Diversity Week 2022

24th June 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

west boldon logo pride banner

We kicked off our second annual Diversity Week this week at West Boldon, celebrating our differences and what makes us all unique and special.

 

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This year, children (with the help of their parents) took part in a competition. Each year group had a different project brief to fulfil and winners were chosen today as part of our special Diversity Day Celebration Assembly.

Year Group

Project Brief

Reception

Draw an LQBTQ+ family.

Year 1

Design a West Boldon Pride Flag.

Year 2

Create a diversity and inclusion mascot for our school.

Year 3

Create a poster that promotes equality.

Year 4

Research the history of the Rainbow Pride Flag and present this how you like.

Year 5

Write an LGBTQ+ poem.

Year 6

Write a diary entry in the role of a professional footballer who has just come ‘out’.

Here are some of the AMAZING projects we received as part of this, plus you can scroll down to see our incredible WINNERS!

Rainbow Flag competition winners

 

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During Diversity Week, children also took part in a variety of PRIDE related activities in school. Year 3 learned all about the Rainbow Flag and the Progress Flag before collaging their own using mosaic squares and tissue paper, and Year 2 did some fantastic, bright, bold and beautiful colouring.

 

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We ended Diversity Week today by coming to school in bright and colourful clothes. Here are some of our children dressed in their brightest, boldest colours to celebrate our uniqueness and individuality!

Telling the time to the minute

23rd June 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 3 have been learning about time in maths. They have learnt how to tell the time to o’clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to and finally to the minute. They found this quite tricky, so today they made a clock together and used multi-link cubes to represent each of the minutes. Then the teachers changed the clock hands and they had to use all of our time knowledge to tell the time. It was even better learning in the sunshine!

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022

27th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Children were invited to come to school on Thursday this week wearing red, white and blue for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. They completed lots of fun activities during the week relating to the jubilee. They were also treated to a magnificent jubilee lunch courtesy of our wonderful kitchen staff!

Arts Week 2022

26th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

In school this week we have been celebrating Arts Week alongside the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee! The children have learnt all about Queen Elizabeth II while finessing their artistic skills and talents.

Here’s what each year group has gotten up to…

 

Year 2

Year 2 were busy making crowns fit for a Queen… or King!

After designing their brief, their first task was to practise stitching buttons and sequins onto a sample material. As you can see, they had lots of fun perfecting their skills for the real thing! Well done Year 2.

 

 Year 3

In Year 3 the children focussed on Pop Art. The children looked at the Andy Warhol image ‘Reigning Queens’ identifying who the different monarchs were with a focus on Queen Elizabeth. They discussed the different colours used, then they looked at traditional Andy Warhol artwork where the same image is repeated in different colours. On the chromebooks, children were given an image of the queen which they then had to copy, paste and arrange into a 2×2 grid and change the colours.

Pop Art Queens by Year 3

Year 3 also learned about the Superbloom project where over 20 million seeds from 29 flower species have been planted in the Tower of London moat to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen.

They focussed on the flax flower, the national flower of Northern Ireland. They sketched their own flax flowers following a simple tutorial, then painted their creations using water colours. The results were incredible and it was particularly lovely to see them altogether, and see that every single painting was different!

 

Year 5

To celebrate the Queen’s 70th jubilee Year 5 were tasked with making a union jack themed bunting for a school display. Using fabric pens, paints and a few British themed templates, each pupil created their own contribution to the Year 5 piece.

Year 5 completing their Queens Jubilee art work

 

Stone Age Non-Chronological Reports

26th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 3 have been working hard in Literacy this half term learning all about non-chronological reports.

They began by learning that non-chronological means ‘not in order’, and identified some typical features of reports such as headings, subheadings and technical language.

During the half term, they gathered information on the Stone Age (which was also their Dimensions topic!), before writing a report, and finally publishing it as a beautiful double page spread with pictures and text.

Take a look at some amazing examples! (click to enlarge)

Silent Obstacle Courses in CoJo!

24th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 3 completed another Commando Joe’s mission today. After dividing into groups and guards, it was vital that the teams worked together in absolute silence or risked being captured.

Adventurers had to complete the course and retrieve their possession, however if a guard heard them and tagged them, they returned to the start and a new adventurer took over.

The children really enjoyed this mission and we learnt some vital skills: resilience, self-awareness, communication and teamwork.

Stone Age cave paintings!

17th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Year 3 enjoyed a wonderfully arty afternoon yesterday when, as part of their Dimensions topic on the Stone Age, they learnt about cave paintings.

They learnt that in the Stone Age, the people did not write and so drew pictures to communicate ideas and stories. They then each drew their own cave painting on the cave walls (overturned tables!).

Their designs were brilliant. Some drew hunter-gatherers hunting for animals to eat, some drew them cooking on the fire, and some drew them celebrating and spending time together.

All of the children had a lot of fun showing off their knowledge of the Stone Age, as well as their artistic skills. They also learned just how tricky it would have been to draw at that angle!

Strive for Five!

13th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

Well done to the children who won the Strive for 5 raffle today. They received a special prize to celebrate their excellent attendance this week.

Strive for 5 is one of our attendance initiatives. If children attend school for 5 consecutive days and arrive on time all week, each Friday their name will be put into a raffle. A winner from each class will be selected.

Strive for Five winners 13th May 2022

Year 3 fractions investigation!

10th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

The children worked in small groups to match the equivalent fractions. This was interesting as the fractions were all represented in different ways.

They had to use their knowledge of unit and non-unit fractions to find all the groups, but also explain and justify their choices.

The children identified there were representations of one half, one third, one quarter and three quarters.

After matching in their groups, they then played a card game whereby they had to pick a fraction and gather all the cards that showed that fraction by only giving away one card each.

This really helped to embed the children’s learning of fractions and deepen their understanding and reasoning skills.

 

Stone Age settlements

10th May 2022Miss K. Wilkinson

This half term year 3 will be learning all about The Stone Age.

Today we had an exciting lesson looking back at the different types of houses: Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. We looked at the unique features, materials and styles of the dwellings. We also discussed the way of life and talked about how it’s developed over the years.

The children had a great time re-creating their own Stone Age house with many of them choosing the Mesolithic style. We think they look great and they had great fun learning about History, which is what it’s all about.