Week beginning 17th July

So just like that, it's the last week of term! Please see below some of the fun activities that we have been doing. 

Thank you so much to all of the children, staff and families for making this year so incredible. I hope that you all have a lovely and relaxing holiday. Best of luck to the Year 6 leavers, who will be greatly missed. 

Looking forward to welcoming the current Year 5 back to school as Year 6 on Tuesday 5th September!

Miss Kropman x

UKS2 Pok-a-tok Ancient Maya ball game - Wednesday 19th July

After ending their topic learning with a lesson about the Ancient Maya ball game, Years 5 and 6 got to explore this practically this afternoon with a fantastic phase tournament! Originally played in small teams, Pok-a-tok is believed to have been the first team game in which goals were scored when a small rubber ball passed through a hoop. The challenging aspect of this, however, was the rule that you could not use your hands, feet or head to control the ball and nor could you travel with it! Using only their forearms, elbows, knees, thighs and hips, UKS2 played with great passion and humour. Well done to Henry B in Year 6 for being our Player of the Tournament! 

Golf Session with our Sports Partnership - Wednesday 19th July

This morning, Year 5 and 6 had a fantastic golf session led by Mr Williams and his team from the Welwyn and Hatfield Sports Partnership. Please see below pictures of Year 6 boys learning how to chip the ball whilst the girls got to practise their swings and drives in a game of golf rounders...which they then challenged the boys to play! 

Week beginning 10th July

This week has been our school's Sports Week. Please enjoy taking a look at the various activities we have taken part in throughout the week! 

Topaz' Positive Minds PSHE - Friday 14th July

This morning, Topaz demonstrated their resilience in a fun start to their Positive Minds session. First up, they played Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors. If they won on the Bronze level, they would progress to Silver. If they then beat their opponent, they reached the Gold. Should they be successful here, they could return to their seat. If at any point they lost, however, they had to return to Bronze! Secondly, they were tasked with balancing a cup and ball on their heads whilst going from lying down to standing up. Have a look at how resilient they had to be to achieve these challenges!

UKS2 House Games Afternoon - Tuesday 11th July

UKS2 had a fantastic afternoon to help build team spirit amongst house groups as part of our Sports Week today. Organised by Mrs Zerny and led by Mr Neiman, Years 5 and 6 enjoyed a range of fun activities including sprint relays, steal the toys, lacrosse shuttles, Gilwell racing and cross the swamp. All of them enjoyed working as a House, and superb effort was demonstrated by every single one of them (Miss Kropman and Mrs Fisher could but watch in awe!). Congratulations to everyone for a closely fought house battle and well done to AIR for being today's champions!

Week beginning 3rd July

With the whole phase reunited back in school this week, we could enjoy a super five days of all things STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). 

UKS2 House STEM Competition to build a nest! - Wednesday 5th July

Today was the highly anticipated House STEM challenge, as children worked in house teams to create the most successful swan's nest. The morning was spent researching swans and their nests, with each group tasked with creating a mood board to demonstrate their findings. Following this, they then designed their nests according to available resources in school and our grounds. During the afternoon, our nests were made! Each house then had the tricky job of selecting just one to put forward to the grand final, where Mrs Emmons (our D&T Subject Leader) judged the nests' aesthetic quality and floating ability, in addition to how many eggs it could hold! Congratulations to Air, who were the overall winners with a nest that could safely hold 47 eggs! 

Year 6 Trip to Hertfordshire Food and Farming Event - Tuesday 4th July

As part of STEM week, Year 6 enjoyed a visit to the Hertfordshire County Showground for their food and farming day. Throughout the day, the children took part in a number of activities. They tried foods from different continents and were even able to sample some food prepared to their taste. After lunch, a number of farmers spoke to the children about their tractors and their importance. Year 6 then went to the animal zone where they saw cows and sheep with their babies, who were as young as three weeks old. To end the day, children were treated to The Sheep Show which included amazing dancing sheep! We all enjoyed an educational and unique school trip! 

UKS2 Robotics Workshops - Monday 3rd July

To kickstart our STEM week, we were fortunate to have Neil and Eva from Computer Explorers come into school to run a robotics workshop for us. They introduced us to Edublocks and taught us how to code and create algorithms for a simple Edison robot. After exploring this for ourselves, we then had the challenge of creating a tank or digger. This could be controlled by various different mechanisms - including sound! Check out some of Year 6's amazing efforts below and the robot wars that ensued! 

Week beginning 26th June

Please see below for Year 6 daily updates from our incredible week in Wales! 

NB Miss Kropman is adding photographs each evening once the children are all asleep. 

As I type this, we have just boarded the coach at the service station for the last leg of the journey. We had a lovely last breakfast this morning and are having a fun drive home! ETA 5.30pm at The Brookmans.

Thank you to all of Year 6 and to the staff for an unbelievably good week. It has been a pleasure to be with you! Miss Kropman x

What an immense final full day we have had in Wales! This morning, Mrs Fisher and Mrs Johnson’s groups enjoyed their bush craft session whilst Miss Kropman, Mrs Davies and Mr Fennell’s groups went rock pooling. In the afternoon, everyone travelled to the nearby quarry to partake in some paddle boarding! Our last evening has been spent doing a talent show, where every single person performed either individually, in a small group or in the year performances of our play songs at the end. Congratulations to Teddy for winning and to Luke, Tegan and Tiana who were our runners up. All is now quiet in the corridors and dormitories as they are hopefully dreaming of the phenomenal week they have experienced!

We have had an absolutely amazing day today! This morning, the whole year group went body boarding together in some fantastic waves whilst this afternoon half of us went on a coastal walk and the other half surfed! We have had another lovely evening on the beach and all the children are now soundly asleep! 

Year 6 have had another amazing day in Stackpole today. We hope you enjoy looking at the photographs of Mrs Davies, Miss Kropman and Mr Fennell’s groups doing bushcraft and surfing with Mrs Fisher and Mrs Johnson’s groups pictured rock pooling and completing a coastal walk. This evening was once again spent at the beach with everyone loving communal games and dances! 

We have had an absolutely fantastic first day in Wales today. After a smooth (but long!) journey, we arrived at lunchtime and had a comical hour making our beds! This afternoon, we walked to the woods and completed an orienteering challenge to familiarise ourselves with the beautiful estate. We returned to the centre for dinner prior to the highlight of the day…our beach visit! All of the children and teachers adored our time on the sand and were loathed to have to return to the centre for hot chocolate and bed. As I type this, the dorms are quiet and all is well! I truly hope this is one of the best weeks of Year 6’s lives! Miss Kropman x

Week beginning 19th June 

Play fever has hit UKS2 this week with our fantastic production of Pirates of the Curry Bean! Please enjoy the photographs below of our dress rehearsal. Our district winning Year 5 and 6 girls' cricket team played in the county finals on Monday and our WONDERFUL UKS2 Girls Football A team had more success at the district tournament (see Sports Blog), whilst our Pupil Parliament members and special guests had the incredible opportunity of visiting the Houses of Parliament (see Pupil Parliament Page). Oh, and we also managed to fit in some excellent learning in the classroom, too!

Topaz's Positive Minds lesson - Thursday 22nd June

This week, Year 6 have begun their Positive Minds programme in PSHE. Facilitated by Watford FC's Community Education Trust, this features a series of lessons (with online resources) designed to support positive mental health in the period of transition at the end of Year 6. Today, Topaz had a fun game of human bingo before exploring what mental health means. Miss Kropman was very impressed with their responses for 'Elephant in the Room', where they suggested many mature and sensible reasons for why people are sometimes reluctant to discuss mental health. 

Week beginning 12th June 

Year 5 have had an amazing week with their residential trip to Gilwell Park (Monday to Wednesday), whilst Year 6 have been busy preparing for next week's production. Year 6 girls also got to enjoy the beautiful weather as they participated in a golf afternoon at Mill Green on Wednesday (see Sports Blog). We look forward to welcoming UKS2 parents, guardians and family members to Pirates of the Curry Bean next Wednesday 21st June at 1.30pm and Thursday 22nd June at 7pm! 

Village Day Preparations in Year 6 - Thursday 15th June 

Year 6 have been tasked with an exciting brief by the PTA this week - to design, create and market a stall for Village Day this Saturday (17th June). They will be running their stalls for all children aged 3 - 11 between 2 - 3pm, and would love to see as many customers as possible! Please have a look at some of their super video adverts below to whet your appetites! 

Week beginning 5th June 

The first week of this half term has seen a wonderful POTSMA concert performance from many Year 5&6 choir and orchestra members (see Music Blog), brilliant cricket tournament successes (see Sports Blog) and some super work back in the classroom!

Week beginning 22nd May

This has been such an exciting week in the run-up to our amazing Year 6 football A team playing at Wembley! We have also managed to complete some awesome learning in our history, English and science lessons, whilst our talented swimmers have also been taking to the pool for a competition - with INCREDIBLE results! (see Sports Blog).

As the half term draws to a close, I would like to thank all of the children for their hard work over the past six weeks. I am especially proud of the determination, effort and resilience shown by Year 6 throughout their SATS week, and of the respect and consideration shown by the Year 5s. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 6th June for the final half term of fun in this academic year!

Best wishes to you all for a relaxing half term break,

Miss Kropman x

Topaz learning about air resistance - Wednesday 24th May

Topaz enjoyed a very hands-on science lesson this afternoon as they explored the effect of air resistance - a force which occurs when air pushes against a moving object and causes it to slow down. We investigated how the size of a parachute affects the speed at which it falls to the ground by making parachutes out of bin bags, which had a model sky-diver attached by string! To ensure this was a fair test, we used the same big bag material for each parachute in addition to using the same length of string, same figure and dropped it from the same height each time. We also repeated each test three times and took a mean average to ensure greater accuracy. Each group tested three different parachute sizes and were proud to report that the larger the surface area of the parachute, the longer it took to fall! 

Week beginning 15th May

Back to business with a full week in school this week (what a novelty!), we have been working extremely hard across the curriculum. Please have a look at the Sports Blog to hear about Year 5's super hockey tournament performance and the Year 6 girls' tag rugby festival, too!

UKS2 Performing in Singing Assembly - Thursday 18th May

UKS2 have been enjoying singing 'Let it Be' by The Beatles in their music lessons with Miss Kropman this term, and showcased this to Years 1 - 4 in assembly this morning. Check out the two-part harmony and dynamic control in this beautiful performance! 

Topaz's Self-Portraits inspired by 'Wonder' during Mental Well-being Week - Wednesday 17th June

After finishing our class guided reading text - the incredible 'Wonder' by RJ Palacio - Topaz were inspired by the front cover portrait of August. As part of our well-being activities, we have had a go at creating our own self-portraits, which represent ourselves in an abstract way and include so many things that we love! 

Week beginning 8th May

A very quiet week for the blog this week as Year 6 have been working INCREDIBLY hard to complete their SATS. A huge well done to all of them for their phenomenal effort, determination and resilience. Mrs Davies, Mrs Fisher and myself are so, so proud! I would also like to thank Year 5 for their patience this week and for being so quiet whilst we have been in exam conditions.

Miss Kropman x

Week beginning 1st May

In a (very) short week, UKS2 have enjoyed celebrating the King's coronation. Despite the miserable weather, we managed to still learn about the ceremony, have a crown competition and enjoy a lovely indoor picnic with KS1. 

Week beginning 24th April

This week has seen plenty of hard work going on in Year 6 as revision has cranked up for the forthcoming SATS! Year 5, meanwhile, have been beavering away with a final report about The Amazon. Please see the Sports Blog to hear how our fantastic footballers got on away to Lochinver and to read about our superb Year 5 handball team!

An assembly with Arsenal U18 and Columbia U20 goalkeeper Alexei Rojas-Fedorushchenko - Wednesday 26th April

This morning saw a very exciting and unusual assembly, as a professional footballer came to visit! Alexei is a previous pupil of Miss Kropman's, having been part of many of her most successful football teams in the past. He signed a professional contract for Arsenal at the age of 13 and now, at just 17, he has trained with the first team and has made over 200 youth appearances! Alexei's assembly featured the powerful message that you should never give up when following your dreams and that hard work always pays off. He was keen to share his belief that you can never fail at anything, as you will either succeed or learn from every experience. This was a brilliant way to break up our Wednesday morning and we all appreciated his time. Thank you to Alexei for inspiring us so much today, and for kindly donating a signed Columbia shirt for us to display! 

Week beginning 17th April

Welcome back to school for the Summer Term! We kicked off the week on Tuesday with a fantastic concert from Andy and the Odd Socks - our reward for winning the Twitter competition during Anti-Bullying Week back in November, with many of our phase featuring in the odd socks video! Please also see below Year 6's fun drumming workshop from Thursday and check out the Sports Blog for some exciting netball news! 

Year 6 Drumming Workshop with Kris Banks from Hertfordshire Music Service - Thursday 20th April

During a busy morning of SATS revision, Year 6 were treated to a fantastic, stress-relieving bucket drumming session! Kris first taught us a number of warm up techniques focusing on call and response, building accurate rhythmic patterns and encouraging unity. Following this, we were shown how to hold drum sticks effectively and use them to make A LOT of noise on the base of a bucket! Throughout the lesson, Year 6 explored how to vary dynamics and some of us even tried our hand at conducting. The session ended with us splitting into two and playing competing rhythms, which Miss Kropman and Mrs Fisher were very impressed with!  

We would all like to thank Kris for such a fun lesson and look forward to welcoming him back for Year 5's workshop next week.