Term 2 2018

‘Flying High’

Working Together to Build

a Successful Future for All

Feedback was gathered from staff following the visit from Andrew Jeffrey in Term 1. The next step identified was to continue implementation of the mastery mathematics curriculum—the priority was to develop a more ‘intelligent practice’ in securing mastery and greater depth across the school.

Even though the project for mastery and manipulative maths is on-going, greater depth of planning has already been evidenced, significantly improving the outcomes for the children.

To summarise key mathematical achievements to date:

Daily lesson plans are now centred towards depth of understanding plans, rather than accelerating through the curriculum for breadth.

Staff are regularly identifying pupils who present greater depth and those who need consolidation, enabling planning to challenge the expectations of the pupils.

Our attainment in July 2017, presented an increase in pupils achieving the national standards. Our Year 6 maths scores were

96.9% which was 22.1% higher than the national average.

Classrooms have increasingly vivid displays with exciting ‘hands-on’ learning opportunities presented for pupils.

Vivid displays enable interaction across daily classroom teaching and learning.

A greater emphasis is given to maths displays in all classes. The best are interactive, inviting the viewer to engage through questioning and deeper thinking skills.

The new planning and assessment system will be monitored and evaluated as implementation continues in Term 2 and 3. Reflection was noted as a real strength of Hornbill School by Andrew Jeffrey and it is planned that all of the teachers will be given opportunities so that they continue to do this.

Teaching and learning in the art across the school is thriving. The academic year started on a really positive

note by involving new children and parents in adding to the Hornbill School Friendship Flag project, which was

started at the end of last academic year as 1RGR left for the unit move. It was great to add more bracelets to

the flags coupled with forward looking comments written by new members of our school community.

The finished piece now looks (and sounds, with bells attached to each flag) wonderful around the pagoda. It is

now put up for special events and visitors to represent this ‘Moment in Time’ captured at Hornbill school. There

are some wonderful comments about Hornbill School. Additionally, it was great to see this piece of art work

being acknowledged during the royal visit in October.

The art projects worked on during the weekly art lessons continue to evolve with some projects being repeated

with further improvements and some new projects being carried out for the first time. This has resulted in a wide

array of creative outcomes and curriculum objectives covered. It is great to see the children’s enthusiasm for art

continue and also increasing across the year groups. The art curriculum has continued to link in with each year

group’s termly theme.

Year 1 produced some wonderful superhero shields and worked on a new project focusing on the work of the

artist Roy Lichtenstein.

Year 3 created some layered Egyptian wall paintings and some decorative pharaoh masks.

Linking with the Year 4 theme of chocolate, this year group developed their printing skills by using mono printing

to create a cupcake based on the work of Wayne Thiebold. Also, using the work of Arcimboldo, the children

developed their skills of line and shape they designed and draw faces out of confectionery.

Year 5 created South American carnival masks using a variety of mediums.

Year 6 discussed and explored the dichotomy of war and peace and then faced the challenge of showing this

within a piece of art work. They also developed their design and sewing skills by making a cushion which they

now use in their classroom.

Following a review of the whole-school Science timetable, provision for students in Key Stage One has been

increased from forty minutes per week to ninety minutes per week in Year One, and from sixty minutes per

week to ninety minutes per week in Year Two. Changes to Key Stage Two timetabling have also ensured

equal provision for all KS2 classes – all classes at Hornbill School now receive a weekly ninety minute Science

lesson. The long-term Science plan has also been developed, with all year groups focusing on the same

aspect of Science each term, wherever this is possible: in Term One there is a focus on Biology; in Term Two

there is a focus on Chemistry; and Physics will be the focus during Term Three. These changes allow for the

development of whole-school initiatives to promote and raise the profile of Science; the first such event was

‘The Hornbill Plant & Flower Show’.

‘The Hornbill Plant & Flower Show’ challenged students to plant seeds and

care for plants at home with the aim of exhibiting them - extending Science

learning beyond the classroom. This proved very successful, with students

from all learning phases, including Foundation Stage, committing to a long-

term project that greatly supported and enhanced their in-school learning.

