Primary Weekly Highlights: Planning by Backward Design

Here at the Primary Campus, we use a curriculum planning approach called understanding by design or backward design. This was a concept developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. A ‘traditional’ approach to lesson design involves content being identified, along with a sequence of lessons and finally an assessment. In a backward design approach, what students should know and..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Launch of New and Exciting Units of Learning 📖

Recently the students have begun some new learning units at JB. This is always an exciting time for students as they discover what they will learn about through the steps of learning within their unit and the end goal.

Year 5 teachers have launched a brilliant unit focused on learning all about the Aztec Civilisation. The students had to develop their teamwork skills on..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Drawing and Early Representation ✏️〰🖼

Drawing is a crucial activity during kindergarten years. It is a way for a child to express their understanding of the world around them. Drawing allows children to make meaning and freely express their ideas, thoughts and feelings. Children usually have a natural urge to draw and here at JB, we ensure our learning environments support this. 

Across our kindergarten years,..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Teachers

World Teacher Day was celebrated this week and I would like to thank all parents and students for showing their appreciation to their teachers in different ways. This day has made me reflect on how outstanding our teachers are here at JB.Our teachers are some of the most caring and committed people I have ever worked with. I was reminded of this recently, when we came together..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Student Leadership

As part of our citizenship programme, we encourage the development of student leadership throughout the Primary campus. There are many positions that any child, dependent on age, can aspire to. When in school, at class and year group level, we offer a range of roles from Environmental Officers and Buddies to Break/Lunch Monitors. Each class from Year 2 – 6 also vote termly,..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Students Return!

Yesterday was a special day. Our students across the kindergarten years returned and brought our campus back to life. Classrooms were full of happy and joyful children who embraced being back at school and brought smiles to everyone at JB.

I was so impressed with how instantly comfortable and settled our children were as they separated from their parents and strolled into..

Primary Weekly Highlights: International Dot Day

ART ROOM BLOG

This week in the virtual Art Room, we have been celebrating International DOT Day! Dot Day is based on the book, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds which tells the story of a child called Vashti who resists creating art until her teacher empowers her to discover what a talented artist she really is! It is also a story of how even the youngest of us can ‘Make their Mark’..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Students

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning has begun at JB!

Students have made an amazing start to their year in this first week at JB. Our students in Preschool have shown such enthusiasm for their learning and adapted brilliantly to online learning with their teachers. Across Year 1 and Reception, children have engaged in a range of activities getting to know each other, their teachers and sharing information about themselves.

From..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Students

Our students have been extraordinary this school year. Faced with so much change and challenge, they have continued to amaze me with their resilience and fortitude.

As Principal, I have been shared into countless examples of our students showing kindness and humility throughout the school year. Students have engaged in service to others through awareness raising, charity..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Community

As we approach the end of a very challenging school year, I have been reflecting on my experiences as Primary Principal at Alice Smith. One aspect of our school has continually demonstrated its strength and importance; our community. I believe it is our community that has played a significant role in supporting us all through this testing year. 

Here at JB we have strived to..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Turtles 🐢

Our learning here at JB is always purposeful. We plan and teach units of learning through our cross curricular approach which are a combination of knowledge and skill building aimed at deepening student understanding. Our recent unit on turtles 🐢 in Year 2 was an example of all that is great about our approach. 

The unit comprised a brilliant balance of knowledge acquisition..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Music Matters!🎼📻🎶

Despite the ongoing challenges we are facing on a global scale, music making has continued to enhance the lives of many, including those within our school community. 

The positive impact that music in its many forms has on wellbeing is widely documented. Whether participating or listening, music is associated with improved mood, reduced anxiety, lower levels of depression,..

Primary Weekly Highlights: The Writing Revolution

Like any area of learning and teaching, the teaching of writing and how best to approach it, has been a constant area of debate for decades. Some of the most widely used approaches include TalkforWriting by Pie Corbett and The Writing Workshop by Lucy Calkin. Here at JB we have begun exploring an approach stemming from a method called The Writing Revolution based on the..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Another Fantastic Hook!

Year 6 has begun yet another exciting unit with a truly inspiring Hook on 'Forces'. We feel that learning at home should be just as fun and accessible as it is in school and that in no way will online learning be a barrier to what we can achieve.

For this Hook, lots of research went into finding experiments that could be accessible to every child with a lot of thought put into..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Managing Change

Our approach to the personal, social, health and emotional (PSHE) education of our students is so important to us at JB. Its value has become even more pronounced given the effect that Covid-19 is having on the world.

The principles of positive psychology underpin our approach to PSHE teaching and this week we have focused on managing and coping with change. With our students,..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Service to the Community

Our Year 6 students were very excited this week as they visited our wonderful EP campus as part of their transition programme to Secondary School (you can read more about their experiences here). I know from speaking to the students that they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and that they are really looking forward to their remaining visits. It has been a pleasure getting to..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Curriculum

Every week in order to support the happiness and learning of our students and staff, I prioritise as much of my time as possible around visiting lessons. It is one of the most rewarding aspects of being Principal. One feature of learning we focus on here at JB is how we display it within our classrooms.

Learning displays are very important to us in that we recognise how they..

Primary Weekly Highlights: UNESCO World Book Day

Today we celebrated UNESCO World Book Day at Alice Smith. We began the day with a brilliant assembly. Our students were given the message that books are magical and reading is a superpower. We watched an inspirational video from childrens’ laureates across the world who spoke of the importance of books and the role that reading has played in helping us deal with these..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Art and Music

It has been the most wonderful first week back here at JB. Our staff and students have returned with renewed enthusiasm and energy for learning. Quite a number of new units of learning have launched this week and I am looking forward to experiencing as much of these units as I can along with the students over the coming weeks and sending you updates periodically.

Art and Music

Primary Weekly Highlights: ‘Spark’ Story Competition and Principal's message

The theme for this year’s FOBISIA short story competition was ‘Spark’, which gave the children a broad topic to explore writes Julie Harrison, our Subject Coach for English. As you can imagine, we had a wide range of stories covering a wide range of ideas, from fires and erupting volcanoes to sparks of emotions. We are very proud of all the Key Stage 2 children for their..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Year 6 New Skill Presentations

To achieve success one must sometimes fail. To learn one has to often struggle. Failure and struggle can be discouraging for some but not for our Year 6 students. A major highlight this week has been the new skill presentations as part of the Year 6 Challenge Award. As part of this challenge, students must identify a new skill and attempt to develop it. The learning experience..