Project cards

This summer, students explored how art can reflect and reshape communities by studying the concept of negative and positive communities across English and the arts. Through novel studies, they analysed the features of disconnected or struggling communities and wrote powerful descriptions to capture their atmosphere. They also looked at how different forms of artistic expression—such as murals, poetry, and protest art—can bring people together and inspire change. Their final pieces combined writing and visual art to showcase how creativity can be a force for unity, empathy, and hope.

Teacher’s Reflections

“This project has been a real highlight of the term, offering our students a meaningful way to explore complex social themes through both creative writing and visual art. One of the most rewarding aspects was seeing how confidently they engaged with the concept of community, especially their ability to reflect on what makes a place feel united or divided. Their descriptive writing showed real growth in vocabulary and empathy, and their final art pieces were powerful and personal. The feedback from the summer fete, where we displayed and sold some of the studentsʼ work, was overwhelmingly positive. Many visitors commented on how thought-provoking and beautiful the pieces were. In hindsight, we would have loved to expand the sale beyond just the fete, perhaps through an online platform or gallery-style exhibition, to give students an even wider audience. Overall, the project successfully blended literacy, creativity, and real-world themes in a way that truly resonated with our students and the community around them.”

– Aymane Hamidi

Students’ Reflections

“Learning new things like the difference between a thriving community and a depleting community” – Aaron

“My highlight was making my artwork with lots of skulls. My skull artwork was really fun to make” – Gavriel

“The project taught me about art communities, and being a part of a community that you work in” – Bobbie

For our final project this year, we explored the messages behind a variety of art forms such as poetry, music, paintings and photography. Students enjoyed studying a range of art and were able to analyse poems really well as well as how fonts and effects convey emotion. Students then applied this learning to create their own poems and photographs that will be displayed in a gallery-style exhibition. Students were tasked with creatively thinking about how sound and light can add meaning and they have worked hard in thinking about blending more than one sound for their desired effect!

Teacher’s Reflections

“Exploring a wide range of art forms was definitely interesting and it was great to see that the students were so open to analysing the meaning of different art forms. Students enjoyed writing poems about their personal interests and did really well at ensuring there was still an important message behind their work. The launch was certainly a highlight as we transformed various rooms into different creative art spaces. Next time, I would consider having the exhibition in a bigger space that allowed us to create a gallery style and spend more time making the lighting meaningful.”

– Bethany Rentall

Students’ Reflections

“My highlight of the project was writing my poem” – Rosa

“I learnt how to write a poem” – Jonah

“My highlight was the launch because it was fun and we explored different types of art” -Yitzi

This term for PBL, students explored the rainforest, their geographical locations and the different layers within them, such as the emergent layer, canopy, understory, and forest floor. They discovered a range of animals that live in each layer and how these animals have adapted to their environments. They also looked at how humans adapt to life in the rainforest, particularly through the lifestyles and traditions of indigenous tribes, comparing our lifestyle with theirs. Students were scaffolded through the process of making classification keys based on their learning of animals and their adaptations in the rainforest. Alongside this, for our literacy focus students planned and wrote their own fables themed around the rainforest. To do this, they looked at the key features such as using an animal as the main character, creating a simple and engaging plot, and including a clear moral at the end.

Teacher’s Reflections

“This term’s project has been a fun one and really allowed the students to work on their creativity. They were able to think about how to make a fable that is meaningful to their own lives. I really enjoyed the practical element of taking the students to London zoo and having them see the animals first hand, making the content about adaptions and habitats more meaningful. My favourite part was the exhibition. I loved seeing the kids read to the younger children and the staff’s children. It made it so much more meaningful and enjoyable for the kids whilst writing”

– Emily Bacon

Students’ Reflections

“Making fables was my favourite part, I enjoyed creating and naming my own characters.” – AR

“I preferred the end of the project, where I got to make my fable after learning about the rainforest and its climate” – LK

“My highlight was creating characters for my fable and thinking about what they did in the rainforest” -YJ

In the Spring term, Zayit and Seorah class worked on an extended project across the two half terms. This focused on the topic ʻTransport and Spaceʼ and was linked with learning related to our big question ʻHow could we journey to space?ʼ In this project, the children designed their own alien friend who came to Gesher to visit us, and in return, invited Zayit & Seorah to visit them in space. We explored the theme of a journey to space and examined the different transport we would need to use to go and visit our alien friends. The different weeks were sectioned into the various parts of the journey. Within this project, the children looked at mapping different sections of the journey, identified different types of transport, wrote descriptive captions, created freeze-frame images of their journey, used a range of materials to create a rocket, and wrote a non-fiction report about space.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I think overall the project went well! I think it worked really well using the iPads for
creating journey maps and planning our space non-fiction writing. The rocket launch and
junk modelling rockets was certainly a highlight. At the end of the project we used the screen screen and I think next time it would have been good to do more learning around what the green screen is, how it works and getting the children to do some filming

