8.50 - children arrive
8.50 - 9.00 registration and children read chosen books.
9.00 - 9.30 mental maths test
9.30 - 10.00 mathematics - bar charts/ interpreting data/ data problems
10.00 - 10.20 school council assembly
10.20 - 11.15 literacy - autobiographies
11.15 - 11.30 PLAY
11.30 - 12.45 literacy continued
12.45 - 1.30 LUNCH
1.30 - 2.45 Dance practice
2.45 End of day
Class jobs:
- Every student in the school is given a water bottle to encourage them to drink more during the day. children volunteer to fill them in the morning before the lesson ready for start of lessons. These are kept next to the sink for easy access(note pupils are given a water bottle and a book bag which they are responsible for. If they lose or damage them they are expected to replace them with their own money from the school shop.)
- Books are handed out before the lesson and pencils given out.
- A pupil collects the register.
- The computers are turned on.
- (later) school council team set up the hall for assembly - benches
- A pupil brings the lunch bag trolley at the beginning of the day to the classroom to collect packed lunches and at the end of the day. This keeps food out f the classroom.
- Follow instructions given by all school adults.
- Keep hands, feet and objects to myself.
- Never name call, tease or use bad language.
- Keep these rules at all times during the day.
Class management:
Entering and Leaving the classroom:
Pupils line up quietly in single file when entering and leaving the form to go out to break or assembly. When pupils are dismissed at the end of the day they are picked by table, usually for those that have cleared away the quickest or are the quietest.
Toilets:
There are two sashes hanging by the door to the class, these are for children leaving to go to the toilet. This way it is not necessary to disrupt the class to ask and it is always known how many people have left the room.
Talking in class:
Children are taught to respect others when talking and listening in class. Interruption and talking over the teacher or another pupil is not tolerated and they can often be issued with a warning.
Behaviour management:
In addition to individual warnings (recorded on a warning sheet), the class may be issued with class punishments if they have been particularly rowdy or uncooperative in class. Their morning break is 15 minutes long, but will have time taken off it according to behaviour. 2 minutes are taken off at a time and usually by the second warning the class are willing to work quietly and listen in order to keep their break, or if they are especially good, win it back. Table points are also given for enthusiadm in lessons, so good behaviour and interest are encouraged.
Uniform:
Pupils are regularly checked for tucked in shirts and proper shoes instead of trainers. The school believes pupils should dress respectably to show they are ready to learn and raise self esteem and the school image.
Jewellery/personal belongings:
Jewellery is not allowed in the classroom at any time and any personal items such as phones, keys, money is kept in a class tin until the end of the day when children can collect it to go home. This ensures concentration in class, security and secures against inevitable loss or theft.
W.O.W
Walk on Wednesday posters are displayed within the classroom suggesting their support of children walking to school for their health, exercise and social well being.
Class setup:
- Number lines and rulers are stuck onto edge of every desk to help children with their maths, particularly adding and subtracting minus numbers.
- A working wall displays current projects and relevant vocabualary for the topic, it is an evolving and changing display and is not used to display children's work.
- The children's reading books, pencils, pens, rulers e.t.c are kept in the middle of each table in a box, there they are accesible to the children when they enter the classroom and can be easily cleared away at the end of each day.
Absence/ sickness/ lateness:
A pupil arrived in school who had been vomiting the day before in school. He was informed that technically he should have stayed home as the policy for illness states that children who have been sick should leave at least 24 hours before rejoining the class.
Pupils are expected to justify their lateness and this is monitored.
Reading:
Personal Reading:
Children read their chosen books (or one chosen for them) at the start and end of the day, this encourages frequent reading of varied texts which increases vocabulary, reading ability and hopefully enjoyment. This is particularly important for those who are not engaged with reading at home, alone or with parents.
Reading Comprehension:
Once pupils finish a book they fill in a multiple choice ICT quiz/ comprehension to test their ability to understand the content. They are expected to score between 80% and 100 %. There are 10 questions relating to the plot and characters.
