NEWS
From important school notices to special events, sporting achievements and brilliant work - we'll share it here. You can also download all current academic year issues of our regular school newsletter, the Hamlet Herald.
Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news of what we're up to.
Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news of what we're up to.
Archived Hamlet Heralds
What's been going on this month?
February 2021
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Year 4 started this half term's English topic with a bang.... and a crash, clang, crunch! Our remote learners returned from half term to find that something strange had happened in Village Hall. Mr Simms and Ms Oddie discovered metal objects - from bikes to badminton rackets - strewn all over the floor, and even spotted some enormous tooth marks!
A very stern Detective Inspector(!) arrived to take witness statements from the year 4 team and spoke to Miss Harris, who was a key witness. The children (ahem... Police Officers) completed Crime Scene Reports on the incident, using the evidence presented to identify possible suspects. Many believed Ted Hughes' Iron Man was to blame. Will he be caught before he chomps through more of our metal?! |
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January 2021
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Who says you need a laboratory to do science experiments? So far this half term, our year 4 children have proved just the opposite! Our home-learning professors have studied the effect of different drinks on our teeth, using eggs to represent enamel. Many predicted that cola would be most damaging to the egg shell, but it was the sugar and acid in the fruit cordials that resulted in the eggs losing almost all their shells.
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As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also been studying the digestive system, recreating the passage of food through the stomach and intestines using sandwich bags and socks!
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In Science, Year 6 have been experimenting with bread decomposing in a comparative test. We came up with some variables to consider how we could make it decompose faster and chose to cover the bread slices with three different things – salt, vinegar and the bacteria found on our hands and faces. We have been checking our bread slices every week and so far we have discovered that salt has made our bread go rock hard, vinegar has made our bread go soggy and bacteria….well, just look at the pictures above! At the end of the month, we are going to examine our results and think carefully about why each piece of bread has decomposed in the way it has. We will use our Science learning from this term on living things to help us.
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In Art this half term, Year 3 have been studying a local artist, Bridget Riley. We discovered that she was born in Norwood and moved to Cornwall during the way. She uses lines and shape to create optical illusions within her pieces of artwork. In Maths, we have been learning about horizontal, vertical, parallel and perpendicular lines so we used this knowledge to create our own pieces of Op Art. Here is a fact file about Bridget Riley, made by a member of 3H, and many pieces of Op Art made by children across Year 3.
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December 2020
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This month, year 4 have been busy in the kitchen! We adapted recipes to make our own polar explorer soups, full of carbohydrates for energy and vegetables for essential vitamins and minerals. We practiced essential cooking skills - chopping, measuring, frying, simmering - and thought about kitchen hygiene and product packaging. Finally, we got the opportunity to taste our delicious, hearty soups. Notes for next time? Those chilli flakes are seriously spicy!
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In Maths this term, Year 3 have been exploring 3, 6 and 9 times tables. We have shown our understanding of these in different ways, including using arrays, pictures and bar models. We have now sped up our recall of these multiplication facts, applied them to solve division problems and have begun to spot patterns and relationships between the times tables.
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Year 3 have been focussing on our sketching and painting skills this month. We have been exploring using watercolour to create different shades, tones and effects when painting scales and fish. When sketching, we have tried out different types of pencils whilst exploring the impact of pressing down harder, holding the pencil differently and the speed we work with the pencil. Have a look at examples of this creative process below.
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November 2020
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Year 5 travelled back in time and became Victorian school children for the day when they visited Horton Kirby Education Centre. The centre is based in a former school, which was set up as it appeared in 1901. Our 21st century children adopted the names of pupils who attended the school almost 120 years ago. They were taught the three Rs, Victorian-style and some children even had to wear the dunce’s hat! They took part in Drill – or PE – and played Victorian games. They also investigated antique artefacts such as carpet beaters, irons and peg dolls.
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In Humanities this month, year 4 have been retracing the steps of Ernest Shackleton and his crew on their ill-fated voyage on the Endurance. We used a range of primary and secondary sources - including photographs and diary entries from the expedition - to understand the challenges that the crew faced when their boat became stuck in the Antarctic ice. We also found out about the essential role of the James Caird lifeboat - now safely located right here in Dulwich - in successfully rescuing every member of the crew. Finally, we used the evidence we had gathered to answer the big question: was Ernest Shackleton a hero?
