Au revoir Year 6!

I just wanted to posted a little farewell message to all the Year 6 pupils who have their last day; it's a huge shame the circumstances have meant most of the usual end of year fun has been missed, but I hope you can still look back fondly on your time at Bannockburn.

I especially hope you have all enjoyed your French lessons with me over the years: if you end up doing French at your secondary school, I hope you enjoy your lessons and continue to make great progress; if you'll be doing a different language, I wish you lots of luck and hope you can use all the skills I have taught you over the years to help you grasp your new languages. 

I also have thoroughly enjoyed working with so many of you on other projects, such as Streetdance Club, School Journey 2019, community partnership leader groups, school newspaper, trips, performance, talent shows, House events, school fayres.... the list goes on! I hope you share my fond memories and will use these experiences, plus the Bannockburn school values, to help you to continue to grow into kind, ambitious and hardworking young adults.

I hope I will get to see many of you back here at Bannockburn when you come to visit us, as you show off your smart new uniforms and tell us about all the new exciting things you are discovering at secondary school.

Have a safe summer and enjoy the fresh outdoors as much as you can.

Au revoir Year 6!

From Madame Seaton :)

Multicultural Menu Ideas from the International Ambassadors Team

On Wednesday 12th February, Mrs Seaton and the International Ambassadors Team, one of our 16 Community Partnership leader Groups, met with Jo-Anne and Rose from Independent Catering, who supply our school with our yummy school dinners!

The aim was to discuss some more multicultural themed days for Summer Term and next year; we talked about ideas that we have for days which celebrate different cultures, using our own knowledge and experiences, and how it could link to our learning or global affairs, such as a Japanese food day to honour the 2020 Olympics.

We are looking forward to our next meeting when we can hopefully plan a couple of different menus for the Independent team to investigate further; Jo-Anne explained how the food is always freshly prepared, healthy and sourced as locally as possible, to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible, so these are all important factors we will have to consider.

WE Foundation Assembly and Workshops

This week Bannockburn was visited by Ivy, who is part of WE. WE is a charity that helps children and young people to make positive changes and take social action. 

She led an assembly at High Street where she reminded us that big changes can be made by taking small steps, and showing values like perseverance, resilience and determination.

Then she met the Rights Respecting Team at Manor Way, who (with her help) planned some social action to get people thinking and and get talking about child obesity, and how we can tackle the problem as a community. 

Next, the Helping Others Team started planning some Comic Relief activities. She inspired them with some fresh new fundraising ideas and got them to brainstorm ideas on different things we could do.

The children really enjoyed working with her and are looking forward to undertaking the social action projects soon.

Manor War Gardening Team are GO GO GO!

At Manor Way this week, some members of the Gardening team (one of our 16 Community Partnership Leader groups) spent an afternoon planting bedding plants and flowers that were donated to us from the gardening team at Greenwich Park.

We planted them in the long strip of ground between the Lodge and the astroturf, and took turns in our small groups to dig the earth, plant the flowers and fill in the holes, whilst also feeding them a little drink of water to start them off nicely hydrated.

Some quotes from the team:

"It was a bit cold but I loved getting dirty and involved in the environment."

"I don't have a garden at home so I like doing gardening at school."

"It will help make our school even prettier"

Woolwich Winter Warmer - Come and join the fun!

Premises Personnel pupil group meeting

The Premises Personnel team, one of the sixteen Community & Partnership Leader Groups at Bannockburn are on hand to help keep out school clean, tidy and safe, and help build an amazing learning environment for us all to enjoy.

Last week the MW Team met with Mrs Seaton to help Mr Brizzell clear the huge amount of fallen leaves that are starting to cover the staff car park and Manton Road entrance. They used litter pickers and brooms and some specialist equipment to help make the tough job a little easier.

After their fantastic efforts, Mr Brizzell declared "What a great team! They can come and help me with all sorts of jobs in the future!"

If you have any ideas for how to make our school premises more welcoming, exciting, tidy or safe, share your ideas with your class Premise Personnel team member.

Be Bright Be Seen - JTA assembly for Road Safety Week 2019

                       Winter is almost here. The weather is getting worse and daylight is lasting less and less time. When we come to school in the morning, it’s dark. When we go home from school in the afternoon, it’s dark. That’s why you need to Be Bright, Be Seen.

It’s part of our uniform to have thick warm winter coats. But did you know…..they don’t have to be black, navy or dark colours…. In fact … we, your JTA team, are encouraging you to be bright and be seen!

