What's on at school today?

I spent some time in the school today having a look at what was going on. It is a bit of a luxury but something I try to do as often as possible. I really enjoyed what I saw. In the junior school the classes were so focussed on their maths, Nikkie's year 1 class were practicing writing their numbers. Hayley was introducing exercise books to the children as the year 2's were working in squared books for the first time. Karen and Ginny both had their classes into ability groups and the children either had group teaching or were working on maintenance activities in number skills. Maureen was testing a child on their foundation word knowledge. The year 3-4 team were all working on problem-solving with the children, either through strategy games or thinking challenges to promote strategy. The year 5-6 team were very quiet as the children were hard at work with their algorithms into their books - old fashioned stuff, but vital to build that accuracy at this early stage of the year. Karen in room 11 was introducing a new problem solving game to the children based on compiling number combinations. Lisa's Room 14 were working on converting roman numerals as they have been looking at the history of numbers. Across the road John's class were looking at timed, narrative writing with an emphasis on accuracy and editing as they build a focus on dictionary and writing structure work. Kirsten's class were extending from their art study on Van Gogh and were using thinking tools and graphic organizers to build a biography on Van Gogh. Stephen had his class on the mat as they were discussing a Shaun Tan picture book in relation to their study on diversity. Raihania had the girls cricket team at Bishop's park in their Milo Cup match with St Peter and Paul. A busy school that felt really good to be part of.