Today as part of our experiences we have been learning new instruments with Ms Glover and making up some music to celebrate the work of the NHS

Re - Thanking the NHS

Dear all staff at the NHS

Our school has been open this week to try and support parents who are key workers and any families the school can help too.

We have learnt a lot from our teachers and have washed our hands (for 20 seconds) a lot and are trying really hard at social distancing.

We have been doing a little bit of work, but teachers have let us have some fun as well. We have had lots of games times and also art which we love!

Whilst in Art we came us with the idea of how we want to thank the Doctors and Nurses helping and as well as the big clap we wanted to display a gesture in school.

Please see the photos of the banner we made and we want to say a big thank you to all the NHS and people who are supporting us.

Regards

New Woodlands Pupils

The Nest’s Educational Visit to Lewisham Sivan Temple

On Wednesday 26^th February we visited the Hindu Temple as part of our R.E. learning and British Values. In class we have been learning about Hinduism including their main beliefs, important symbols and their meanings, celebrations and rituals. This visit gave us the opportunity to visit the special place of worship for Hindus and observe first-hand the Puja rituals which is how they pray. We were also able to see a Hindu Priest in his traditional outfit and hear him chanting. We had to take our shoes off before we entered the main hall which contains the shrines. This is done to show respect. Surprisingly the tiled floor was heated underneath so our feet felt warm. The rest of our senses were also engaged, we could hear the prayer bell ringing, smell the incense burning and see beautifully detailed Murtis’ (statues of Hindu Gods)  inside the shrines.

The Nest’s Visit to Lewisham Migration Museum

Inside Lewisham shopping centre, a new free museum has opened to the public to share the history and stories of migration related to the people of Lewisham. We enjoyed looking at the exhibitions and taking part in drawing our own portraits to add to the museum which celebrate the diversity of the population of people living in Lewisham.

The Nest’s Geography Field Trip Studying the Local Area

In Geography we have been learning about our local area. To get a better understanding of the features of Lewisham we took the 136 bus from Downham, through Catford and got off in Lewisham. We enjoyed sitting on the top deck of the bus and looking out the windows for the different places on our eye spy sheet. We named and tallied the different buildings and features we saw including schools, churches, post offices, hospital and Mosques. In Lewisham we walked around the town centre and saw the River Quaggy, police station, Hindu temple, shopping centre, market, DLR, train station and lots of shops and restaurants. On the journey back we looked at the different types of homes and also the different types of food restaurants that are available to eat it.

The Nest’s Visit to the Earthquakes and Volcanoes exhibition in the National History Museum

This term our topic has been Tremors and we have been learning all about our planet and its structure. At the museum we learnt lots about how volcanoes are made and how they change the surface of the planet. We also learnt how the tectonic plate movements can cause earthquakes and the effects these can have on people’s daily lives around the world. We really enjoyed going inside the pretend supermarket and feeling the ground move like in an earthquake. This felt strange and scary. We also had the chance to learn all about the different types of rocks, fossils and minerals that can be found on Earth. We are looking forward to doing experiments on rocks when we get back to school.

Our school took a survey regarding common issues among UK schools. See how our votes compare.

Halloween was an exciting time at New Woodlands for all our children

There was a number of activities happening across KS 1 & 2

All classes chose their own activities

• Scary mask making
• Spooky spot the difference
• Spooky word searches
• Pumpkin face designing
• Making hanging pumpkin decorations
• The life cycle of pumpkins
• Some students visited  Hewitt’s Farm to pick their own pumpkins
• Halloween party
• Making Halloween cup cakes
• Making 3D skull structures
• Halloween cards and painting
• Spells and potion writing

               Fun was had by all –

                 well done children and staff.

We have been busy in Art, with four Art trips to kick start the KS4 exam.

Yr 10 and Yr 11 went on a local street art tour, sketching the work by street artist Nathen Bowen. They will then be linking their images and sketches with British Values, to create their own characters.

Yr 11 went to the South London Gallery, where they were introduced to an abstract sculpture ‘ISAMU NOGUCHI PLAY SCULPTURE’ by the artist DANH VO

They then responded to the work, creating their own amazing, collaborative master pieces.

Yr 10 visited the Tate Modern, and enjoyed an art workshop which led to their own fabulous creations being displayed in the actual galleries, which the general public were curiously intrigued by, and proceeded to take their own photos of the ‘famous’ art works!

We are also excited to announce our New Woodlands Art Twitter feed, which we hope you will follow! ‘New Woodlands Arts Cool’ 

As part of our drop down days to encourage social skills and an awareness of positive choice and consequences New Woodlands once again welcomed the Young Lewisham Theatre group in at the end of the summer term.

The group delivered a play based around the idea of reputation, what this means and if it is important. The children were introduced to a character called Dani who was struggling to make the right choice and was feeling the effects of wanting to fit in and peer pressure. The children engaged and listened intently.

At the end of the performance the children were are to ask ‘Dani’ questions about his choices, they were invited to identify key choices in the play, which were pivotal and discuss other options. Several of the students (and staff) had the opportunity to come up and act out their ideas for other options for Dani.

The students showed a maturity around decision-making and choices and were able to take on board the key themes. This was followed up in PSHE lessons for the last two weeks which centred about peer pressure.