Plants were exhibited and sold during the Hornbill School Science Fayre –

raising funds for Hornbill Helping Hands. This provided a practical and

meaningful purpose for students’ learning, promoted the Hornbill School

Values and our status as an Eco-school. Students also documented the

growth process via video, paper diaries and creative projects.

Science lessons continue to promote a very practical approach to learning while ensuring excellent curriculum

coverage. Among other practical lessons, students in years three, four and six have made life-size models of

human body systems and many Science lessons have made use of our excellent outdoor learning

environment.

A weekly review of Science learning is posted to the whole-school story on ClassDojo, sharing and celebrating

the learning that has taken place across all classes – this use of technology to enhance communication with

parents has been very well received.

For the first time, Computing was team-taught by

a specialist teacher, Mr Gurung, alongside each

class teacher this year. This ensures the highest

quality provision for students while also

supporting all teachers in developing their

Computing knowledge and skills. Each term has

a specific learning focus during Computing

lessons: in term one, all classes focus on

learning about online safety; in term two, the

whole-school focus is coding and during term

three all classes develop their data-handling

skills.

Term One: Online Safety Focus

Technology is used frequently to support learning

at Hornbill School, and students are encouraged

to use technology to extend their learning at

home, it is vital that all students are provided

with the knowledge they need to stay safe when

online. Here is a summary of how each year

group has approached learning about online

safety:

Year 1 used Espresso to explore important

online safety rules that they should follow in

order to stay safe when online at school and

at home.

Year 2 designed online safety posters and

explored how to use email safely via the

2Email App. They also used the Paint

program to explore different styles of art.

Year 3 shared blog posts about online safety and

concept maps on online communication.

Year 4 made leaflets about Online Safety and

explored effective use of search engines.

Year 5 created online safety-themed comic strips,

as well as producing a leaflet on their Mayan

theme.

Year 6 created Online Safety games with the

2DIY App, they also made Leaflets connected

to their World War Two theme.

Support the Hornbill School Community in

Using Technology to Support Learning

To support the high number of new students and

families who have joined Hornbill School this year,

an FLP event was held in September. The pur-

pose was to introduce parents to online resources

that we use at school - that they can access at

home, and to share key online safety messages.

This was very well-received and parents found the

information shared insightful.

Throughout Term One, a weekly drop-in session –

‘Coffee & Computers – was provided to parents,

again sharing important online safety messages

and supporting parents in making the best possi-

ble use of technology to support their child’s learn-

ing.

This year, we have greatly developed the use of

ClassDojo as a tool to communicate with parents,

with each class maintaining a class blog and a whole

school blog. This has further enhanced

communication with parents, allowing the sharing of

important messages; the sharing of learning

resources and the celebration of children’s

successes.

Two-hundred and forty-two parents are currently

signed up to ClassDojo and posts to the

whole school blog typically receive more than

one hundred and thirty views.

Despite the regimental change over, PE continues to be as popular as ever with children eager to participate in lessons and extra-curricular clubs and events.

After a rather erratic start to our swimming programme because of inclement weather, classes in Years 1-3 have now had consistent weekly swimming lessons. Small group sizes have ensured rapid progress. All children are confident in deep water and most children have achieved an ASA or Distance Award badge. After

February half term these children will revert to two PE sessions and all remaining children in Years 1-6 will start their swimming lessons.

Over 80 children in Years 4-6 have competed in JSL competitive events so far this year including; rugby, netball, athletics and cross country.

All children have competed in internal competitive events

including: a Sports Day, a Year 5/6 hockey tournament and most recently Year 4-6 class table tennis knock out competitions

This term children from FS2—Year 3 have been concentrating on basic skills – kicking, rolling, catching, throwing and batting. Years 4-6 are working on invasion games and table tennis (over the net game).

Our standards in PE and sport remain exceptionally high.