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On 17th November, Year 6 visited Horton Kirby Educational Centre. We really enjoyed travelling back in time! We explored the village, learning about key sites and their war stories, including numbers 55 and 56 School Lane that were nearly hit by a bomb. After a quick game of Pooh Sticks, we were lucky enough to handle some real WW2 artefacts, including an unopened bottle of Dandelion and Burdock – we definitely didn’t want to drink it though! We had to wait safely in an Anderson Shelter when the Air Raid Siren sounded but luckily we got the all clear to head into our afternoon lesson which included plane identification and addition of shillings and pence.
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In Humanities, we have been learning about the journey many people made from the Caribbean to the UK in 1948 on the Empire Windrush. We made comparisons between countries in the Caribbean and the UK, learnt about why many people made this journey and what their expectations were versus the reality on arrival into the UK. Our workshop on Windrush helped us to understand more about the emotions and experiences many people had
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This November, Year 3 have been studying Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry. We are big fans! Some of our favourite poems include ‘Vegan Steven’ and ‘Vegan Steven’s Clothes’. We have had some outstanding performances from the children, who focussed on their spoken word skills including intonation, volume, pace and clarity to engage their readers. We used inspiration from Zephaniah’s famous and powerful poem ‘The British’ to write our own based on our class. We initially spent time discussing who we are, what makes us special and what we value as a community, and we wrote our poems in a style of a recipe. See just a handful of our impressive poetry below.
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October 2020
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As part of our science unit on ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’, Year 4 has been busy developing their understanding of what constitutes a living thing, drawing on key vocabulary such as ‘reproduction’, ‘respiration’ and ‘sensitivity’ in order to discuss the difference between a real duck and a rubber one. As we moved through October, this learning was applied to the context of the Dulwich Hamlet garden, where the children engaged in classification fieldwork in an effort to determine which were the most common invertebrates at school, with the woodlouse emerging as champion! To top off this exciting, investigative topic, we were thrilled to be able to take the children on their first school trip of the year – an excursion to Dulwich Woods – where they discovered a range of microhabitats and enjoyed getting good and muddy in the process!
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As part of our learning on WW2 this term, Year 6 have been studying forgotten war heroes. One hero we studied was Victor Brown, a Jamaican Navy officer who saved 42 lives when a torpedo hit the side of the oil tanker he was on.
We discussed the discrimination soldiers from the Caribbean and Africa faced when attempting to join the war efforts for Britain and reflected on how these attitudes changed as time went on. A moving documentary we watched where Victor Brown reunited with his ship mate, Winston Murphy, made us realise just how lucky Britain was that so many people were willing to risk their lives for their country. |
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Year 5 have been exploring the effectiveness of thermal insulators by seeing which material would be best to stop ice men melting! They first identified the difference between thermal insulators and conductors, categorising different household items into each group. Using this knowledge, they chose three materials out of plastic, bubble wrap, cloth and tin foil for their ice men to wear, wrapping the pieces of material around them and waiting for timed intervals to see how much water melted. They carefully measured the water that had melted and decided which, out of the three, was the most effective insulator (so which material prevented the ice men from disappearing!) Finally, they used their findings to create a graph and make scientific conclusions based on the evidence. The children unanimously decided that tin foil would not be a good material for the ice men to wear, as metal is a conductor of heat.
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So far in October, Year 3 have been learning new vocabulary to help us explain how rivers work including ‘meanders’, ‘deposition’, ‘erosion’ and more. We were very lucky the sun shone down on us on our visit to Horton Kirby Environmental Education Centre. We tested the speed of the river using a rubber duck named Pinky, and demonstrated erosion using Lego and mud. We were inspired to write stories about Pinky’s journey from source of the River Darent to the tributary where it joins the Thames.
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We’re also budding scientists in Year 3! We have been learning about light and conducting different experiments to work out what material makes the best shadow puppet and how we can change the size of a shadow. We have learnt new scientific vocabulary to help us explain our thinking and drawn diagrams to demonstrate how light works.
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September 2020
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In Art, Year 6 have been exploring the work of Roy Lichtenstein to begin our Pop Art unit of work. We researched his life and explored some of his most famous pieces. Then, we had a go at recreating his work in a similar style!
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In Art this week, Year 5 have been creating mixed media responses to Oliver Jeffers' beautiful book, "Here We Are". |
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This month, year 4 have been getting hands on with our Humanities topic – Natural Disasters. So far, we have imagined the outcomes if an earthquake took place here in school, and begun to investigate the structure of the Earth using… nectarines! First, we practised the ‘drop, cover, hold on’ earthquake drill, and wrote comic strips showing the possible impacts of our imaginary earthquake. Then, we identified the ‘crust’, ‘mantle’ and ‘core’ of our nectarine models. What will we think of next?! |
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In Art, Year 3 have been using watercolour to create backgrounds inspired by the landscapes and objects natural world and our feelings. We then looked at typography and experimented with writing fonts that reflect the meaning of the word we are writing. Have a look at our pictures for some examples! We are going to combine these two techniques to create our final pieces linked to our whole school text Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers. |
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In Maths, Year 3 have been learning about the place value of 3-digit and 2-digit numbers. We have been exploring representing these numbers in different ways, using concrete resources and different models, including bar models, part-part whole models and more. We have also been working hard to use mathematical vocabulary when explaining our thinking.
