Healthy Relationships Project 2018

Pupils from Broadford & Mead came together to benefit from a Healthy Relationships project.

The project aimed to equip our pupils with skills to engage in healthy relationships. It used a range of activities help pupils to recognise the signs of domestic violence and and coercive and controlling behaviour. As a consequence of the workshop sessions they would be better able to negotiate and communicate effectively, allowing them to respond appropriately.

The impact is improved self-agency and greater peer advocacy. This will influence positive behaviour and fosters a culture of zero tolerance to partner abuse.

We had to talk about the what we thought made a good relationship. Those feelings and ideas went inside our Relationship House. The things we didn't want (anger, violence, arguing) went outside the walls. 
Jacob - Year 5

During the workshop the pupils enjoyed a range of trust building games that helped to strengthen relationships across the two schools.

It was great to work with Mead pupils. Some of them are my friends anyway because we live in the same road. However I made lots of new friends through the project.
Jackie - Year 5.

At the end of the workshop the impact was:

• 83% of the pupils said they were more confident about the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships
• 100% agreed that they had some strategies that would help them

Year 6 Maths Party

Year 6 welcomed in parents for their maths party at the end of term. The response was fantastic - thank you to all the adults who were able to attend. It meant that our pupils could showcase the typical maths activities that they enjoy every day to develop their understanding and apply their skills:

• 24 Maths Game
• Shape challenges: pentominoes and tangrams
• Singapore bar method problems
• iPad apps
• Rock Star times tables

I loved the challenges. It was great to get a chance to work with Caitlin
Mr Seabrook

92% of the parents surveyed said they strongly agreed that it gave them a better understanding of what their children have to tackle in class
100% enjoyed the chance to try the challenges

#resilience had to be demonstrated by the parents as they tried some of the challenging reasoning questions left out by Miss Chau. This one caused a lot of parents and pupils some difficulty:

Can you use eight '8s' to make exactly 1,000 - but you can only add?

Year 5 Chinese Dance Workshop

In our Federation we believe in having WOW experiences to get the children excited about their learning, provoke their curiosity and make school as hands on and practical as possible. As part of their topic on Ancient China, our Year 5 pupils enjoyed a session with a Chinese dancer to learn about the Dragon Dance.

The pupils have been learning about elements of Chinese culture. We have learnt that the Dragon dance is a form of traditional dance. It is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. During the workshop the pupils were working as a team to simulate the imagined movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner.
Miss Connell - Year 5 Leader

In addition, dancing also serves as entertainment. Props compliment brightly-colored costumes for an eye-catching spectacle of movement. Chinese dancing also serves as exercise, as well as an exercise in discipline for its participants.

The dancing was hard work. We warmed up first. Having to hold the dragon while using our arms and legs was really tiring.

Jessica Simpson - aged 9

History
The dragon dance is often performed during Chinese New Year. Chinese dragons are a symbol of China, and they are believed to bring good luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance, the more luck it will bring to the community. Dragons are believed to possess qualities that include great power, dignity, fertility, wisdom and auspiciousness. The appearance of a dragon is both fearsome and bold but it has a benevolent disposition, and it was an emblem to represent imperial authority. 

The movements in a performance traditionally symbolize historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity.

The routines were easy at first, but then the teacher kept adding more steps! It was hard to memorise them all, but I really enjoyed it!
Ellis Drummond

Diary Dates & Dad's Puberty Talk

On Monday 20th November year 1 are taking part in a cycle awareness day (CAD) and year 2 are visiting the fire station.

Tuesday 21st is the second CAD day for year 1. We have our first parents forum meeting at 9.00 am. Year 3 have a talk from the local policing team, the school council are meeting with other school council representatives from our cluster schools and their is a netball match against Parsonage Farm Primary school in the afternoon.

On Wednesday morning each class will be holding the first round of the spelling bee, if your child would like to make it to the school team this year please help them learn their spellings. Redwood will be visiting Pizza Express and the Harry Potter film club are watching film 2 in preparation for their next quiz round. Nursery pupils will be participating in a Freshwater Theatre workshop and LAMDA lessons are taking place in the afternoon.

Wednesday 22nd November

Dad's Puberty Talk

On Thursday 23rd year 6 have a talk from the dogs trust to find out more about their work. Year 5 spinebreakers are visiting Waterstones to select some quality reading texts for their peers.