– Lucy Robinson

Students’ Reflections

“ My favourite part of the project was making the junk modelling rockets.” Harrison

“It was very good and we had fun making space art” – Seth

“I learned about about different transport.” – Leora

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This term, the students in Chitah and Tamar classes will explore the states of matter and
their impact on the world around them. They will consider how natural disasters affect
their environment and the communities that experience them. The students will be
researching and collecting information about a wide range of natural disasters and
reporting in their own newspaper reports about their findings. They will be interviewing
real life journalists to find out how to be a good fact finder and how to write a cohesive
newspaper report. Alongside this they will be exploring ways to present their findings to
their peers and parents with a range of different science experiments that they will present
in a science workshop! Finally the students will be finding ways to raise money to support a charity that helps people who have been impacted by a natural disaster to help them in
their time of need.

Teacher’s Reflections

This terms projects was so much fun and the kids really engaged with having a Science
link to the project. They were able to complete a wide range of projects and deliver their findings to their parents and other students in the school by creating their own science
workshop. It was great to see them pick up on so much new vocabulary and be able to
apply their correctly in their learning. I also really enjoyed seeing them work so hard to
design something to sell and to raise money for a charity of their choice. We did have to
change our original idea as we wanted to create our own newspaper at the start but this
became challenging to fit in around all of our science experiments and teaching them so
many different natural disasters. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and so did the kids!

– Emily Bacon

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part was The Natural History Museum and ice experiment.” – Efe

“My favourite part of the project was painting the volcanos.” – Olivia

“I would like to go on more trips linked to the project” – Leon

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This term Gefen and Rimon had an exciting look at different journeys and what they need
to go on different journeys. The first half term we focused on our school, looking at the
position of places within school and planning and creating 3D maps. We also looked at
famous journeys such as journeys across the desert and Shackleton’s journey to the
Antarctic. In Spring 2, we planned and went on our own trips within the community and
then wrote in our travel journals on our return. The students used life skills such as
travelling safely as well as learning many geography skills like using maps and
compasses. The students really enjoyed this practical and useful project and we were
excited with their learning!

Teacher’s Reflections

This has ended up being one of my favourite projects I have ever done. I think this is due to the fact that all of the skills were so life skills based and therefore I could see clearly how this learning could support the pupils in the future. One of thehighlights was learning to use the 3d printer, the childrenʼs creations using it are amazing and fit perfectly into the lego model of the school. I am excited to see this displayed as a long term reminder of this project. The most challenging part of this project was teaching the pupils how to use a compass, I think if I were to do this project again I would dedicated more time to this and go on expeditions using the compasses. Overall, I have throughly enjoyed this project and I am excited to showcase Rimon’s hard work at the exhibition.

– Kathleen McEnallay

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part of the project was learning about maps” – Eli C

“I thought the project was interesting and I learnt a lot about travelling” – Eli F

 

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Our students have been working hard on a cross-curricular PBL project exploring the theme “How Can I Develop Self-Discipline in My Everyday Life?” In humanities, they researched and created Olympic timelines, while in English, they wrote detailed athlete profiles, which were later brought to life through role-played interviews. Building on this, students wrote and recorded narrative videos exploring self-discipline in sports, drawing on their own reflections and storytelling skills. The project culminated in the creation of a Vimeo channel, where their Olympic timelines, athlete interviews, and self-discipline narratives were shared a fantastic showcase of their learning, creativity, and collaboration.

Teacher’s Reflections

“The project was a great success, and it was fantastic to see students engaging so well across different subjects. A real highlight was the athlete interviews, where students brought their profiles to life and developed their confidence in presenting. I was also really proud of how they tackled the narrative videos, especially those who find writing challenging, as it gave them a chance to share their ideas creatively.

The most challenging part was keeping the project’s focus clear as students moved between subjects, and some needed extra support with the recording and editing process. Next time, I’d build in more time to practise these technical skills and allow more opportunities for peer feedback earlier on, particularly during the writing stage. That said, I wouldn’t change the collaborative and creative elements of the project, as these really helped students stay engaged and take pride in their work. Overall, it was a rewarding experience, and the final videos on the Vimeo channel were a brilliant showcase of their hard work and creativity.”

– Aymane Hamidi

Students’ Reflections

“The project taught If I’m having big emotions I can ask some one to help me and we like having good fun and I will might need some help if i need.” – Zac

“The project was great but a bit stressful when the internet was a bit funny and laggy and i almost lost my whole entire work.” – Bobby

“My highlight of the project was making my video because it was incredible and really fun. This is because it taught me a new skill of how to use stop motion which I have never used before..” – Aaron

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