Assembly Songs

Singing and signing assembly

Miss Shelton’s singing and signing assembly started with an appropriate song for the hottest day of the year – Walking on Sunshine! We explained to the students that incredibly high temperatures were expected later in the day. We didn’t need school jumpers or blazers. Inspirational singing was required, and we weren’t disappointed!

Josias was then selected by Miss Shelton as the Star Signer of the Week. It was commented that Josias has been working really hard on learning how to remember some of the new songs that the Lansdowne School Choir have been learning.

Waving Flag was then chosen by Josias as his reward – some lively singing followed!

The assembly continued with Miss O’Leary rewarding the achievers across all curriculums with their Star Certificates.

Class 7RG was presented with the Star Class of the Week trophy. This was in recognition of the fantastic behaviour that all class members achieved during a trip to Surrey Docks Farm this week. Miss O’Leary commented that the Lansdowne FRESH rules had been followed during the trip.

Many more class trips are taking place during the final week of term of Lansdowne. We have planned visits to The Globe, the City of London, the Tate Gallery and the nearby Oasis play centre in Stockwell. We are sure that all pupils can follow the lead set by Class 7RG with their mature behavior.

Singing and signing assembly

Year 7 Maths Video

Year 7 have been completing various activities to round off our maths learning for the summer term. Different pupils have been set different tasks, depending on their needs and learning objectives.

One example is solving problems with words. The pupils are given a written statement involving maths problems that needs solving. Our task is to identify what type of maths calculation is required in order to answer the question

You can watch some of this maths problem solving taking place in the short video above.

Year 8 Art Video

Our Japanese sushi project in Year 8 at Lansdowne School is coming to a close with some fantastic artwork being achieved by the pupils. We started off this work by creating some sushi food mats. We then started to create some still life drawings of sushi using a primary source. The final part of the work has been to sculpt some sushi out of clay.

Year 10

We asked the pupils to consider the size and texture of the real life sushi whilst creating our sculptures. The work produced contained elements of an incredibly intricate design. These will now be placed in the kiln to fire. We will then finished off our project by painting the pieces in realistic sushi colours.

A selection of the Year 8 students explain a little more about their work in the video above.

Year 10

Year 10

Year 10

Year 10

Year 10

Y8 Science Research

Our Year 8 science topic of Animals in the War has advanced with the pupils using the Lansdowne iPads to create some great presentations. The pupils have been researching how animas such as dogs and pigeons were using during wartime to help pass on messages.

The pupils visited the Animals in War Memorial at Hyde Park to learn a little more about this subject. We have been using some role-play to help explore some of the feelings that the animals might have experienced during Wartime.

Our work has continued in the ICT suite using the school iPads. The pupils were presented with the challenge to create a presentation using Keynote. Images, words and effects could all be used. We encouraged independent learning and research from the students.

Y9 Acrostic Poetry

Year 9

Year 9 have been learning about acrostic poems during our English learning for the summer term. This is a form of writing where the first letter in a chosen word also starts off each line on the poem.

We have been talking about how acrostic poems can be a powerful piece of poetry to help capture a particular theme. This is also a great exercise in expanding the vocabulary of the pupils as it encourages us to think about new words.

The starting point for our first poems was our own names. We then advanced this to a seasonal theme with acrostic poems being written about using the words summer and Holiday.

Y9 Water Aid Project

Year 9

We are incredibly proud of the charity based project that the Year 9 students at Lansdowne School have completed. As part of our PSE learning we asked the pupils to carry out some online research about various charities.

The aim was for the students to identify a charity that helps other people less fortunate than us, and helps us to appreciate the importance of not taking for granted the life that we are able to lead.

Many different charities were put forward as examples of this by the pupils. Water Aid emerged as a Year 9 favourite. This is an organisation that helps to provide clean, healthy water for people around the world that might not have access to this.

We then decided that we would attempt to raise some money for Water Aid. Year 9 decided upon a number of fund raising activities. These included a sponsored reading session, a sponsored basketball shoot-out and a sponsored walk around the perimeter of the school for 45 minutes.

Year 9 managed to raise an impressive final figure of £129. This will now be sent to Water Aid to help with their work. The pupils have helped to create a display in the school to highlight the importance of the work being carried out by Water Aid.

Year 10 PE Photos

Year 10

The Year 10 students at Lansdowne have been containing to learn the skills that we need to succeed playing different sports. We are rounding off the summer term with a seasonal look at how to improve our cricket techniques.

The pupils have been playing timed cricket. This is a format of the game that allows each batsman to develop their skills, regardless of them being out or not. We have a set time at the crease with the aim to score as many runs as possible.

Mr. Lee and Matthew have been instructing the students about the skills that we need to succeed. The correct cricket stance to take at the crease has been learnt, as well as the best way to hold the bat if we want to produce some big hits.

You can see these skills being used in the photo gallery below.

Year 10

Year 10

Year 10

Year 10

New Assembly Songs

Singing and Signing Assembly

All Lansdowne pupils learnt a new song during a recent Singing and Signing Assembly. Miss Shelton and Mikita helped to demonstrate the new signs that we need to know so that we can sing I Just Can’t Get Enough – a lively start for a Friday morning!

This was a pacey song that required some quick thinking from the pupils when we were remembering the signs for each word. We had plenty of support from the Lansdowne School Choir with a couple of members leading from the front with their actions.

