Wednesday 20 December 2017

Emily is in the paper!

Our very own Emily Johnson from Redwood class has made it into the Romford Recorder this week due to her fantastic raffle in aid of Queen's hospital. Emily nearly lost her life aged 7 due to complications when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and was saved by the dedicated medical teams at King George hospital.

Emily Johnson, 10, of Lucerne Way, Romford, nearly lost her life to diabetes. Photo: Grant Johnson

On Saturday, this jar of 5p coins (which Emily's dad has collected over the years) will be raffled off at Dagenham Football Stadium between 7pm-10pm to raise as much money as possible. Emily has already raised £370 and hopes to increase this to £700.

Her collection of 2,500 5p coins which one lucky person will get their hands through a raffle this Saturday. Photo: Grant Johnson

I'd like to raise as much money as possible for the people who are currently in hospital especially as it's Christmas and it's not nice to be in hospital during this time.
Emily, Redwood

Well done Emily- what a wonderful idea to raise money!

http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/young-diabetic-girl-from-havering-is-raising-hundreds-for-queen-s-hospital-1-5327251

Thursday 14 December 2017

Closing date for Try, Try again!

Just a reminder that the closing date for our 'Try,Try again' poem is tomorrow! (Friday 15th December) Poems must be returned to Miss Taylor, in order to be entered. For further details of our competition, please see below.

Exciting new... Years 3-6 have entered into a Writing Stars Poetry Competition. This entails writing a poem on one of our 4 learning powers, resilience! It must be titled 'Try, try again.' However, it is entirely up to the children how they choose to approach the poem: it could be an acrostic poem, it could be a rhyming poem, it could be free verse.

Judging the poems produced are not only laureates and poets, but two very famous footballers, Frank Lampard and Yannick Bolasie. 


The winner of this competition has some very exciting treats in store: an exclusive awards ceremony, a poet/author visit for our school and (perhaps most excitingly) Premier League kit, the Premier League trophy and their poem read out on TV by a Premier League footballer.

Classes have received writing lines to construct their poems on. If they have not, send them to Miss Taylor in Willow where they can retrieve more. 

Good luck. I know we have a winner in Broadford... 

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Year 5 Spellings 11th-15th December

Below are the Year 5 Spellings for this week. The weekly test will be on a Friday and children should hand their books in on this day too. 

Pupils are expected to practice their spellings for 15 minutes per day as well as practice their times tables and read at home. Children are encouraged to search for the definitions of the words and use them in sentences in order to gain merits for their trackers.


Monday 11 December 2017

Year 6 Star Writers

In Year 6, our star writers are Lacey Wall and Brandon Cohen. Their balanced arguments about whether animals should be kept in captivity or not were fair and unbiased. Lacey and Brandon included a range of sentence openers to portray the balance and included a variety of important points: including the risk of poaching to animals in the wild and on the other hand, the danger of animals being mistreated in captivity. Well done on very successful pieces of writing Brandon and Lacey! 



Year 6 Spellings: 11th-15th December

Below are the Year 6 Spellings for this week. The weekly test will be on a Friday and children should hand their books in on this day too.   Pupils are expected to practice their spellings for 15 minutes per day as well as practice their times tables and read at home. Children are encouraged to search for the definitions of the words and use them in sentences in order to gain merits for their tracker.




Thursday 7 December 2017

Year 6 Star Writer

This week our star writer in Redwood is Ellis Curtis-Rich. We have been writing balanced arguments about whether animals should be kept in zoos or not and Ellis has made a superb effort so far with his. He has used equal for and against points and ensured that he has remained impartial throughout. Ellis used extremely compelling points and supported them with evidence too. Well done Ellis- a fantastic piece of writing from you!


Year 6 Royal Courts of Justice

To celebrate the children's effort in their Theatre of Law project, we visited the Royal Courts of Justice in London to perform our mock trials in a real court room. The pupils were shown around these active courts and were able to see the list of the different cases which were to be tried that day. Unfortunately, it is illegal to take photos inside the building but we did get a few outside!  

This archaic building was built in the 1870s and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1882. Since then, thousands of cases have been heard here and countless lawyers and barristers have passed through the doors. Most of the cases at the Royal Courts of Justice are civil ones- which could involve a plaintiff suing a business or individual.

The children were blown away by the intricate architecture of the RCJ and the old court rooms which are still in use today. We were also lucky enough to be visited by Judge Hugh Howard- who is the regional Tribunal judge specialising in welfare benefits. He encouraged all the children to consider a career in law and informed us that shockingly only 28% of court judges are women. This figure rises to 45% for tribunal judges which is more representative of the demographic they serve.

Taking part in a mock trial in a real courtroom was a unique experience that I didn't think was possible. We learnt about mitigating and litigating circumstances and the roles of jurors, judges and counsel.
Tia, Larch

As a result of these trips and our Theatre of Law project, more than two thirds of our year group are now considering a career in law whereas before only 20% knew and understood what a lawyer does.


Monday 4 December 2017

Year 5 Spellings 4th-8th December

Below are the Year 5 Spellings for this week. The weekly test will be on a Friday and children should hand their books in on this day too. 

Pupils are expected to practice their spellings for 15 minutes per day as well as practice their times tables and read at home. Children are encouraged to search for the definitions of the words and use them in sentences in order to gain merits for their trackers.



Maple Star Writer - 01.12.17

This week in Maple class, our star writer is the resplendent Ramone Holme-Slater!

Ramone's diary entry truly hooked in his readers with the range of rhetorical questions, powerful verbs and vivid descriptions. His use of short sentences added drama and brought Billy's dilemma to life, as did his fabulous use of show not tell: 'My head began spinning with indecision.'

Well done Ramone! I can't wait to read more of your writing!




Maple Star Writer - 24.11.17

This week in Maple class, our star writer is the fantastic  Chiwendu Nwaokolo!

Chiwendu produced a fabulous diary entry about Billy Midas' dreadful dilemma, using thoughts and feelings to communicate Billy's impossible choice. She used rhetorical questions to hook her reader in and vivid descriptions and powerful verbs to keep them engaged.

Well done Chiwendu! You should be extremely proud of your brilliant writing!




Maple Star Writer - 17.11.17

This week in Maple class, our star writer is the superb Sam Middleton!

Sam made a fantastic start to his diary entry about a 'cat-astrophic' day from the perspective of  the unfortunate Billy Midas. Through Sam's use of short sentences, he was able to reinforce the severity of Billy's dreadful dilemma to his audience. What will happen next?




Well done Sam! I can't wait to read more of your fantastic writing!


Year 6 Spellings: 4th December- 8th December

Below are the Year 6 Spellings for this week. The weekly test will be on a Friday and children should hand their books in on this day too.   Pupils are expected to practice their spellings for 15 minutes per day as well as practice their times tables and read at home. Children are encouraged to search for the definitions of the words and use them in sentences in order to gain merits for their tracker.




Friday 1 December 2017

Elm Star Writer - 01.12.17

This week in Elm class, our star writer is Aimee Borrell. 

Aimee has produced a clear and engaging diary entry about Billy's dire dilemma. She has conveyed the character's thoughts and emotions to show the reader the complexity of Billy's choice. Aimee has used a range of fronted adverbials to draw the reader into each paragraph.

Well done Aimee!