It’s about progression
Have your children ever come home from school telling you, “The work we did in class today, we’d seen before.”? Well, to some extent, they wouldn't be wrong, as the National Curriculum for England is based upon a spiral model. This means that concepts are revisited throughout the year and then in subsequent years. Let's take the subject of Maths for example and within that subject area, the concept of addition. This concept would be introduced when children begin their Primary education in Year 1. They will start by learning and understanding numerical digits. From there, the teacher will introduce them to the addition of numbers less than 10, before building the complexity of the calculations to include two-digit operations. Each time the children visit the concept of addition, the problems get more challenging.
We call this progression, and we apply this process to everything we do in school. The allocation of ClassDojo reward points gets harder as children move up the school. Their trips become more challenging and expectations for their level of independence increase. This is also the case for our Student Leadership roles and why only the students in Years 4, 5 and 6 can become Sports Leaders. Students in Years 5 and 6 can be appointed as Student Ambassadors, leaving the position of House Captains to our most senior students in Year 6.
Our Sports Leaders will be responsible for developing engaging, inclusive break-time activities for their peers. Our Student Ambassadors will develop their social skills, their confidence levels and knowledge of the school, so they can effectively introduce visitors to our community. Finally, our House Captains will work towards raising the profile of their Houses through the organisation of House events. Congratulations to our Sports Leaders, Student Ambassadors and House Captains on their recent appointments.
Our integrated Moon Festival
Always thinking creatively, this year we decided to link our Moon Festival celebrations to STEAM activities (Science, Technology Engineering, Art and Music) focusing on Outerspace. Modelling phases of the moon using Oreo cookies, creating Moon Sport challenges or constructing lava tubes on the moon were just some of the project choices for our students this week.
We had visitors in school, helping the children to create space aliens out of playdough; they could make Galaxy Slime, and research information about nocturnal animals. All in all, the children were able to work collaboratively and extend their problem-solving skills through an exciting program of events.
The week climaxed on Friday. Dressed in their Ao dai or Hanboks, the children performed dances and songs relating to the Moon Festival event. Videos of these Year Group Moon Festival performances were shared online, across the community, so that everyone could benefit from our excitement. What a wonderful BVIS Moon Festival celebration we’ve had!
