With our staff working hard behind the scenes to provide a full, normal timetable for our pupils, here are just a few examples of what our pupils have been getting up to.

Early Years and Reception

In French, Early Years have been learning about Épiphanie, ‘les trois rois’ and how it is celebrated in France. They learnt about La Galette de Rois, the King Cake and enjoyed making their own crowns.

In Music, they have enjoyed tapping out rhythms using different instruments and also performed a piece of music together.

Early Years’ Expressive Art & Design session took on the theme, Disney, in which the children had the chance to dress up as their favourite Disney character. They sang, danced with scarves, made up their own actions and even skipped, swept and swam like Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel.

Reception have shown fantastic engagement since the start of term. Not only have they completed schoolwork including exploring teens numbers, symmetry and the story Whatever Next! but they have shared examples of proud home achievements.

• Grace has shown courage and determination to learn how to ride a bicycle
• Aariya drew a beautiful picture of herself with her parents after learning about ‘La Famille’ in French

Reception pupils also reached out to the local community by sending poems, Christmas cards and decorations for the residents of Lakeside Care Home. They received a lovely card of thanks, including messages of appreciation, with one resident writing “thank you talented children for putting a smile on my face”.

Years 1 to 6

Teachers have adapted some of their Science experiments to allow our pupils to conduct them from home. Year 4 are studying Electricity and one of their first experiments involved creating static electricity and attracting a tissue paper person. Lara conducted this experiment at home perfectly and witnessed the ‘static’ man dance!

The Art department have launched ‘SJCR Creates’, where Prep children are set a series of fun tasks in their Art lessons each week. Year 3 were tasked with creating their own colourful Emus.

Year 1 have been looking at Homes and Houses in their History lessons and thinking about their ideal home. They also created their own game (similar to the Bean Game) to help them identify different types of houses.

Year 6 took part in their first virtual Victorian Lesson with Reading Museum, based on Victorian Childhood.

Years 7 to 11

Year 7 Scientists are showing their creative side. They have been learning about the structure of the skeleton in their Science lessons and each made a moving skeleton. They also made a ‘bell jar’ model showing what happens inside the lungs when we breathe in and out. The pupils grappled with plastic bottles, balloons, straws and lots of Sellotape to come up with their fantastic models.

Year 9 English pupils have been studying the radio play Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. They really engaged with the writer’s poetic style of writing and are now writing their own radio play in the style of Dylan Thomas.

We recognise the importance of encouraging our students to spend time outdoors. For their PSHEE lesson, Year 10 were tasked to go out on nature walk and take a photo. The outcome was some truly fantastic photos.

Year 8 Artists have been working on a ‘Sweet Tooth’ project in their Art lessons this term. They made cardboard biscuits, in the style of cardboard artist Mark O’Brien, that could have been mistaken for the real thing.

GCSE Geography students have been looking at hazardous weather this term, studying the St. Jude storm of October 2013, looking specifically at cause, effect and response.

The Food Preparation and Nutrition department have created their own YouTube channel to provide pupils with a series of demonstration videos for the recipes taught in their practical lessons.

Year 8 French pupils have explored the French Epiphany tradition of sharing a cake in which a token is hidden. Whoever finds the token in their piece of cake is crowned king or queen and makes the next cake. Sophie’s sister found the token in the cake Sophie made and was therefore crowned Epiphany queen. She chose to hide the next token in some homemade biscuits. Their family have enjoyed a plentiful and varied supply of tea-time treats throughout January, French style!

Sixth Form

A Level Economics and Business Studies students have been working hard throughout lockdown to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills needed for university. They have been helping each other revise what they have learnt by producing online quizzes to present to the rest of the class.

As part of the volunteering element of her Duke of Edinburgh award, sixth former and A Level Classics student Lucy started a lunchtime virtual Classics club for Year 5 pupils.

Year 12 Gold Duke of Edinburgh participant Rhys has been volunteering in his community to help elderly and vulnerable people who are currently isolating. He has collected shopping and prescriptions, cleared guttering, washed cars, shovelled snow and helped deliver community calendars.

Clubs

Our pupils continue to have access to their clubs, virtually, throughout lockdown, including the Orchestra and Wind Band, who have been busy rehearsing for their upcoming concerts.

The Prep Chamber Choir were also captured mid Zombie-face warm-up during one of their virtual rehearsals.

STEM Club continue to meet weekly and have been following the Big Garden Bird Watch where they have listened to different bird sounds and made ‘fat balls’ with gooey lard and seeds.

House Challenges

Our weekly house challenges have launched again this lockdown, encouraging pupils to explore their creativity. These have included the Ricochet Challenge (designing an innovative ricochet set up), the Mindfulness Challenge (producing a colourful drawing) and the Keep It Up Challenge (keeping an object in the air as long as possible).

SJCR does Taskmaster

Our PE department have launched a brand-new challenge for pupils, parents and staff to try at home. Each week the taskmaster (otherwise known as Mr W), introduces a new task, encouraging those in our community to show their creative side to win house points and extra rewards for the winners. Find out more here.