Rashford

Marcus Rashford MBE (born 31 October 1997) is an English professional footballer and activist who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

He is a campaigner against racism, homelessness and child hunger in the United Kingdom. Rashford has been praised for using his platform to be a political activist and philanthropist to drive societal change. For his efforts, he has received widespread praise, and has been recognised for his efforts from organisations both in and outside of sport, and was subject of a mural painted by street artist Akse in Withington.

We’re in our final four days of primary school and have been trying very hard not to melt in the highest ever temperature recorded in the UK - our classroom thermometer even ran out of numbers (it stops at 40°c)! To keep us cool, Mrs Asker has been bringing lots of ice into the classroom for sensory play. We've explored ice with herbs, flowers and leaves frozen into the blocks, painted ice using watercolours and enjoyed the challenge of making the ice melt to free (and identify) gem stones and rocks. 
 

At the start of the week we received our leavers hoodies and in spite of the heatwave, we weren’t going to miss out on the opportunity to model them, albeit briefly! Other highlights so far have included a Y5 vs. Y6 First News Kahoot! battle, daily ice lollies and a huge fan courtesy of Mrs Wilson.

School was unexpectedly closed for three days at the start of this week so Mrs Asker put maths, English and science lessons on Google Classroom for us to work on at home. Well done to MW for writing an excellent second chapter of her version of The Unforgotten Coat, to KB for working hard on his science assignments and to SH for her maths work.

On Friday we joined up with Wicks class, loaded up the minibus and went to Minnis Bay for the day. We spent a wonderful few hours playing on the sand, in the sea and having a go at stand-up paddleboarding. It was A LOT of fun and none of us wanted to head back to school, even though the tide had come right in and there wasn’t much sand left. Look at the final photo of the slideshow - what do you notice? We were very pleased to spot this on the journey back to Plumstead! Thank you Miss Copeland for driving us!

It’s been another week of secondary transition visits which, although important, has been unsettling for those of us who still don’t know where we will be going in September. As a result of never having the whole class in on the same day, we are all working on slightly different learning projects. It’s also very hot in class so on Friday we walked down to Maribor Park for a spot of photography, cooling down in the fountains and some sports day practice in Wellington Park.

After the excitement of Creative Week, it has felt quite strange to get back to a more ordinary week at school. Everyone is feeling quite nervous about leaving Waterside and moving onto secondary school; some of us know where we're off to and have already spent quite a bit of time at our new school, some of us visited for the first time this week and others of us don't yet know where we are going. Because we're feeling quite unsettled about this, we have taken part in some extra sensory activities including making lavender playdoh and creating friends for our dough boys.

Rashford class visited a fossil pit this week! As part of our evolution and inheritance science topic, we have been investigating how fossils show how animals have changed over time. We discovered 11 shark teeth, egg shells and crustacean shells. These things lived in the ‘Blackheath Sea’ millions of years ago!

At Waterside this week it is Creative Week so all the classes have been taking part in a number of activities in preparation for our creative carnival on Friday. On Monday, the fabulous Kinetika Bloco held dance and drumming workshops for every class. In the afternoon, we had a choice of working with Leon (dance tutor) or Shay (drumming tutor) to prepare a performance - most of Y6 chose to drum*. During the rest of the week we have learned more about carnival costumes and had the opportunity to design and make our own headdresses and masks as well as baking New Orleans-style King Bread to share at our carnival meal.

*Kinetika Bloco runs junior summer schools for 8 - 13 year olds. It would be lovely to have some of our Y6 drummers join in this year!

It's been a warm week (and is getting warmer) so it was lovely to be outside for much of Tuesday. We spent the morning with the King's Troop, at their parade ground and headquarters on Woolwich Common. Jess and Tara talked to us about when they joined the army and explained what was happening as we watched The Troop rehearse for the Royal Welsh Country Show. We met some of the horses and were surprised to learn that they like Haribo!

After taking lots of photos of the horses, we went to Napier Lines and into the tailoring department where we learned about the history of the ceremonial jackets and had the chance to try them on. Did you know the buttons on the jackets used to be cut off and used as bullets if a soldier ran out of ammunition?! In the forge we met the farrier who showed us the difference between a new shoe and one that has just been removed. We were delighted to be allowed to each choose a shoe as a souvenir; MW and SH each chose one of the shoes worn by Ratchet for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and were thrilled to meet him afterwards... he was equally thrilled to be given the leftovers of MW's apple! In the saddlery, we were impressed by the creative leather work and enjoyed hearing about the secret, quick release harness worn by the horses.

We had a wonderful morning and returned to school full of interesting facts about the history of The Troop, and with our bags full of souvenirs from each of the departments we visited.

The children in Rashford Class have been working with an amazing text - Starbird. Over the course of two weeks, they have written: an ode, dialogue, a wanted poster, a diary entry, a song, a letter of apology and a postcard!

Our trip to Abbey Wood!

In the first week of this term, Rashford Class visited Abbey Wood. We investigated the old abbey and were fortunate enough to receive an amazing history lesson from Miss May who is very familiar with the abbey. We read the information boards and then it was time for an icecream.

In the afternoon, we began our walk through the woods. The children thoroughly enjoyed interacting with nature and even spent some time looking for fossils which is linked to our Science topic - Evolution and Inheritance. 

Well done for your amazing behaviour boys!

We returned after half-term to discover a random coat had been left in our room. It didn’t have a name in it so we tried other things to work out who it might belong to. On green Post-its we wrote down what we definitely knew about the coat before coming up with things we thought might be true. M had a look in the pockets where she found a pile of old Polaroid photos. We had a close look at the images and came up with some ideas about where they were taken and when.

By Wednesday, we had a clearer idea of who the coat belonged to and whilst Mrs Asker read to us from our new book - The Unforgotten Coat - we independently followed a recipe and made our own dough boys.

Earlier in the week, we hopped on the 96 bus and headed for the George Mead Memorial Stables in Welling where we spent a fabulous day (in spite of the stormy weather!). We met Guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, hens, emus, alpacas and donkeys. Donkeys Eeyore and Zonk, along with the alpacas were definite favourites so we spent a lot of time with them. After lunch and some time in the playground, we went up to the riding school area at the top of the farm where we each got to ride Shadow, a lovely, gentle pony.

Friday's assembly was replaced by our very own Platinum Jubilee street party organised by the outreach team. We crowned Miss Brock as our queen (she is retiring today after working here for 18 years) and each class presented her with a posy before having a go at a number of craft activities. Before playtime we sat down to eat party food, including treats such as jelly and ice-cream which lots of us hadn’t tried before.

We've been glad to get back to our normal routine now that the end of KS2 tests have finished. In English we have started new units; Can We Save The Tiger (Mr Warren's group) and The Guardian's Three Little Pigs (with Mrs Asker) and are enjoying getting our teeth into them. This week's photos are from Oxleas Woods where MW spent the day with Mrs Asker and Ms Copeland. It was a gloriously sunny day and MW made the most of the photography and shelter-building opportunities.

There's something of a food theme to this week's photos! As it was A's 11th birthday, he asked to celebrate with a surprise party, complete with chocolate cake and candles, so we did! We enjoyed taking the time to sit down and chat whilst sipping ‘champagne' (lemonade) and eating party food.
 

A less enjoyable aspect of this week has been the end of KS2 tests that all Y6 children have to do. Knowing the tests are 'proper' has felt quite stressful at times and it’s been hard for all of us to not be able to ask for (or give) the same sort of help we normally do. We've survived the week and all the Y6 adults are incredibly proud of the effort and concentration we’ve displayed. The best part of the test days has been the brain food café Mrs Asker and Mr Collard put on between the tests each day. We've had a tasty selection of strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pancakes, pastries, yoghurt and fruit juice to boost our energy levels.

On Friday, we put our maths and English skills to use… to make dough balls! Using the recipe from Pizza Express*, we calculated how much of each ingredient we needed to make a single portion of dough balls before setting about to make them. It took most of the morning but our dough balls - complete with garlic butter dip - were ready in time for lunch, and were delicious.

* recipe can be downloaded here: https://www.pizzaexpress.com/-/media/Files/PDFs/Homemade-Favourites/PizzaExpress_homemade_faves_DOUGH_BALLS_2.ashx

We have fewer photos to share this week because Bank Holiday Monday has made for a short week! As Y6 has the end of KS2 tests next week we have practised working in test conditions and had a go at some old test papers so we're familiar with how they are set out. The spelling test is probably our favourite because it's nice and quick! We've been making sure we don’t spend too much time on tests and have enjoyed trips to the café for 'brain food' as well as taking time to play and chat.

It's been a bit of a First News week in Rashford Class over the past few days. On Tuesday AP finalised his design for the Wallace & Grommet competition before addressing an envelope in preparation for ensuring his entry arrived on time. We popped out to Plumstead Post Office where the envelope was weighed and put in the sack ready for collection. Fingers crossed!