Friday 24th is the  deadline for any deposits for the year 5 Mersea residential trip. It is also non school uniform day.

Look out on the blog for stories.

Poetry Week 2017

This year we welcomed back the Multi Story Theatre Company who worked in three Romford Primary schools with a variety of year groups. Broadford, Mead Primary and Brookside Junior.

The ambition for this week is to engage the children in the joy of speaking poetry out loud: how do the words sound and feel as they're spoken, where does the poem connect with you - head, heart or body?

"As theatre practitioners and workshop leaders we can honestly say that leading these Poetry and Performance workshop weeks is one of the most satisfying experiences of the year. It's really moving to watch the quality of their understanding of the world developing through their engagement with poetic language. It is also so pleasing to see a group of schools working together to champion the performing arts and use them to inspire the children!"
Bill Buffery - Multi Story Theatre Company

"As a cluster we offer the pupils a wide range of opportunities to showcase their skills and talents: poetry, spelling, sports and maths. Seeing them all collaborate and enjoy the language of some great poems was a real joy. To also share that with parents from all seven schools made the event even more memorable".
Malcolm Drakes - Executive Headteacher

"Our poem was by Carol Ann Duffy. It was great fun to read it out loud as it was packed with tricky rhymes, alliteration and twists. I did feel nervous, but I loved the performance and want to do it again."
Isabelle Munford - Broadford Primary

100% of the pupils taking part agreed that this week would make it more likely for them to choose to read poetry

100% of the pupils across all three schools agreed that they felt more confident with speaking and performing in public

Havering Adult College - Cook & Eat

Havering Adult College are delivering FREE workshops and meals for families with children who are missing out on a free, hot school meal because of the holidays. As well as having something to eat, families will work together to prepare their meals, participate in arts and crafts and sit and have a meal as a family with others also attending.

If you work with other families who may be in need of a hot meal over the holidays, please let me know. (Families must be on active benefits and/or not have a full Level 2 qualification (5 GCSE grades A* - C)).

We have two dates available for the Easter break and families MUST book a place in order to attend. Places are limited.

To book a place, families must contact 01708 434955.

Please circulate to and encourage families you feel would benefit from this sessions. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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.

We’re In The Paper:

This week the Romford Recorder has featured a story about our Year 6 pupils at the Junior Citizen event. This is hosted by the local police and Fire Brigade and helps guide our 11 year olds on how they can keep safe. Make sure you get your copy.

Juliet Sargeant Visits Y6

Our Year 6 pupils had the amazing opportunity to meet Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner Juliet Sargeant today.

Juliet explained the processes that go into creating a unique and personal garden.

Juliet explained to us difficult to know where to start and the pitfalls can be daunting.
Tahani

For over 20 years, Juliet Sargeant has been winning awards (most recently, Gold at the Chelsea Flower Show 2016) for her imaginative solutions to complex garden problems. She shared her knowledge of design & the experience of construction with top tips on how to make a success of a garden project.

Juliet was a plant expert. She explained to us exactly which plants will suit different conditions. I didn't realise that it all took so much planning and skill.

Yussef

Juliet also took the time to explain the meaning behind her award winning garden from this year's show. As the first black landscape designer to create a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in its 103-year history, it was an even more amazing achievement to be awarded a gold medal.

Juliet Sargeant, 50, hopes the success for her Modern Slavery Garden will help spur a huge increase in diversity in horticulture “within five to 10 years”.

WE Day Visit

We were delighted to welcome pupils from the Jo Richardson Community school to Broadford last week. They cam along to share with us what they have been doing for their Free The Children project.

Just like our #wearekind project for WE Day, their secondary pupils have been trying to make a difference in their community.

We have been trying to raise awareness of bullying in our school and how it can have really terrible consequences for pupils: eating disorders, suicide, self harm and poor behaviour.

Our pupils learnt how they had held workshops for their pupils and heard of some of the strategies they had put in place to ensure pupils in their school feel safe.

I liked their idea of having pupils to watch out on the playground for others who are isolated or lonely. It must be horrible to go out to play and feel that you have no one to play with.
Plamen

Frances Hardinge Visit

We were delighted and honoured to welcome the author Frances Hardinge to Broadford last week. Her book 'The Lie Tree' was the first children’s book to win the overall Costa prize since Philip Pullman in 2001. Described as work of ‘great narrative tension’ and ‘a multi-layered page-turner’ the book has captured the imaginations of our pupils... and staff!


I have really enjoyed her stories. To have the chance to meet her in person, here her read some extracts from the book and get some top writing tips was amazing
Melisa Krasniqi - Year 6

The day was made extra special as we had guests from Bancrofts Independent School and Mead Primary. Their pupils all came clutching copies of Frances's stories, eager to have them signed.

First Frances delivered an assembly to these Year 5&6 pupils, telling them about her career development as an author. Apparently her interest in crime and mystery started at a young age.

I had set up a childhood detective agency. We would try to solve crimes using talcum powder and sellotape to detect finger prints. We didn't catch many criminals but we did make plenty of mess!

Our pupils also got to ask Frances some questions about her books and career:

Q. Where do you get your ideas from?

A. For each of my stories I have to complete a vast amount of research. Some of this is not exciting: finding out about costumes, key dates and place names. However some research is very exciting. For my story Gullstruck Island I got to climb down into real volcanoes and investigate underground caves so that my descriptions were accurate.

Q. What is the best fact you gave found out?

A. Without a doubt the best fact I discovered was to do with the Victorian period. Photos were very expensive at that time and sometimes people died before they had their one family photograph. It meant that the dead would be dressed up and placed into the family portrait so they still had a memory of the dead relative! 

Q. Is it hard work to get a book published?
A. Getting a book published takes a very long time. Overall I will complete about 4 drafts. It takes up to a year for the first one to be completed. After each is done, it is sent to my editor. It is marked a bit like your work, but it can take months to complete the re write.

Q. Do you do the drawings on the cover of the book?

A. I don't... I wish I could. I don't even get to meet the artist for the cover art work. However I have always been pleased with the finished product.

Frances went on to tell the children how she was encouraged to write by her mother and father. They had read to all their children when they were growing up. She had also been inspired by her Grandfather who left school at 14. Despite this, he got hold of books and educated himself, becoming a teacher and writer (getting 10 books published)!

The pupils then went onto to have a writers workshop with Frances, where she gave them some top tips on how to write a great horror/suspense story

• Try to set the tale in familiar locations so that the reader is able to imagine themselves their
• Use ordinary objects but make them seem threatening
• Play on people's most common fears

It was a great day to celebrate high quality stories and meet a wonderful award winning author!

Find out more about her award winning book by clicking here:

Super Scientist Visit

We are delighted to announce that Darrin Disley is coming to speak to our pupils in July. Originally from Harold Hill, Darrin has gone on to achieve a Science degree and become CEO of a bio-tech company worth over £300 million!

Bayards Hill Visit

On Monday of next week we will be hosting the entire staff of Bayards Hill Primary school who are coming to look at our school and how we approach phonics, literacy and the wider values we have for pupils and staff. To have schools who are prepared to put all 50 staff on a coach and drive for two hours to see us is amazing… we know that they will be amazed by what they see from your children.

DfE Phonics Roadshow

In conjunction with the Department for Education and the phonics partnership schools, we were delighted to host one of the 10 national Phonic Roadshows. This event allowed us to showcase the best practice in the teaching of phonics and early reading that pupils receive at Broadford.

‘The government wants all primary schools to achieve excellence in phonics teaching so that all pupils are able to decode words to an age-appropriate standard by the end of Year 1, giving them the foundation to become confident readers. There is sound evidence that systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective method of teaching reading to all children.’ - DfE, December 2015

Because our Broadford pupils scored above national average in the 2015 screening check and we are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted we were eligible to be a host school.

The morning included:

• A talk from the Mr Drakes explaining key literacy leadership decisions
• A learning walk – an opportunity to see our teachers, pupils and teaching assistants in their phonics and reading sessions
• A presentation from a school in the area using an alternative phonics programme to the host school
• A presentation from a Ruth Miskin consultant trainer ‘How to get every child reading by six'.
• A question and answer session.

Our pupils did a fantastic job as they coped with a change to the usual arrangements and a constant stream of guests in the sessions without batting an eyelid!

Healthy Lifestyles Workshop

This week our Year 6 pupils benefited from an A-life healthy workshop. This included 20 hands-on, games-based activities which were fun and educational.

This workshop really brought the Healthy Lifestyles message to life in a fun way and gave the pupils hands on opportunities to explore and experience the science of being healthy. We found that the resources and activities covered aspects of the PE & PSHE curriculum as well.
Francesca Porter - Year 6 teacher

The pupils completed a wide range of activities covering the following topics: a balanced diet | the importance of exercise | healthy teeth | hygiene | importance of sleep | where food comes from | how food grows | nutritional values | lifestyles past and present | food nutrition traffic light system | consequences and effects of smoking, drugs and alcohol | eating too much sugar, salt and fat.

I had no idea that alcohol can stunt your growth when you are a teenager. I want to be tall, so I won't let my friends talk me into it. 
Endurance Obazee - aged 11

Some of the facts were quite scary. We learned about how alcohol affects your liver. In some cases you may even need a transplant. You don't realise quite how much harm you can be doing to your body!
Sophie Adams - aged 11

Visit the website for more details: http://www.a-life.co.uk/the-workshop-activities

We're In The Paper: Team Broadford

We are delighted to see that our Youth Summit was featured in the Romford Recorder this week. When we start back after half term we have a guest speaker in to launch our #Wearekind campaign and a whole host of other volunteering opportunities for the children.

Read Write Inc Stay & Play: Monday 1st 9.10am

Miss Tynan and the EYFS team are looking forward to welcoming Reception parents for the Read Write Inc (sorry for the incorrect information previously about it being Phonological Awareness) session on Monday morning. You will have the chance to watch a session led by staff and then play alongside your children and use the resources shown.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Circus Skills Day

Have you ever wondered if you could walk on stilts? Do you have the poise and balance to cross a tight rope? Would you be able to spin a plate on a stick? Well pupils at Broadford Primary had the chance to test their Big Top skills with a Circus Day.

The wide range of activities allowed them to test their reciprocity and team work skills:

I loved the tightrope! We had to help each other balance by holding their hands.'
Roberto Silva - Aspen

The Circus instructor showed the pupils how to balance the plates on the stick and then use a whipping motion to make them spin, before teaching them how to create swirling patterns with the ribbons.

Our children had a fantastic time. To see them accessing the different opportunities independently, challenging themselves and then showing the resilience to practise until they had succeeded was amazing. Afterwards they wanted to carry on in the classroom with chalk lines on the floor to balance on.
Miss Cat Tynan - Reception teacher

As a grand finale the children used a pair of ladders to form a human pyramid - with six of them balanced on the steps! 

Y4 Roman Day

Year 4 enjoyed a  Roman School Workshop, which bought the history of Roman Britain alive in our school hall. First there was a fun and exciting timeline-based visit from a Roman auxilliary who talked about his quest for Roman citizenship.

The pupils learnt about some of the hardships suffered by the soldiers: from cold nights spent on Hadrian's wall in 150AD, to long days marching and fighting barbarians! After that the pupils had a hands on demonstration of how the Romans used the legendary Roman Testudo (Tortoise) fighting formation in battle.

This was followed by a look at the day-to-day life of a Roman soldier with a detailed examination of a soldier's kit.

I really enjoyed the Roman artefact sorting task, wherewe handled genuine 1,800 year old Roman artefacts: rings, brooches, belt buckles and pottery.
Tony Marshall

I wouldn't have wanted to be a Roman soldier... too much walking!
Arhann

Year 3 Rationing Workshop

Our Year 3 pupils were learning about WW2 before the half term. As part of their topic, they looked at rationing and were able to try some of the dishes that would have been served during the war and austerity period.

"Last week we also had a visit from Miss Coook's Grandad. He had told us about some of these dishes - things like spam fritters. It was great to be able to taste them. I thought they'd be horrible, but they were actually quite nice."
Jack Peppitt

Why was food rationed in Britain in World War II?
Before the Second World War started Britain imported about 55 million tons of food a year from other countries. After war was declared in September 1939, the British government had to cut down on the amount of food it brought in from abroad as German submarines started attacking British supply ships. There was a worry that this would lead to shortages of food supplies in the shops so the British government decided to introduce a system of rationing.

Rationing made sure that people got an equal amount of food every week. The government was worried that as food became scarcer, prices would rise and poorer people might not be able to afford to eat. There was also a danger that some people might hoard food, leaving none for others.