The system logs the pupils progress and shows previous book quizzes and scores, targets and points. After completing the quiz a report is printed stating their score which is stored by B.
Class Reading:
At some point every day B reads to the class from a fiction novel. This proves effective for their listening and comprehension skills and helps them become more creative in their own work. B asks questions about the text which relate to the characters and situations, often these link with P.S.H.E issues such as bullying and friendship/relationships. It is an alternative method for introducing behaviour morals to the children without them coming across as rules.
Mental maths:
Answer sheets were handed out to the pupils (in the mental math S.A.T.S format) and the children were clearly instructed where to answer and the rules of the test.
Rules:
'If you let someone see your answers 10 marks are deducted'
'If you copy someone else's work you get no marks.'
Every question had a time limit of 5, 10 or 15 seconds and was repeated twice. Throughout the test pupils visualised shapes (particularly 3D) and jotted notes to help them. Once finished the answers were read out and the children marked their own work in another colour. One boy found to be changing his answers had 10 marks deducted from the total.
Mathematics:
Pupils have been studying bar charts and today moved on to interprating data. Through class discussion and worksheets they read of bar and pie charts. They are developing their knowledge of how to set out results and a firmer understanding of the X and Y axis. Through paired working, they worked together to answer questions relating to results presented in different formats.
School Council assembly:
Today assembly was taken by the school council, a range of students from the higher junior years. The 'councilors' sat at the front of the hall to adress their fellow students and to bring news and questions on current school issues. Tchicovsky played as everone entered the hall. The meeting began with greeting the headmistress and the councillors. The assembly was run by the pupils, with the headmistress working as a mediator. She explained expected proceedures and the manner which others should be adressed.
The children sat quietly and listened attentivly to their colleagues, they were encouraged to speak up and ask quieter ones to project to the group to build their confidence of public speaking.
The topics covered were as follows:
Book sale - The pupils were introduced to the plan to hold a sale of old, donated books in the hall. They would be expected to contribute to the collection. Pupils were asked to take a vote as to where the proceeds would go. The options given were: to the school for new resources, to charity or split between the two. The vote was a unanimous and humbling decision to give the profits to charity. Pupils stood up to explain their choices and prefered charities, two suggested were Shelter and Cancer research. Many of the children expressed the need to help those less well off than themselves.
Football rota- This was an attempt to allocate fair times for play. A schedule had been drawn up to gve every year the opportunity to play at some point during the week.
Literacy:
In literacy the children were asked to carry on writing extracts from their own autobiographies. They aimed to focus on three or four experiences which were particularly memorable. B told them a story from her own life giving emphasis to detail, feelings and excitement. The pupils will present their autobiographies in word processed booklets using publisher, with each paragraph detaling a different event.
Pupils were encouraged to use different starters for each sentence to keep the reader engaged and the story interesting. They were expected to arrange instances chronologically and give a varied range of events from birth until the present.
When B recalled a story from her own childhood, the class took turns to repeat the story back in as much detail and in the most interesting way possible. Story starters were offered and B explained how structure should be used to present information.
The children read through their work before continuing writing to ensure fluency in their writing style, it also gave them a chance to proof read.
Marking:
We looked through a few of the 'red' english books during and following the literacy lesson. B talked about the importance of focused writing and marking. She writes three or four tasks for improvement after every piece of work and allows the children to read them through at the beginning of the following lesson so that they can assimilate them into their future writing.
Dance:
The dance from yesterday was continued, with four particularly able children taking the lead and tutoring their peers through demonstration. The two groups worked alternately so that they could partake and watch to internalize the movements. They all worked as a team to synchronize their movements, give constructive criticism and discuss improvements which were then incorporated. Although not all of them achieved the full routine by the end, their were significant improvements and on the whole they tried hard.
There was practice with and without the music and some pupils found working with the music easier as they could 'feel the beat'.
One pupil created a wordprocessed invitation for the class to give to their parents to share all their hard work with their family.
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