As part of our non-fiction unit in Literacy, year 3/4 have studied “Persuasive Writing” techniques. As we are all very passionate about animals, we chose to discuss the topic of zoos. The class started by thinking about all the positive things about zoos before turning to look at the negative points. We used drama to hot seat and take on the role of an animal in the zoo so we could consider another P.O.V - Point of view. After finding out more facts and considering all the research we had to choose to be either “For” or “Against” zoos. We then had a class debate and were allowed to change our opinion if we had been persuaded by the other team. Finally, we wrote persuasive arguments to convince our audience that zoos were either good or bad.

With the Easter holidays soon upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to remind the parents of the following information.The students will be receiving their school reports during the last week of the term, please make sure you are able to log-in for the results and if you have any trouble doing so, please contact the La Garenne IT department, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. When the students return, we will be preparing for the end of year and they should bring with them their smart clothes for the end of year ball and school ceremony, please make sure this is done during the Easter break, thank you.

We hope to see all our parents, alumni and friends at the ski race on Thursday the 15th from 13:30-16:30 at Bretaye! Each year the students compete in the end of year ski race at Bretaye which is a whole school event. Even the students who only started sking this year will compete and sometimes the parents sign up for the parents race as well! A great day for all!

It has long been recognised in educational psychology that we possess a whole range of ‘intelligences’. Traditional education systems and examinations have always concentrated on memory, mathematical skills and linguistic ability. It is now widely acknowledged that mastery of some of the other intelligences helps us a great deal in our lives - broadening our outlook and helping us achieve success personally, academically and in the world of employment.

Perhaps the best-known proponent of the concept of multiple intelligences is the educational psychologist Howard Gardner. Gardner’s ideas have evolved through time and he has identified eight intelligences, as shown in a simplified form below. Gardner is also looking into the existence of two additional intelligences, existential and pedagogical.  

• Kinaesthetic (body smart)
• Logical (number smart)
• Linguistic (word smart)
• Interpersonal (people smart)
• Intrapersonal (myself smart)
• Auditory (music smart)
• Visual/spatial (picture smart)
• Naturalistic (nature smart)

More forward-looking educational programmes now aim to develop a broader range of skills and areas of intelligence. This is certainly the case with the IPC and IMYC programmes we follow at La Garenne. It is widely believed that these areas of intelligence will be increasingly important in the future. As a school it is our responsibility to help prepare our students for the world of tomorrow. Everyday life at the school, our extra-curricular programme and the taught curriculum all combine to develop the full range of intelligences our students possess.

Beyond highlighting these different types of intelligence and helping the students to develop them, we also aim to change their attitude to failure – developing a positive approach that will allow them to bounce back after disappointment, and put in the time and effort necessary to overcome the difficulty. This ‘growth mindset’ (C. Dweck) is very much in line with our school’s motto – ‘Never, never, never give up’. 

This term in Pre-Reception and Reception Class we have been working around the topic of ‘Food’. This has included thinking about a healthy diet, finding out about where our food comes from and discussing our likes and dislikes. We have done lots of cooking and we have explored several different books with a food theme. However, not everything has gone to plan!

The trouble began when we started to look at the story of Supertato – a potato on a mission to save his vegetable friends from his enemy ‘The Evil Pea’ who had escaped from the freezer. Supertato sent us a letter explaining that his friends were in trouble and could we help him by making models of himself to deter The Evil Pea. We agreed and made some fantastic Supertato models.

The next day we received another letter from Supertato thanking us for our models but warning us that The Evil Pea was still on the loose. Could we help to spot him and if we did could we return him to the freezer? We did find The Evil Pea, and his friends, stuck in some jelly. We decided it would be kind to rescue the peas from the jelly before returning them to the freezer but we weren’t sure which tool to use to recover them with. We tried paper straws, plastic straws, pipe cleaners and our very best fine motor skills before agreeing that the best tool for the job was the lollypop sticks. We safely recovered all the peas from the jelly and returned them to the freezer. Supertato was delighted and said we were ‘The Superhero Children of La Garenne’!

After the incident with The Evil Pea we hoped life in our class would settle down and get back to normal…but, just a few days later, disaster struck again!

We started to explore the story of The Gingerbread Man. Finding out about the characters, sequencing the events, reading recipes and making our own decorative gingerbread men. The day after we made our gingerbread men we discovered that they had all run away! We didn’t know where to look to find them so we wrote some missing posters describing each gingerbread man and went around school asking people to look out for them.

Day by day more and more of the gingerbread men were discovered. These are some of the places they were found; in the trophy cabinet in Beau Site, in Danielle’s bag, in a desk in Jenny’s Class, in Alison’s Class and even on the ski slopes!

We were so grateful to everyone for finding our cheeky gingerbread men that we wrote lots of thank you cards and delivered them around school.

Thank you everyone for your help. We think you are all Superheroes too!