Front Page News | Christopher Pickering Primary School

Y4 PSHE – Being Me In My World

By Miss L STEWART2nd November 2021

In Year 4, we have had lots of interesting discussions and debates on the various topics in our Jigsaw scheme this term.

So far…we have been exploring the concept of inclusion and what it means to belong to our community groups as opposed to being excluded an not involved. It was agreed that being included makes us feel respected, valued and part of a team within all the groups that we belong to.

We have identified the roles of the adults who work within the Christopher Pickering community. After much debate, the children all agreed that all of the adult roles are equally important to ensure that our school functions on a daily basis so that we can be the best we can be.

Exploring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC 1989) was enlightening for all the children who are now more aware of the rights which they have, as well as to how each of the articles within this important document endeavour to make sure they are safe and cared for.

Further discussions upon the current rewards and consequences utilised within our school community as opposed to those which were used in education establishments in the past, made the children more aware of how the strategies today are more considerate and respectful of their human rights.

Black History Month

By Miss S STAINTON20th October 2021

Throughout October, we are celebrating and teaching children about the importance of Black History Month within school. We always openly discuss Black History throughout our day-to-day learning at Christopher Pickering, however it is great to have even more of a focus on celebrating individuals who have overcome adversity during their lifetimes.

We have taken opportunities within whole school and phase assemblies to discuss why it is so important we discuss Black History and how we, as a country, can learn and move forward from mistakes that have been made in the past. We have also been watching videos and discussing individuals such as Rosa Parks, Mary Seacole and Harriet Tubman – 3 amazingly brave and influential black women who stood up for their beliefs and freedom. These assemblies have stimulated powerful and meaningful discussions amongst our children.

Y6 Pig heart dissection

By Miss S STAINTON1st October 2021

For our science experiment this term, year 6 were extremely excited to take part in a pig heart dissection!

We have been working hard learning about the circulatory system and the importance of the heart. This was a great opportunity to explore the 4 different chambers and arteries as we carefully examined the inside of the heart.

Also, within our guided reading lessons, we have been studying the book ‘Pig Heart Boy’ by Malorie Blackman and the main character, Cameron, is due to receive a pig heart transplant.

We could even gently insert our fingers into the vena cava and the pulmonary veins to see which chambers the blood would flow into!

Y6 visit to Sirius!

By Miss S STAINTON28th September 2021

Y6 students had a fantastic day of learning at Sirius Academy West today. We took part in a carousel of olympic themed activities and demonstrated fantastic team work to win as many point as possible for the countries we were representing!

In the maths session, we playing ‘archery maths’ and studied sprint times from the 100m races. This tested our mental maths skills and ability to order numbers up to 2 decimal places. We also enjoyed spotting lines of symmetry on the countries’ fags!

We worked really hard in art to develop our light sketching skills and design and draw our own olympic mascots.

In computing, we programmed an electronic game of squash and loved spending time in the designated computer suites!

We had so much fun playing competitive geography games which tested our knowledge on the countries involved in hosting the olympics and also the continents in which they were held!

KS1 Stay and Read

By Miss P STATHERS22nd September 2021

In Key Stage 1 we invited our parents and carers in this week to stay and read. We showed our special visitors what we do in our Phonics lessons. Then we read our reading book to our visitor and our visitors read a book for pleasure to us.

We had a great time!

Y6 Maya Wow Day!

By Miss S STAINTON21st September 2021

We loved learning about all things ‘Maya’ during our themed day. It was a great opportunity to delve into researching and understanding this fascinating civilisation. The day started through carefully examining Maya artefacts and hypothesising about their uses and how they would have been made.

We then took part in a Maya themed QR code hunt on a mission to gather and research as many facts as possible – great team work was demonstrated!

We were fascinated when learning about the religious and cultural significance of masks, especially ‘death masks’ which were placed on their dead bodies to guard them on their journey to the afterlife! The ones we designed and made look great on display in our pod area.

Finally, we spent the afternoon observing and studying intricate Maya hieroglyphs and drawing these in our sketch books.

Free Verse Poetry in Year 6

By Miss S STAINTON24th May 2021

Over the past week, year 6 have taken inspiration from Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech and have created their own free verse poems entitled ‘I have a dream’.

We explored lots of current topics relating to global warming, pollution and excessive waste. Our final poems were written to spread the message about the damage that is being done to our oceans and children shared their dreams for a brighter future within their poems.

We had some excellent imagery and figurative language being used to portray the children’s passionate messages and warnings to their audience. Lots of inclusive pronouns were also used to include their audience, similar to those used in Martin Luther King’s speech.

Here are just a few examples of their amazing work:

Studying the Irish Famine in Year 6

By Miss S STAINTON13th May 2021

Year 6 have been really enjoying their new history focus surrounding the history of migration to Britain. This week, we explored the Great Irish Famine and why it was a ‘push’ factor, leading to thousands of Irish locals becoming British immigrants.

We studied how the famine impacted the lives of the Irish and studied sources of evidence which helped us make deductions and inferences about this group of migrants.

It was fascinating to learn about how so many people around the world are of Irish descent from when their ancestors emigrated out of the country.

Year 6 Artwork

By Miss S STAINTON13th May 2021

Year 6 have been studying pieces of artwork created by ‘Soraya French’, such as this painting of a shanty town:

Soraya French, SHANTY TOWN WOMEN | Exhibition Artwork

We observed how she used a ‘layering’ technique and preferred to work in a less-structured, messy style. Using acrylic paints, we then created our own paintings inspired by her works of art.