Lewes New School Blog

It’s been one of those weeks but here, by hook or by crook . . . 2.7.10

We’ve spent much of the week in the Nursery practising for sports day. Thankfully the weather has been kind to us!

On Tuesday we spent the morning in Class One with the reception children who showed us around the classroom and offered to teach us how to make fairies. They were on hand to demonstrate writing letters and words and were very happy to play imaginary games with us.

On Wednesday the children wrote a comment or drew a picture to accompany their end of year reports and Thursday was all about Sports day.

As we are nearing the end of term we will be thinking about, and planning, an end of year celebration of some kind for all to be involved in. We’re thinking of some kind of family picnic in the park or coffee morning. If you have any thoughts or ideas about this please let Anna or me know.

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This week Class 1 had a visitor: David Bradford, who is a local entomologist! What a glorious afternoon we had. He brought with him, newts and tiny frogs, an array of moths, one of which fooled us as it looked like nothing more than a twig! The children were delighted and thrilled by this amazing ‘hands on’ experience. We were able to handle slow worms, newts and frogs! David was so impressed with the knowledge that Class 1 children already had, he was so happy with their responsible attitude to his exhibits, that he can’t wait to visit us again very soon to show us his snakes!

The children have been busy making fairies and gnomes for their fairy garden, and so much stitching and sewing has taken place this week!

And we all slept well after a wonderful sports day!

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This week in Class 2 we have been very busy planning and organising our science exhibition which is especially designed for Class 1. There will be a range of interactive activities at the exhibition on rainbow making; the separation of white light into its spectrum of colours; reflection and refraction; kaleidoscopes; shadows and the movement of the sun.

We have also been busy publishing our stories including: Lucy’s ‘The Crystal of Time’; Malachy’s ‘Aliens Attack’; Martha and Amber’s ‘The Monkey Story; Oscar’s ‘The Little Monster’ and Emil’s ‘James Bond’ adventure. All the children are aiming to get at least one piece of writing published before the end of term and we are making good progress with this.

As you know, it’s also been a VERY sporty week, with the District Sports Event (where Kimon came second in the hurdles; Malachy threw a tennis ball over 26 metres and LNS came second in the small schools section) and sports day yesterday. Well done to all the teams, it was very close indeed! I hope parents and children alike enjoyed the day!

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This week Class 3 has seen amazing sporting achievements as well as the presentation and evaluation our learning in several projects.

It’s been a very sporting week with the athletics meet at Priory on Tuesday and our own school sports day on Thursday! For many of the students who participated in the athletics at Priory it was their first experience of a large scale sporting event, and they all rose to the challenge. We has some amazing high jump scores from Martha, great throwing skills from Ruben, excellent long jumps from Freya as well as a demonstration of complete determination from all involved, to do their very best and just go for it! Our resolve and endurance (in the heat!) paid off as we came second in the small school’s league, very impressive given that it was the first time we had ever practised this full range of athletics skills, well done everyone! Here’s to doing even better next year!

We are all currently publishing some of our writing too. Some children have decided to publish stories that they wrote very recently and others are choosing stories that have been year long projects. It is very satisfying for all of us to finally see these stories in print and we are hoping to bind them into our own books so that these stories can continue to be shared by for a long time to come in our school library.

We have been putting finishing touches to science projects which we will be presenting to class 2. Aileen’s group are busy recording voice-over material for their slide show. Jonah and Martha’s groups are trying to find relevant sound effects for their presentation. Millie’s group are planning to use a mixture of mime and video to accompany their presentation. We’re hoping that class 2 will not only learn lots about sound but also be just a little impressed with our ICT skills!

We are continuing to care for our mini-tyre gardens in the playground by ‘dead-heading’ to bring new flowers as well as pinching new tomato shoots so that plants will grow tall and strong.

Catch up with what’s been going on in the different classes…

June 25^th

Last week the Nursery children spent most of the week looking at books, how they are made, what they are used for, and the different types of books that can be found in the world. This led to most of the children making their own books in some way, shape or form. Laurie made a story book, ‘The Big Hurricane’. It’s a story about how the wind blew in the night . . . “even though the person on the television said it was going to be sunny!”, blowing over cars and causing mass disruption.

Daisy made a picture book that she may add words to, and an art book where she plans to keep all her paintings.

