Author: Jamie Kilner

Well, what a fantastic afternoon our Year 6 children had yesterday. All of our Year 6 children completed the 3k (although it felt longer) Junior Warrior course that was lined with tricky, challenging and very muddy obstacles.

It was a superb way to celebrate our Year 6’s coming to the end of their time at St James’ – they displayed teamwork, support and camaraderie. Mrs Cairns and I were so proud of the children. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped with transporting the children to and from the event!

 

Reproductive parts of a plant

We have had a fantastic lesson learning about the reproductive parts of a plant; we were all so captivated in our learning.

To begin the lesson we watched a short video clip teaching us how to safely and successfully dissect a flower:

Children then completed their own dissection and displayed the parts on their whiteboards.

Help at home – I would strongly recommend you have a go at this together at home. It is fascinating to see the parts of the plant that cause reproduction and contribute to the production of the food we eat.

Mrs Bald led our children in a wonderful morning of cooking today. The children prepared the vegetables before cooking up a very tasty pasta sauce.

Leo S: The sauce was really good with the pasta. I will try out some of the skills I have learnt at school, at home.

Help at home – using the recipe, that children will be bringing home, see if you can create a pasta sauce for the whole family.

 

 

Today marked the return of forest school for our class. We love being outdoors in Year 6 and enjoy connecting with nature.

We enjoyed some down time in the hammocks, making some huge bubbles, renovating the fire pit area and ensuring all the walk ways were clear.

During our session, children spotted loads of nature; it really is an amazing time to be outdoors and exploring safely. We saw slug eggs, cuckoo spit (https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/cuckoo-spit-spittlebugs), ladybird larvae and much more.

Our session ended with some goose grass juice. You may also know goose grass as ‘sticky buds’. We weren’t all convinced when sampling.

What a fantastic way to end the week!

LO: I can work in 3 dimensions using tin foil and artstraws to make a sculpture.

We love getting hands on and creative in Year 6. During this session, we used the medium of straws and tin foil to create 3D models of humans. We had such a fun time creating different poses.

Help at home – can you create any 3D models at home? Maybe make a model for each person at home.

A few additional pictures from a fantastic final morning at Robin Wood, spent on the lake canoeing and raft building. This was a particular highlight for me as we all laughed along with one another and enjoyed every moment before travelling home.

Robin Wood: complete.

 

Year 6 have had a busy day, straight from the off we’ve been testing ourselves and experiencing new challenges.

Our first activity today was piranha pool. Here we had to successfully cross the pool before the lethal piranhas were released. Luckily, we used our communication skills well; the extra shark wee also helped.

Up next was caving. The children were full of enthusiasm for this activity and it didn’t disappoint. We had some initial wobbles and anxious faces but the children displayed our Christian values of perseverance and courage to conquer any fears. It was also lovely to see the children being so compassionate to one another during some difficult moments.

Caving was quickly followed by Night Line. This was a lot of fun took us all out of our comfort zone. Communication and trust was key in this activity as we had to navigate ourselves around a tricky course – all this whilst being squirted by the cheeky squirrels (ask your child).

After lunch was giant swing – enjoy the before and after shots!

           

Straight from the giant swing we tested our courage further with the zipwire. The children voted this as their favourite activity today. By this time, we were full of confidence and loved every minute.

We have connected with our classmates on so many levels today and made wonderful memories.

 

What a first day we’ve had today at Robin Wood. The children have been AMAZING and given everything a go with a smile on their faces. We have been very proud of them.

Our first activity today was the Knight’s Quest – a fantastic way to start our trip with lots of communication and teamwork.

Next, it was time for archery. This was a firm favourite amongst the children (and myself).

Crate Stack was next. This was hilarious – we all thoroughly enjoyed this and it brought out the best in our children.

Finally, we took part in the trapeze. This really challenged us but we succeeded.

All in all, a happy and healthy day. We even found time to reflect and connect when treated with a double rainbow.

Continuing with our Keeping Safe week, we had a visit from D:side Dave today.

To start our session, Dave asked the children what drugs they knew – he then put them into categories (medical, non-medical, legal, illegal). One interesting point of conversation was around caffeine. Whilst caffeine has an age limit of 0+, some energy drinks do have an age limit of 16+ (here some establishments may refuse to sell them to under 16s). Drinks that fall into this category include Red Bull, Monster, Prime and Relentless. This is due to the huge amount of sugar and caffeine in these drinks. Here, Dave is showing the children how much sugar is in one can of energy drink:

Following this, Dave highlighted what we should do if a medical drug brings someone out in a rash, for example. Should this happen, we should stop talking the medication immediately and seek medical help.  We also learnt that we should never give a drug to someone that is prescribed for someone else.

We spoke about illegal drugs and that if anyone is caught using or supplying them then they could face time in prison and be banned from working in some place. Certain drugs are illegal as they are so dangerous and can seriously affect people’s bodies and mental health. They can also affect the people around them. A shocking fact is that nicotine kills more people in the UK than any other drug.

Finally, Dave showed the class images of people before and after drug use. The purpose was to highlight the effects drug taking can have on someone’s appearance in such a short space of time.

Help at home – Speak to your child about what they have learned today. Is there any key facts they remember. What would they do should someone try to peer pressure them into taking a drug?