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June 2020
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Teaching is looking quite different at the moment. Look out for your times for live google teacher Meet sessions.
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May 2020
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Virtual Parent and Carer Cafe |
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March 2020
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Dear Parents and Carers
Three Eastery Doodle Maths Messages: 1. Please note that there is a Spring Maths Challenge with a chance to win goodies. Details here https://www.doodlemaths.com/spring-challenge/ 2. Pupils will now find Easter accessories in My Pages and they can spend their hard earned DoodleStars buying Easter eggs and unlocking Easter bunnies. 3. Parents should note that Parent Dashboard features have been increased to allow you to support your child’s learning even more at home. This means that linked you can access parents.doodlemaths.com and monitor your child’s progress, recalibrate their accounts and add Extras. Doodle Maths are also running daily parent webinars guiding parents on how to use Doodle to support learning at home. Happy Doodling |
February 2020
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Year 6 have been busy in the kitchen making Mexican style burritos. They have learnt, amongst other things, about reducing liquid, slicing, mashing, presentation, food hygiene and why it's a bad idea to put too much chilli powder in your sauce.
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We were honoured to be selected to be the featured school for the Young Voices 25th Anniversary which is being celebrated next year. We have already signed ourselves up!
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In Science this month, Year 3 have been studying the different types of rocks and their characteristics. We also investigated what soil is made up of, finding organic matter, live plants and insects! We even found an Ash tree seed in its earliest stages of growth. This was fascinating to consider the changes this plant will undergo. Later on this month, we looked at fossils, and researched information about the famous palaeontologist, Mary Anning, who was not recognised for her work until after her death. We recreated the fossilisation process using clay to represent the ocean floor, shells to represent the organism that had died and plaster of paris to represent the hardened layers of sediment.
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During the past week, Year 4 have spent their Science lessons focusing on teeth. The children discussed the transition between milk teeth and adult teeth and enjoyed sharing details about losing their teeth and how many they currently had! Afterwards, they found out about the types of teeth that we have and what their role is. Finally, using modelling clay, the children carefully created models of their teeth with some more realistic than others!
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January 2020
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Year 6 travelled to the Old Kent Road Fire Station to complete the Southwark Junior Citizenship Scheme. Over the course of the afternoon, the children took part in a variety of activities aimed at boosting their confidence and keeping them safe as they become more independent Londoners. The interactive activities, including a very accurate simulation of a tube and bus stop, were a fun way of introducing and reinforcing important messages about fire safety, city wildlife, independent travel and being mindful of your surroundings - rather than just your mobile phone!
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The children of Year 5 have been truly reaching for the stars as part of their Earth in Space topic. They even boarded a mysterious UFO-style vessel which appeared overnight in Turney Hall. Needless to say they were relieved to discover it was in fact a mobile planetarium. Thanks to the Wonderdome, the children were given their very own solar system show, complete with commentary by an expert presenter.
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This month, Year 4 have been on a visit to Tate Britain for a very special occasion! In one of the galleries, there were some familiar faces in the artwork...ours! Last year, we took part in the Steve McQueen Year 3 project and we were so excited to see our pictures amongst thousands of others in the gallery. We made our presence felt in the gallery by shouting ‘WE ARE HERE’ and we completed some fun activities such as creating a slogan for Year 3 children everywhere. Later on, we went into some of the other galleries and drew our favourite painting.
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In January, Year 3 have begun to look at the different shades and textures you can create using different pencil types. We explored using a variety of ‘B’ type sketch pencils to play with patterns, and then considered which would most likely be present on marine life. In Art, we really enjoy using our sketchbooks are to collect and experiment with different techniques.
