Autumn 1- Local History Week

Sycamore Class looked at refugees and immigration for Local History Week. We discussed what it means to be an immigrant or a refugee. We looked at how our current media is unfortunately creating quite a toxic and negative view of refugees while forgetting their humanity and the fact they have their own rich life stories just the same as anyone else. We decided to take photos of refugees and reinvent their portraits in a positive light to show our support for those fleeing their homes to stay safe.

Autumn 2 - Hear Our Voice Music Workshop

Sycamore Class participated in a fantastic music workshop linked to our WW2 topic this term. We listened to Jewish folk songs during the workshop and discussed the mood of the pieces. Inspired by the poem ‘The Butterfly’ we wrote lyrics and composed a piece of music to accompany our writing. Take a look at the finished Klezmar…



Hear Our Voices Project

Year 6 were very lucky to be joined by Jo, from the Hackney Music Development Trust, who is working with us on our World War 2 topic. She did a number of roleplays, freeze frames, reflections and sound-scapes to consider what different situations might have been like in WW2

Autumn 1- Wow day!

We began learning about WW2 and to kick our topic off to a great start the children in Year 6 packed a suitcase with all their formal documents and some personal items too. We thought about what items would remind us of home if we were evacuated to the countryside for safety. We used the drama technique of freeze frames to recreate stages of the evacuation process and understand the emotions of this time. Throughout our wow day, sirens would go off during our lessons and we had to climb under our tables to be safe!

Spring 1: The Potato Olympics

As an introduction to our Ancient Greece topic, Year 6 held the Potato Olympics!

The first known Olympics were held in the summer of 776 B.C. at Olympia, a site in southern Greece where people went to worship their gods. In fact, the Olympics were created in honor of ancient Greece’s most famous god: Zeus, king of the gods. Athletes prayed to Zeus for victory and left gifts to thank him for their successes.

Scroll through our photos below to meet the athletes and see how they got on!

Autumn 2 - Computing

The Year 6 children at Berger Primary School engaged in an exciting Computing project last half-term. As a group, they had to design a new app for young people that aimed to solve an existing (social) problem.

To arrive at this point, the groups had to work collaboratively to research existing apps, brainstorm existing problems young people face, design the home and other landing pages for their apps, formulate a PowerPoint presentation to explain the app and design an app logo.

Finally, they had to pitch their app idea to a panel of young people.

WW2 Evactuation

To kick off our WW2 topic to a great start, the children in Year 6 packed a suitcase with all their formal documents and some personal items too and were ‘evacuated’ into the countryside. We made the long journey to a safer place and when we arrived some kind adults (and some not-so-kind adults) arrived to give us new homes. Some of us had a lovely time and were safe and cared for - others of us were made to work for our keep. We all wrote postcards home about our time. Air-raid sirens sounded during our lessons too and we had to climb under our tables to be safe!

Summer 1 - D.T. Picnic

We planned, cooked, tasted and evaluated the most wonderful picnic and even the rain held off for us to enjoy it!

To start, Year 6 made summer rolls (thank you Rahila!) and melon balls (thank you Katie!). For our main course, we all enjoyed a delicious bulgar wheat salad (thank you Fatima!) and finally, we had a healthier twist on an Eton Mess for dessert (thank you Miss Thomas!). A big thank you also to Sharmeen and her design team for all the lovely decorations they made. What a great day we had!

SAVE OUR SEAS!

Save Our Seas! In Spring Term, we went on a protest around Well Street to raise awareness of the damage being caused to our seas.

Here is what Jubel said about our march:

“Our march was one of the most eventful and enjoyable days I’ve ever had in Year 6. It felt empowering doing what was right for both me and my planet. We were fighting for a good cause and most people in our area were moved by our message. It is an outrageous action to throw rubbish in our beautiful ocean. Our governments are very ignorant when it comes to protecting our environment so we must take action - and that’s exactly what we did. We took to the streets and spoke our mind; shouting and screaming our hearts our while showing off our wonderful posters which were also fun to create. We used cardboard boxes and paper to make our protest posters and we even got to decorate them in a nice environmentally friendly way. At the protest was a wonderful leader shouting out chants like “STOP THE POLLUTION, THAT’S THE CONCLUSION!” At the end of the day, it was a great experience and made a great impact”.

What should we protest next?

An electric start to Spring 1!

We are having a sciency return to school and Sycamore are having a great time investigating circuits in our electricity lessons. We began by drawing some circuits and have got simple circuits working including: bulbs, fans and buzzers. Some of us even included a switch! Now we are busy investigating the effect adding additional wires has on the brightness of the bulb.

RAF Hendon Trip (Autumn 2)

Sycamore Class were a dream to take out on our trip to Hendon to the RAF museum. We had a fabulous day, even though our journey to get there took a long time! We saw many different aircrafts used during WW2 and took part in a brilliant workshop which allowed us to experience a day in the life of a schoolchild during WW2. We wrote using ink from an inkwell, we learned how to convert pounds to shillings, we even had to hide under our tables when the air raid siren sounded! The teacher we had for the day was very strict and the classroom had none of the modern amenities that our classroom at Berger has!

Forest School Autumn Term

We were lucky enough to get to attend forest school twice during the Autumn term. During our first visit, we built shelters inspired by the Anderson shelters we studied during our WW2 topic.

For our second visit, we built a fire and toasted marshmallows and brioche buns. They were delicious!

WW2 WOW Day 2021 (Autumn 1)

We began our WW2 learning by having a WOW Day, where we learnt about the evacuation of children and vulnerable people from London (and other big cities) to the countryside, where it was safer. After we had packed our suitcases, we journeyed around the playground and some kind adults came to take us in and gave us tasks to earn our keep!