Choir member Lucy was selected by Miss Shelton as the Star Signer of the Week. Miss Shelton explained that Lucy always every attends every Lansdowne Choir practice. She is also a very considerate Choir member and keen to help out the other students.

Lucy chose for the Choir to sing Imagine as her reward.

Miss Tovey then handed out the Star Certificates across all curriculum subjects. It was commented on how smart each award winner was dressed in their full school uniform.

Four Happy Birthday songs were then enthusiastically sung. We finished our Friday morning assembly by awarding the Star Class of the Week trophy to Class 10RN. Miss Tovey commented that all students have been attaining exceptionally high levels with their tick sheets throughout all subjects.

Year 7 Science

Year 7

Year 7 are continuing with their science work for the summer term learning about solids, liquids and gases. Having gained a good scientific understanding of these three different forms, we are now looking at various natural phenomenon that may contain a solid, liquid or gas. Volcanoes, mountains, the inner core and the outer core of the earth have all been looked at.

The pupils have been keeping detailed notes about the many findings as they continue with their research. We are now starting to think about ways in which we can present this information using PowerPoint.

We will be spending more time in the Lansdowne ICT suite to continue with our science learning. The pupils will be encouraged to use PowerPoint to create an original presentation to put across our knowledge. Images and imaginative use of text will all be used.

Year 8 Sushi Artwork

Year 8

Year 8 have been continuing to work on their Japanese sushi themed artwork project. The pupils have produced some stunning sushi mats, created using a traditional Japanese style. The next stage is to create some sushi artwork to accompany the mats.

The pupils have been using still life drawing to create some sushi sketches using pastel chalk. We have spoken about the difference between creating a drawing in 3D, rather than 2D. The students have also been understanding the difference between primary and secondary resources. A primary subject matter is something that we can see in front of us, such as the sushi.

This project will continue with the Year 8 students sculpting some sushi out of clay. We will be using this medium to add in some detailed texture such as the many pieces of rice that we can see in a sushi wrap.

Year 8

Year 8

Year 8

Year 8

Y8 London Research

Year 8

Year 8 have been learning about famous London landmarks as part of our current Humanities learning. The pupils have been researching some key facts about buildings and attractions such as Big Ben, the London Eye, the Gherkin, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Shard, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

We have asked the pupils to consider some key questions during their research: Is this a new or old building? What is the purpose of the building? What does it look like?

Year 8

Our humanities research has linked in perfectly with the science learning for the summer term in Year 8. The pupils have been looking at animals and in particular, the role that they were able to play during the War.

Mr. Peters took the pupils out on a trip to see the War Memorial for animals that helped to make a contribution to the war effort. Whilst we were out in the centre of town we were also able to see Buckingham Palace and Horseguard’s Parade. We are hopeful of a further London trip to look at the buildings that we have researched before the end of the term.

You can listen to a couple of Year 8 students sharing their thoughts on our London research in the recording below.

Year 9 Poetry Podcast

Year 9

Year 9 have been learning about different poetry techniques during our literacy lessons for the summer term. We have been seeing how the use of simile or alliteration can add some extra spark to our poems.

We started our work by reading some pieces of work by some famous poets. We underlined any examples of alliteration that we could find. We read these poems out to hear how alliteration can add some extra pace and rhythm to a poem.

Our next task was to write our own poems with a heavy use of alliterations. We used a series of animal pictures to help find some creative inspiration. This then led to some wonderful pieces of poetry being written.

Our final task was to type these up in the ICT suite. We asked the Year 9 pupils to illustrate their poems by searching for some suitable images to add to our words.

You can listen to one young Year 9 student sharing his alliteration poem in the recording below.

Y10 English Updates

Year 10

Year 10 have been working on ways to improve our written English. There has been a strong focus in recent lessons on the importance of punctuation. The students have been learning how adding speech marks, questions marks or exclamation marks can make our stories come alive.

Some simple sentences were written on the class whiteboard. We asked for volunteers to add in where the speech marks should start and end. Each student then completed a worksheet containing plenty of text, but little punctuation. Our task was to add in the speech marks and make it clear for the reader where the dialogue starts and ends in a story.

We have been following the basic rule that the first speech mark appears just before the first word that is spoken; the second speech marks comes straight after the last spoken word. Extra punctuation such as a question mark is also added to help tell the story.

Y10 Science Video

Year 10 have completed a highly successful science experiment to test the ideal conditions for plant growth. We started off our work by formulating a hypothesis. The students thought that the density of seeds when planted might affect the quality of the growth.

We have been learning about the ideal conditions that all plant life needs to grow – water and light. Our theory was based around the idea that a greater cluster of seeds would be a drain on the water and light resources.

The students were asked to think of a possible way in which to test this hypothesis. We came up with the idea of planting some cress seeds in a series of dishes. Five seeds would be placed in the cotton wool of the first dish, with increments of five extra seeds in the other dishes.

As with all of our science experiments at Lansdowne School we had to make this a fair test. The seeds were watered daily with the exact same amount of water for each dish. We used the same seeds for each dish and made sure that they all had equal access to the sunlight.

Daily measurements of the seed growth were recorded. Our results proved conclusively that our original hypothesis was correct. The dish with the fewer seeds experienced the tallest growth spurt. The dish with the most seeds measured the lowest height growth.

All students have written a detailed account of this experiment in their science books. We have concluded by saying that less competition for the resources of water and lights leads to more productive plant growth.

One of our Year 10 scientists explains more about this experiment in the video above.

Year 10