To make yourself visible to cars, you can wear fluorescent coats, hats, scarves and bags to help stand out. These colours stay bright in the darkness and so will help you stay safe whilst out and about. Reflective clothing will make you shine so you become visible to drivers in the headlights and under streetlights at crossing points. Even a small, thin reflective strip on your coat or bag can help keep you visible at night.

There are 5 other important things we want to remind you to keep you safe:

1. Never walk alone in areas where there are no streetlamps or people – keep to the busy, main roads and areas.
2. Don’t use headphones whilst out walking – you need to stay alert and be able to hear!
3. Keep your valuables, like mobile phones, in a safe place like a pocket – don’t get it out unless you really have to!
4. Walk carefully and sensibly around the streets – leaves can be very slippery at this time of year!
5. Remember to cross at the designated crossings like at traffic lights, and use the Green Cross Code: Stop, Look, Listen, Think.

Here is the specially-written JTA poem you heard in the assembly:

Be Bright Be Seen

Wear Yellow, Orange, Pink or Green

Fluorescent colours make you stand out

In the dark evenings, when you’re out and about.

Reflective materials allow drivers to see you

When their headlights shine you come into view

If you need more advice, ask your JTA team

Remember, this Winter - BE BRIGHT AND BE SEEN!

CPL group trip to Under the Sea at London Leicester Square IMAX cinema

A group of children from a variety of different Community Partnership Leader groups were invited to watch the nature documentary film Under the Sea.

The documentary was all about the coral reefs and oceans of Southern Australia and how human impacts of pollution are damaging their ocean wildlife and ecosystems.

The children who attended will be spreading the messages to the rest of their CPL teams to encourage all of us to work together to help do our bit for the environment.

They also met some lovely commuters who were really impressed with their conduct and behaviour during the journey - well done all!

TFL Stars and Rights Respecting Schools Competition entries from Lemon Tree Class

Back in October children from Lemon Tree Class took part in the TFL and UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Roundel Design Competition to raise awareness of children on the transport network and raise a smile amongst commuters on World Children's Day. 

With the winners of the London-wide competition just announced, whilst we didn't have any winners in, our top 3 entrants put amazing effort into their designs and so the Junior Travel Ambassadors and Rights Respecting teams would like to say a huge well done and thank you for their efforts.

Our School 'Eco Code'

This term the Eco Squad have been working with Mrs Seaton to plan and write an eco code that can be used across the school, to help remind everyone about the human race's impacts on the environment and promote our school values which relate to the environment such as Responsibility, Respect Kindness and Cooperation.

High Street Eco Squad members met with Mrs Seaton to discuss what key points should be included, then  the Manor Way Eco Squad team met to discuss those key points and turn the HS team's ideas into a final Eco Code that can be displayed all around school.

Laughter is the best medicine - World Mental Health Day is approaching!

On Friday some children from the Manor Way Wellbeing Team met with Mrs Seaton to get ready for World Mental Health Day on Thursday 10th October.

They talked about why yellow is such a positive colour and why it makes people feel good, and then practised some of the activities that will be occurring throughout the day to promote Positive Mental Wellbeing.

We told jokes and and had some laughter therapy; there were some classics, some silly and some downright wacky jokes but they had us all in stitches! Mrs Seaton even cackled like at witch at some!

Then we planned out some positive quotes and phrases that we can use to decorate the playground with on Thursday suich as:

You are amazing, just the way you are.

Never give up hope.

When people try to bring you down, just keeping going up!

Don't worry, be happy!

Be yourself!

You are enough.

Follow your heart!

If you are ever feeling down, find someone to talk to, don't hold it in - in fact, talk to your Wellbeing Team class rep - they will always try to make you feel better!

Eco Squad's first meeting of the year

On Friday 27th September Eco Squad members from the Manor Way site met to discuss what environmental issues we can focus on this year.

The first thing discussed was single-use plastic bottles; Eco Squad visited the Manor Way classrooms to do a spot-check and found over 40 single-use plastic water bottles being used in classrooms. We discussed the benefits of buying a reusable bottle made from more durable plastic that can be used for many many years.

ECO SQUAD WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO CONSIDER BUYING A PROPER REUSABLE PLASTIC DRINKING BOTTLE FOR USE IN SCHOOL, INSTEAD OF BRINGING IN SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BOTTLES.

The next thing we discussed was litter in the local Plumstead area; we hope to do litter picks in the local area in the near future to help keep our community clean and tidy, so today we had a quick practice in the playground picking up leaves (before the rain came!)