Family Homework is Out of this World!

The theme for the upcoming holiday family homework is 'Outer Space'. There are lots of fun things to do - make a rocket or alien, look up at the night sky, visit Greenwich Observatory, do the space quiz!

Be ready to share your experiences with your class and in assemblies when we come back in January.

Making Computer Games

Year 5 children across the five Stepney Partnership primary schools (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands and Smithy Street) have been learning how to make their own computer games! About 150 children have attended sessions at the PDC. Early next term we will publish the games online so you can play them.

Stepney Maths League - Heat Two

Heat two of the Stepney Maths League took place at Ben Jonson School yesterday. A team from each of the five Stepney Partnership schools (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College) had one hour to answer 12 Olympic themed maths questions. Well done to all the children for the excellent team work. A special well done to Cayley and Smithy Street who came first and second. Next heat is at Smithy Street on 7th February.

Year 5 Family Taster Day

Year 5 children and parents across partnership primary schools had an excellent taster at Stepney Green School yesterday.

The aim of the day is for children and families to learn about secondary school. Families began the day building towers out of straws, and then went to three family lessons - Religious Studies, Music and Design & Technology.

"I liked meeting everyone and playing football. Also teachers and students are very friendly. I'd love to come to Stepney Green" Year 5 student. 

Great news...children's photos from across the six Stepney Partnership schools (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College) made it into a double page spread of the The Metro newspaper today.

Photos came from the exhibition "I feel like taking pictures every day" which takes place at Foto8 Gallery until the 10th November. 

Families first to see the exhibition, "I feel like taking pictures everyday"

Families from across the six Stepney Partnership schools (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College) were the first to see the wonderful exhibition of photographs taken by children with Mark McEvoy. They loved it, come down to Foto8 gallery and see for yourself...

"I feel like taking pictures every day" exhibition opens 1st November

The exhibition of children's photographs from across the six Stepney Partnership schools opens this Thursday (1st November) at Foto8 Gallery, 1-5 Honduras Street, EC1Y 0TH. The exhibition runs until 10th November.

The gallery is five minutes walk from Barbican tube station, or the nearest bus from Whitechapel is the 205 to Old Street, and then walk 10-15 mins from there. Please see map.

Great to see that East End Life featured an article about the project this week. Also, look out for the special free newspapers around Stepney which celebrate children's work.

Mark McEvoy ran digital photography workshops with over 300 children across the six Stepney Partnership schools - Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College.

London Cable Car

This morning, Year 7 Stepney Green boys and their families went high into the air on the London Cable Car...what an amazing journey!

Around 50 of us took the tube from Stepney Green to North Greenwich station, and then got on the cable car to cross the river. We finished the day with a quick trip (in the spitting rain) to Thames Barrier Park on the DLR before heading back to Limehouse.

Parents and children get together

This morning Redlands School hosted an excellent play session for parents and children (ASC). Over 15 families from across the partnership schools attended (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green). From blowing up balloons, playing table football, making fruit kebabs to exploring the garden...everyone had a great time!

Stepney Maths League - Joint Winners of First Heat!

Thanks to Cayley for hosting an excellent first heat of the Stepney Maths League 2012/13. It was a very exciting heat...the winners were decided on the final question!

Well done to Year 6 children at Cayley and Smithy Street who were joint winners, and to Halley for coming third (especially to the two Year 5 children!). And well done to children from Ben Jonson and Redlands school for their excellent team work and attitude. 

Remember there are five heats, one in each of the partnership primary schools, followed by a the grand final across Tower Hamlets. Everyone is looking forward to the next heat at Ben Jonson School!

"I feel like taking pictures every day" (Towsif, 9)

Last term, the photographer Mark McEvoy ran digital photography workshops with over 300 children across the six Stepney Partnership schools - Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands, Smithy Street and Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College.

Our children created some amazing work, and we would love you to come and take a look. The exhibition, “I feel like taking pictures every day” (Towsif, 9), runs from 1st-10th November at Foto 8 gallery (1-5 Honduras Street, off Old Street, EC1Y 0TH)

The gallery is five minutes walk from Barbican tube station, or the nearest bus from Whitechapel is the 205 to Old Street, and then walk 10-15 mins from there. Please see map.

Family Homework - Picture This!

Family homework for the November half-term will be themed around pictures and photos to coincide with the exhibition of Mark McEvoy's photo project. See a sneek preview here.

Family Homework Evaluation

Now in its second year, Family Homework is growing in popularity across the partnership schools! Read the evaluation report for more information.

Family Play at Whitehorse

The weather was kind to us as families came to Whitehorse Play Centre in Stepney for an afternoon of fun and games! Thanks to Eleanor and the team at the Play Association of Tower Hamlets (PATH) for co-ordinating the activities.

Photography Project with Mark McEvoy

Over the last few months, the photographer Mark McEvoy has been working with children and families across Stepney Partnership schools. During the summer term, he ran workshops with around 400 children. Children learned how to make the most of a camera, exploring ideas of movement/blur and light/shadow. Over the holidays Mark ran some workshops with families in their home. Look out for an exhibiton of the photographs which is happening at the gallery Foto 8 near Old Street.

Family Podcasts

You can now listen to some of the podcasts created by families at our podcasting workshop at Stepney Green last term! Once again big thanks to Hilary from Halley and Miss Scourti from Stepney Green for leading these workshops.

Family Bike Ride

Well done to families for braving the rain on our family bike ride this morning! Setting out from Cayley School, we hugged the river, going past sights including Canary Wharf and Greenwich, before ending up in the Isle of Dogs. A quick snack of bhajees and chocolate, some running around in the park, then the rain started coming down...and it didn't stop until we got back to Stepney!

A huge thanks to James, Felix and Jeremy from the Bike It! team for organising the ride so well. Hopefully we can do it again next term when the weather is a bit kinder!

Kew Gardens

Around 20 families set out for Kew Gardens this morning, in our first ever parent-led trip. Packing a lunch and waterpoof gear (the weather forecast was terrible!) families headed for Stepney Green tube station to make the journey from East to West London. A full report to come...

Magical Summer Stories

Families experienced magical storytelling workshops in Redlands garden today. The storyteller Rez Kabir worked with a professional musician and an amateur potion maker (Ben!) to inspire families to come up with their own stories.

Redlands school garden was the perfect setting; a herb garden provided ingredients for magic potions, animal statues became characters in the stories, and the decking was a great venue for a big sing along.

Winners of Stepney Partnership Maths League!

A brilliant end to the Stepney Partnership Maths League took place at Ben Jonson yesterday! Well done to children from Cayley and Redlands for winning the exciting final heat.

A huge well done to children from Redlands for coming out overall winners after five heats! Congratulations to Ben Jonson for coming second. And well done to all the children who took part across the five Stepney Partnership schools including Halley, Smithy Street and Cayley -everyone received a coveted Stepney Partnership mug!

Redlands children picked up a trophy, £50 Amazon voucher for their school, and will go forward to represent the Stepney Partnership in a Tower Hamlets competition sometime in July.

Thanks to staff across all five primary schools for organising such a great competition - Hussain, Katia, Andrew, Sam, Holly and Helen.

It would be great to hear from children and staff what it was like to take part in the maths league, feel free to leave comments on the blog...

Family Podcasting

Stepney Green have hosted a series of family 'podcasting' workshops (a podcast is essentially a mini-radio programme with sound files and music).

Children and parents have been working together to create the podcasts. This involves children interviewing the parents, and vice versa. So far they have created programmes about cricket, computer games and comedy. 

Thanks to Hilary at Halley and Rosie at Stepney Green for delivering these workshops. It is such a great way to bring parents and children together.

The final workshop takes place next Thursday 31st May.

Family homework at Ben Jonson

Families from Ben Jonson and other partnership schools have been creating lots of homemade games for the family homework! Ben Jonson organised a family games session after half-term where children brought in the games to play.

Puzzle Challenge Day

Brains were definitely put to work yesterday at the ‘Puzzle Challenge Day’ at Redlands! Families from Stepney Partnership schools came together to solve a variety of fun and challenging puzzles from the Happy Puzzle Company.

The puzzles encouraged families to work together in teams, and not to give up. You can solve anything with enough determination!

The activity linked to Stepney Partnership's family homework theme of games. Visit our You Tube games channel.

Family Games at Whitehorse Play Centre

Two huge downpours did not stop Stepney Partnership families (over 100 people!) having a great afternoon playing outdoor games at Whitehorse Play Centre. A beautiful rickshaw, facepainting, skipping, hulas, frisbee, badge making, a giant parachute and marbles kept everyone entertained!

When it rained, families made use of the giant parachute as a tent and huddled underneath to keep dry!

Thanks to PATH, the Whitehorse Advenutre Playground and Whitehorse Children's Centre for running activities today.

The activity linked to Stepney Partnership's family homework theme of games. Visit our You Tube games channel.

World Autism Day at Museum of Childhood

A couple of Stepney Partnership families visited the Museum of Childhood today for World Autism Awareness Day. There were lots of information stalls and families took part in workshops including Storytelling and Art & Play with Mindbuilders.

WH Smithy

Smithy Street have opened up a family homework shop which sells materials to help families with their homework. All proceeds go to 'Friends of Smithy Street'.

Business was brisk this lunchtime; families were buying lots of coloured card, dice and other items to help families with the games themed family homework. Well done Smithy Street for such a brilliant idea!

Family Games

The fifth and final parents' session run by PATH (Play Association of Tower Hamlets) took place at Halley this morning.

The PATH team have been visiting each Stepney Partnership primary school to encourage parents to play games with their children. Parents had a great time creating giant snakes and ladders boards, and learning a range of other games to play with their children.

The family homework for the holidays is games.

Stepney Maths League - Heat Four

Well done to all 20 children who took part in the fourth heat of the Stepney Partnership maths league at Redlands School this afternoon. It was a really close run thing with joint winners...congratulations to Ben Jonson and Redlands! Everyone is looking forward to the next heat at Ben Jonson on 24th May...

Family Homework You Tube Channel

The Stepney Partnership is proud to announce the launch of its new family homework You Tube Channel. Watch lots of videos to give you inspiration for the games themed family homework.



Download the family homework by following this link.

Forest School

Forest School came to an end for 20 children (10 from Redlands, 10 from Smithy Street) this afternoon after an amazing 6 week stint full of adventure!

Today we were making 'forest faces' on the trees, mixing up magic potions, painting daffodils and having a go on the new Forest School assault course!

Every child went home with a daffodil to remind them of their Forest School adventure.

Year 5 Family Taster Day at Stepney Green

A great taster day for Year 5 families at Stepney Green!

17 families across the five primary schools spent a half day at Stepney Green to get a taste of secondary school. Mr Nzuza (English), Ms.Hewitt (Literacy) and Mr Giorano (P.E. ) delivered excellent family lessons. Well done to Rosie Scourti at Stepney Green for pulling things together.

Here is a selection of comments from parents and children:

Children
“It made me feel great"
"I learned how it is going to be when I come secondary"
"I finally had fun with my Mum"
"I learned different things like how to play table tennis propley and be a bit confident"
"It made me confident because I can stand up to people and say my opinions"
"It felt more confident because I spoke in front of different people"

Parents
“it made my daughter feel more confident about speaking out loud in front of a group of people "
“It mad me confident by reassuring me that a lot of help is available, especially for new Yr 7s"
"It was helpful because it helped my child on what to expect from secondary school and how I can support her when she comes to s school"

Florence Nightingale Museum

Our final 'heroes & heroines' themed family trip took us to the rather wonderful Florence Nightingale Museum based at St.Thomas Hospital in Westminster.

After a hectic trip across Westminster Bridge (where we saw Big Ben the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye) we were greeted by Florence Nightingale at the museum.

Children and parents were transfixed as Florence Nightingale told us her amazing story. During the Crimerian War 150 years ago, she changed the way injured soldiers were cared for in hospital. She described the awful conditions that soldiers suffered before she cleaned up the hospitals and made sure there was proper equipment and medication.

Finally, families took part in interactive activities which included dressing up! The trip was part of Stepney Partnership's holiday and weekend programme.

Brunel Museum

What an amazing afternoon for Stepney Partnership families! IK Brunel (well, Robert, Director of the Museum who dressed up as him) met us on the platform at Wapping train station. He gave us a brief talk about the Thames Tunnel before taking us on a tour of the river and the Brunel Museum.

We did some excellent mask making with Lucy. Children and parents chose different 'characters' that would be part of the tunnel building process.

Finally, we went on an underground adventure, squeezing our way into a a huge and cavernous underground space which used to be the grand entrance to the Thames Tunnel. We did some singing in the dark, and made our way carefully above ground (the lights refused to come back on!).

Thanks to everyone at the Brunel Museum, we recommend that you make a visit there sometime! The trip was part of Stepney Partnership's holiday activities and linked to the family homework theme of 'heroes and heroines'.

Storytelling Workshops

Stepney Partnership ran a 'heroes and heroines' storytelling adventure today with Rez Kabir. Rez had families spellbound as he told three stories from around the world about different heroes and heroines including 'Thesius and the Minotaur' and 'The Monkeys and the Haunted Bell'.

Families then got a chance to make up their stories which included mad characters including evil robots and superdogs! Families used musical instruments to help tell their stories.

Big thanks to Rez!

The workshops were part of Stepney Partnership's holiday activities and linked to the family homework theme of 'heroes and heroines'.

Stepney Maths League at Smithy Street

Well done to children across the five primary schools who took part in the Stepney Maths League earlier today. Thanks to Smithy Street for hosting the event, and well done to the children from Smithy Street for winning the heat.

Parents and Autistic Children

Families from across the partnership primary schools had a wonderful time at the get-together for parents and autistic children at Redlands School yesterday. Children and parents played together with lots of different toys, sang a song, made rainbow fruit kebabs and had snacks together.

Things went so well that we hope this will be the first of several parent/ children get togethers!

Luminous Tales

What a lovely way to spend the last day of the holidays! On Tuesday 1st January, 50 people from across Stepney Partnership schools went to the Half Moon Theatre to watch the shadow puppet play 'Luminous Tales'. The play was all about light and dark and included a trip to the moon!

Many families stayed for a workshop afterwards where they got a chance to make their own shadow puppet.

The Brunel Museum

I visited the Brunel Museum yesterday to plan for a Stepney Partnership family trip over the February half-term. It is a secret gem! Tucked behind Rotherhithe station (on the London Overground from Whitechapel), the museum tells the story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

You can visit the 'engine room', a vast (and slightly scary!) underground area which used to be the entrance of the Thames Tunnel. Brunel built the tunnel in the 19th century, and it is the first one underneath a river.

Over the February half-term, the theme of the Stepney Partnership family homework will be 'heroes and heroines', and we will organise a family trip to the Brunel Museum to discover more about IK Brunel - a hero of engineering.