We are now a total of 14 members, ready to make a difference and our motto being; “We care for our

younger ones”. This sum total of 14 has been comprised out of a combination of Year 5 and 6 children

who were chosen as play leaders through a very competitive procedure where they had to submit an

application letter. They have started their play duties during every play time and manage activities like

giant Mikado, setting and tidying up the play box, looking after the younger children who are on the

swings and taking responsibility of our friendship hut - to create a room for children who are new to

school or who are finding difficulty in merging themselves with a friend/s. The playground leaders have

been showing great commitment and courage by carrying on their duties with consistency and pride.

They are sacrificing some of their own playtimes to look after their younger ones during playtime and

trying really hard to create a safe play environment.

Play leaders have already created a friendship hut and

use it at playtimes to make sure that every child has a

friend to play with and is not left alone. This term they

have planned to organize a handball tournament for

the children from Year 3-6 to show their management

and organizing skills, and also to create opportunity for

children to raise standards in their physical

development.

Following term the play leaders will also be organizing

two more main events, namely Dance for Fun and Fun

Fair which have always made our play time during

past years exciting for the children - they do love it.

Our past play leaders really lived up to our

expectations - showing all their Hornbill values.

Similarly, our play leaders of 2018 are eagerly waiting

to show their commitment in keeping up with this

benchmark and are trying their very best to excel.

“I love play time!”

Giant Mikado – trying our best to make

play time exciting and fun.

Friendship hut – living up to our

moto ‘We care!’

With the battalion changeover, we have had to start fresh with our Eco Schools programme. The new Eco Warriors were formed in October 2017 with members from Year 2-6. The younger years have less representatives while Years 5 & 6 have more representatives, as they are the ones who will be leading various campaigns and activities.

The Eco Warriors have been focusing in the garden most of their time, preparing beds & planters, sowing, harvesting and selling produce that we have grown. We have managed to grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs that are popular in our community. The children have enjoyed harvesting and selling the most, which has led to their development of confidence, an essential aspect of the Eco Programme at Hornbill (we choose some shy children to work as Eco Warriors to help develop their confidence through lots of speaking and listening in the garden).

Mr. Andrew Cunningham, FS2 Teacher, appealed for help in the form of donations for the charity organisation, Schools for Malawi. This appeal was put forward during one of our eco meetings. The Eco Warriors decided that this would be a great opportunity to donate the money that we have collected by selling produce from our organic garden. Overall we donated BND 400 to Mr. Cunningham’s project.

Last year, the Eco Warriors made a presentation to Panaga School regarding the global waste problem and what we were doing in school to combat this problem. Impressed with our presentation, they decided to implement the Eco Schools Programme. To get started with their organic garden project, a few children and adults decided to visit our Eco Garden to see what we were doing and to get the feel of organic gardening. The Eco Warriors from Years 5 & 6 showed the Panaga School children around and explained what we were doing. They were very impressed with what we have achieved and how confidently the children were able to explain their gardening experience.

Our next main project will be starting from the second week of February - the Monthly Community Clean Up. This campaign is to spread awareness of the litter problem we face around the world, not forgetting our community. This was a regular monthly activity in previous years. We hope to run this event either the first or second Friday of every month.

This year the school has received a substantial Religious

Education resource order including a wide range of

storytelling puppets, dolls, religious artefacts and books. These resources will be organised into the existing

resource boxes and used to enhance learning and teaching of the new syllabus purchased by the school

last year.

Ensuring that Nepali religious and cultural traditions are upheld and celebrated continues to be of utmost

importance at Hornbill School. In September, the school hosted a Dashain picnic where friends and

families came together to share food and create memories ahead of the celebrations. In October Year 2

created a Ghatasthapana display and hosted Pundit Ji for the planting ritual and all year groups visited the

garrison temple, where Pundit Ji shared the religious rituals carried out at this auspicious time. In January

Mr Gurung and the Nepali Radio Club led an informative Saraswati Puja assembly.