Paying attention to detail, we then studied Victorian sketches of fish, which were typically completed without colour and in pencil. Using these pictures, we created view finders to study only small sections of the fish, and then used newly learnt drawing techniques to recreate. The children had a good opportunity to draw from observation, practise detail and repeat patterns whilst working with a variety of scales. Our next step is to create water colour pieces, transferring our pattern techniques with pencil to paint. |
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Our Eco-Council's #Plasticfreeschool campaign was launched last term and is continuing to gather pace. We conducted a "Trashmob" to find out what kind of plastic was being dropped in our environment
Our Eco Councillors are now drafting letters to challenge our political leaders to sit up and take notice. We have also been invited to speak at a local event: SPEAK UP FOR THE CLIMATE by DaWNCC Dulwich & West Norwood Climate Coalition with Lambeth FoE on Saturday 8th February at 1pm. We would love to see some of you there to support our pupils! |
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December 2019
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This term, Year 4 put their MasterChef hats on and cooked some hearty Polar Explorer soup! We carefully followed the recipe, weighing out ingredients and making sure we were accurate. We also developed our knife skills and learnt about how to be safe in the kitchen, especially around hobs while we were adding to our stock! The resulting soups were delicious and the bowls were scraped clean!
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It has been a busy term in science for Year 3, as we have been studying animals, including humans, discovering how our diets, skeletons and muscular systems are different. We visited the Horniman Museum to make observations of different skeletons, sketch and find out new facts about the living things that exist in our world. Have a look below at some of our sketches we completed during our trip.
We were very lucky to do some dissecting this month! Recently, we found out that owls cannot digest the bones, despite their carnivorous diet. They regurgitate something called an owl pellet which includes the different bones of the animals they have consumed. We pulled these apart, studied the bones inside and categorised them according to their shapes and size. We were even able to identify which type of animal it is, either a rodent, mole or shrew. Have a look at what we found here, if you’re not too squeamish! |
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On Thursday 5th December a group of children were lucky enough to take part in filming the official World Book Day trailer, which will be used on the website, Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites. You'll be able to see the finished product from January 9th by logging onto the World Book day website.
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In Science, Year 6 have been very busy learning about electricity. Using their knowledge of the universal circuit symbols, the children designed their own circuits using wires, cells, bulbs and switches. In groups, they used these circuits to create fantastic, fully-functional lighthouses. To deepen their understanding, the children went on to investigate how increasing voltage in a circuit affects the brightness of a bulb. Using data loggers enabled our budding scientists to take accurate measurements and draw meaningful conclusions using scientific vocabulary.
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November 2019
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It’s been a busy few weeks for the children in Year 5!
They were warmly welcomed to the East Dulwich Gurdwara where they observed and learned about the celebrations marking the birth of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The special trip, organised by Arjun’s mother, involved visiting the prayer room and eating with members of our Sikh community. We are so grateful for the warm hospitality extended to us. They also visited the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, where they examined and evaluated artefacts about three prominent and important black Victorians – actor Ira Aldridge, composer Samuel Taylor-Coleridge and engineer and inventor Lewis Latimer. Did you know that, thanks to Lewis Latimer, Electric Avenue in Brixton was one of the first streets to be lit with electric lighting? |
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On the 12th and 14th of November, Y4 went to Dulwich College to learn more about Ernest Shackleton’s journey on the James Caird as part of our Polar Explorers topic. We were shown paintings of the boat on its journey through dangerous, icy waters and we even got the chance to hold a 150 year old balaclava that the crew used to keep warm! When we saw the James Caird, we were very surprised by its size and we didn’t think it would be very comfortable to travel in – you could only crouch and only got to stand up for 4 hours a day when you were navigating the ship!
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This November, Year 3 have been busy learning more about this fascinating city that we live in. We took a trip to Southbank and walked from Blackfriars Bridge all the way to the Golden Hinde, learning many interesting facts about famous landmarks along the way. As we walked, we noticed differences between old and new architecture and admired the views of St Paul’s from south side of Millenium Bridge. Outside of the Tate Modern, we created ‘messy maps’ to help us navigate along the river. We also had the opportunity to sketch the London skyline whilst sat on the north side of the river, using our careful observation skills and techniques learnt in our art lessons. Learning about our city will help us to design our own back at school, thinking carefully about the key role rivers play in our cities, as well as transport, architecture, tourism and more.
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We are delighted to see more children engaging with TTRS this week.
