Year 6 open morning, science lessons and Mandarin workshop

6J enjoyed an open morning to share the results of their hard work with their parents before starting the day. It was a joyous way to encourage scholarship and community spirit, between pupils and parents.

Five weeks of term have flown by, and Year 6 are reading for a well earned rest over half term.

In Science lessons this week, we have been building circuits and investigating what happens we we change one component at a time. Wires, bulbs, buzzers and motors have facilitated our experiments in deciphering whether the proximity of a component to the battery in the circuit makes a difference to its power output. It has been a very active learning experience where pupils have enjoyed constructing circuits themselves.

The highlight of the week however, was definitely Wednesday afternoon when staff from the CLSG Chinese department visited Year 6 and ran three fantastic workshops to get everyone in the mood for celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend. The Y6 students took part in Mandarin lessons, Chinese dance lessons and learnt how to do Chinese calligraphy using traditional brushes and ink. It has been a wonderful celebration of Chinese culture and a precious opportunity to share knowledge from our diverse community at City Junior School.

In the pupils' words:

"I liked the calligraphy - I really enjoyed using the brush and learning about the animals of the Chinese zodiac. I'm a dragon!" 

"We learned how to count to ten in Chinese. It was interesting to learn about a completely different language and its roots."

"The workshops were really fun. I liked learning the numbers rap in Mandarin."