In November, Year 6 led a moving Remembrance service, paying homage to all those who served during

wartime in World War II and their impressive commitment to country and community. December began with

the annual dressing of the tree and building of the Nativity scene. During this time classes from Year 1 to

Year 6 additionally got creative and worked collaboratively to create a Twelve Days of Christmas display,

bringing the Multi-Purpose Hall to life and getting everyone into the festive mood. This year saw two new

nativities, with Foundation Stage 2 performing ‘The Bossy King’ and Year 2 sharing ‘Ned’s Christmas

Discovery’, whilst Year 1 presented an old favourite, ‘Wriggly Nativity’; Years 3 to 6 held a traditional carol

concert.

This year has seen Religious Education; Personal, Social and Health Education; and the Hornbill School

Values continually become more intertwined, and in November Friendship Week began with a visit from

Padre Lt Col IJ Stevenson. The Padre encouraged good citizenship, care and concern for those around; he

reminded staff and pupils of the necessity of reflecting on their treatment of others and ensuring that time is

taken to listen to those around them.

In Term 2, the school looks forward to celebrating Shrove Tuesday with pancakes provided by the garrison

Cookhouse, a visit from Chung Hua School’s Dragon Dance performance as part its Chinese New Year

Celebrations and in March, staff will receive an introduction to Philosophy for Children from Jerudong

International School’s P4C Coordinator Steven Gardiner. It is hoped that the introduction of a

discussion-based approach to the delivery of Religious Education will allow for increased flexibility and

encourage the integration of religious, social and global matters.

We’re continuing to raise standards in Design and Technology through the provision of great learning experiences for all children. Here are some of the DT highlights of the year so far:

Year 1

As part of the ‘Superheroes Save the Day’ theme, Year 1 made pictures using a simple sliding mechanism (lolly pop stick through a slit), the children could choose to either make a flying superhero or Tenzing Norgay Sherpa climbing Mount Everest. This term the theme in Year 1 is ‘King of the Castle’ and they will be designing, choosing materials and making flags and helmets for a Beetle Class versus Bear Class battle. They will also use this as an opportunity for cross curricular English work by writing a recount of the event.

Year 2

Term 1 took Year 2 into the DT kitchen for some culinary lessons with the support of our wonderful parents. The children learned how to make momos, pancakes and delicious Nepali sweet treats. They had a chance to use a range of kitchen equipment and techniques. This was inspired by the theme ‘What a wonderful world’. Particularly the book Mama Panyas Pancakes. As part of the Splish! Splash! Splosh! theme Year 2 will design souvenir t-shirts to celebrate the beauty of the Galapagos Islands that they studied as part of their theme. The children will use batik to decorate their shirts and evaluate the final product.

Year 3

DT has been an exciting area of learning in Year 3 so far this year. During the theme ‘Ancient Egyptians’ the children designed and made their own Egyptian board games. They tested it in class, wrote instructions and taught their parents how to play the game during their Landing pad. This term the theme is ‘Adventure Into Space’. The children will design, build and test their own rockets. Thinking about the school’s Eco focus, these rockets will be made from recycled materials against success criteria set by their ‘tourist clients’.

Year 4

With ‘Wonderful World of Chocolate’ as the theme for Term1, Year 4 explored where chocolate comes from and tested a variety of different chocolates. They designed, made and evaluated the perfect chocolate box to package these delicious treats working from design criteria. The final product was evaluated based on these criteria as well. In the DT kitchen Year 4 made healthy and very tasty fruit smoothies and sold them at the Christmas Fayre.

Year 5

Term 1 took the Year 5s into the kitchen to explore and experiment. They followed a process of developing a recipe, testing and evaluating it and then adapting the recipe to create a cheese bread end product that was truly tasty. They were also inspired by Christmas and baked their own delicious mince pies! This term they are going to design and make toys as part of their ‘Inventions’ theme.

Year 6

During Term 1 each child sewed a design onto a cushion to create something unique and original. They also looked at rationing recipes and during their Landing pad each child had to cook a meal from given rations. This term they will be experimenting with pasta dishes creating a pasta dish that reflects a certain country. They will also be building 3D settlements with cardboard and collaged materials.

