Mandela Blog

DT - Afternoon tea

23/5/2025

Last half term we started our new DT topic which is making an afternoon tea. First we talked about what an afternoon tea includes and might look like and then the children worked in groups to practise making an item they will eventually make for an afternoon tea for their grown ups to come to.

The groups have made - quiche, savoury muffins, samosas and pizza wheels. They all smelt really yummy and lots of the adults in school wished they were able to taste them!

great use of these learning gems:

May 05th, 2025

5/5/2025

POETRY RECITAL

4/4/2025

Today saw the fourth poetry recital. In Mandela Class we are lucky enough to have Mr Harvey work with us to help a different group (each half term) to learn a poem off by heart and recite it to the rest of the class. This is a skill, which is not only part of the Year 6 expectations for reading, but is also a life skill which prepares the children for High School and beyond. It always amazes me how all different types of children respond to the task and the change which occurs in their confidence and ability in just 6 weeks.

Good use of these Learning Gems:

DT - Adding to the robot designs

2/4/2025

Over the past few weeks in DT we have been exploring ways that our robots could be developed. We started by looking at how we might programme a robot to travel around the seabed to complete various tasks - including taking photos of creatures and stopping to gather water samples. We did this by programming beebots. The children remembered using beebots when they were in KS1, so were very excited to be able to use them again and they all worked really well in their teams to programme, test and then debug their programmes to ensure that their beebots were able to make it successfully around the seabed course that had been drawn for them.

They then looked at how they could create a mechanical arm that could come out from their robot and collect samples from the sea bed. First they practised making a lever, then put two of them together to form a linkage. They then used this idea to design their own mechanical arms using a range of materials to add to and improve their designs. Some of the arms were more successful than others at picking up the 'samples' that included elastic bands and pins.

great use of these learning gems:

WELL DONE TO OUR AR STAR READERS!

1/4/2025

Well done to all of the children who reached their AR Target this term by regularly reading at home as well as in school. 🌟 All KS2 children who achieved their AR target enjoyed their treat this afternoon. 🌟

28 out of 29 children achieved their AR Target!

A special well done to the top 3 readers!

Art Gallery

28/3/2025

We welcomed families to our Art Gallery this afternoon, showcasing our 3 different sculptures based on the 3 artists studied.

Our finished displays

Good use of these Leaning Gems:

science - adaptations

20/3/2025

Over the past few weeks, the children have worked on researching and presenting information about adaptations that plants and animals have and the affect these adaptations have on the organisms lives.

The children worked in groups to present their information on the adaptations of animals.

They worked with a partner to research the adaptations of plants and presented their work individually.

Great use of these learning gems:

English: The Lighthouse

14/3/2025

Our creative writing based on the short animation 'The Lighthouse'.
http://www.literacyshed.com/the-lighthouse.html

Good use of these learning Gems:

dt - designing a robot

13/3/2025

Today, the children put into use all the knowledge they had gained over the past few week in DT to design a robot that would be suitable for going into the ocean to carry out a range of research tasks. They worked in partners to create a design, thinking about how part of their design might reflect something in nature (biomimicry), how it might move and also the range of things the robot could be programmed to do.

The engineer, who had visited us earlier in the project, was really impressed with the range of designs, the use of biomimicry and what the robots would be able to do.

great use of these learning gems:

science - woolly worm enquiry

10/3/2025

Today we carried out an enquiry to explore which colour 'woolly worm' was more likely to survive in the school hall. All of the worms had been laid out on the floor of the hall and then children had to act like birds and go and collect the first worm they saw each time they 'flew' over. When they had spent 1 minute collecting worms, they totalled up the amount of worms they had collected. We then doubled the colour of worms that hadn't been found to give an idea of these worms reproducing and then repeated the task. The children found that that brown worms were definitely harder to spot so they increased a lot over the number of times that we did it.

Once we had gathered all the data for this enquiry, the children presented it in a line graph. They also made a prediction as to how many moths of each colour their might be if we continued this enquiry for a 5th time, using the lines on their graphs.

At the start of the lesson following this enquiry, the children presented the first and fourth 'months' of information in pie charts. They had to make use of their maths skills - using a protractor - in order to do this and make sure they were really precise with their measurements.

great use of these learning gems: