Animal's the Word for JSL Get Steamed Week

The end of last term saw a JSL extravaganza as we initiated our first JSL ‘Get Steamed’ learning experience. An event that used all areas of our curriculum and involved the whole school developing their understanding under the umbrella of one theme – the world of animals.

Every year group had a different project or area of study, specialists got involved creating lessons for special days, the Dutch department and EAL took the focus of animals into their language teaching. The result was a diverse range of learning activities that produced some stunning results. See the birds and fish hanging around the school, look out for the giant animal heads of endangered species and watch how the popularity of the bug hotel grows amongst our bug community!

The fun and learning did not stop there. As part of the experience we incorporated two house days for KS2 and KS1 activity days. The children had the opportunity to continue learning about animals in mixed age groups and get to know each other better. Incorporated into this were visits from the Mathmagician and author, Adam Bushnell who shared their expertise and enthusiasm in Maths and writing with the children. The animal man also played his part sharing his reptiles with Year 2 and Year 4.

We also had a range of visitors in school sharing their knowledge and expertise about animals. A number of parents and a student gave talks about animals and caring for pets to the children. The local community also got involved, a local vet came in and our BSN bee keeper visited Year 1. The local dieren ambulance came in to talk to us about what they do and we collected useful pet items to help them in their work. It was fascinating to hear about the animals that need our help in Namibia from Stichting Spot. A group of Year 5 boys were so inspired that they took it upon themselves to do some fund raising. They raised around 300 euros for the cause.

The highlight of the week would have to be the kinderboerderij in the playground. It was lovely seeing old and young bonding with the animals and finding out more about them.