The magic and marvel of Passion Projects!

This half term, pupils have been off to exoctic faraway places, magical realms, prehistoric landscapes and under the sea. Our Passion Projects have transported our pupils and helped them to see our magnificent world from different perspectives. We do Passion Projects in classes to allow pupils to explore a theme that really engages them. The six foundation subjects are taught as they are cleverly woven into the theme and connections are made between them.

Reception - the class became a team of expert problem solvers! Through actively listening, careful negotiation, and creative thinking they have successfully helped some of the most famous and notorious characters from a variety of traditional tales. This project has allowed the children to unlock the magic of fairy tales, storytelling, and role-play and resulted in a passionate motivation to write! In fact to end the project the children have collaboratively created their own book retelling their learning journey and cleverly named it 'The other side of the story' (coming soon to bookshelves near you...)

Year 1’s Passion Project is Kings, Queens and Castles. They have learnt about some well known monarchs from history and about how they lived. They researched castles and what the different rooms were used for and also learnt about banquet halls and what kings and queens would have eaten at their banquets and what they would have eaten today. The highlight will be having a kings and queens tea party with Reception - they have made Union Jacks, will be preparing an afternoon tea and will be doing some traditional dancing.

Year 2 have been transported into the world of magic with a mysterious dream jar appearing in their classroom! After following the clues, they found out that the BFG had visited Wandsworth Prep! The BFG book has led them to learn about geography through maps and atlases, including creating our own map, research of optical illusions and the history of magic as well as put on a weekly Magic Show and Tell each Friday where they have shared experiments, magic tricks and stories that include magic that we have discovered. As Year 2 say - what is a world without magic!

Year 3 have stomped and swum through the ages. It began with evolution and the age of the dinosaurs. They each chose a dinosaur and produced a Fascinating Fact File about it. The highlight was creating convincing fossils out of salt dough.The class moved onto land and sea animals, and how they are related to dinosaurs. Year 3 really appreciate where animals have come from and the extraordinary journey it has taken to get where we are today.

Year 4 they have been looking at the history of The Beatles! They were also able to make a link to Hinduism, as The Beatles, of course, travelled to India to learn from the great Maharishi yogi. They even compared the Thames to the Ganges and questioned why there was so much floating rubbish and how this affected the Indian population. The highlight though has been attempting to make their own musical instruments out of junk.

Year 5 have dived into the world of superheroes. From DC, Marvel and beyond, they have soared through their studies of how superheroes have impacted society. They analysed comics depicting superheroes through different historical eras and designed their own superhero, thinking carefully about their personality, features and powers. Lastly, they designed a superhero mask, which they made out of felt and other materials.

Year 6 were accepted as witches and wizards at Hogwarts and took the Hogwarts Express to delve into the Magical World of Harry Potter. They have studied the local and global impact of the books and films, sketched maps of wizarding locations and generated six figure grid references for them, designed and produced spellbinding packaging for magical confectionery and designed their own wand out of chopsticks! Their final task is to sew their own scaled down version of mystical robes.