It's been lovely to welcome the whole class back after the Easter break. Our exhibition of the work we did using The Fox and The Star as inspiration is now up in the classroom and we’re all feeling very proud of how professional our mini books look on the 'newly published' shelf. Next time you’re in Waterside, we’d love you to come and read some of our books. The first two chapters of The Badger and The Moon have been included in this slideshow. Do let us know what you think…

It’s the final week of term so we’ve been busy editing and publishing our own versions of The Fox and The Star. We've been selecting and preparing the final pieces for our in-class exhibition of Fox and Star work which we’re hoping to unveil on Friday. Some of us have taken inspiration from the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser to produce watercolours of an illustration from the book, using the limited range of colours Coralie Bickford-Smith chose for her book.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed a workshop by Sublime Science who impressed us with some brilliant experiments. Our favourites were the smoke bubbles (which R discovered he could split into two with his breath!) and the sherbet chemical reaction. T was so taken by that one that he continued experimenting back in the classroom, testing how well the sherbet combined with different flavours from his packed lunch!

Have a lovely Easter holiday and we’ll see you back at school on Tuesday 19th April. Rashford Class children can all access to the class assignments on Seneca Learning by using their school Google login so feel free to make use of those. If your child cannot remember their Google login, please contact Mrs Asker.
 

We've been celebrating STEM week over the past few days and have enjoyed being able to conduct most of our experiments outside, in the sunshine. On Monday, we found out what happened when vinegar (an acid) is added to a mixture of water, baking soda (an alkali) and washing up liquid. This was probably our favourite experiment… although making lava lamps came a close second!

As promised, this week we're sharing some of the images we have captured during our photography sessions. The focus this week was the phrase, ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’ and we have discussed the concept of being too close to, or involved in, a situation to be able to see what's going on. In photography, we have used this idea to take close-up photographs, often preventing the viewer from being able to identify the subject.

Which of our photographs are you able to identify the subject of…?

Our focus on The Fox and The Star has continued this week and we have all created MISSING posters to help Fox find Star, showcasing a variety of sentence types. Upon discovering that Fox is holed up in his den, feeling miserable without Star's company, we have also taken on the role of agony aunts to offer him some advice.

On Wednesday, Mr Griffiths popped into class to show us the newly published book that two of us appear in. When we were in Year 3, we took part in artist Steve McQueen's Year 3 project. Every Year 3 pupil in London was invited to have a class photograph taken which was later displayed at Tate Britain. 76,000 children took part in the project and we have two of them in our class! 

The whole school is looking at Coralie Bickford-Smith's beautiful book, The Fox and the Star, in English over the next few weeks and on Monday morning we came into our classroom to find trees from the book had taken over our windows! So far, we have only read a few pages but this has led to some important discussions on friendship and writing on the topic of true friends vs. fake friends. Our transition work is continuing and we are particularly enjoying Mr Walter's lessons on photography - watch this space for examples of our work! Mrs Asker has introduced us to Seneca Learning, another website that some of our secondary schools use. We have been exploring the science and computing units on there to test our knowledge and some of us have taken the opportunity to explore other subjects we are interested in. 

On Tuesday we returned to school after half-term. We are starting to find out which secondary schools we have been allocated places at and have begun to think about some of the things that will be very different from Waterside. To help us get used to the idea of having different teachers for different lessons, our class is having a transition day every Thursday where we will get to experience this. We used Canva, a graphic design website, to produce personal timetables and some of us took the opportunity to explore it further. It will be a useful resource for when we are set homework in Y7, especially if we have to present information in a particular way.

We are also making the First News activities part of our daily routine. This week we have been catching up on the news from last week. We were well prepared for this week's First News Kahoot and in the team challenge, all three teams scored 100%! K and M took first place on the podium because they were so quick with their answers.

Rashford class has continued to focus on Hidden Figures and issues of racism and sexism in the media. Thinking ahead to developing skills that will be useful in their transition to Y7, the children have started thinking about how to improve some of their independent learning skills as well as to fill some of the gaps that are important to them. This week, they identified working entirely independently as something they wanted to focus on and each of them produced a piece of writing, a series of drawings or diagrams, or a model related to their science topic. They have learned that being organised is an important element of completing an independent project (and that choosing which font to write in is best done at the end!).

In English this half-term, Rashford class is reading the book, 'Hidden Figures' about four female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space race. We have produced a variety of different types of writing including job adverts, formal letters, informal letters and reports. The space theme continues to influence our art and science learning too; our paper mache planets are slowly taking shape...