Read Our Stories of Learning at the Alice Smith School

Early Years and Primary Education Gets a Boost from Experts Jan Dubiel and Theresa Forbes Early Years and Primary Education Gets a Boost from Experts Jan Dubiel and Theresa Forbes

Jan Dubiel is an independent speaker, consultant, trainer, and author who focuses on Early Years policy, pedagogy, and practice. He is a nationally and internationally recognised specialist in Early Childhood Education.

In 2018, he was named as one of the ten most influential people in British education by the Times Educational Supplement. Jan’s expertise lies in the..

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Concept-based Learning at the Primary Campus Concept-based Learning at the Primary Campus

Our approaches to learning and our curriculum are constantly evolving at the Alice Smith School. They are influenced by research, evidence around effective learning, by what we observe within our students as they learn and also by our collective purpose; spark courageous exploration to inspire a better world.

Additionally, we must consider what the purpose of education is..

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Year 6 Challenge Award - Building a Business Empire! Year 6 Challenge Award - Building a Business Empire!

The Year 6 Challenge Award ended with a bang last week as our Year 6 students invited all members of our community to engage in the business expo.

The challenge award brings another dimension to children’s learning in Year 6 and allows students to engage in a number of growth opportunities which include work experience, fundraising, raising awareness and learning new skills. 

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Learning in the Garden: Cultivating Young Minds in an Early Years Setting Learning in the Garden: Cultivating Young Minds in an Early Years Setting

In today's fast-paced world, where technology often dominates our lives, it is essential to create spaces where young children can reconnect with nature and learn through hands-on experiences. At the Alice Smith School, our commitment to holistic education encourages learning both indoors and outdoors in our Reception Early Years setting. In this blog post, we will explore the..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Connecting Our Learning to the Natural World Primary Weekly Highlight: Connecting Our Learning to the Natural World

The outdoor provision at Alice Smith provides children with a range of opportunities to explore the natural world, follow their interests and challenge them to take risks within their play. However, despite the children in early years thoroughly enjoying their outdoor area, the educators within the setting noticed that many of the children were using the outdoor space as a..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: How to Save a School Principal! Primary Weekly Highlight: How to Save a School Principal!

Our Year 4 writers have just completed the most brilliant adventure stories. Their writing unit was packed with learning about so many aspects of writing including story structure, use of pronouns, past progressive verbs and dialogue, as well as subordinating conjunctions, prepositions and adverbials.

The unit began with students investigating story structure by looking at the..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Romans in Year 3 Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Romans in Year 3

The ‘big idea’ that children in Year 3 have been exploring recently within History is “The Roman Empire and its impact”. Children were encouraged to think as historians and build their learning around the concepts of civilisation, invasion and power.

The students have explored a number of questions including:

  • Who were the Romans?
  • What was it like to live in Rome?
  • When did..
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Early Years at Alice Smith Early Years at Alice Smith

A recently updated publication from UNESCO; Why is Early Childhood Care and Education Important?, highlights a range of areas critical to the life success of a child. The period from birth to eight years old is one of remarkable brain development for children and represents a crucial window of opportunity for education. When children are healthy, safe and learning well in..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Education Perfect Global Languages Championships 2023 Primary Weekly Highlight: Education Perfect Global Languages Championships 2023

From March 7th till March 14th, our students from Years 3 to 9 eagerly competed in the Education Perfect Global Languages Championships that took place online. 879,449 students from more than 2,500 schools around the world took part and battled tirelessly for one week. A lot of resilience was needed as they answered more than 79,400,000 Languages questions in total over seven..

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Community Action Week at JB Community Action Week at JB

We look forward to holding our Community Action Week at the Primary Campus next week. 
Students from Preschool to Year 6 will be engaged in meaningful community action projects, some of which are in partnership with charities supported by the Alice Smith School Foundation.
The key questions for the year groups are as follows:
  • Pre-school and Reception - How can we reduce,..
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Primary Weekly Highlight: Writing in Year 6 Primary Weekly Highlight: Writing in Year 6

Our Year 6 students have been really impressing everyone with their enthusiasm for writing and this has been very evident in their most recent unit; First Person Stories with a Moral.

The goal of this unit was for students to know how to weave a moral into a narrative whilst portraying characters through action and dialogue. The moral we chose was ‘be careful what you wish..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Poet Sara Hirsch visits Alice Smith Primary Weekly Highlight: Poet Sara Hirsch visits Alice Smith

We had the great pleasure of welcoming poet Sara Hirsch to our school last week. Sara is a British-born poet, director and educator and international Poetry Slam champion. She travelled all the way from her home in New Zealand to come and meet our students.

Year 5 and 6 were treated to poetry writing workshops with Sara. After starting off with a poetry performance, Sara then..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Amazing Art in Year 2 Primary Weekly Highlight: Amazing Art in Year 2

Our Year 2 students have been thoroughly enjoying learning within their Art curriculum this year. Our team of Year 2 teachers and teaching assistants have been really impressed with the skills and creativity demonstrated by the students too.

The students learning this term has centred around textiles and collage, challenging them to learn and apply skills and techniques whilst..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Our Eco Team Primary Weekly Highlight: Our Eco Team

We are talking about all things eco! It is an exciting time at our JB campus as we set out to focus upon all things eco! Our school’s enthusiastic Eco-Warriors have started working hard to create positive, sustainable changes to our campus and make our school a much more environmentally friendly place to be. 

Our JB goal this year is to become a Bronze awarded eco school...

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning about ‘Animals including Humans’ Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning about ‘Animals including Humans’

Learning here at the Primary Campus is in full swing as our students dig deep into a whole range of learning across the school. Recently I have been inspired by so many Year 4 students visiting my office to share with me their learning about Animals including Humans. 

This unit seems to have raised student interest and enthusiasm for learning to very high levels. The..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 5 Drama Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 5 Drama

Good morrow thou sugared, softly-sprighted wafer-cake!

This term Year 5 have been exploring the Shakespearean comedy Twelfth Night. Alongside their reading lessons, the play has been brought to life through a series of drama workshops.

In our first session, students considered how to create a dramatic opening to a play. No one writes a better Act One than Shakespeare, and..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Challenge New Skill Presentations Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Challenge New Skill Presentations

From trampolining to Chinese calligraphy, ice-skating to cooking with eggs, self-defence to coding, the skills demonstrated by our Year 6 Challenge students in their recent New Skill presentations were many and varied.

The Year 6 Challenge is often compared to a junior version of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. It is a demanding yet enjoyable series of..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Challenge Award Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Challenge Award

Yet again our Year 6 students have demonstrated their amazing spirit and kindness within our Year 6 Challenge Award.

This week I was incredibly impressed reading the poster displays they have made to showcase their community projects. Some students dedicated time to a community project of their choice whilst other students chose to raise awareness of a local charity or..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Amazing Term of Music Primary Weekly Highlight: Amazing Term of Music

Music Moments

We have had the most amazing term of Music Moments culminating today with incredible performances from our Year 1 children. Students have had the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience of their fellow performers, children from across their year group as well as their parents.

For some of our students, this has been the first time they have ever..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning Displays Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning Displays

The Reggio Emilia approach suggests there are three teachers involved in the child’s learning; the teacher, their parents and the learning environment. Often the learning environment is referred to as the third teacher. The work of Helen Street also emphasises the importance of the physical and social environment in supporting wellbeing. Here at JB we are very intentional..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: The Boy at the Back of the Class Primary Weekly Highlight: The Boy at the Back of the Class

One of the major highlights recently within our reading curriculum has been a core text with a very relatable theme. Our Year 4 students and teachers have been reading the novel ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’.

The Boy at the Back of the Class is the story of a group of classmates who, through their empathy and bravery, make a massive impact on Ahmet, a boy who has come to..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: We are Scientists! Primary Weekly Highlight: We are Scientists!

In Year 3, the students have been working hard as scientists this term. The children started the year learning about rocks and more recently have moved on to a biology focus studying animals including humans. The first lesson taught the children that humans are not plants because we cannot make our own food! The children were then fascinated to learn that humans are animals..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: The Beauty of Poetry in Year 4 Primary Weekly Highlight: The Beauty of Poetry in Year 4

Learning about poetry has so many benefits. Firstly it widens children’s reading horizons. It also gives them an opportunity to explore vocabulary and language, encourages them to create and can inspire them to write. The creativity gives our students space to experiment with words and performing poetry allows them to learn about voice, pitch and volume.

Recently our Year 4..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Food and Nutrition Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Food and Nutrition

This term in Years 5 and 6, students have been learning about food and nutrition and have really enjoyed it! They have been exploring nutrition as well as foods and diets from different cultures. They have learned new culinary skills and techniques and whilst applying them have been evaluating, modifying and improving their work.

Year 5 students are currently in the midst of..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Deepavali Celebration Day Primary Weekly Highlight: Deepavali Celebration Day

We had a wonderful final day of half term at JB today as we celebrated Deepavali. Children and staff brought so much vibrancy and colour to our day by wearing their traditional Deepavali outfits. 

