Tuesday was a special day for Reception at King's College Soto. We had a visit from Pablo Paramó, a proud parent, as well as a representative from Saica Natur - a UK based sustainable recycling and waste management company, who inspired our Reception students to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Students discovered that we can make cars and even aeroplanes from recycled cans. Then, students had a go at recycling in their classroom & were given stickers to put on their bins at home. Respect is a core value at King's College, this includes respect for the environment. Creating a ´green´ perspective  for our students by informing them about sustainability from the early stages of their education is paramount to our mission in building brighter futures for our alumni.

Once again, King´s College students from EYFS to Year 13 have donated boxes filled with special presents and Christmas spirit. These fabulous boxes were piled high awaiting their collection from Bomberos Ayudan, one of the school’s charities. The senior Charity committee, Junior School Council and representatives from KS1 and EYFS helped carry and stack the boxes into the Firemen´s van. As a school we managed to collect 1, 2, 3… an incredible 507 tremendous Christmas boxes!!  They will now be distributed at their Pato Amarillo centre, situated in Orcasitas, Madrid which supports families in some of the poorest areas of Madrid. We look forward to seeing some photos of the children opening their boxes on Christmas Day and feel happy that we have played a part in spreading Christmas smiles.

                   

The Primary School Council have led on the latest initiative in Juniors for the King’s College 50th Anniversary. They shared a presentation asking for ideas about what items could be put in a Time Capsule that would be buried deep underground and dug up in 25 years (2044).

The PSC then went to present their ideas to Mr. Taylor who was truly impressed by the Juniors’  imaginative suggestions. The children were then given a surprise when Mr. Taylor produced one of the proposed Time Capsules and excitedly passed it around.

Their ideas… you’ll have to wait and see! Not 25 years, but a few months until the grand burial ceremony takes place.

                

On the 5th of December, Year 6 arrived in school dressed as poor Victorian children. This came as the highlight of their term studying the Victorian period. On first impression, some of our students looked like they had certainly been scrubbing a chimney or two the night before! Teachers were completely in role being as strict as they could be, students looked shocked as the Victorian disciplinarians paraded up and down the lines ordering commands. Lessons started with complex arithmetic equations fit for our young mathematicians, at times, their work was scrutinised in true Victorian style.

Later on, lessons where taken outside for their drill session. Lines of children could be seen lifting their arms and legs in a synchronised row. Mr. Ogilbee and Reverend Parsnip were sure to make pupils work as hard as possible to build an appetite for their lunch- a serving of the finest gruel.

    

On Friday 4th of December Reception performed their play. A nativity show with a difference, the little stars sang seasonal carols like ´Bumping Along with a Camel.´ Our little angels said their lines beautifully, one child even joked that they had sung around 400 songs, which emphasised how much practice they put into perfecting their 12 festive ballads. A big congratulations to the Reception students for all their hard work!

Last week Year 5 visited the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. This year they have been studying Greek mythology so this was a great chance to further their understanding on this fascinating subject. The children enjoyed studying and drawing all the Ancient Greek pieces and collections available at the the museum!

Last Thursday 13th of December was our annual Christmas Mighty Merienda, hundreds of students and parents joined us for festive treats, pictures with Santa, face painting and manicures. All the proceeds raised have been donated to Bomberos Ayudan who also set up a stand in order to educate visitors on all the great work they are doing in the poorest parts of Madrid.

         

From 28th-30th of November, it was the Year 2s turn to perform their plays. Each class had a different theme based on a book read in class. On Wednesday, Year 2B performed the theme of machines and inventions, conceptualising the story of “What to do with an Idea” by Kobi Yamada Reid, their play featured our students’ interpretations of brilliant inventions like the car, electricity and robots! On Thursday, 2B took the stage. Their theme was being brave and their performance, based on “The Koala Who Could” by Rachel Bright, portrayed a positive message about facing up to change, something young children can struggle with at times. Last but not least, 2E had the theme of resilience, based on the book “Try, Try Again” by P.K Hallinan, our students shared the message that against failure, you must keep trying to achieve your goals. All the students performed valiantly and looked great in their costumes!

The Primary School Council have led on the latest initiative in Juniors for the King’s College 50th Anniversary. They shared a presentation asking for ideas about what items could be put in a Time Capsule that would be buried deep underground and dug up in 25 years (2044).nThe PSC then went to present their ideas to Mr. Taylor who was truly impressed by the Juniors’  imaginative suggestions. The children were then given a surprise when Mr. Taylor produced one of the proposed Time Capsules and excitedly passed it around. Their ideas… you’ll have to wait and see! Not 25 years, but a few months until the grand burial ceremony takes place.

