Body bits, bones and bandages - and books

With the coming of Spring, the Upper School has been bursting with excitement, enthusiasm and wonderful learning opportunities. J. M. Barrie wrote, “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” Copthill children never doubt that they can fly, and continue to do so throughout their lives.

Year 4 children have studied 'From Out of the Shadows'. They were inspired by the film 'Shadow of Blue' and developed their creative writing using lots of descriptive language devices. They also looked at ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes and designed and built their own 'Iron Robot' based on his. Whilst studying electricity and circuits, they created their own 'Scribblebot' drawing robot in groups and created art work using the machine. Year 4 are now studying the Saxons and have begun reading Beowulf, which they have found gripping. They have had lots of fun designing a dragon to build, drawing a dragon's eye and writing dragon kennings using some very creative extended metaphors! In Year 5, ‘Body Bits, Bones and Bandages’ has truly been the theme of some lessons recently with their learning about the Ancient Egyptians, including creating their own mummified bodies, and, in Science, performing heart and lung dissections. This half term, they have been immersing themselves into the life of the Ancient Greeks, creating their own pottery designs and tasting traditional feasting foods. Year 5 have also recently returned from their amazing Saxon tour where they played netball and hockey against other schools and took part in a range of exciting outdoor activities.

Year 6 have explored the causes of World War 1 and reflected on what life would have been like for a British soldier fighting at the front. A wonderful talk by Mr Tilney, where the children saw and handled a range of artefacts, broadened their understanding before they experienced the trench morning. This event made the children’s understanding and empathy about what happened at that time all the more real as they made ‘trench stew’ from scratch; manned a field hospital, rescuing injured soldiers from no-man’s land with stretcher parties then treating their wounds using basic first aid knowledge; before finally standing ready in the trench and going over the top into the face of the German machine guns, artillery and gas. The whole of Year 6 are excited about their production of ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ for which they are already busy rehearsing.

As well as all of these amazing experiences, Upper School children have taken part in some other wonderful activities, including Years 4 and 5 visiting the Oundle Literary Festival as part of World Book Day and experiencing a live performance by the very talented children’s poet Roger Stevens. Years 5 and 6 also watched a riveting performance of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, performed by The Young Shakespeare Company before studying the play in detail. All children in Years 4, 5 and 6 have taken part in a number of competitive matches against other schools in either netball or hockey, displaying all the sporting traits we are proud of at Copthill. Red Nose Day saw the children showing off their crazy mismatched styles of clothing!

We are absolutely delighted to see all our Copthill Learners in school enjoying time together and immersing themselves in Copthill life both inside and outside the classrooms. We wish you a wonderful Easter break and look forward to welcoming you back to enjoy the super summer term and all it has in store.

Mr Willson

Upper School Teacher