Greek Gods have got talent!

And so does Panda class it seems...

We were entertained by their creative presentation of Greek gods in their assembly this morning, using a Britain's Got Talent format to introduce the Gods to us. There are obviously many budding performers in the class, supported and coordinated by Mrs Nimmons.

Thankyou and well done to you all!

Film Night for winning House

Waterloo House, the team that accumulated the most points last term, celebrated with their Film Night reward tonight (from 5.30 to 7.30pm). With popcorn and soft drinks, the children from Years 1 to 6 seemed to enjoy being in school at an unusual time with Ms Doyle and Mr Beazeley. In fact, some looked like they were here for a sleepover!

 

Golden awards for friendship

Congratulations to this week's Golden Leaf award winners. Following on from yesterday's assembly about leadership and serving others, these children provide a great example of serving others through friendship. 
With comments such as "all the class loves x because they're so kind to everyone" and "I've never heard a bad word said about them", these children have demonstrated how we need to show friendship and service to everyone.

Developing Communication skills

What skills should children be developing to be good communicators?
Our key objectives for Speaking & Listening development at Griffin are as follows: 

• To listen carefully and understand     
• To develop a wide and interesting vocabulary
• To speak with clarity    
• To tell stories with structure  
• To hold conversations and debates

Click on the document below to see the particular objectives that are the focus for Years 1 & 2 (Milestone 1), Years 3 & 4 (Milestone 2) and Years 5 & 6 (Milestone 3).
The 'Support' section shows the focus of speaking and listening development for our youngest children and those in the Infants who are progressing more slowly. 'Challenge' suggests an extension for our most advanced pupils in the upper Juniors.

Tigers give the school a lesson in maths

Year 3's Tiger class gave their audience a great Maths lesson today, using lots of visual tips in their teaching of multiplication and division. They also told us about their Science work involving food groups in their assembly to parents and pupils.
Very well done and thankyou Miss Holloway, Miss Walker and all of the children.

Reading: teaching and learning at Griffin

For Reading, there are only two (broad), 'Essential', Key Objectives. They are:

To read words accurately         and        To understand texts

The first involves being able use sounds (phonics) and other cues to read the words; the second relates to what we often refer to as comprehension. As the Milestones below show, the emphasis is greatest for phonics and 'reading words accurately' when children are emerging as readers (Milestone 1), and the skills required 'to understand texts' become more central as children develop as readers in the Juniors.

Children in the Juniors tend to read less (including at home) because they are generally reading words accurately and fluently and it may be thought that the job is done. However, they are often only at a 'basic' level for comprehension and so it is important that reading and questioning continues at home, including with parents.

Click on the sample page below for the detail of our Milestone objectives for Reading. Look at 'To understand texts' (page 2), in particular, to guide your Reading discussions with both Junior and Infant children.

Our Writing curriculum at Griffin

The following approach to Writing is mirrored in the other subjects that we teach at Griffin. For each subject or area of learning, there are a number of 'Essential', key objectives that children will learn and develop during their time at the school. 

For Writing, they are listed below:

• To write with purpose
• To use imaginative description
• To organise writing appropriately
• To use paragraphs
• To use sentences appropriately
• To present neatly
• To spell correctly
• To punctuate accurately
• To analyse writing
• To present writing

Each of these broad objectives is repeated in lessons and homework hundreds (even thousands) of times, each time practised, developed and nudged along a little further. Each of these objectives has a more specific focus for children at different stages of their school life and we will use 'milestones' to check how children are progressing.



 Milestone 1 covers what children will be learning in Years 1 and 2




Milestone 2 covers the way that children develop in the Key Objectives in Years 3 and 4




Milestone 3 shows how the objectives are further developed in Years 5 and 6



In each pair of year groups, objectives are repeated so that children learn in greater depth and apply their knowledge and skills in a range of ways. Some children will be learning in a Basic way, some at a more Advancing level, whilst the most able will demonstrate a Deeper understanding. 

Basic - Advancing - Deep is our 'BAD' approach to learning and assessment.

Please click the sample image below to open the detail of our Writing milestone objectives. Other subjects will follow.

Golden Leaf Awards

Inquisitive scientists and children with good manners earn the awards this week. Very well done to them all.

Sports Report: athletics

Y5/6 Sportshall Athletics

A team of 20 Year 5 and 6 pupils took part in a sports hall athletics tournament for primary schools in Battersea last week.  All pupils showed speed, strength, stamina, agility and skill within a variety of running, throwing and jumping events at Latchmere Leisure Centre.  

Our pupils demonstrated values of responsible behaviour, hard work, bravery and teamwork resulting in the girls team finishing in an admirable 5th and the boys in 6th position out of 12 schools.