This week’s newsletter is available here
Have a good break!
Thursday – the best classroom is roofed only by the sky ( even when it rains)
Today we spent most of the day outside, despite the rain. A bit of rain doesn’t seem to stop the animals or the famers so we didn’t let it stop us either.
We built dens which involved lots of negotiation and evaluation as our first ideas didn’t quite live up to our expectations. We made headresses, clay, fires and heard stories whilst to raise continued to fall outside our story hut.
Later we carried on with our design and construction work – some people were incredibly motivated by building, real life building and spent a long time on building walls, paths, weaving, decorating.
And today was Olivia’s birthday – Happy 11th Birthday to lovely Olivia!
Micawber Class Assembly
We are still only in the first half term of the school year, but the children continue to impress with the professionalism of their class assemblies. Today it was the turn of Micawber Class to showcase their learning and they delivered in style. The audience were treated to a warm and witty assembly based on the history of London in which the children performed their lines superbly. Congratulations to all the children in Micawber, Miss Jalloh and Miss McIver for all their hard work.
Wednesday – laying paths in more ways than one!
Today was eclectic like every day on the farm. We split our time between moving pigs with a pig board (harder than it looks) into pens to be weighed, helping to build pathways and meeting houses for camp fires and moving families of ducks.
We are learning about the life cycle of a farm animal. We are growing in understanding and respect for their roles in our diets – for some of us, it has been hard to make the connection between animals we see and animals we eat but we are getting there.
And those other paths? Our friendships have become deeper and we are perhaps are not all heading in the directions we assumed. We are lifting our eyes, looking beyond our small part of a big city and seeing new ways of living. Older children always said to us that Wick Court Farm week is the best week of primary school – they were right! We have one more day left.
Tuesday – baking, birding, nursing and herding
The sun has gone down on Tuesday and every day is different on the farm. Today we went birding – with big binoculars and high expectations. We observed from the hide, peering through cameras and saw lots of different birds – more exciting than some of the magpies and feral pigeons we get in central London. We felt inspired to try and encourage a wider range of birds into our school garden.
Later came a visit from the vet – that was interesting! The children’s questions were thoughtful and demonstrated strong levels of analysis and curiosity – some powerful lessons in managing the health and numbers in a herd!
We like to think we might be a bit more self sufficient than we when we left London last Friday. Behold our own pizzas, bread and crumble!
Nickleby Class Assembly
Congratulations to Nickleby class who delivered a thrilling historical assembly this morning! The children told a delighted audience all about the Celts and the Romans. We learnt why the Romans were eventually victorious, how to pronounce Boudicca, and where the Celts went for a woad makeover! Well done to everyone in Nickleby, Miss Jacobs and Miss Tyson for all their hard work.
Stars of the Week
Congratulations to our stars of the week! Keep up the hard work everyone. Next week it could be you!
Monday – did we mention the sheep?
We might not have had the strange skies of London but we were treated to a most spectacular sunrise this morning (thank you Mr Eggleton for the super photo!). Today we tried to master the art of herding sheep – again with varying degrees of success but we like to think we are improving. Ne’shaun is determined to crack this one! Dolly the sheep is giving us the runaround but we love her really, when she stands still!
Elsewhere there has been caring for pigs, and feeding the compost machine and shovelling manure to mulch the veg for the winter!
Sunday Funday – holding ducklings, herding sheep, apple pressing and an awful lot of mud
Today began after our daily chores around the farm with a long muddy walk. We climbed over stiles, rolled down hills and some of us got stuck in the mud and our wellies had to be rescued by Mr Eggleton.
Later we did our best to herd some sheep – not sure it was up to the standards of one man and his dog. We looked after some ducklings ( well we cuddled some ducklings), fed the cows and there were apples – it is that time of year!
Everyone is having a great time – Zac loves the ducklings but Joel is rather underwhelmed by the size of the turkeys – we are all learning a lot about where our food comes from!
Bumble Class Assembly
On Thursday, we were treated to Bumble Class’ brilliant White Stripes themed assembly. The children loved singing and dancing to the accompaniment of Mr Paul on the guitar and we were all extremely impressed by the way that they demonstrated their knowledge of number bonds through song! We’re sure that the children will be able to remember their important number facts with this super cool song to remember them by!
In the second half of the assembly, Year One explained how they are learning how to discuss and control their emotions by using a giant mood meter. This links in to our whole school work on RULER and we were impressed at all of the words that some of our youngest pupils were able to use to describe their emotions.
Well done to everyone for a brilliant performance and thanks to Mr Paul for all of his hard work and creativity!