An Invitation and a Sneak Preview!

On Friday 9th December, you are invited to the world premiere of four wonderful silent movies, filmed in 1919 by the St. Clare's Film Company and inspired by World War One.

Here, we can see a few sneak preview shots of the filming in process. We do hope you will be able to join us at 9am for this special event!

P4C

Source: The Imperial War Museum

This week's P4C sparked another wonderful discussion. Our stimulus this week was a painting; The Menin Road, by Paul Nash. After playing some games, we looked closely at the painting before coming up with some questions to discuss.

The questions that each group put forward were:

1. Can people still have happiness in their lives during wartime?
2. What did war do to mankind?
3. Was the war as dreadful as it seems?
4. Should women have been allowed to fight in World War One?


We voted for question 4: 'Should women have been allowed to fight in World War One?' It was a fantastic discussion and led to many ideas being raised about gender, strength and equality. Well done, everyone!

Wonderful WW1 Work!

We have been working so hard in St. Clare's this half term to become experts on World War One. Here are just a few examples of some of the amazing work that has been produced in the last few weeks. Well done everyone!

These propaganda posters are inspired by the sinking of the Lusitania on 7th May 1915. Once we had learned about the Lusitania, we looked at some real propaganda posters inspired by the disaster, then created some of our own.

Our Friendship Sculptures

Here are some lovely examples of our completed Friendship Week sculptures. We each used newspaper and modrock to create little models of ourselves in various poses. Once they had dried, we wrote kind messages of friendship on the models of the friends in our class. Now we each have a model covered in lovely words about ourselves- to remind us of how marvellous our friends think we are!

Brake! Road Safety Awareness Week

Last week, we focused on the importance of Road Safety. We found out about the Brake! pledge and discussed how we can be safe not only when crossing roads, but also when travelling in a vehicle.

You can make the pledge here- and ask your parents and carers to sign the pledge too!

http://www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk/pledge

We made these fantastic posters to show the difference between Brake's vision for the world, with quiet, unpolluted and safe roads, and the opposite- if current trends were to continue.

Silent Movie Rehearsals

 Source: pinterest

 

Our Silent Movies project is well underway! We have written our storylines, planned each scene and been on a location scout to take pictures of the settings for each scene.

Last week, we started rehearsals. We love Drama in St. Clare's!

Friendship Week Art Project

As part of Friendship Week, everyone in Upper School is contributing to a big art project. Each of us is going to make a little sculpture of ourselves, using newspaper and mod rock. Then, at the end of Friendship Week, we will each write kind and positive messages about each other on our little people!

Here's the first stage of our sculptures- aren't they looking fantastic?!

We'll post more photos at each stage of the project!

P4C

 Source: ijb

Friday's P4C session was fantastic! This week is Friendship Week at school, so every class in the school will be using the wonderful 'Something Else' as a stimulus for Philosophy.

Source: Book Trust

 

We started early, on Friday afternoon, to give us more time to hold our enquiry.

The questions that were suggested by the groups were:

1. Is it rude to say 'No!'?
2. Why are some people envious of others?
3. Are we all the same in some way?
4. Why is everyone different?

Source: Book Trust

After editing the questions and looking for assumptions, we held a vote to decide which question to discuss. The winning question was:

'Is it rude to say 'No!'?'

We had a great discussion. Most people seemed to agree that sometimes it can be rude to say no, but it depends how you say it. We talked about 'white lies' and when it might be ok to lie to protect someone's feelings. We also talked about when it might be important, or even essential, to say no.

Well done everyone!

Remembrance

Source: Chris Holley

On Friday, we remembered all those who had died or been affected by war. This year, the Royal British Legion wanted us to remember not only those who died in World Wars One and Two, but also those affected by wars since then and even today.

We had a special service at 10:45am, ending with a two minute silence and reflection at 11:00am. Can you remember why we hold our silence at exactly 11:00?

In the week before the service, we made poppy artwork and a wreath to offer in memory of the victims of war. Children from every class offered their wreath during the service. It was very special, moving and sombre.

A Very Special Visitor

Yesterday, we had the privilege of meeting Ms Helen Hayes MP. Ms Hayes is the MP for our constituency. She met with the School Council, then spent a long time talking to Years 5 and 6. We asked all sorts of questions and she told us many interesting things about her life as an MP and about politics in general.

All of the adults were very impressed by the questions that were asked in this session. We could see how well-informed you all are about world events and about politics in the UK and beyond. Well done!

Some of the interesting questions raised were:
1. As an MP, you have a broader view of British politics. How do you think Brexit will affect the country?
2. How did the death of Jo Cox MP affect the Labour party?
3. As you argued to remain in the EU, do you ever feel scared of people with strong opinions about Brexit?
4. Do you think Donald Trump will be a good President of the United States?
5. What effect do you think the result of the presidential election will have on Britain?
6. How do your children feel about you being an MP?

We were all very impressed by your maturity in the question and answer session and by the level of discussions Ms Hayes MP was able to have with you.

After Ms Hayes MP had left, we were keen to write to her. Here are some excellent examples of the letters we have written to post to her:

World War One

Take a look at some of the beautiful artwork on these front covers. I can see that a huge amount of effort went into creating these fantastic covers- which will make anyone that picks up your project excited to read on!

In this week of Remembrance, we have been working hard learning more about The Great War. Yesterday, we looked in detail at Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est'. We analysed the techniques he used and then illustrated some of the lines to show what we understood them to mean.

Today, inspired by Wilfred Owen, we wrote a beautiful poem of remembrance as a class:

Your War, Our Fight

We were the living, we are the dead,

Below the crosses our bodies lie,

Upon the blood-red poppies, dropped shells from above,

In our dreams, they still reach for us.

Watching our brothers die, we struggled on,

Drowning for your freedom,

We thought we would be heroes and yet we perished,

Now we lie beneath the mud, on which we fought your war.

We loved, but love no more,

Families weep receiving tragic telegrams,

Those who loved us; love us more.

The poppies grow above our hearts, which hold the Lie they told us,

Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori.

By, St. Clare’s Class

Thursday 10^th November 2016