Tuesday the 4th of December was Egypt Day in Year 4. In line with their study of Ancient Egypt in History, teachers and Year 4 students came in dressed as ancient Egyptians. Among many other activities, students designed their own pharaoh masks out of death masks, mud roc and paint. King's College Soto is celebrating different cultures and ages in accord with what each year group is studying for history.  This immersive approach is leading to a visible growth in curiosity and appreciation for these cultures in our students.

Stop, Speak and Support.

Thursday was Stop, Speak and Support day.  This day was about educating our students on cyberbullying.  Teachers covered issues like age restrictions for social media platforms e.g. Snapchat, Instagram and Whatsapp; what to do in the event of a banter escalation scenario (Stop.  Speak. Support) and how to understand and prevent cyberbullying. Among many other activities, children designed their own superhero to fight against cyberbullying!

Friendship Friday

On Friday, we brought anti-bullying week to an end with Friendship Friday, role playing social scenarios and learning about the positive ways to interact with their peers.  Among many other acts of kindness, students were asked to each pay five compliments to people that day! At King’s College, we have a zero tolerance policy for bullying and strive to promote our school Core Values, to ensure our students grow up as empathetic and caring members of the community.

On Tuesday 13th and Thursday 14th November, our Year 5 students had the privilege of completing a Bollyaline dance course. This course combines Bollywood dancing with the scientific benefits dancing has on the mind and body. Each morning started with professional Bollywood dance instructor Vinatha Sreeramkumar delivering an insightful presentation about different types of Indian dancing, Bollywood films and the benefits of this exercise. King’s  College students learnt how this activity is good mental and physical training, promotes neurogenesis, releases endorphins, and burns over 900 calories per hour! In addition, Bollywood dancing increases aerobic capacity and is a fun step towards having a healthy heart!

            

Thursday 8th November proved a very successful day for King’s College’s Year 5 and 6 students competing in the Cross Country Tournament at Deportivo Jose Caballero. Running against 9 other schools in the annual cross country race, our athletes gave amazing performances, leading the Junior Team to 1st place in the entire competition!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                All runners had trained hard, with the Year 5s showing their commitment to improving by attending weekly training sessions with Mr. Simmons during their lunchtime. All students contributed to the win, finishing very well in each race. Notable performers were Danielle C., who came first place in the Benjamin girls classification, and Alex Mondejar, who came 3rd in the Benjamin Boys race. The Year 6 competitors more than held their own in the Alevin races, in which they were mainly competing against Year 7s. Well done to all!     

On Wednesday 31st October, we celebrated Halloween. Across the school, students came dressed as vampires, skeletons, pumpkins, wizards and many other spooky characters. The spirit of Halloween stretched out to our teaching: students learnt about Halloween, its origin and how it developed through different influences and cultures. The frightening day ended with an afternoon of school wide celebrations. Each year group held a grand party with dancing, food, spooky games and movies.                

On Friday 26th October, Year 6 students visited the Year 3 classrooms to take part in the Year 3 /Year 6 Class Buddies Scheme. This scheme involved an icebreaker for the children to interact as well as an inventive challenge. For the challenge, a mixture of Year 3 and Year 6 students in groups had to build a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti. In order to win, students had to build the tallest tower that was able to balance a golden coin!

The Class Buddies Scheme is a great opportunity for Year 6s to lead in a fun environment and for the Year 3s to build their confidence when interacting with older children. Furthermore, this scheme is a creative way for the children to spend their Golden Time, whilst simultaneously promoting Primary school harmony.

Wednesday 12th October was World Mental Health Day. To show our support for this incredibly important day we joined the ´Hello Yellow´movement.  By wearing yellow we showed our young people that they are not alone when it comes to their mental health. Throughout Primary, we held discussions and activities targeted to promote strategies to support mental health and Juan, the new School Counsellor, held assemblies with all children from EYFS to Year 6.

By wearing yellow and the children bringing in 1 Euro, we raised 640 Euros and raised awareness for our new school charity ANAR - Ayuda a Niños y Adolescentes en Riesgo.

Performing for the Junior Department was an amazing experience. We are proud members of the music school community and would love to encourage younger students to start music lessons in school as it’s a great opportunity to learn a new skill and find your passion. The kids were extremely welcoming and seemed to enjoy our short performance - we are extremely thankful for this opportunity and surely the Music School will continue to grow.