Future plans in Design and Technology

We’re very fortunate to have an opportunity to develop space in the school into an Arts Centre that will also include a DT workshop. This is a very exciting development as it will afford the staff the facilities to attempt more challenging projects and to use equipment that thus far has gone unused due to classroom restrictions. We’re very fortunate to have support from the DT specialist teacher at JIS on this project to help us create the best possible space for our staff and children.

This new academic year started with changes in plans and approach to how we cater to music across school to meet our curriculum needs.

In Term 1 we assessed and reviewed our peripatetic music lessons that children take part within school with external teachers. With the new cohort of children in school, parents were introduced to what was on offer and we as school facilitated the resources for more than 40 children to take up formal lessons across Piano, Vocals, Guitars, Ukulele, Violin keyboards and Drums.

Our African Drummers were also granted audience during the royal visit in Term 1. The children did commendably well in their performance.

The Christmas Concert and the Christmas related activities as always involved the whole school right from FS1 to Year 6 in singing in a choir. Singing in unison and in a group is one of the most important aspects of the Primary School National Curriculum. Children from Years 3 to 6 were able to perform to parents in two different shows in one day. We had good attendance at the concert and children were well appreciated for their effort.

At the end of Term 1 quite a few Year groups worked on songs and musical presentations for their parents and were very well received. Year 3 integrated a song into their maths lesson and performed for an assembly and worked on an Egyptian song with movements for their landing pad. Year 5 worked on an ancient legend and combined samba inspired percussion based music to tell the story in their landing pad. Likewise, Year 6 has been actively engaged in music related learning within their class with Mrs Brown.

Being a member of FOBISIA Schools, we have taken another opportunity to be part of an ‘ARTs Project’ which involves a combined composition of music and art. We are working with children who will be compositing music looking at some art work and recording them. The music will then be integrated with other compositions from various schools as one musical presentation. The project includes several schools across FOBISIA from Southeast Asia. We are aiming to accomplish this by the middle of March this term.

At close to the mid-point of the 2017-2018 school year Geography, as a subject, is progressing forward in several ways.

A Year 1-6 geography provision audit has been successfully undertaken with each year level indicating how and when they will be addressing the curriculum indicators for their level. No gaps or problematic areas were identified and teachers were very clear and explicit about how thoroughly the curriculum will be tackled during the remainder of the school year.

By the end of term 2 the Geography ‘grotto’ will be completed and running. It is an area of the school where there will be geography based displays, resources, and challenges. Pleasingly, with budgets tight the Geography leader, Mr Jules Millward, has been able to manage this process at no cost.

A third area of Geography curriculum development that is currently taking place is the updating of contact details for local resource people and organisations that can support teaching and learning in this area. Mr Millward has been spending time contacting numerous organisations and local experts to ensure the directory of information he first established 4 years ago is as up to date as possible. By years end this will be reintroduced to teaching staff with a view to supporting planning into the 2018-2019 school year.

The key Rights Respecting Schools values continue to be evident within the assembly programme. These are being reinforced and developed within classes. An audit of Pupil Voice showed a heightened awareness of these.

In term 1 the RMP ran a series of very successful workshops and presentations highlighting the need to ensure road safety. All the children were engaged in the learning experiences. A follow up poster competition was also held.

An audit of current PSHE practice has resulted in an order for ‘Jigsaw PSHE’ being submitted. Advice was sought from schools currently using the scheme. The scheme will be used to support and build upon practice.

During Term 1, the leadership of English in Years 1 - 6 was taken on by Andy Wallace and Joanna Brown. Amanda Donald continued as in the previous year to lead Phonics across Key Stage 1 and Juliette Veljic continued to lead FS in Language and Communication.

English continues to be a well taught subject across the year groups at Hornbill School and, as new leaders of the subject, Andy and Jo began to investigate the teaching and learning of the subject in greater depth across the school. At the beginning of Term 1, a staff meeting was led by the English Leadership Team to encourage the staff to reflect on the teaching of spelling. This created beneficial collegial discussion and sharing of practice. Information from this was collated to create an overview of the progression of spelling teaching across the school. As part of this focus on spelling, a pupil event was planned during Term 1 – the first Hornbill School Spelling Bee. Uptake from children in Years 3 to 6 was very impressive with a final total of 84 children signing up to participate. The event was a buzz of interactive communication as teams spelt words relating to the spelling patterns and rules that they had learnt in their classes during Term 1.

