Project Cards

During this half of the term, Tamar class have been answering the big question ʻwhat would it be like to live in the rainforest?ʼ

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For this, they researched the life of tribes that live in the rainforest and used this information to create their own ʻstop-motionʼ films, which were set in the rainforest. This involved them creating a storyboard and mini-set, as well as filming and editing their films using an app called StickBot.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I enjoyed this project as it allowed the students to learn a new skill and demonstrate their creativity through a different creative media. The students loved making and editing their films and it was wonderful to see how proud they were of their work when their families came to the exhibition. This was the first project where parents came to see the exhibition and the students loved this. If I did the project again I would ensure that more time was spent at the start of the project exploring how life is different in the rainforest.

What was the best thing about the project?

— Students having ownership over how they produced their work (e.g., poster, presentations, videos).

— Students having the opportunity to learn the skill of filmmaking.

— Hosting the awards ceremony as the exhibition of the project.

What did I find challenging?

— Supporting students in making their own films without taking the ownership and agency away from them.

— Films were not focused enough on the big question.

— Found it challenging to refer to the big question throughout lessons and for students to understand how life would be different. This was most likely due to the fact that we were unable to do the trip due to the lack of time.”

— Sam Dexter

Student Reflection

“I think it went great. It was hard to come up with the idea but even harder to create! I learned that people cut down rainforests to get wood to build houses, tables, paper, chairs, but it endangers animals.”

– Noah

“Best project ever because we made our own films and got to show them off to parents at the Gradu-Oscars.”

– Yitzi

This term, Keren embarked on a reflective journey about their time in year 7.

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This allowed them to explore their favourite memories, trips and lessons, as well as any tips and advice they have learnt. They created an ebook that includes these highlights and interviewed key staff members about working in secondary. This allowed them to focus on their interview skills as well as their ICT skills.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I really enjoyed watching the students think honestly about the advice that they would pass on as it showed what they have learned this year. It was also lovely to hear their personal highlights and know that the trips and projects were fun and exciting.

The most challenging thing was constructing the e-book into a format that looks professional. We wanted the information to be organised into sections as opposed to just being on the page. Trying to teach the students to place pictures in an orderly manner was a challenge.

Next time, I would perhaps prepare an e-book format prior and have the students place the information in. This is so that it achieves the intended look. The launch was a fun success as the students had a survival challenge where they had to survive on a desert island.”

— Bethany Rentall

Student Reflection

“I enjoyed thinking about my year. I liked creating my e-book and doing my vlog. I learnt how to do more things on the computer like how to create a movie!”

– Liam

“I enjoyed finding images to add to my survival guide. I learnt how to plan a day of lessons and interview people professionally.”

– Rafael

“The project taught me that confidence is vital!”

– Shamai

“I learnt how to give good advice.”

– Reuben

This term, the enthusiasm for learning through projects continued. Students Focused on lines and angles and explored how these are used in everyday life. Our big question was: How can we use lines and angles to support recreation and wellbeing?

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In this term’s project, students used lines and angles to create their own game. The latest research by Oxford University conducted in 2020 shows that playing games can help to improve our mental health and wellbeing. Students, therefore, had an ‘Inter-school Wellbeing” Game-a-Thon. We invited another school within our community to join us for a wellbeing morning where students played the games that they had created. This provided a fantastic opportunity for Keren to socialise with peers outside of their immediate school community and continue to develop their skills of self-advocacy and confidence in oracy. Our therapy team was also integral to this term’s project as students worked on their social skills and learnt how to use various equipment such as rulers, compasses and protractors correctly.

Teacher’s Reflection

“The best thing about this project was seeing the progress and development of students’ fine motor skills as they learnt how to use a protractor and ruler. The students grew immensely in confidence and became more willing to take risks in their projects.

The most challenging aspect of this project was perhaps the most rewarding as students initially struggled with using the correct equipment. Some students felt frustrated throughout the process but were resilient enough to keep going. I spent lots of time teaching students how to hold a ruler and compass correctly. The result, despite the challenge, was amazing to see!” – Nikeisha Webb-Hardy

Student Reflection

“This project taught me to expand my imagination.”

– Stephen

“I enjoyed playing games and getting to meet new people. The highlight was when the students from the other school came in.”

– Rafael

“The highlight of the project was designing the game, even though it was hard.”

– Poppy

This term, Zayit and Seorah started working on their first project ‘Plants’, and focused on learning related to the big question: ‘What makes a good garden?’ 

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We started our project with an exciting launch week to introduce the topic. We explored the plants within our school and local park, participated in sensory experiences with nature and created art using natural materials. We also began learning songs for our exhibition day and visited a beautiful garden to get inspiration for our own garden project. Throughout the course of the term, we developed our art and design skills as we designed our own gardens for the playground. We visited a plant nursery to choose and buy plants for our garden and grow our own plants from a seed. We also learnt about different types of plants, parts of a plant and plant life cycles which supported us in caring for our new gardens. At the conclusion of our project, we hosted the first-ever ‘Gesher Garden Show’, where we invited our parents and families to visit for an afternoon. This gave us the opportunity to show off our amazing gardens, perform our show, create refreshments with herbs we grew and share our project work.

Teacher’s Reflection

“We think this was a really successful project as the pupils really retained the knowledge, seemed to really enjoy learning about the topic and were invested in maintaining the garden by watering and decorating it with artwork and wood chips. Our favourite thing about this project was our seed planting video and it still brings us to tears every time we watch it as we are so proud of the children’s performances. Next time we would integrate more technology into the project through the children being involved and creating their seesaws, and continuing to develop their feedback cycle. Sharing our Gesher party show with our parents and the school community was a huge highlight of the project and the children were so enthusiastic to share their garden project with everyone.” – Katie McEnallay and Leigh Kennedy

“My favourite thing was the children working together on all of the steps from designing the garden, shopping, preparing and planting and caring for the plants. There was lots of lovely teamwork and opportunities for the children to be involved with support as they needed.” – Leigh Kennedy

Student Reflection

“I thought the project was amazing and really fun. The highlight of the project was going on a trip, going to the gardening shop and when we gave the lady money for the plants. The project taught me how to plant a seed – and I can do teamwork.”

– Poppy

“I thought the project was fun. The highlight of the project was the Gesher Garden Show with mum, dad and my baby sister and going to Church Gardens.”

– Dylan

This term Gefen were so excited to start their first PBL project. They looked at the theme of ʻOut in the Wildʼ and answered the big question ʻHow Would You Survive Out in the Wild?ʼ 

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To answer this question they looked at survival skills such as navigation skills. As part of our launch week, the students took part in forest school activities and learned how to create a den, make tools out of wood and cook in the wild. In literacy, they studied the text about Katie Morag who lives on a remote island in Scotland and looked at what it is like to live on a remote island in Scotland. They also looked at different cultures such as nomads and found out how they survive in the wild. By the end of the project, the children were able to create their own models which showed how to survive in the wild and they could all explain why they had included different sections of their mini ‘Out in the Wild’ world.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I think that Gefen’s first project went well. The children seemed to enjoy the activities and were all able to learn different survival skills and knowledge about how you can survive in the wild. It was great to see them develop from first gaining knowledge to being able to share and present their knowledge during the final exhibition. The forest school trip was a great launch activity as it gave the children first-hand knowledge on how to survive in the wild and taught them basic skills.

They enjoyed the trip, however, I feel that some of them could have benefitted from a longer session to learn more survival skills. I feel that the exhibition went well but that it would have been nice to have invited the parents and hopefully that will be possible for our next project. I would also like to incorporate more IT into the next project – e.g. Different video and picture apps for the children.

What was the best thing about the project?

• Seeing the children learn survival skills
• Watching the children during the exhibition day excited to show their work and able to talk about what they had done and explain how you can survive out in the wild

What did I find challenging?

• Finding different opportunities for the children to experience ‘Out in the Wild’
• Trying to cover all the parts of the project in a limited time” – Stephanie Sungtong

Student Reflection

“I liked learning about how to cook in the wild and making the mini world, especially the mini vegetables.”

– Yoni

“My favourite part was the exhibition because I liked talking about it – and I learnt to build a shelter.”

– Ari

“The project was brilliant. I liked learning how to make a fire in the wild!”

– Bobbie

This term we explored the impact Black individuals have made on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM). 

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We kick-started our project off with several launch events including a trip to the Science Museum, Dance workshops in the style of Alvin Ailey, a Frank Bowling virtual art exhibition and exploration and the Museum of London’s online exhibitions on the Windrush and Mary Seacole. During ‘Knowledge Week,’ the pupils learnt about significant individuals including Mary Seacole, Benjamin Banneker, Frank Bowling, Katherine Johnson, Harriet Tubman and Walter Tull. The pupils then focused on a series of books called ‘Bold Leaders’, which shared the stories of key Black individuals in a child-friendly book format. Using ‘Talk for Writing’, the pupils wrote their own page for ‘Bold Black Leaders in STEAM, Gesher edition’, which made numerous books between the two classes. They designed reading activities around their writing including word searches, puzzles and games. Our exhibition was held at Alexandra School to a group of Year 5 students. We created two video products: our Alvin Ailey style dance and our Frank Bowling Art Installations.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I’m so incredibly proud of the children during this topic as they were so open and excited to learn about a new community. Most of the children previous to this had quite a few misunderstandings around the Black community and it was great to address these and to see the children become advocators of the community. The children gravitated toward Black individuals that had made a change in the world and their biographies were focused on who they wanted to write about. I loved linking this topic to Science and having the children design their own parachutes, just like how Harriet Tubman designed the London Underground. This topic gave our children a chance to have their own voice and to stand up for what they believe is right and fair!” – Emily Bacon

“This project was my favourite. I felt it worked well because we had a social purpose and the pupils could see their impact. Writing to the Science Museum in small groups was an excellent addition to the project. The quality of the products has also continued to improve and the pupils seem very motivated by the process. Presenting our work to another school was also a wonderful opportunity although it came with some of its own challenges. Many of the pupils were embarrassed or dysregulated meaning they did not showcase their work. However, the building of a relationship was a really important step for our school. Next time, I would spend more time working on presentation skills or emphasising the importance of us showcasing our work to another school.” – Rowan Eggar

Student Reflection

“I really liked when we wrote letters to the science museum. l was sad there was no black history. Next time I would like to go back to the science museum to see if anything has changed. I didn’t enjoy walking to the post box.”

– Chaim

“I really enjoyed the trip to the other school and showing them our work. Next time I would like to visit the school again to go to the playground. We could share our topic about electricity. I didn’t enjoy that there was nothing there at the science museum about black history.”

– Jacob

During this half of the term, Tamar class tried to answer the big question of ‘what would the world be like without rainforests?’ 

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To do so, they researched and produce a piece of work about a rainforest animal that is on the endangered animals list. They also organised a ‘movie and smoothie’ fundraising event to raise money to help protect these animals. They organised the event by choosing the movie, informing the other classes by making posters and even designing their own posters.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I enjoyed this project as it allowed the students to organise an event which linked to their work. This was the project that they seemed most engaged with and everyone was excited by the event we organised. This was also the project where students had the most independence over the work they produced. I think it would have been nice for the students to have more opportunities to showcase their work and explain how their work fed into answering the big question. Next time I would also like to invite parents or have a separate showcase for parents.

What was the best thing about the project?

– Students had ownership over how they produced their work (e.g., poster, presentations, videos)

– Organising an event which involved the whole school

– Allowed students to design the event

What did I find challenging?

– Differentiating the options for how students produce their work

– The audience for the showcase could potentially have included parents – this is something I have found challenging throughout PBL this year

– Not enough time at the zoo to see rainforest animals

– Found it challenging to refer to the big question throughout and for students to understand the implication of losing animals” – Sam Dexter

Student Reflection

“I loved the project because I enjoyed making my presentation. My highlight was watching the film because I liked Zootropolis. The project taught me how to use google slides.”

– Jack

“Best project ever! I loved the movie and smoothie morning.”

– Yitzi

This term we explored life in Great Britain and the differences between the four different countries by using our leading question, ‘What makes Britain great?’ We explored popular cuisines, and landscapes across Great Britain and made newspaper articles to reflect all of our knowledge.

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We started the project by going on a hop on hop off bus trip around London, which we later used to choose our favourite landmark and sketched them out using different materials. We each researched places that we were from or that we were interested in and presented them to the class. We also had a special afternoon tea, where we took inspiration to create our final product the ‘Great Gesher Bake Off’.

To end our project, we invited all parents to our ‘Gesher Cafe’. Here, they were given ‘Great British’ treats that we made, had front row tickets to our ‘Great Gesher Bake Off’ event, read our newspaper reports and looked at the art exhibition of our drawings.

Teacher’s Reflection

“Considering it was only our second Project for a group of varied pupils with additional needs, it was a huge success! Especially with so many of our pupils who have sensory difficulties around food. They seemed to enjoy the variety of styles of learning and having more control over their own learning – I created digital worksheets for them and many of the pupils mentioned that they enjoyed using the laptops. I am really proud of their top trump cards, as I was trying to think of a more creative way to engage them in their learning which was a success.

I also loved how enthusiastic they were on the PBL Exhibition day and how much they thrived when their parents came in. If I did it all again, I would ensure to incorporate more history lessons as I think it would have enhanced their learning on Great Britain as a whole.” – Rowan Eggar

Student Reflection

“I thought it was good because it was full of fun things like making food and I got to show my parents. Overall it was amazing! It was a good journey in my learning. The only thing was the apple crumble was too cinnamon-y.”

– Ben

“I loved 99% of the project. I didn’t really like the exhibition. The exhibition just didn’t really capture what I like, but at least I got tea! I would’ve liked the exhibition if it felt longer.”

– Daisy

“I learnt that you can do top trumps in a different way. I learnt about Scotland and it has the oldest tree in Great Britain, and that the official animal is the unicorn. I learnt about newspaper articles and different recipes from Britain.”

– Moishy