Faces to look out for?

On Thursday a crew of 30 took over one of our classrooms. They consisted of photographers, camera crew directors and make up artists and were working with Mr Huxley and children from Barnaby Class to capture images and film of primary school education. Why you ask? The footage is going to be used by the DfE (Department for Education) and NCTL (National College for Teaching and Learning) as part of their advertising campaigns. Keep your eyes peeled – who knows you may come across faces you know on a poster!

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Reading for Pleasure at Charles Dickens Primary School

Our friends at Nosy Crow book publishers recently asked Miss Chapleo to write a blog post for them to tell their readers all about what we have been doing to encourage reading for pleasure at our school.

Visit the Nosy Crow blog to read the full post about our Book of the Month initiative and how we have been rejuvenating our reading corners!

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The day Cbeebies came to film!

Today a tv crew from hit Cbeebies show ‘show me show me’ came to visit the Foundation Stage. All the children had a turn on camera, dancing fabulously or talking about important things that interested them like ‘whales’, ‘buckets’, and things that ‘squish’, ‘beep’ or ‘whizz’. Most of the children were more interested in being behind the camera than in front of it! The new series airs in January 2013 and the clips of our pupils may appear at any point in the series – keep your eyes peeled!

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British Council presents ‘The International School Award’ to Charles Dickens Primary School

The International School Award (ISA) is a prestigious accreditation scheme, managed by the British Council. The Award recognises and celebrates schools that are committed to developing international partnerships which enrich the curriculum and help young learners to become global citizens.

This is what the British Council said about us

‘The panel considered the quality of your school’s international work to be outstanding.’

‘Very good planning and well thought out international activities – very well prepared. Also good use of MFL [modern foreign languages] – French [is] incorporated into cross-curricular activities. A sophisticated, well thought out and well developed global dimension. Some outstanding collaborative work with partner schools.’ 

The British Council reserved special praise for Ms Helen Roberts and Mrs Emily Crow

‘Congratulations on working so hard to co-ordinate such an impressive range of work’ as the International Co-ordinator! You are a credit to the school and the wider community.’

A huge well done to both Ms Roberts and Mrs Crow and all the staff and children at Charles Dickens Primary. We are indeed very proud!

Did you see us on London Tonight?

This evening pupils from the school appeared on London Tonight on the eve of Charles Dickens’ birthday. The children talked a little bit about why Charles Dickens is important to the school’s heritage and we blew out the candles on our special birthday cake! There were so many candles that we managed to set off the fire alarm!

Here is a link to the BBC website in case you missed it ( available for another 20 hours)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bqq0m/BBC_London_News_06_02_2012/

 

 

Charles Dickens Primary School – On London Tonight this evening!

Please look out for pupils from Charles Dickens School on BBC London Tonight this evening.  It will be a short slot where some of our children will be playing Victorian games whilst wearing fabulous Victorian dress and talking about the celebrations that are taking part in school over the next couple of days.

Thank you to all the children involved!

Charles Dickens Primary School Council on ‘The Alan Titchmarsh Show’ – Launching ‘RSPB Big Schools’ Bird Watch

Today the Key Stage 1 and 2 members of the school council were invited to to appear on The Alan Titchmarsh Show. The children helped to launch The RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch alongside, Kate Humble ( TV presenter and President of the RSPB) and David Lindo ( writer and broadcaster – David is known as The Urban Birder).

Here we are on set, with Alan, Kate and David ( as well as Mr Mackinnon – who knows quite a bit about birds as well).

Our wonderful school councillors shared their knowledge of birds and told viewers what they have been doing to get ready for the Big Schools’ Bird Watch. We showed our apple bird feeders and talked about our bird artwork. The School Councillors were polite, interesting and we felt very proud of each of them. If you missed them in action, catch up here on ITV player – we are quite near the end ( after the last ad break)

Alan Titchmarsh Show

The whole afternoon was really exciting – we got our very own dressing room with mirrors, TV and sofa. Here we are getting ready for the show:

We learnt how a TV show gets made ( it is very very busy!) and we were lucky enough to meet some really inspiring people.

David Lindo told us how easy and exciting it is to watch birds, right here in London. We really hope that David will be able to visit all the children at our school – in the meantime, David gave us a copy of his book to read – all about growing up in London and becoming a ‘birder’.

Kate Humble told us all about counting birds in school garden and playground. We are going to look for and count birds from now until 30th January then we send our results into The RSPB and they can see which birds are living in London near us and work out which birds are growing and declining in population. If you are a school, there is still time to get involved – just click on this link ‘Big Schools’ Birdwatch. You can also take part at home with The RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch

So, thank you Mr Mackinnon for organising such a fabulous opportunity and watch this space for birdwatch news…

We have been visited by the Chair of the Arts Council – Dame Liz Forgan

Last week, we hosted Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of the Arts Council. Dame Liz Forgan was extremely impressed with the learning taking place in a dance workshop with The Place and a music lesson.  Dame Liz Forgan  spoke to both children and staff about life at Charles Dickens Primary School.  Following her visit, Dame Liz Forgan said

‘The Charles Dickens School is a shining example of creative teachers using the arts to help even very young children grow in confidence and the ability to express themselves eloquently.  It was a delight to see children so absorbed, so focused and so genuinely creative’

What a super thing to say! We are so proud of the children and staff. We also feel so lucky to work with inspiring organisation such as The Place on a regular basis.