On Wednesday 17th September, The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares came into Rowan class to carry out a workshop on speech writing. This was a really fun and engaging morning and we all wrote some excellent speeches. Many thanks to Ed, Nick, Diana and Lizzie who came in and made our morning magical. We especially loved the badge making! They will be back in the spring term for another session with our work typed up too!
On Wednesday 9th July, the drama ensemble attended a workshop at The Marine Theatre in Lyme. We worked with a group of year 10 drama students from Woodroffe school. We began with some warm up games and then produced a small abstract tableaux to share our thoughts on a Maya Angelou poem- Life doesn’t frighten me. Before leaving we showed off a bit of our Twelfth Night production which was received with great applause. A wonderful morning was had by all.
What lays beneath?
As part of Science Day Chestnut Class and Rowan Class buried some organic and non-organic items the day before we broke up for Easter. On our return we dug up our buried ‘treasure’ to see what had happened. We had buried an apple core, some leaves, a plastic bottle and a polystyrene egg. Over Easter the leaves had disintegrated; the apple was still there but you could see bugs on it, eating it. However, the plastic bottle and polystyrene egg were both fully intact with no sign of deterioration. We had learnt that plastic litter can take decades and decades to degrade – making it really important to recycle plastic so that it can be re-used rather than destroying the environment and being a danger to all sorts of wildlife.
Rowan class have had a great few days. We have had the Sensory Trust: we planted small plants and seeds. We have also had a great time tie-dying this week as part of our Holi celebrations. We used up the dye to create items for Mountjoy Market Place next week. We are always thinking of ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle.
Rowan, Juniper and Oak had an amazing 2 night residential to Magdalen Farm. We enjoyed orienteering, feeding pigs, goats, chickens and cows. We also made smoothies on the blender bikes, built dens in the woods, made pizzas in the outdoor wood oven, collected eggs, sang songs around the camp fire, star gazed and of course ate lots of lovely food. We were really looked after by all the Magdalen staff especially our guide: Tilda. Your young people were exemplary and did us all proud.
Rowan have been visiting Kingcombe Wildlife Centre every Tuesday this term. We’ve had a great time working towards our Silver Outdoor Learning Award. Some of the activities have included; river dipping, a 1 mile walk, bird watching, identifying of plants, trees, and wild animals. The students have thoroughly enjoyed themselves and have blossomed learning outdoors.
H said “Going to Kingcombe made me feel calm and relaxed”, E said “My favourite activity was river dipping even if the water was cold!”. G said “I enjoyed getting stuck in the mud and my friends helping me escape!”
We finished off our outdoor activities this week staying in school having a fire on the backfield cooking “Smores” and drinking hot chocolate.
Vacancy
Elm Class visit to Rockburn
Visit to Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis