A Day at St. Vaast

What a busy day! This morning began with another delicious breakfast, looking out at the beautiful woodland here at Parc D'Olhain. We've even spotted a few rabbits bouncing around!

After breakfast, we set out in the coach for Bethune, to spend another exciting day with our new French friends. On arriving at the school, we had a quick play then visited our pen pals' classrooms.

It was wonderful to see their school lives and they showed us some of their work, as well as performing a song for us. It was called Liberte; a popular song based on a poem from World War Two, which has recently been re-released for charity.

Next, we visited the school's chapel- it had a fascinating 129-year history, it was even used as a hospital for British soldiers in WW1.

Soon it was lunchtime! We had a three-course lunch (!) in the school cafeteria with our pen pals, before heading back out into the sunshine to play in the playground. 

After lunch, St. John's and St. Clare's took turns to play fun team building games in the playground or to take a tour of Bethune.

On our tour, we saw a boulangerie, boucher, chocolatier, fromagerie, the town hall (l'hotel du ville), the famous bell tower from the Middle Ages and the spectacular church of St. Vaast.

After our tour, we had a quick snack and drink in the cafeteria at school, then went to the dchool's drama studio. The French children performed two short plays for us: one about the story of St. Vaast and the other about Bethune during WW1. 

At the end of this wonderful day, we said our goodbyes and told our pen pals that we would be seeing them soon- in June at St. Anthony's!

Now, we are back at the centre and everyone is having some quiet time before getting showered and ready for tonight's party, after dinner!

Another Wonderful Day!

Today has been full of fun! We had a hearty French breakfast, then excitedly met our pen pals. We have been writing and Skyping to them all year- so it was truly special to meet them in person.

Firstly, we went out orienteering in the woods. Parc D'Olhain is a beautiful setting, but the competition was fierce! We ran, sang and laughed until we were exhausted! The winning team were Equipe 12- well done!

Next, we had a lovely picnic with our pen pals, followed by another play on the spectacular action station.

In the afternoon, we were incredibly lucky to be offered the opportunity to have a session on the world's largest play nets! They were like enormous trampolines, with courts for football, volleyball and basketball, as well as slides and bouncy sections, all high up in the tree tops! Wow! The English and French children loved playing together on the nets (the adults loved it too!) in the forest.

On returning to the centre, we presented our pen pals with their gifts, which they loved! We sang some traditional French songs together, then waved our friends goodbye!

This evening, we had a lovely dinner of chicken or salmon. Now, we are working on our journals before our quiz night begins!

Greetings from France!

We have arrived in France! We have had a wonderful first day; the sun shone on us as we had a lovely picnic, then we visited the boulangerie. It was so much fun to make croissants and to learn about how they make traditional French bread.
After a short journey to Parc D'Olhain, we quickly unpacked before dinner! A delicious dinner of sea bass or sausages was followed by a lovely dessert.
After dinner, we played on the fabulous action station, then went for a walk to explore the grounds of the park.
We returned for showers and an evening reflection, with time to work on our journals and to say our prayers, then it was time for bed!
Goodnight! Bonne nuit!

Congratulations!

Source: http://sgpc.floriana.skola.edu.mt/category/assemblies/

Congratulations St. Clare's Class on a fantastic assembly! It was 'out of this world...!'

You all performed brilliantly today and we were very proud of you! We had lots of lovely comments from children, visitors and the other teachers; they all thought it was an excellent assembly and they were very impressed by your acting talents. Well done!

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to support the children. We hope you enjoyed it!

We will see you all next week, ready for our big adventure...

London Docklands

Today, we learned about the London Docklands and how the area has changed over time. We discovered the history of the Docklands and its ups and downs.

We made these Animoto films and Thinglink presentations, to teach others about what we now know:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/787267975504723969

By Daniel and Jack G

Caoimhe and Erhun

Jess and Gracie: https://animoto.com/play/J3v2UWHzQaYCue81APKxUQ

Justin and Cesar: https://animoto.com/play/iNc111GORIC30I483rK5FQ

Owain and Harry: https://animoto.com/play/y21W0noZmLh3l1bqmNcyCg

Mina and Emily: https://animoto.com/play/Jf0i4zurFlCwrTBcnKzA1w

Stephanie and Maria: https://animoto.com/play/yh2qEmmQmDNGl2b4Rlj73w

Rory and Jack N: https://animoto.com/play/TUBl4Ws03xFaT5wX3ey3Uw

Darcy: https://animoto.com/play/MGnRUhlVMyjzizncF9Txpw

Sophia and Kenan: https://animoto.com/play/8GnWL4tTJUAMDwHctS9TCw

Jada and Elizabeth: https://animoto.com/play/emSk11JMsRVygbmOO08eUw

D and Christopher: https://animoto.com/play/gX7VjXemiSxcyK09xnibRw

Dulwich Picture Gallery!

On Friday, we had a lovely sunny morning at Dulwich Picture Gallery!

After a very pleasant stroll through the park, we arrived in time for a quick play in the gardens in the sunshine.

Our workshop was linked to our topic at school- so we were experimenting with ways to represent water and rivers.

We used mixed media (what did Jo tell us 'medium' meant in Art?) to create beautiful ink, wax and salt creations to show water and how it reflects light and the sky.

Next, we looked at some woodcut prints by Astrup to inspire our own block printing. We designed a natural landscape and carved it into polystyrene tiles, then printed them above our rivers, to create a mixed media landscape image.

We enjoyed using the printing press again and our skills at printing and painting have really improved!

Here are some great examples of finished pieces:

 Finally, we were able to have a quick walk through the special exhibition of Astrup's work and see some of his impressive woodcut prints, the woodcut blocks themselves and some spectacular landscape paintings.

Source: Dulwich Picture Gallery

Thames Explorer Workshop!

On Wednesday, Kate from the Thames Explorer Trust came to visit us at school. All of the children in Year 5 took part in a workshop, learning all about the Port of London.

It gave us a chance to show off what we already know about the River Thames and to learn lots of fascinating new information. We learned about shipping routes around the globe and how we import and export using the River Thames.

Kate brought along some HUGE maps for us to explore in the hall.

We also performed in some drama challenges and explored the history of the Thames from the Roman period, through its Victorian history, the closure of the Docks through to modern day London.

UK Blog Awards 2016!

On Friday evening, Mrs Parrott went to the UK Blog Awards to represent St. Clare's Class Blog. Sadly, we didn't win, but we were congratulated on reaching the final and being officially one of the ten best education blogs in the UK! Well done! Here are some photos (as promised after many requests from the children in St. Clare's!!):

A Fascinating Day Out!

On Friday, we went on an adventure! We went with the charity Thames Explorer, to investigate the foreshore of the River Thames at Bankside, in front of the Globe Theatre.

 We learned about how the quality of the water in the Thames has changed over time and did some experiments ourselves.

 Also, we had the opportunity to be 'mudlarks'! In the 18th and 19th centuries, some people (usually children) in London would scavenge in the river mud to look for anything they could sell. We had a chance at being mudlarks on Friday, during low tide.

After searching the river foreshore, we discovered all sorts of treasure! What was the most interesting thing you found?

Finally, we sorted the items we had discovered into groups and discussed what they might be and when they might be from.

A fascinating day! Huge thanks from everyone in St. Clare's to Miss Bower, Mrs Cook and Mr Gibson!