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2017 Autumn term

This year the children will be participating in weekly Squirrel School sessions. In each session the children will be developing their characteristics of effective learning; Playing and exploring, Active learning, Creating and thinking critically

The children will work in groups alongside an adult each session. They will work with their group for three weeks, developing their ideas each week and sharing their mini projects with the whole class in the fourth week.

The Artists

The artists will work alongside our Atelierista, Jo, who will guide the children to develop their artistic expression and techniques.

The Story Tellers

The children will work alongside Amy, developing a community of listening and sharing ideas.

The Explorers

The children will work alongside their Class teacher, exploring the outside world and developing their tool skills, bush craft, and scientific exploration.

The Explorers

Whittling

This short clip shows the care, concentration and safe technique that the children use to whittle their sticks.

The explorers have been developing their ability to use tools safely and effectively. They have been whittling sticks to remove the bark and also using a hack saw to cut them to size. The children will be using their sticks as a tool for cooking bread over a camp fire in the coming weeks.

The Story Tellers

The story tellers discovered a sculpture left at Squirrel School. They imagined that a witch had left it there. Through play the children developed their ideas about the witch "the witch is small and she hides in the long grass", "she turned a person into a tree with long arms." The children brought their ideas back to class where they used clay to show what she might look like and recreate the sculpture that they found. The following weeks the Story Tellers returned to develop their story and even left messages for the witch on leaves that they attached to the trees.

The Artists

The children shared the story 'The Leaf Man'. They explored the leaves to find out how they could be used to create art. "We could draw the leaf", "we could draw around them", "we could make up our own story about a leaf man". The following weeks the children returned to Squirrel School, drawing on inspiration from Andy Goldsworth, they set about creating their own art using the fallen Autumn leaves. Some children chose to use the leaves as a tool for mark making and others carefully placed the leaves to form their own pictures.

Sharing week

The whole class came together in our fourth week to share the work that they have been doing in their groups with the rest of the class. The Story Tellers went first and told their story all about the witch who lives over at Squirrel School. The Artists then went on to share their art project using natural materials such as the fallen Autumn leaves and sticks. The Explorers shared a meal of tomato soup with bread, they cooked their meal over a fire that they had built and lit themselves and used tools that they had whittled and sawed to size in previous weeks.

Attendance

Overall School: 96.6% - Every day counts!

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