January 2021

Jan 2021
Mindfulness continues to be used across the school as a way of slowing thinking down, bringing attention to the present moment and reducing stress. As part of the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP), ‘.breathe’ sessions began for Form 4 at the start of the Michaelmas term. This is a continuation of the ‘Paws b’ programme which Form 2 participate in and pre-empts the ‘.b’ sessions in Form 6.’ At its most basic level, mindfulness helps train your attention to be more aware of what is actually happening, rather than worrying about what has happened or might happen. The children learn
Jan 2021
Children at Byron House have learned about Swiss sculptor, Alberto Giacometti, in their remote learning Art lessons and have studied the artist's bronze figures. After sketching stick men, the children considered how we position our bodies for different movements and how body language can convey varying emotions. The children used kitchen foil to create elongated figure sculptures with the help of a pre-recorded introduction and explanation from their Art teacher, Miss Muñoz . Alberto Giacometti was born in 1901 and died in 1966. He began painting, drawing and sculpting from a very
Jan 2021
Forms 3 and 4 have been studying the work of Cornish artist and fisherman, Alfred Wallis. Having watched a clip from local gallery, Kettle’s Yard's ‘Alfred Wallis Rediscovered’, the children were encouraged to paint using memories of their own seaside holidays and how they too could use recycled materials as Wallis had, such as leftover wood and paint from boat building. Alfred Wallis influenced painters who came to St Ives from London; they were struck by his naive style and subsequently changed their work to be simpler and more direct because of this. Wallis (1855–1942) took up
Jan 2021
As part of their online English sessions, Form 3 have been studying free verse poetry and have extended this to writing their own. Free verse is an open form of poetry than tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Free verse does not typically use consistent metre patterns, rhyme schemes, or any musical pattern and because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer. Form 3 looked at clips of the poets Joseph Coelho reading his poem, ‘Cards Dealt’ and Michael Rose reading ‘Chocolate Cake’. Although there are no
Jan 2021
T1s have been investigating both 2D and 3D shapes in Maths during their remote learning sessions. They have learnt how to recognise, name and describe the properties of shapes and have played matching games and enjoyed practical shape investigations to help consolidate their understanding.   After 3D shape recognition was secure, the children were tasked with the challenge of finding objects from around their homes and sorting them according to their properties. Some children also used the objects to print 2D shapes and label these and others painted their found shapes to separate
Jan 2021
A whole afternoon is dedicated each week to the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) topics for Form 2 and further cross-curricular opportunities at Senior House. The bridge design and build project in the Michaelmas term demonstrated the success of this focused approach with Bridge Designer computer-based engineering, testing the strength of materials investigation and research, construction and testing of the children's individual bridges. The different disciplines employed included investigations of the designs of the world's most famous bridges, the
Jan 2021
As part of T2’s remote learning they were set a challenge to research a famous building or landmark around the world and create a model of it from materials they had at home, recycled objects, construction toys, Lego or anything they felt was suitable. The children created, amongst others, the Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and the Great Wall of China. The children thought about what job an architect does before listening to the story of ‘Iggy Peck, Architect’. This tells the tale of a boy who has been interested in buildings since the age of 2