During our festive celebrations, Key Stage 2 was also able to make progress in their Speaking and Listening skills through involvement in choral poetry performances in the Christmas production – A Feast of Festive Frivolity. All children across the Key Stage performed two poems which they had learned to say by heart.

In November, a Reading FLP was presented to 31 parents. This focused on the importance of parents interacting with their child’s reading at home. Videos of adults reading with children in FS2, Y2, Y3 and Y6 were shown to parents as examples of the styles of interaction and questioning that help to engage children in their home reading. Feedback from parents was very positive, for example: I used to support my child’s reading in my own way but I liked the techniques shown in the videos. I really liked all

the discussions taking place while reading.

Cynthia Symon visited Hornbill School in November and carried out useful writing moderation work with Years 2 and 6. She also shared changes that have been made within the moderation process this year and was impressed with the writing that she saw taking place in school.

Andy and Jo also carried out a learning walk of language in classroom environments during Term 1. This highlighted the fact that language is richly displayed in our school environment, with each class having its own unique style. An iMovie of photos taken on the learning walk was shared with staff as a form of CPD enabling reflection on best practice. Andy and Jo also undertook a Book Look across Years 1 to 6 which highlighted the great progress made as children progress through the school.

In December, children wrote poetry to submit to a Premier League poetry writing competition on the theme of resilience and given the stimulus of a poem, ‘Try, try again’. We are eagerly awaiting news of whether any of our entrants have been successful in the competition. In February we will submit entries into the Fobisia Short Story Competition.

Term 2 is set to be a great celebration of English Language as we prepare to celebrate World Book Day. We are highlighting the value of reading within our school by creating an interactive walk-in display of reading in an atap. This display will be submitted to the World Book Day competition and will be made of varied images, objects and book reviews that have been generated through children’s ideas and work. We will also be enjoying a dressing up day when the school will be awash with characters from children’s fiction and reading activities will take place across the school. We look forward to welcoming a published author to present to the school as the culmination of our reading celebration at the beginning of March.

During Term 1 and early in Term 2, Amanda Donald visited FS1, FS2, Year 1 and Year 2 to see phonics sessions. She also looked at the continuity across the different year groups and has audited the planning. The number of children working on end of year expectations in Year 2 has risen from 0 in September to 51% in December. In Year 1 this has risen from 0 to 21% in December and has already changed since the last data collection. Amanda continues to monitor the progress in Year 1 in regards to the phonics screening and has been supported by Terri Turton who is teaching one of the Year 1 groups. FS2 continues to use action words to support the children’s learning which is now being developed further in Year 1. The Year 2 children who need to resit the phonics screening are steadily progressing and Year 3 now have a targeted intervention to cover any phase 6 gaps from Year 2. In Term 2.2 a much anticipated phonics and spelling FLP shall take place.

There is much to celebrate within the teaching and learning of English!

There have been many examples of outstanding history teaching and learning this year. The curriculum

states that a, ‘high-quality history education… should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.’

There is much evidence to suggest that the teaching at Hornbill is indeed inspiring this curiosity. For example,

the History Coordinator has worked with the Computing Coordinator to set the whole school history-related

challenges on Google Classroom. In order to further inspire students, Mr Niresh Sivarajah has asked a

variety of pupils to create questions for these challenges.

There are many examples of how the curriculum is successfully being taught in Hornbill. One instance of this

is how Year 6 specifically looked at the reasons for World War 2. This directly links to the curriculum focus on

the ‘follies of mankind’ as well as ‘cause and consequence’.

An example of outstanding work by a Year 6 pupil (below left).

Furthermore, as seen above (right), Year 3 have focused on identifying ‘similarity, difference and

significance…to make connections’ as they have compared gods from Ancient Egypt to Hindu gods.