On Monday Daisy and Ines came into class wanting to write numbers so this week we have been looking at numbers, what they look like and how to form them. We have made a number line to help us remember what the numbers 1-10 look like, some children have used it to practise counting. Jude spotted that the line starts with a zero and ends with a zero (10).

Next week we will be gathering the children’s ideas about how they would like to see our outside area being developed even further. We will also be asking for your opinions, so get your thinking caps on!

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This week in Class 1 the children have been eager to write, write and write again! I have been most impressed, as both year 1 and reception children have found many reasons to write this week! Whether that be writing secret coded messages to the Earth Spirits (fairies to you and me) or to write a rude story about Stinky The Stag Beetle there has been a wealth of writing this week in Class 1. Will Turner wrote a hilarious story about Snotty the Stag Beetle, who was a keen footballer and modeller of clay!!!! World cup fever has been evident in the classroom with many of the year 1 boys writing about mini beast footballer champions!

Meanwhile Molly Rose has inspired many of the children to begin a Fairy/Earth Spirit project, by bringing in a small fairy world complete with star encrusted leaves. This led to a larger fairy world being created by many of the children, including Molly Rose, Talia, Madeline, Eartha, Delia, Isobel, Lottie, Django and Orya! They created a beautiful fairy forest, Django wrote a long letter to the fairies, which explained what they had done. Lottie and Molly Rose wrote tiny messages on tiny cards. Molly Rose wrote her message in a secret code that only true fairies can crack!

It has been amazing to observe those children of reception age who have quite clearly been processing so much with regard to writing, that it appears that they can just suddenly write simple sentences, Luca is one such child, it appears that all of a sudden he wants to write, and so he is!!!!!!!! Ah truly, the fairies have been working their magic!!!

This week Class 2 have been planning an interactive science exhibition, inspired by the science museum visit last term. We reflected on our learning and gathered together all that we learned about light and shadow. We have divided up the different aspects of our project and now have a plan for how to get our exhibition ready for the end of term.

We have also been working hard to finish selected writing projects and to publish them, many of us putting our new touch typing skills into practice. We hope to have lots of Class 2 stories ready for the new Library and writing room by the end of term. We have also been busy with our times tables challenge; making tables posters; learning our number bonds to 20, 50 and 100 and practising our mental maths in a way that consolidates what we have learned this year.

We’ve also been working hard to get ready for sports day (next Thursday) practising all the different activities and organising ourselves into our teams. We are looking forward to the event, and hope to see you there! Have a great weekend everyone.

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In Class 3 this week we have all been revelling in our camp experience! We’ve been sharing all the different skills that we learned from our woodland escapade as well as reflecting on how we were applying our learning habits whether it be putting up tents independently (not me!); persevering with whittling our first piece of wooden cutlery; having the resolve to make a fire without using matches, or working as team whilst playing ‘capture the flag’. We have been recognising the qualities that this range of activities has presented us with and how we have learned from them.

We are now in the final throes of preparing our science presentation with everything we have learned from our experiments and investigations with David (Isobel). We are looking forward to using a range of methods in our presentations including slide shows, video and drama! Watch this space….

We are also in the midst of looking back over the year with regard to all we have learned in our maths work and revising and consolidating areas such as long multiplication and division as well as fractions, decimals and percentages but to name a few. We are also discussing the best strategies for solving number problems and how these strategies may well differ yet glean the same final response.

We have been continuing with our sports challenges, preparing ourselves for the county athletics meet next week as well as attempting as much as possible of our non-standard bronze certificate in swimming.

We are continuing to care for our mini-tyre gardens in the playground too. We have discussed and deliberated how often we should water them in hot weather, how we can eradicate the slugs as well as the best moment to pick a ripe strawberry!

Upon reflection this weekend I realised that all my spare time at the moment is spent transforming our garden into a creation that even ‘The Good Life’s’ Tom and Barbara would be proud of! This entails all sorts of tasks: planning border designs; growing seedlings; planting companion vegetables and trying to eradicate the bindweed.

Having my own garden again after more than 20 years brings back vivid childhood memories of tending my own vegetable patch alongside my parents’. I remember running down the garden every day after school, eager to see what had sprouted overnight, and terribly impatient that the vegetables took so long to be ready to eat. I remember exactly how it felt to eat the vegetables I had grown myself, the taste incomparable because I had helped them to grow.

Not much has changed, although I do worry a lot more about my veggies. I cover them if I know there will be a frost and check in the morning to see how they have fared. Have they been protected from the cold? Slugs? Birds? Moles? Insects? When I know all’s well I can breathe a sigh of relief and start thinking about the next little jobs - like helping the peas to climb up their chicken wire; making sure the tomatoes and french beans are supported adequately; checking the weather forecast daily and, of course, feeding and watering the garden.

Class 3 are designing their own mini-gardens which they’ll plant in the tyres in the playground. Some of the designs are very ambitious, some quite simple but effective. I’m looking forward to seeing how the children react to watching their own creations come to life and how they will care for them. Will they be as impatient as I was? Will they remember to feed and water them? Will they be excited at tasting their own vegetables?

I wonder if any of the children will see the similarities between taking care of their gardens and their parents taking care of them? Protecting them from all kinds of harm, keeping them warm, well fed and watered, and watching their progress with both anticipation and excitement. We shall have to wait and see…

Anne-Marie (Class 3 teacher)

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us”

Habits, we all have them – ranging from helpful ones to comforting ones to unnoticed ones and to those very secret ones only those close to us know about. On a practical level, habits I would benefit from acquiring include: putting the recycling out weekly (my lodger would appreciate it), checking my emails more regularly (Lizzie would approve) and taking my turn to cook more often (my partner and friends would be delighted).

As you probably know, at school we are talking lots about the habits that we’d like to get better at. We are trying to notice things about ourselves that will help us to be better learners. This hasn’t all been plain sailing. Sometimes there are things within ourselves that we know we need to work on, but at other times it can be really hard to observe things that we’ve previously not noticed or got used to not seeing. Facing up to old habits and turning them into new ones can be a challenge but it’s a challenge we’ve all set ourselves (including the teachers).

Many of you may already have started to help your child to collect evidence for their portfolios that shows the steps they are taking to develop their chosen habit. The collaboration here is so exciting, as this project gives us the opportunity to enrich our partnership and look at children’s progress more holistically. We all know that learning never stops and now we have an approach that reflects this.

The potential of this approach dawned on me last week, when I discovered that Elias had planned a film project at home on Chinese New Year from start to finish. I’d already seen the film, but I had no idea of the process he had gone through to make it. On another occasion he designed a swimming pool, digging a hole in his garden and lining it with a paddling pool. This made me realise that there is so much that the children do, that we don’t know about. I can’t wait to learn more about them as they develop their habits at home and beyond.

Clare (Class 2 teacher)

Here’s what we’ve been up to this week . . . and by the way if there is anything going on that you could help with in any way please do let us know! . . .

On Monday Daisy came in to the Nursery saying “Can we make a kite?” This inspired many of the children to make their own kites on that same morning. They found the resources they needed then went to the playground to fly them. James said “They don’t work, they don’t work!” We’ve spent much of the rest of our week looking at how to make kites that will really fly!

Alongside this we have been looking at ways to identify the trees growing in the Pells park. We’ve been using identification charts and leaves from the trees to help with this. Today while having lunch in the park Loui found a leaf from a horse chestnut tree, as we chatted about the flowers and rather special seeds of this tree he declared, “That means that’s a conker tree!”

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In Class 1 we’ve had an explosive week! We’ve been continuing with our work to create a spectacular eruption. On Monday we experimented with bicarbonate of soda and malt vinegar. In small groups we thought about how much of each ingredient would be needed to make the best and biggest eruption.

Tuesday’s ingredients were suggested by Joshi, Otis and Josu. They suggested we look at the chemical reaction between cola and mentos. By adding 1 mentos to 500ml of cola we were expecting a huge fountain to explode from the bottle, but we were a little disappointed!

We thought about why this may not have worked so well and came to the conclusion that we needed 2 litres of cola and a whole packet of mentos!

On Wednesday armed with all the equipment for the experiment, we were successful! Come into Class 1 some time and have a look at our photos and scientific documentation.

In Class 2 this week we have been reading more of ‘How to Train a Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell following Amber’s visit to meet the author last week (we are reading a signed copy!). Taking inspiration from Lucy’s art journal, we have also been exploring collage techniques and seeing how we can use collage to inspire work in other mediums (some children have been enlarging sections of their collages and then painting them). We have also been experimenting with pastels and chalks, as our individual art projects continue.

We have continued to learn about different units of measure for mass, capacity, length, time and money. It would be great if this could be enriched at home, with for example, opportunities to cook or pay for small items.