During the week beginning 5th October we had the pleasure of welcoming into school representatives from one of our school charities, Bomberos Ayudan. The firemen came in to our Key Stage 2 assemblies to talk to our students about their charity work supporting some of the less fortunate members of the Madrid community.

The children are always delighted when we have outside visitors delivering a assembly and this was no exception. They listened attentively to the firemen explaining the work they do with Pato Amarillo. This is situated in Orcasitas, Madrid; one of the areas of Madrid most affected by the economic crisis and from this organization the Firemen provide food and clothing to over 600 families every month; families who need our support. The students were astounded to see the level of involvement  that the Bomberos Ayudan have within the Madrid community, and had many questions to ask our visitors.

Following on from the assembly we then launched our King’s College Harvest Collection, collecting non perishable food items and toiletries. To bring the campaign to a close, on Thursday 25th October, representatives from Bomberos Ayudan came to school to collect the goods. Pupil representatives from EYFS to Year 13, including our KS2 School Council and the Year 13 Charity Committee members helped the firemen to pack away the produce and to load it into their van. The sense of community and helping one another was palpable as the students happily made several journeys back and forth to load up the firemen’s vehicle.

Thank you to all our families who contributed to the Harvest Collection. Bomberos Ayudan asked us to pass on their heartfelt gratitude to everyone. Here’s to many more year working with this amazing organisation!   

Friday 5th October was a special day for Shield house! As a prize for earning the most house points last year (through hard work, determination and teamwork) they were presented with their prize. A huge picnic and afternoon in the park!

Shield house children from Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 gathered together under the porch, picnics in hand, ready to board the buses. It was a gorgeously sunny day, perfect for setting off to Tres Cantos. Upon arrival they sat on the grass and ate lunch together, music was playing and spirits were high. They then spent the rest of the afternoon playing together in the park. They swang as high as they could on the swings, bounced on the trampolines, climbed to the top of towers and kept cool controlling  the water features! Great fun was had by all as they mixed and made new friends. The only disappointment was when it was time to go back to the buses!

Let’s see which house can earn the most points to be the champions at the end of this year and claim the prize for themselves!

Every year Mr. Tamblyn’s Year 6 Class do an assembly on aspects of eSafety. This is usually done in October to give the children added digital literacy skills as they start off the academic year. Also, as we give the children more and more responsibility with technology in UKS2, this area of the curriculum continues to grow in its importance in the lives of our learners.

Like every year,  our Year 6 eSafety assembly is never repeated as being digitally literate is always changing. As a school we aim to keep at the forefront giving the children our response to the latest dangers in the technological world. This year the focus was mainly password protection but did have a lot of coverage on age restrictions for apps, online gaming and screen time. All of these areas were conveyed amazing well by a driven, enthusiastic and engaged class, the kind that is archetypal of King’s College.

The story was about the characters from Frozen and their life after the film. They all have a reunion organised using social media. They are so distracted by their mobile devices that they get their passwords stolen by the evil hacker, the Marshmallow Monster. The rest of the assembly is about what happens when you let your password become compromised. It also shows the danger of accessing sites that you’re too young for.

The children prepared all of the acting themselves and performed an incredible choreographed dance which they had learnt. They rounded it all off with a parody song of the classic film score, ‘Let it Go’, with the name changed to ‘Don’t Let your Password Go’. The children had written the majority of the lyrics of this song and Miss. Amos helped them with the instruments and vocals.

The message was delivered in a child friendly way, that hopefully, they will remember forever.

Being a Year 6 House Captain is a highly sought after position in King´s College. A role of responsibility where maturity and promotion of the Core Values is key. The children who wanted to be a House Captain gave some great speeches to their classes in the hope they would be voted to represent their particular house, either Lion, Knight, Shield or Crown. The children who were given this great honor are:

Crown House - Lucas and Daniela

Lion House - Ana and Borja

Knight House - Ursula and Antonio

Shield House - Jaime and Huixin

These students are proud of their new role and will work throughout the year to help organise and deliver our many house events. Their first task was to deliver assemblies to the Year 3/4 and Years 5/6. This was also done alongside the support of the Year 2 House Captains who are for this term:

Lion House - Dylan and Zahira

Crown House - Claudia and Nacho

Knight House - Manuel and Gimena

Shield House -  Patricia and Zachary

Recently, the House Captains have organised our special annual event, The House Lunches. This fantastic initiative invites all of the children from a particular house to play games with each other. This is from Years 3 to 6.  They then go to the dining room to have lunch together and get to know each other. The House Captains have done a marvellous job organising all the games through careful planning in advance. Let´s keep our fingers crossed for the weather for these House Lunches, which I am sure will also be a success.