February 2020

Feb 2020
House matches for any sport are a real highlight in the school’s sporting calendar and yesterday's Senior Boys' House hockey matches were no exception. Assistant Director of Sport, Mr David Millward, explained, "Traditionally speaking they are the earliest form of school competition and often deliver very passionate and determined performances with children working together as a cohesive team." This term the senior boys' House hockey matches were 10 minutes one way and consisted of an A and B tournament. With two teams therefore representing each House, every boy played their part and
Author and Illustrator Matty Long visits during Book Week
Feb 2020
Author and illustrator of picture books and children's fiction, Matty Long, visited Byron House at the start of Book Week with drawing workshops designed for each year group. The children engaged fully as Matty encouraged and inspired artistic talents with his easy to follow instructions and demonstrations of how to draw many of his appealing characters from his eye-catching Salty Dogs picture book. After the workshops, many classes drew cartoon strips of their own inspired by his style and wrote accompanying stories. One of the Byron House teachers explained, “The children found Matty’s 
Author Andy Shepherd sharing her inspiration for her Flicker dragon books
Feb 2020
As part of Book Week, author Andy Shepherd (https://www.andyshepherdwriter.co.uk) visited Byron House to speak to the children about her hugely popular dragon books.  Her book The Boy Who Grew Dragons was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019 and long-listed for the Blue Peter Book Award 2019. The story is the third in the series and tells of Tomas, who hatched his own pet dragon, Flicker, from a dragon fruit. Our visiting author explained that in order to turn a dream of becoming a children’s writer into a reality and get your books published you need
Form 1 taking part in the 'Inquiring Science' philosophy project in collaboration with Hughes Hall, Cambridge
Feb 2020
This term Form 1 are taking part in the ‘Inquiring Science’ philosophy project which explores how children can best be prepared by education to think critically and protect themselves from false or inaccurate claims. The project is funded by Ron Zimmern and the PHG Foundation. It is based at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, as part of The Bridge Centre for Research Translation and Oracy Cambridge, the Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication. ‘Inquiring Science’ is a research project which teaches primary school children to think like scientists. During ten weeks of
Images from a talk from volcanologist Dr John Maclennan
Feb 2020
Dr John Maclennan, from Cambridge University’s Department of Earth Sciences, gave an informative talk to Forms 4 and 5 pupils on the magmatic processes that influence the life cycles of volcanoes. Dr MacLennan enlightened the children with an overview of the general tectonic processes and the importance of plate movement and convection currents that resulted in different types of plate boundaries. The talk was part of our specifically designed Thursday afternoon Enrichment Programme and ties in with the geography work Form 5 study on volcanoes: plate boundaries, continental drift, tectonic
Form 3 designing Alegbra board games in their Maths Faculty afternoon
Feb 2020
Form 3 took part in a Maths Faculty Afternoon, as part of our Enrichment Programme. The aim was for the children to work collaboratively to design their own board game with the additional challenge of including algebraic expressions as part of the game. The children had to design a board game based on substituting into algebraic expressions. They were given an introduction into algebra, discussed real life examples of algebraic expressions and played example board games. In addition, the children discussed branding, logos, strap lines, the design process and trialling. After this the
Child led learning at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Feb 2020
As part of our Child-led learning programme, children in each year group from T2 to Form 2 choose their own topic for one term per year. This term Form 2K chose 'South America' and visited the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge to explore the subject further. The children took part in a multisensory handling session inspired by objects from the Amazon and discussed points such as how the ancient Maya expressed their identities, what objects they used to show their power and what archaeology can tell us about South American ancient civilisations. One child commented, “
Feb 2020
The U11 Boys’ Colts’ VII team showed skill and commitment to finish in second place at the recent County Hockey Tournament held at the Perse Prep. As a result they will be travelling to Gresham's School in Norfolk for the Regional Finals on 6 March. Inspired by the recent success of the 1st VII hockey team, the boys’ Colts VII headed to the County Tournament full of optimism. A round robin tournament was the order of the day and the team got off to a strong start with a 1-0 win. They finished the tournament on an impressive 10 points, having won 3 times, drawn once and lost once. It was
Pupils building two-legged walking robots in STEM activity
Feb 2020
Form 4 took part in a STEM Faculty workshop as part of our Thursday afternoon enrichment programme and had the chance to create a walking ‘Robot Duck’ from a Mindsets Kit. They had a set time to assemble a pack of parts, or basic components, for the basic two-legged (bipedal) walker. Despite having all the basic components, including pre-cut plates, they did not have all the final answers and their creative involvement ranged from investigation of mechanical variables to a re-think of geometry. The children investigated simple and compound machines and assembled their Robot Duck kits
Choir Tour to Aix-en-Provence and the Netherlands
Feb 2020
The Choristers embarked on two festive tours with the St John’s College Choir prior to Christmas, the first to Aix-en-Provence in France and the second to the Netherlands. During their trip to the Netherlands, the Choristers also enjoyed some time sightseeing in Rotterdam at the Maritime Museum, as well as a stadium tour of Feyenoord FC. The Choir returned to the grand setting of Grand Théâtre de Provence and performed a programme of English and French music including Byrd and Poulenc with Director of Music Andrew Nethsingha, James Anderson-Besant and George Herbert on the piano and

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