We have also been debating ‘What makes a good shadow?’ and some children are now going to investigate the question they came up with about whether black paper makes better shadow puppets than white paper. Predictions are split; some children think that the darkness of black paper will make darker shadows, some think that shadows are just shadows and that the colour of the paper will not make a difference. We all look forward to seeing what happens!

Finally, we have started to choreograph our movements in dance, responding to the different qualities we notice within ourselves or wish to acquire – it’s exciting as things really start to take shape!

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In Class 3 this week we have been collecting evidence to show that we are pursuing and improving our learning habits in and out of class. One child has already brought in photos of something he’s been up to at home as evidence of how a habit is developing there.

We have been continuing with our Science projects on sound and most groups have opted for presenting their findings using Powerpoint. This is turning out to be quite a ‘head scratcher’ for some as we puzzle out how to draw and plot graphs to show our results! But perseverance has won out and we have some very impressive slide shows and posters to share. We have also been exploring how our perception of sound(s) can be confused by our other senses such as sight. This has led to designing some of our own mini-experiments to test some of these ‘interference’ theories.

We have also been continuing with our mini-garden tyre designs. We now have a price list and we have been applying our number skills to calculate our costs within the allotted budget. We now need to measure the dimensions of our tyres so that we can calculate the surface area and volume of the space. Then we just need to do our shopping and get planting!

We have also been practising our diving and retrieving skills during swimming sessions. This is quite challenging for some of us but, again, determination has shone through and we are becoming more courageous about how deep, and for how long, we can dive under water.

Boys and their light sabres… this seems to have been the main issue at school for the past couple of 

weeks…what to do about boys and their light sabres. We obviously don’t want children getting hurt, but we don’t want to go down the route of an outright ban either – substitutes are always found, and anyway we feel it’s vital that boys can act like boys without feeling that they are bad or wrong.  Our first decision, to make a deal with the boys and hand the responsibility for safe play over to them, worked fantastically well for a while, especially with the older ones helping the youngest to stick to the deal. 

This responsibility has become a bit of a burden for the older boys over the last couple of days however, and we have decided to have a break from light sabre play for a while. So at assembly yesterday we acknowledged the successful efforts of a lot of the boys in the playground, and discussed what we had learned from it (like ‘not hurting people when you’re playing fighting games’). We then observed that we had noticed that some people were running out of steam and seemed to be a bit worn out by the effort involved, so maybe now was the time to have a break. There was a feeling of ‘fair enough’ from the children, and an acceptance of a ‘let’s wait and see’ approach to playing again. 

This seems to me to be a great example of the way things are worked out at Lewes New School: the trust in the children; the clear boundaries; and the flexibility to manage situations appropriately as they change.  Added to that of course is the learning we take from the children’s learning, and finding out what they are capable of. If any parents would like to know the deal that worked so well, for use at home or after-school play time, these are the magic words: ‘If you want to play with light sabres, it is your responsibility to make sure that nobody gets hurt. That’s the deal.’  Then add trust!  

Stephanie PET/TET co-ordinator 

“For too many people, not just in our own country but around the world, the penny hasn’t yet dropped… that this climate change challenge is real and is happening now…The penny hasn’t dropped too that Copenhagen is the chance to address on a global scale the climate change challenge. There isn’t yet that sense of urgency and drive and animation about the Copenhagen conference.” –  David Miliband 

I read recently that one of the best ways to influence the behaviour of people is not to offer rewards but to set a good example, a kind of do-goody keeping up with the Joneses.  I have signed the school up to the 10:10 commitment for 2010, to reduce our carbon footprint by 10% next year and hope that th ‘good’ behaviour of our school community will have repercussions for the local area and, perhaps, beyond. 

The 10:10 site suggests four key areas to measure: electricity; on-site fuel use (gas); road transport; air travel. These are some ways in which we can reduce the school community’s carbon footprint but I have an ambition to go further, to develop and implement creative and innovative ways to save energy and resources and I’m asking for your help!  So, if this is your bag, come along* to the 10:10 forum that I’ll be hosting on: 8th December at 9.15am in the school hall. 

Bring your urgency, drive and animation to the meeting, even if the leaders of the world can’t to theirs and let’s start a carbon footprint revolution! 

