, Whippersnappers have kindly be coming into our school to help Gold Class contribute to a multi-use Yurt. This is a large style of tent that is common within many Asian countries. Whippersnappers are working with many local schools in Lambeth, with each building their own particular part of the Yurt

Gold Class at Turney School has been given the task of making the front door. We have built a huge weaving frame, and then have been delicately weaving away the design for our door. Once the Yurt is complete, Whippersnappers will be able to loan it out around the various Lambeth schools that have taken part in the project. You can find out more about the Turney School involvement by watching the video above.

Gold class are incredibly excited ahead of our French themed assembly in front of the rest of the school. Our pupils will be telling the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but with a special French twist: La Chenille Qui Fait des Trous! Gold class have been learning French as part of our ongoing MFL lessons. We thought that the assembly would be the perfect opportunity to showcase out skills. The pupils will be using a series of translation cards to help the other children in the school follow the story. In particular we will be focussing upon the French days of the week, as well as the different food that the Hungry Caterpillar eats. Gold class will also be singing plenty of songs in French! You can catch a short preview of the assembly in the podcast below.

Wicked Mr Wolf is proving to be a wonderful end of term play for all pupils to be working towards. Gold class have bee having great fun with the rehearsals. We have been experimenting with different parts, and trying to think more about what each character is like. The play is perfect for the whole school to perform as it contains many different speaking parts. The pupils in Gold class have been getting to grips with the script, and trying to learn various lines word perfect. You can listen to a short sample from the Gold class rehearsals in the podcast below.