In class children learned about the history behind Deepavali and were introduced to some Deepavali traditions. Children explored the symbolism of the spiritual victory of light over..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: ECAs and Sports in Full Flow Primary Weekly Highlight: ECAs and Sports in Full Flow

Amongst the many joyous happenings at JB, this term has been the return of a full and comprehensive ECA and Sports programme. Not only have we re-established a fantastic programme but we have actually enhanced it to levels beyond where it was pre-pandemic.

Our students are thriving in a wealth of opportunities across a wide range of activities throughout our campus before and..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Student Leaders Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 Student Leaders

“Having spent 7 years at Alice Smith (JB,) I would like to contribute back to the school community and being a House Leader is one good way to do so.” Nate, Year 6.

We believe that our students need to experience responsibility in order to help them play an active role as good citizens. This term, our Year 6 students had the opportunity to apply for a student leadership..

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Primary Weekly Highlight: Outdoor Learning Primary Weekly Highlight: Outdoor Learning

There are seven areas of learning within the Early Years, three of which are called Prime Areas. These are communication and language, physical development and personal, social and emotional development. Here at JB, our commitment to learning through play is very much influenced by how important these prime areas are and the vital role that play has in developing them in each..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Multilingual Learners Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Multilingual Learners

Diversity is a major strength of our school community and can be seen in so many different ways. One of these is the range of languages spoken by parents, students and staff. At JB we feel fortunate to have so many multilingual members of our community and in particular our aim is to nurture our multilingual students.

Hamish Chalmers, a leading researcher in the field of..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Amazing Start to the New School Year Primary Weekly Highlights: Amazing Start to the New School Year

We could not have wished for a better start to the new school year. The JB Campus has had the most wonderful atmosphere all week as we welcomed back our staff, parents and students. New families and staff have settled in very well and our students have been incredibly happy.

Settling In

I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting classrooms this week speaking to students about their..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Thank you! Primary Weekly Highlights: Thank you!

Appreciation and Gratitude at the End of the School Year

Our final weeks at JB for this school year have been so memorable. The students have had a range of exciting events including sports days, house events, day trips, a biathlon, Founders Day and various trips to EP.

This week we had our first in person assemblies for a very long time. Our Year 6 Leavers Assembly involved..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Reconnecting Our Community Through PE and Sport Primary Weekly Highlights: Reconnecting Our Community Through PE and Sport

We have just completed the most amazing week of PE and Sport activities at our JB campus. This began last Saturday with our Primary School Biathlon. Around 175 students from Years 2-6 competed in a swim/run event with three different distances to choose from. The effort, resilience and sheer determination on show from the children was so impressive. Our parents attended in..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Primary Art Primary Weekly Highlights: Primary Art

It has certainly been a busy year in the KLASS Primary Art Room! You need only walk along the JB Campus where the Diamond Jubilee Art Celebration is currently being exhibited to see the wide range of artistic skills that our talented JB artists have on display. 

The students have enjoyed learning a variety of print-making techniques – ranging from monoprints in Year 3 to..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Reading Developments at JB Primary Weekly Highlights: Reading Developments at JB

Here at JB we are committed to being an evidence informed school. This means that we examine the best available research and evidence, we consider our context including our students and setting and we reflect using our own experience and expertise when making decisions around learning. 

We have spent the last 18 months reviewing our curriculum with a view to becoming more..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: How strong is a piece of spaghetti? Primary Weekly Highlights: How strong is a piece of spaghetti?

Our Year 6 students have just completed a brilliant Design and Technology unit focused on structures. The aim of this unit was for students to know that;

  • Structures can be supported with guy lines and flying buttresses
  • The shorter the piece of spaghetti, the stronger it will be

They would be able to:

  • Construct a flying buttress to support a tower 
  • Use appropriate lengths of..
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Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations at JB Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations at JB

We always encourage our students to learn about important events in history and this week we have dedicated time and focus to the incredible reign of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.

Several events have taken place across the week and today this historic occasion. These have included the most brilliant timeline display dating back to the date of her..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through play in Year 1 Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through play in Year 1

Play is an extremely important part of every child’s early development. When children play, they learn. Here at JB, we consider our Year 1 to be an extension of our Early Years. In this week's blog Alexis Farrell, our Year 1 Leader tells us more about how this happens in practice.

Play is an extremely important part of every child’s early development. When children play, they..

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Retrieval Practice - Making Learning Stick at Alice Smith Retrieval Practice - Making Learning Stick at Alice Smith

In this week's Primary blog post our Year 5 Leader, Marym Elagha, talks to us about the work she has been doing this year with the Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) teachers on applying retrieval practice into their classrooms.

