In art today, Merlins have been developing their collage skills as they moved on to Step 2 of their layered portrait artwork, inspired by the work of Mike Barrett. The children carefully selected and arranged different materials, colours and textures to begin building the layers of their portraits. They explored how overlapping shapes and thoughtful placement can add detail and interest to their work.

We are excited to see how the next stages will help their artwork grow and flourish.

It has been wonderful to see the sunshine this week, and the children have certainly enjoyed making the most of the brighter weather. Classes have taken their learning outdoors whenever possible, using our outdoor spaces to explore, investigate and be active while they learn.

We look forward to many more opportunities to enjoy learning outdoors as the weather continues to improve.

Kestrels started their new topic of 'Plants' today, and we began by talking about what plants are and why they are important. We then moved on to what helps them to grow and be healthy: water, nutrients from soil, light, air and room to grow. We decided to investigate what would happen if we removed one of these variables. Hopefully, we'll see some results over the next few weeks. Green fingers crossed!

Game Changers educates children about:

• Gaming - exploring game rage, in app purchasing and amount of time spent playing games.  

• Age restrictions on apps and games

• Youtube & Tiktok, explaining how children need to be vigilant online about what they click on and watch and who to talk to for advice and support.

• Online addiction and over use.

• Online bullying and trolling

• The importance of not believing everything you see and read on the internet.

• Sleep deprivation from gaming and online use, and the impact of this on achievements and emotions.

On Monday, the Merlins class had great fun investigating water resistance and friction. The pupils explored how water resistance is a type of frictional force and discussed how it affects objects moving through water.

They carried out experiments to discover which shapes had the greatest and least water resistance, making careful observations and recording their results. The class enjoyed comparing their findings and thinking about why certain shapes moved more easily through the water than others.

The Merlins also planned their own investigation to answer the question: Which shoe had the greatest friction? They considered how to make the test fair and discussed the variables they would need to control to ensure reliable results.