OPAL: Outdoor Play and Learn - we need resources!

OPAL - Outdoor Play and Learning

We believe that playing outdoors in rich environments is one of the best ways for children to enhance their social skills, build resilience, forge friendships, spark their creativity, and foster a love for the planet. Now, more than ever, this is crucial for their development.

Our playground project has generated incredible excitement among the children, who have passionately contributed ideas for the outdoor resources they'd like to see. Rest assured that all equipment is thoroughly risk assessed before it goes outside, and the children learn the rules for safe, fun play during assembly time.

To keep our playtime experiences fresh and engaging, we are still in need of donations. If you're decluttering or have any items you no longer need, please consider donating to us! The following items would greatly enhance our outdoor play opportunities (examples below):


- Bread crates

- Cable drums

- Metal/plastic pots and pans

- A variety of plastic utensils

- Guttering

- Dressing up clothes

- Blankets (great for our den building!)

- Small World toys (like dinosaurs and cars)

- Scooters

- Skateboards

- Deck chairs/camping chairs (all sizes)

- Pencils, pens, and chalks


Your contributions will help our children enjoy a wider range of play experiences. Please drop off any donations at the school office for Mrs. Stanley to collect. 

Also, do let us know if you are creative and have any fabulous ideas or want to get involved!

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Stanley

LFPA Easter Egg design Competition

Congratulations to the pupils who came up with the winning designs for the LFPA Easter Egg competition. There was an incredible array of ideas on how to decorate the egg template... your imagination astounded us.

Once the judging process was complete, the winning pupils were presented with an Easter Egg prize in Achievement Assembly.

Well done to all those who took part. All of the monies raised will go towards improvements at Mead & Broadford.

Fabric Artwork

The Art Club have been mixing types of craft and art to create their very own fusion pictures. To begin with the pupils made their very own loom. They then used wool to weave the shape of the person who would be the focus of their painting.

Once the person was complete, the pupils had to use perspective to create their backdrops: mountain sides, football stadiums and lakes.

This project involved the pupils developing their skills in several different areas: watercolours, sketching, perspective and craft. When the pictures were completed they were then challenged to go back and add additional details - hats, boots googles.
Mrs Caccavale 

Resilience
The varied nature of the project - and the time it took to complete the pieces - meant that the children had to use their resilience muscle!

I enjoyed the project, but I had to really concentrate... weaving is complicated. At the start it didn't feel like we were making much progress. However the ideas all came together at the end. When we were in the sessions the time went so quickly - there was so much to do.
Georgia

Reciprocity
My weaving kept getting into knots. However Mrs Caccavale showed us what to do. By copying her I was able to complete my character.
Emily R

We are certainly delighted with the artwork and it has taken pride of place in our gallery!

Nicole's Artwork

Thank you to Nicole for bringing in this stunning piece of artwork. Nicole has been learning about Pointilisim and the artist Georges Seurat.

I used lots of dots to make this painting of the school badge. This is called pointilism, it took me a long time to complete.
Nicole

If you'd like to have a go at your own painting at home, try this link for inspiration...

http://www.happyfamilyart.com/art-lessons/art-history-for-kids/pointillism-georges-seurat-art-lesson/

Thank you for bringing in the painting - it now has pride of place in Mr Drakes's office.

Year 5 Chinese Artwork

Mrs Caccavale has been working hard with our Year 5 pupils to produce a range of artwork inspired by the topic that they have been doing on China.

I didn't realise that in China, painting and writing developed hand in hand, sharing the same tools and techniques. That must be why their artwork is so beautiful to look at.

Georgia

Year 5 Macbeth Artwork

Although we have only been back for a few days there is already a stunning display up in the main corridor. These images were inspired by the pupils' study of Macbeth and the witches on the moor.

I thought that the moor would have been a dark, sinister place. The witches weren't kind as they tricked Macbeth into killing the king.
Lebohang

Y6 Henry Rosseau Rainforests

Did you know that Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French post-impressionist painter? He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time.

With the help of Mrs Caccavale, our pupils have been exploring the work of this amazing artist and creating their own pictures.

When  found out that he had never visited these places I was amazed. The colours were so bright and the drawings so detailed that I thought he must have seen it for himself.
Jude - Year 6

Jungle Pictures

Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature", and essentially, he was self-taught. We did teach ourselves a bit, but we had a lot of support from Mrs Caccavale
Jake - Year 6

While his best-known paintings depict jungle scenes, it is thought that he never left France or saw a jungle!