Matthew Mills Junior Co-Head

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The beginning is the most important

part of the work -  Plato

After nearly nine weeks I have  ‘settled’ into my new class!  This was a new beginning for all concerned. The transition for both the children and myself has been eased by such a curiosity-led approach in the classroom. The openness and flexibility of the classroom environment has enabled us to take our time and to gently unfold and open to one another.  This has meant that as teachers we have needed to remain emotionally receptive at all times. The social and emotional needs of each child have been given priority; this is vital if we are to develop trust in the classroom.  In such a space children feel valued and accepted and are better prepared to embrace learning. We all need to feel safe and secure in order to take risks in our learning.  This is an environment where the deeper needs of the child to create, initiate and imagine can be nurtured.  The sheer thrill of discovery and boundless curiosity of the children in Class 1 is both a joy and a pleasure. Our aim is to engage and nourish each child’s innate curiosity and love of learning to create a strong foundation on which to build.  I had almost forgotten the energy that one needs in order to stay ‘in the moment’ at all times with these little ones. It has been refreshing for me to be working with children of this age again - to be totally consumed by the moment! I look forward to the year ahead, to growing and learning together. Lorraine

NEW SCHOOL THINKING CONFERENCE Friday 16^th October

Last Friday, the Cambridge Primary Review was grabbing the headlines with claims that formal education should wait until the child is 6 and SATs should be stopped. Meanwhile, a small school in East Sussex, which already practices these recommendations, was hosting a conference on innovative practice in primary school education.

The inaugural New School Thinking conference was held at Lewes New School to bring lecturers & researchers together with parents, teachers and heads in primary schools so they could share their teaching experience and understanding and be a part of a growing community that believes a change in primary school education may only come from the grass roots. Indeed, the Government’s swift and dismissive response to the Cambridge Review only confirms the need for such a venture.

On the Friday a total of 45 delegates arrived at Lewes New School from across the country. Lizzie Overton, the school head, welcomed the delegates and introduced the conference chair, Professor Ivor Goodson of Brighton University. He started by commenting on the CPR and how key aspects of the review highlighted many of the existing practices already at work within many schools represented by delegates at the conference. He went on to discuss some of the different systems being played out in countries across Europe. He set the tone for the conference by stating that schools with more autonomy and flexible curriculums received a much higher PISA rating (Programme for International Student Assessment) than the test dominated, rigid and centrally controlled schools found in the UK and Ireland.  Professor Goodson went onto introduce the keynote speaker Professor Bill Lucas from the Real Life Learning Centre at the University of Winchester.

For almost an hour Professor Bill Lucas entertained and enlightened the delegates with his research, experience and theory on new kinds of learning and teaching, backed up by what the research says. His message was clear; teaching children how to learn was the key component to a successful learning environment. That it is not what we teach our children that is vital but the ways in which they can learn. And there is no single method. Indeed, he likened the numerous approaches to learning (lecture based, text based, enquiry based, technology enhanced, teaching organized around individuals versus co-operative groups, etc.) like the tools in a toolbox – each has its merits and that teachers would do their pupils a disservice if they stuck to just one approach.

Following on from that the delegates split into three themed workshops; teacher vs learner, group vs individual & freedom vs rigour. The details of the discussion in these groups will be posted on the newschoolthinking.com website shortly. Within each group, a presentation was made either illustrating an example of a particular approach to teaching or offering a viewpoint with which to kick-off a discussion.

Before lunch was taken, the conference reconvened to give every delegate a flavour of what had been discussed across the various groups.

In the afternoon, the conference was treated to an unforgettable workshop guided by Jeremy Stockwell, a leading consultant in the art of communication. Having worked with leading politicians and business leaders throughout the world, Jeremy was able to enlighten the conference with his skill and perception in a thoroughly entertaining and physically active series of activities. His work gave delegates insights into learning and communication which nearly all found to be challenging and inspiring.

The morning’s three workshops were re-visited, with each delegate being given the opportunity to describe what they were able to take away from the conference. The overwhelming feeling was that a real community had been formed by the day’s events. What had started out as a collection of disparate educationalists with commonly held values had become an actual group of people intent on keeping in touch for the purpose of supporting each other and sharing ideas and practices. If there is going to be a change in primary school education, the academics, teachers and parents at the conference know that they will be that change.

Today we released the video of Changes as recorded by Lewes New School. Only pupils from the school sand and played the instruments, except Herbie Flowers. He played the bass, as he did on Bowie’s original recording back in 1972. Coincidentally, he is also a grandfather of two boys at the school! The track was recorded to promote the New School Thinking conference that we’re hosting in October. As a parent at the school, it is incredibly moving to see my own kids being a part of something so wonderful.

Do check it out: