NEWS
Our pick of the top parenting and education news
What does it take to be an astronaut?
[Wimbledon High Junior School, London] Year Five’s Big Bang Space Day had pupils tackling five important missions, focusing on space health, Mars rovers, waste in space, crew training and heat shields. With help from Wimbledon High’s Scientists in Residence, the children tested different materials to find out how heatproof they were, and coded Microbit robot cars while facing various obstacles. “In space health, we learnt about recycling body waste in space, and how you can survive in the harsh environment,” said Year Five pupil, Holly. “It was a really fantastic and enjoyable day!”
Papplewick pupils were delighted to greet an array of animals at the festival ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL [Papplewick School, Berkshire]
AN AWESOME AUTHOR VISIT [King’s Hall School, Taunton] Award-winning children’s author Katherine Rundell joined pupils at King’s Hall Taunton via Skype back in March, as part of the school’s rescheduled World Book Day celebrations. The snowy weather meant that Katherine couldn’t visit the school in person, but the pupils still had a wonderful time asking her questions and finding out about her trip to the Amazon rainforest. Year Six pupil Maya said: “It was an inspirational visit and I got some great tips on how to write stories!” Katherine is best known for her children’s books Rooftoppers and The Wolf Wilder.
This year’s Arts Festival at Papplewick featured the theme “All Creatures Great and Small”. Pupils were delighted to welcome a selection of creatures to the school’s playground, and got stuck into an array of workshops, such as dog handling, “All about Bees”, a reptile park, animal detectives and a quiz. There was also an Arts Festival music competition, which featured both singing and instrument-playing, with individual winners from different year groups and a house competition that culminated in a whole-school “sing-off ”!
STEP INTO THE WILD [Cranleigh Prep School, Surrey] Children in Form Three put their artistic talents to great use by creating a mini exhibition for the annual DSWF Global Canvas Art Competition. In a response to their lessons about endangered species, they focused on the Grevy’s zebra, using clay, drawing, painting and lino printing to build their masterpieces. The children were thrilled to reach the finals, which were held at the Natural History Museum in London.
SUMMER 2018 | independentschoolparent.com
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