The focus this term is on science at Kennet Valley School, Lockeridge. Pupils have enjoyed an ARK(Action for the River Kennet) workshop, walks in the local area to identify plants and animals and investigations into how the human circulation system works.
Two members of ARK (Action for River Kennet) ran the workshop for Years 4 and 5. The children were given wide variety of vertebrates and invertebrates from the River Kennet to look at, identify and research. This was part of ARK’s “outside classroom” experience and the children enjoyed finding cased caddisflies, shrimps, stickleback fish and bullhead fish to name just a few. Members of the class commented, “It was great because we saw creatures that we hadn’t seen before. It was fun because we discovered creatures and talked about their habitats and life cycles. It was great fun. We even got to see an eel!”
Sarah Byford, class teacher, said, “It was a really fantastic morning. The children thoroughly enjoyed this experience and we are all so grateful to Anna and Sue from ARK for coming in to work with us. ARK are a wonderful organisation. We have worked with them before and we look forward to working with them again in the future as they always inspire children to look after their local surroundings, especially the River Kennet.”
Two other classes have been finding out about plants and growth. In Reception and Year One (Wrens Class) the children have visited The Dene in Lockeridge and West Woods, making drawings and writing about the plants and animals they discovered as they walked. Two Year One children shared their thoughts about their walks – “It was good fun and very exciting” and “I liked seeing all the trees in the woods.”
Year 2 and 3 children, in Kingfishers class, have planted seeds and are observing their growth over the weeks. These plants, when bigger and stronger, will go home with the children. They have also made detailed drawings of the parts of a flowering plant. Children have been inspired by this topic and the warmer weather at the start of the term certainly helped when they were planting seeds and making cuttings of different plants.
Emma Russell, Headteacher, said, “It is great to see the children working on similar but different parts of the curriculum. The staff work well together to ensure that the skills and knowledge that our children are learning increase as they get older, so that even if several year groups are all looking at plants, they are all doing different tasks and activities throughout the subject block.”
The oldest children in the school, in Kites class, have been investigating Living Things and Humans – looking at how the human body works. They have started by finding out about the circulation system and how the pulse changes in different conditions. As the topic continues, they will be finding out about how to live a healthy lifestyle. This topic also links into the PSHCE topic that the Year 6 children are learning about – relationships with themselves and with others.
Jacqy McQue, Wrens class teacher and the Science subject leader in the school, said, “Living things is always a great topic to study with the children in school. They love growing plants and learning to take care of the plants, animals and themselves.”
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