No Pens Day

This year, we hosted our first ever No Pens Day alongside Speech and Language UK. No Pens Day is exactly how it sounds, it's a full day of talking and listening! Why did we do it? To encourage oracy throughout the school and to celebrate those who may have difficulties with speech. Classes took part in various drama, debate, speech, discussion and oracy activities throughout the year. Pupils wore bright colours so they could shine as loud as their voices, and we collected money to donate to Speech and Language UK. Here are a few of the favourite activities from the day:

Reception: The Reception children enjoyed doing lots of performances where they practised their speaking and listening skills. They took part in various art and crafts and looked for different ways to substitute pens and other writing tools when creating a message.

Year 1: In Year 1, we enjoyed an afternoon of discussion based Science. We looked at the properties of different materials and then looked around the classroom for objects that had that specific property. Then we made and built things and had to describe the properties that our newly-built objects had!

Year 2: In Year 2, we enjoyed learning actions to sing along to different songs. We learned to project our voices to different audiences. We are going to continue practising our songs to help improve our performances. We also listened to instructions and followed directions!

Year 3: In Year 3, we discussed our communities and who/what makes up our own personal community. We then took pictures of ourselves and stuck around the different images that connected us with our community! We learned so much about each other!

Year 4: In Year 4, we read and rehearsed various breaking news stories. We practised the script with our partners and then performed! Everyone was excited to perform and listen to the different stories!

Year 5: In Year 5, we worked together to build paper planes using verbal instructions. We had to communicate the different steps to our partners and work together to make the best folds. We then tested our planes to find the best shape to reduce air resistance and increase speed.

Year 6: In Year 6, we created advertising speeches for our Christmas Market enterprise. We rehearsed them with our small groups and then went to all of the classes in the school to present and advertise our market to other pupils!