memories

Five years old and so many milestones and memories along the way.............

Tissues at the ready - Ben leaves on Friday!

After five years Ben is moving to pastures new. Ben has opened the partnership schools to so many parents through family homework, visits and the blog. I'm sure you will be sad to see him go but I will endeavour to carry on his brilliant work.

"It's the first time I have been able to do something that's just for me...it's quite exhilarating riding a bike"

  

Sustrans have created an inspiring short film which follows twenty parents from Stepney Partnership schools who learned how to ride a bike last year. We are hoping to follow up the success of this programme with another course next year...there is already a big waiting list!

Creating the Stepney Partnership logo

 

The Stepney Partnership is almost five years old! While having a clear out of files and folders, I came across these lovely images of the making of the Stepney Partnership logo.

 

The brilliant logo was created by families from across the partnership schools who took part in the first project to encourage families to get 'out and about' across London.

 

The logo features pictures of different ways that children and families can learn together, it also makes reference to the logos of all the partnership schools, some of them more easy to spot than others!

 

Cayley crowned champions of the Stepney Maths League

 

At the end of five heats this year, children from Cayley finished top of the five Stepney Partnership primary schools in the Stepney Maths League, and will go on to represent Stepney at a Borough final in July!

 

Well done to all the children from Ben Jonson, Halley, Redlands and Smithy Street who participated in all the heats. The competition was great fun, and really extended children's learning and team work.

 

Stepney Families attend bicycling event over half-term

Over half-term Stepney Partnership families attended an event put on by Tower Hamlets and Sustrans at Mile End Park Ecology Centre to celebrate bicycling. There were loads of fun activities including a bike which made smoothies using pedal power.

Stepney Bikers

 

Stepney Partnership parents have come to the end of their bicycling course… what an 8 week journey it has been! With expert training from BikeIt!/Sustrans, parents battled wind and rain to learn how to balance on a bike, and even graduated to riding on the road. Parents also had the opportunity to buy their bikes for a heavily discounted price at the end of the project.

 

Huge thanks to Bike It! for the funding and the excellent trainers James, Jeremy, Jon, Magda and the rest of the team.

Stepney Farmers

Yesterday’s torrential rain forced us to cancel a family trip to Hampstead Heath. Despite the drizzle today, families turned out in force with 25 people doing a tour of Stepney City Farm , followed by fun gardening and animal petting workshops. Big thanks to Hannah and the farm team for making everyone feel so welcome.

There have been lots of exciting new developments happening at the farm in recent months, including a Farmer's Mark on Saturdays, and we would highly recommend a visit! 

Parent trips

This year, parents from each Stepney Partnership school have taken turns to 'host' a parent trip for other parents across the schools.

There were two events at the end of this term. Smithy Street invited parents on a picnic to Stepney Park, which had to be moved inside because of the rain - lots of Redlands parents attended. Halley parents organised a trip to Greenwich Park via the DLR on the last week of term, full report to follow.

A 'natural' family homework

Well done to staff at Halley for creating an excellent nature themed Family Homework. There are lots of fun activities to get children, siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents learning together.  Activities included nature walks, leaf rubbings and creating your own garden. Most children in Nursery and Reception across the partnership primary schools got some grass seed to get their garden projects started.  

 

Cannot wait to see what children bring back after half-term! 

Family Homework at Ben Jonson School

This morning, children, parents and staff enjoyed an excellent family homework themed assembly at Ben Jonson School. Children from all year groups shared their food themed family homework including menu cards, tasty looking clay models, research and a delightful Easter basket made by young Riyad and his parents.

Families across the five Stepney Partnership primary schools (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Halley, Redlands and Smithy Street) all take part in the popular family homework project.

Get your popcorn ready and check out a couple of amazingly dramatic videos from Ben Jonson families for the previous Dinosaur themed family homework.

Family film making

 

A handful of families braved the artic conditions (snow in April?!) to make a film about the area of Stepney - past, present and future. Using the library at Stepney Green as a base, the families worked with film makers from Cineclub to work through the processes of making a film from research, to creating story boards to shooting the film itself. We will link to the film soon.

No Fear!

 

Today families from Stepney Partnership schools enjoyed a truly stunning peformance of 'No Fear!' the new show from Green Candle Dance Company.

Young children gathered around on cushions in Stepney Green school library watching and joining in as actors sang and danced their way through childhood phobias including dogs, spiders and being scared of heights. A memorable show and excellent workshop afterwards. Big thanks to Green Candle Dance, and to Stepney Green Maths Computing and Science College for hosting the event.  

We made computer games!

Last term, Year 5 children across the five partnership primary school made some excellent computer games using simple computer software!

Visit a website where you can play some of the games. You will need to sign in to view the games:
Username = stepneyfamilies
Password = games

Enjoy!

Family trips over half-term

A memorable half-term of family activities! On Monday and Tuesday in glorious sunshine, around 170 people from Stepney Partnership schools visited Southbank and enjoyed events at the Imagine Children's Festival. This included meeting 'real' dinosaurs at the Dinosaur Petting Zoo, and an author talk from Anthony Horowitz. On Thursday families went to a very busy Natural History Museum.

The trips were part of Stepney Partnership's regular programme of holiday trips and activities, and this time linked to the dinosaur themed family homework.

Joint winners of maths heat!

For the second time this year, there were joint winners of a heat of the Stepney Maths League. Well done to Halley and Redlands who came first, and to children from the other participating schools  (Ben Jonson, Cayley, Smithy Street) for their excellent efforts, especially the great team work.

The heat was hosted by Smithy Street, there are two more heats to go which will take place at Redlands and Halley. Good luck everyone!

Family Podcasting at Stepney Green

"I found it fun and interesting because we were learning how to use new computer software"

                                                               (Mikaail + Mum)

 

"Really exciting because we were doing fun things, learning new skills and spending time with my Dad" (Samah)



 

Stepney Green School hosted a series of family podcasting sessions after school for children and their parents.

Children interviewed their Mums and Dads about a wide range of topics including recipies, memories of primary school and gardening!

Parents and children then edited the soundtrack, adding music and sound effects.

You can listen to some of the podcasts here.

Thanks to Hilary Norton from Halley for delivering the workshops, and to Ms Swift for co-ordinating things at Stepney Green.

A prehistoric family homework!

The theme for February's family homework is 'Dinosaurs'. There are lots of fun family activities to get your teeth stuck into. As always, every family across the five primary schools will receive a copy in the last week before the holidays.

You can download a copy of the family homework here.

London Cable Car

Lots of families from Stepney Partnership schools (over 100 people!) went 100 foot into the air yesterday on the London Cable Car at Docklands. The trip was part of the regular programme of holiday activities funded by the Stepney Partnership of schools.

Greenwich Planetarium

Stepney Partnership families battled in the rain as they went to Greenwich Park on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd January! Almost 100 people came across the two days and attended a show at the Planetarium. There were beautiful (though slightly misty!) views across London from the Royal Observatory, and some families stopped at the National Maritime Museum on the way.

The family trips linked to the family homework theme of 'outer space' and was part of the regular programme of holiday activities funded by the Stepney Partnership.