Stories spread by admirers that his army service included the French expeditionary force to Mexico are unfounded. His inspiration came from illustrations in children's books and the botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of taxidermy wild animals.

Year 3 Patterns Artwork

Our Year 3 pupils have been studying patterns in their latest artwork project. They linked this to their study of animals and looked at how some are able to adapt to their surroundings for protection as well as to help hunt their prey.

Can you spot any creatures lurking in the images below?

Some of our pupils then went on to find out more facts about the animals that inspired them:

Did you know that the chameleons tongue can reach its prey in just 0.07split seconds, with the projectile acceleration reaching over 41 g's of force. Chameleons usually eat large insects such as locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and stick insects, some bigger species also eat other lizards and young birds.

Adam Abubakr

Year 6: Bridget Riley Artwork

Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931 in Norwood, London) is an English painter who is one of the foremost exponents of Op art.

She currently lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Her artwork often presents a great variety of geometric forms, producing sensations of movement or colour. In the early 1960s, her works were said to induce sensation in viewers as varied as seasick and sky diving.

In Year 6 the children have been making their own Bridget Riley cubes and exploring the use of geometric patterns in instil a sense of movement.

I have really enjoyed this. However looking at my cube while I finished the design made my eyes go funny!

Joshua - Year 6

This unit of work was very successful as it introduced a completely new artist to the pupils.

• 100% had never heard of Bridget Riley
• 100% agreed that they would want to try and imitate this style 
• 83% agreed that this artist was one of the most interesting to study

Clarice Cliff Artwork

When you walk down our main corridor please be sure to stop and admire the colourful creations of our Art Club and More Able artists project. Inspired by Clarice cliff they have designed their own bright and cheerful art deco designs.

Who is Clarice Cliff?

Clarice Cliff (20 January 1899 – 23 October 1972) was an English ceramic artist active from 1922 to 1963. She began as an apprentice potter.

When did she start her career?
Incredibly her artwork can be traced back to her time at school where she made models from papier-mâché. After school Cliff would visit aunts, who were hand painters at a local pottery company.

At the age of just 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry. Her first work was as a gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design.

How valuable is her artwork?
The world record price for a piece of Clarice Cliff is held by Christie's, South Kensington, London, who sold an 18-inch 'charger' (wall plaque) for £39,500 in 2004!

Havering Adult College

Havering Adult College is getting involved in the BBC Get Creative campaign this year and will be running over 30 creative workshops for FREE on Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th April 2017.

Get Creative is about celebrating all things creative and getting people involved. With our teachers, we have developed over 30 workshops that range from art, photography, multimedia, cookery, French patisserie, family learning and so much more and all the workshops are free to all adults who would like to attend.

Please see the attached leaflet and poster for the Get Creative Weekend.

Modigliani Portraits

Our pupils have been studying the works of Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. He was born in Livorno, on the 12th July 1884. He then died in Paris, on the 24th January 1920.

He was an Italian painter who worked in France. He is best known for his portraits that had long faces and figures.

Fayo Ayodola

Amazingly his pictures weren't that popular during his lifetime, but later they became popular. One sold at auction for over $30million!

Lillie Mersh

In their art club and lessons the children explored how the style of Amedeo helped to create a mood. They then had a go at creating some portraits in their own style, inspired by the Italian artist.

Dubuffet Artwork

The artist Dubuffet was launched to success with a series of exhibitions that sparked enormous scandal. While the public - after the war - looked for a redemptive art and a restoration of old values, Dubuffet confronted them with childlike images with coarse textures and drab colors.

The emphasis on texture and materiality in Dubuffet's paintings might be read as an insistence on the real. In the aftermath of the war, it represented an appeal to acknowledge humanity's failings and begin again from the ground - literally the soil - up.

Art Club

In their Art Club the pupils - with the guidance of Mrs Caccavale - explored his art work and different styles. 

The children particularly liked the way he approached portraits. His style was very simple and they found it extremely accessible. Using simple lines allowed them to create a great deal of texture in the pictures.

Mrs Caccavale

Pet Portraits

Our Y5 artists used their time with Mrs Caccavale to create portraits of their pets - real and imagined. They used a style of collage - tearing up old newspapers and magazines and then combing that with paint. The combined effect created some very cheeky looking animals!

Which is your favourite?