News First Bridge Session 18.01.2020

We were delighted to welcome a cohort of 43 students from local primary schools to the first session of our Bridge programme last Saturday.

The Year 5 students, dressed in Bridge t-shirts and equipped with Bridge backpacks, pencil cases and pencils, were drawn from 17 local primary schools, and they wasted no time in getting to know one another. Ms Hanger, our Bridge Maths teacher, taught a lesson designed to assess their numeracy skills using BIDMAS and negative number work. Ms Catlin, our Bridge English teacher, discussed the first book from the reading list, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and spent the rest of the lesson deconstructing a passage from James and the Giant Peach, using the powerful adjectives and metaphors as inspiration for a creative task. The Bridge students were given Maths and English homework, including 11+ practice papers, and were issued with Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, the second book from the Bridge reading list.

After a snack and juice at break, Mr Golland taught a Geography lesson about the British Isles that involved developing teamwork and communication skills, whilst Ms Reid had the classes singing a song from the Sound of Music in the Music Studio.

It is clear that one of the additional benefits of this programme is that bright students from different schools are given the opportunity to make friends and work together and it will be a pleasure to see their friendships strengthen over the course of the year.