Next week is Maths Week 2019 so as part of our commitment to make maths exciting and high profile in our school, we are taking part in a competition next week called Rock Out 2019 and it’s all done online via play.ttrockstars.com For every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, your child will earn their class a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average (the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours). Winning classes in the school and in the country as a whole will be the ones with the highest average. All game modes (Gig, Garage, Studio, etc.) will count but only from games played between 7.30am and 7.30pm on Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th, Friday 15th and Saturday 16th. The spirit of the competition is supposed to be fun so please encourage and support your child to the extent that it doesn’t cause high stress levels or impact on family plans. We suggest a limit of half an hour a day outside school hours – some will play more, some will play less. Happy Rocking. |
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October 2019
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On Monday 7th October, Year 4 visited the Horniman museum. This linked in with our science topic of living things and their habitats. Upon arrival, we sat in the gardens and sketched some of the habitats we could see for mini beasts. We chatted to the gardeners who were weeding and they showed us some of the mini beasts in the soil such as worms and snails. Afterwards, we visited the amazing aquarium to observe underwater creatures in their habitats and we considered how these compared to the habitats in the gardens. We were extremely excited to visit the ‘Brick Wonders’ exhibition and we made some amazing habitats out of Lego after viewing some incredible Lego sculptures of different habitats such as the jungle. Finally, we took part in a fact finding hunt in the galleries and learnt a lot about how animals adapt to their habitats over time. |
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34 Year 6 children performed Julius Caesar at school today, before their big night at Greenwich tomorrow. The rest of the school was a fantastic audience and the actors were magnificent. Watch this space for photos from the theatre! |
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In October, Year 3 were learning all about light in Science. We have identified natural light sources and artificial light sources, learnt about how shadows are formed and considered how reflection happens. Did you know that animals including glow worms and deep-sea anglerfish can produce their own light? Using our new knowledge, we conducted different experiments to find out what effects the size of a shadow and how to make light travel around the corner using mirrors. We have been focussing on how to conduct our investigations to make sure our tests are fair and that we are measuring our results accurately. We are definitely a bunch of budding scientists in Year 3!
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September 2019
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Year 3 visited the River Darent in Horton Kirby in September to learn more about rivers and where they come from. The children had the opportunity to get into the river to test the speed of the water along a meander, using Pinky the duck to help us with our measurements! We also measured the depth of the water at different points along the meander and noticed differences on the inside and outside of the bends. Back at the centre, we built our own rivers using trays and soil, and tested their strength by adding in lego bricks to act as buildings. To end our trip, we studied the changes along the River Darent over time and compared it to the Thames and discussed the impact that plastic pollution is having on the wildlife in our rivers and oceans.
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July 2019
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Thanks to everyone who came to our art exhibition this year, what creative and talented students we have! |
June 2019
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It came down to penalties. Amazing goalkeeping meant that the first few penalties were saved. Then Year 6 got one past the goalie! And that was it. A harsh result for Year 5 but well done to Year 6. Amazing support from the fans. Amazing teamwork. #WomensWorldCup #Lionesses
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May 2019
21st May 2019
Y6 spent three nights camping on their Woodland Adventure trip, having lunch by the fire, zipping through trees, sing-songs and bedtime stories and lots more fun! |
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April 2019
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Y5 spent a week in Dorset and had an incredible time! |
March 2019
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In Year 6, we have been reading Munoz Ryan’s ‘The Dreamer’. It’s magical realist retelling of Pablo Neruda’s childhood has been encouraging all of us to dream big dreams.
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February 2019
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28th February Year 6 have been looking at the abstracted sculpture of Henry Moore and responding with their own interpretations of the artist's work inspired by their Humanities topic of Refugees and Immigration. |
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January 2019
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Y4 Retelling the story of Beowulf, which includes a few unfriendly faces!
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November 2018
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The staff and children have generated a short list through a series of in-class debates. We want YOU (Parents & Carers) to help us select the core values that make a Hamleteer. Please fill in a voting slip with your top 3 values from the shortlist, fold it once and either pop it in our ballot box under the shelter outside the office or ask your child to do so for you. Voting Starts Monday 3rd December & closes Wednesday 5th December. |
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7th November Year 4 had a great time on their trip to Horniman Museum, finding out about how animals are classified in the Natural History exhibit |
October 201817th October
Y6 working hard constructing Anderson Shelters |
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September 2018
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28th September Such an incredible opportunity our talented students experienced on Friday, performing on behalf of Young Voices for BBC Music Day on top of the O2! |
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5th September 2018
BREAKING NEWS: Earthquake in Year 4! Will there be any aftershocks? Be prepared... |
July 20189th July 2018
Years 3&4 enjoying the athletics competition at Dulwich College |
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18th July 2018 It was lovely to see so many of you being expertly guided around our Art Exhibition this week. If anyone is unsure as to what the ‘glittering curriculum’ bit of our school vision is all about, then the Art Exhibition is one of the best examples! It was a pleasure to see what the children are working on throughout the course of the year, amazing work from all! |
June 2018
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18 June 2018
In Year 4 we have been trying to solve the following question: On a digital clock showing 24 hour time, over a whole day, how many times does a 5 appear? Is it the same number for a 12 hour clock over a whole day? |
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