"Over the past 12-months, I have worked with the KS2 teachers at our primary campus on applying retrieval practice into their classrooms. This..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Parents and Play Times Return to JB Primary Weekly Highlights: Parents and Play Times Return to JB

What an amazing week this has been! For the first time in over two and a half years our students enjoyed playtimes at the JB campus and our parents were permitted to walk onto campus to bring their child to school.

The noise of play times has restored the one major social element of school that has been missing for so long. Children have been engaging in a wide range of play..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: World Book Day 2022 Primary Weekly Highlights: World Book Day 2022

Friday 22nd April saw great excitement engulf the JB campus, as we prepared to celebrate the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. After so many months of distance learning and various other restrictions, it was truly a joy to come together and celebrate this fabulous event as a school.

The corridors and classrooms were a riot of colour as children and staff showed off their..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: A Term Full of Learning Primary Weekly Highlights: A Term Full of Learning

Term 2 ended today with two wonderful assemblies in which we reflected on the achievements and learning of everyone during these past few months. As an entire community we faced numerous covid related challenges but through incredible perseverance and teamwork we not only overcame them but we achieved and in many ways flourished.Sharing the story of learning highlights with..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Competition Time at JB!🚩🙌 Primary Weekly Highlights: Competition Time at JB!🚩🙌

EDUCATION PERFECT WORLD/FOBISIA CHAMPIONSHIPSFrom the 8th March until the 15th March, our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students eagerly competed in the Education Perfect World Championships. With the help of KS3 students, they answered 671,940 language questions (the equivalent of 1,016 hours spent competing!) in Mandarin, French, Bahasa, but also Spanish, German, Japanese and other..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning in MFL at JB Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning in MFL at JB

At Alice Smith, students develop their intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own cultures, languages and beliefs, and those of others. In our MFL lessons, we ensure that students engage with diverse cultures, creating connections and cultivating mutual respect. We believe that understanding each other’s cultures is an essential part of living with others in..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: PE & Swimming at JB ⛹🏻‍♀️🏊🏼‍♂️ Primary Weekly Highlights:  PE & Swimming at JB ⛹🏻‍♀️🏊🏼‍♂️

Physical Education at JB

What a week of learning we have had in PE; kicking off with a brand new unit of work for our Key Stage 2 students using the game of spikeball. This game will challenge the students to deepen their understanding of some key physical education skills, concepts and strategies. Students will be learning transferable movement skills including sending and..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Post Covid - Impact on Learning 📆 Primary Weekly Highlights: Post Covid - Impact on Learning 📆

This week we began our series of parent workshops. Parents joined us in the session both online and face to face. To have parents back onsite was amazing!The focus of this first session was sharing our observations on trends and patterns we are identifying within our students. Has Covid, lockdown and numerous school closures and disruptions had an impact?

Our general findings

..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Poetry 📖🎙 Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Poetry 📖🎙

Our students get numerous opportunities to participate in academic events throughout the school year. Here at JB, our teachers often see this as more than a competition or event and will look to plan a unit of learning around the event theme or topic. 

Over the last few weeks, our Year 4 and 5 students have been learning about Poetry in connection with an upcoming COBIS Poetry..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Final Week of Term🥳 Primary Weekly Highlights: Final Week of Term🥳

Final Week of Term

We have had a week full of joy and cheer this week at JB. Our students have been excitedly coming to the end of various units of learning but also engaging in a range of Christmas activities.

JB Virtual Christmas Performance

On Wednesday evening our JB Music Virtual Christmas Performance took place. There were performances involving students from Early..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Music Moments 🎶 Primary Weekly Highlights: Music Moments 🎶

Music Moments has been a much loved staple in the JB Music calendar for a number of years. The event provides an exciting and high profile, yet low stakes performance opportunity, allowing students of all ages and skill levels to experience the joy of performing and share their learning and their progress with their peers and the school community. Performance is vital in the..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: The Highwayman Primary Weekly Highlights: The Highwayman

Over the last three weeks, our Year 6 students have been exploring Alfred Noyes’ classic narrative poem The Highwayman. The poem is about a highwayman - a robber, who steals from travellers and his lover, Bess. The poem focuses on the lives of these two main characters, their love for one another and their deaths. From this work, the children have learned the language features..

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Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Block Play Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Block Play

Play is an important feature of learning here at JB. From Preschool to Year 2, our students' learning is supported by providing opportunities to play. We consider Preschool, Reception and Year 1 to be our kindergarten years and we adopt a very play-based approach to learning. 

A significant focus for us in these years is on the personal and physical development of children..

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