News

Loxford in the Month of April

Within the month of April, our students took part in the following activities:-

• Youth Centre Workshops were held on the themes of “Selling items on school premises/silly behaviour” and “Poor use of mobile phone/social media”
• Year 7 & 8 took part in Knife Box Workshops with our Safer School’s Officer on 17/18/20/26 & 28 April
• A new Art Club was formed for Year 7, 8 & 9 during lunchtimes on Wednesdays.  It is an East Asia Themed Art Club producing Japanese manga characters, South Korean traditional knots, weaving from Myanmar, bead crafting from Mongolia and bubble tea key holders from Chinese Taiwan
• A group of students attended a Body Image Coaching Workshop in school for 6 weeks.  The aim of the workshop is to explore feelings of sadness around body image, mental health difficulties, to become aware of thoughts and habits and look at ones’ own body image
• Fifty-eight Year 11s were on a workshop in school with Newham College.  They were helped to see the different pathways after Year 11 from T-levels, BTECs and Apprenticeships.  The students were encouraged to look on the Newham website and explore different routes
• Year 11 Eco Ambassadors is a group of students who collated information to compile a presentation on the effects and damages of litter in the environment and bring to light the awareness of improving the environment through recycling.  Their intent is to motivate students to respect the school environment by keeping the school clean from litter.  Years 10 and 11 met after school and presented their ideas to each other.  They really enjoyed the interaction and found the initiative rewarding and very educative
• Year 10 students completed a career survey designed by “Discover your Skills and Careers” (DYSAC).  This is a tool to help identify your interests, motivations and preferences.  This initiative is to help students understand themselves and help them work out what careers they may enjoy working in
• A briefing call was made for Cyberbullying research which resulted in a document being produced with more information about the actual study
• A new initiative commenced with Redbridge called Advantage.  Advantage is a mentoring programme for young people with mild to moderate mental health and wellbeing needs.  It is a partnership between football community club organisations and NHS CAMHS units.  Advantage uses youth work to connect with young people, with the mentor supported by a designated NHS clinicians. The young person needs to consent to the programme and want to be mentored, along with the parent being made aware of this referral.  Advantage Mentoring is a goals based outcome programme and therefore, the young person will set their own goals and the mentor will support them to achieve this.  This could include working towards improving their behaviour, time planning, sleep, challenges they face in school, anxiety, their mental health and well-being, relationship with others etc.  The programme runs for up to 6 months
• We have secured a new initiative from Redbridge called “Hidden Harm Provision”.  This initiative explores a young person’s needs in the following areas: emotions and wellbeing, family, substance misuse, school and relationships
• Our Year 10 Prefects completed a LGBT course online
• As a result of Leyton Orient Football Club being promoted to League One, the club organised a Promotion Party on 30^th April and the Youth Engagement Manager sent an invite to the school

We visited the following places:-

• A group of A2 Business students went to Vue Cinema, Stratford to attend a Tutor2U Student A Level Conference.  The students were a real asset to the school and Rumail Waseem received an award from the Chief Examiner

Primary

• Loxford's school library is about to become better than ever as we now have 12 lovely Loxford Librarians! They have the huge responsibility of taking care of the library and being a role model for the rest of the school. Congratulations to the following children: Hanifah in 1L and Erik in 1X, Laylah in 2R and Yahya in 2F, Fatimah in 3R and Maheen in 3F, Zain in 4R and Erika in 4X, Mahrosh in 5F and Hanan in 5R

• In Year 1, we have been using history, geography, English and art skills to learn all about the history of storytelling. Our new topic is called Storyland, and we are exploring early oral storytelling traditions as well as storytelling through pictures. Later in the term, we will learn about the invention of the printing press and how we have come to live in a world full of books! We started with our Launch pad, where we brought in our favourite books from home, and discussed why we enjoy them and what they mean to us. We listened to an oral retelling of Rapunzel from two parts of the world, and compared their similarities and differences. In our art lesson, we have used natural pigment to create our own colours and recreate cave paintings of our own. The children really enjoyed crushing and mixing pigment with liquid to create our own paint, just like people would have done thousands of years ago when painting stories of people and animals on cave walls.

• In Year 3 maths, the children have been learning about money. They have learnt to add and subtract amounts and linked this to everyday life. Money is an important part of everyday life and being secure in recognising coins, notes and certain amounts is something the children have really enjoyed. To further its link to everyday life, the children had a closing down PE sale, with sports equipment, which had different prices and they had to find different amounts of change; this involved addition and subtraction and two step problems. In topic, the children have explored ancient Egyptian artefacts and linked it with previous topics of biomes when focusing on the country. We have explored historical figures and landmarks. They have had the opportunity to compare these to landmarks in the UK, which links to our British values and mutual respect of different beliefs. In PE, the children have been learning and participating in athletics and tennis. Changing direction, showing an increase and decrease in speed across different distances, and demonstrating balance when performing other fundamental skills like jumping and hopping have been skills used within athletics. In tennis, the children have been exploring returning a ball using shots such as the forehand and backhand are starting to transfer this into a rally using a forehand. They are working hard on their footwork to enable them to consistently use and return to the ready position in between shots.

• As part of their History topic, Year 4 will be exploring the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings and how they have impacted our lives today. Children will use a range of sources to explore the past, learning about how they lived, their similarities and their differences. Pupils will explore the events leading up to and including the battle of Hastings, why the event was so significant for England and how that battle impacted the future of the United Kingdom. Students will also explore Viking art and jewellery, researching artefacts and sources as references for their own creative designs, identifying the materials needed and using tools to create their pieces of jewellery. By exploring this topic, Year 4 aim to have a greater insight into the history of our country

• Working as archaeologists of history, Year 5 will be exploring the ancient Mayan civilizations. Using a range of primary and secondary sources, students will explore the lives of the Maya, how they lived, their environment and how their civilization grew. They began their journey by making predictions based on a range of archaeological Mayan artefacts. Using inference and retrieval skills, pupils began to build a picture of who the Maya were and how they survived in Mesoamerica. As part of Art and DT, Year 5 will create their very own Mayan masks. They will research why these masks were used, the materials used to create them and who they were used by. Using a range of materials and tools, children will plan, design and create their own Mayan masks, gaining an insight into Mayan culture and history

• In Year 6 maths, the children have been consolidating their mathematical understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages (FDP). They have been converting between the three and can recognise the relationship between these. They have transferred their fluency of finding amount using FDP into real life problems and will support them in their everyday lives-so be aware if they ask for you for more items when shopping as they will be able to work out discounts if there are sales. Addition, subtraction, division and multiplication has been the focus used when completing these. Algebra, a part of maths that will be built upon in year 7, has been learnt by the children, with formulas and missing amounts being identified using the four operations. The children are transferring their mathematical fluency understanding into two and three step problems for a variety of mathematical concepts that will prepare them for their upcoming SATs exams. In PE, the children have learnt and demonstrated increased success and technique in a variety of shots. They have started to serve accurately and consistently. The range of shots has enabled the children to successfully apply and keep a continuous rally going, working on their footwork, and demonstrated a variety of footwork patterns relevant to the game, so they can get into positions and return shots in game situations. In Science, the children have been looking at what a healthy balanced lifestyle is and the benefits on the human body and mind when someone has a healthy balanced lifestyle.