REFLECTIONS

Our Director of Education, Jim Shallcross, shares some of his thoughts on education:

EMPATHY AWARENESS

Talks about “La importancia del sueño”

As part of our awareness campaign, we received Mr. José Luis Manjón who participated in our Secondary assembly with children and later gave a talk to parents about the importance of sleep for children. The attendees found both talks very interesting. We do not usually stop and think of all the implications of sleep, specially when you are a child. Some of the children were amazed when discovering so many facts and some of the more in-depth details about sleep. Also, based on the comments of some parents coming out of the talk you could see it had been a real eye-opener to some of them. We hope to have Mr Majón back with us next year.

LATEST NEWS

Fiction Express

As you know, KS3 students follow a reading programme, in both English and Spanish, called Fiction Express.

Every week after reading the “Live Chapter” students participate in the Forum. Their comments are read by the author and some students have received certificates from Fiction Express for their contribution.

This year, for the first time, we have been invited to a ceremony in Barcelona to receive a prize for outstanding  achievement in the Forum, which is very exciting.

I am sure you share in our delight and will continue to encourage your children to read and participate in this wonderful programme.

Football vs. ASM

A selection of students took part in a 7v7 football match against The American School of Madrid on Thursday 16 Feb. The game started really well, but a costly error at the start meant we went 0-1 down after two minutes. The boys recovered well and played better football. The team had numerous chances in the first half and finished the half winning 2-1. The second half started and the boys really worked hard but the opposition really attacked the team more strongly than the first half. It was quite physical, but the boys all worked together and finished the game winning 3-2. A special thank you to Fernando Torres who gladly had a photo taken with the team before the match.

Cross-country with St. George’s School and British Council

Richmond Park took part in a cross country event with St George’s and the British Council school. The Richmond Park students were all competing in the Year 9 race. The selected students had to post competitive times in school to be selected. A number of students in the younger classes were able to complete very fast times and were selected. The students competed really well against strong opposition. The Year 9 boys race finished with Alejandro from Year 7 in 3rd place! The Year 9 girls race finished with Mariana from Year 6 in 3rd place and Camila from Year 7 in 4th place. The students were excellent throughout and deserve huge praise for their efforts.

Sustainability training for staff

On Saturday 4 March, Richmond Park Staff participated in a whole school CPD (Continual Professional Development) training on ‘Sustainability’.  The course was imparted by Ms Anais Roossens, who is a consultant of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.   Her courses are aimed to inspire people to help make the change towards a sustainable future.   

In this training the educators reviewed the various topics and themes linked to Sustainable Development Goal 16: “Peace, justice, and strong institutions”. They also brainstormed the different approaches for integrating these topics into the curriculum. In the following months, teachers will organise lessons, actions or projects around this ‘SDG’, in which students will develop their skills and knowledge, while reflecting on the importance of peace and justice.

During the workshop, teachers explored a variety of methods to incorporate the SDG Goal 10 ‘PEACE’ into their lessons and worked on an action plan to integrate the SDG 10, into the existing curriculum. 

NABSS annual meeting – Coordinators workshops

Our coordinators attended the ´Improving Teaching and Learning and Raising Pupil Attainment through Effective Feedback´ training course. 

The course showed them evidence to support how effective feedback from teachers can lead to value-added learning. The course gave teachers strategies of how to elicit feedback from all students to the teacher in lessons so that their learning can be assessed. We also shared and were shown best practices for peer and self-assessment and how WALTS and Success Criteria can be used effectively each lesson. 

`Duathlon Solidario´

Richmond Park School participated in a Duathlon on 17 March. It was hosted by El Prado School and thousands of students from different schools in the area took part. We selected 8 students to represent the school.

The students were excellent role models on the day and competed to a really high level. Sergio and Catalina both finished 2nd in their respective races which was an exceptional result as they competed against almost 100 students! Arancha finished 4th and Camila 8th in a race of 200 girls. Alejandro finished 5th and Andreas and Alex B both finished in the top 10 in a race of over 200 boys! Mariana was extremely unfortunate as she was tripped in her race and was unable to finish; however, she did manage to get to the first 500m in the top 2 until having to drop out.

World Book Day

EYFS celebrated the world book day by dressing up as their favourite book character. We enjoyed many different activities during the day, for example role playing stories and creating bookmarks. We also shared a special story time with the children from Key Stage 2 (Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6) when the older pupils chose and read children’s books to the younger pupils. This was a wonderful way to foster and enhance our school community and was very much enjoyed by all students. The older students, in particular, loved to get in front of their younger peers and be a role model for them.  Key Stage 2 also celebrated this special day with story quizzes, and they took part in the lollypop bookmark competition. There was also a celebration assembly for finishing the read-a-thon won by Year 4F and both Year 6 classes. 

Talks about “Ciberbullying”

Last Thursday 23 March, as part of our awareness programme, we had Ms Irene Magallón specialist neurologist and psychologist for children and their families, giving a presentation on cyberbullying to over 40 families in the performance centre. Ms Magallón had already led a very successful assembly to our Secondary students. Those attending participated actively and a great deal of information was provided regarding their own interesting facts regarding the challenges of social media for our adolescents. Ms Magallón got the attendees involved with their own examples and experiences which made the session very interactive and entertaining.

We believe that the final recommendation to confront these challenges is “remember that our children will always rely on us for advice if we have an open honest communication at all times”.

Easter bake sale

On Friday 24 March, Richmond Park student council organised a bake sale for Easter with the proceeds going towards specific charities. 

This was a magnificent occasion for our school community to come together. Parents, students and staff all enjoyed the occasion which was led by Mr Williams, the student council coordinator.

Congratulations to everyone involved in all aspects of the project. Thank you for all of the baking, planning and support required to make the event such a success. This was a wonderful example of the «joy in learning.»

Reception Trip to Fundacion A La Par

This term the children in Reception have been learning about where food comes from. As part of this topic, they visited the vegetable garden at Fundacion A La Par. They had a tour of the facilities and learnt about different types of fruits and vegetables. They then had the opportunity to plant their own lettuce to take home. It was an enjoyable and informative experience for all of the participants. 

Nursery Trip to the theatre

Our youngest children have been developing their understanding of different emotions during their PSHE lessons. This has been linked to the story ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas. The children were fortunate to attend a live performance of the story at Centro Cultural Sanchinarro. The story was brought to life through puppets, music and lights and was an experience the children will all remember! 

Richmond Park School’s Houses score chart

WEB SECTION «SHOP»

Richmond Park School’s merchandising

We invite you to visit our website’s section “SHOP” where you will be able to see all the merchandise with our Houses’ logos. This is an excellent occasion to continue Christmas shopping!

We have T-shirts, jumpers, sports bags, …. We hope you like them. Choose yours!

https://richmondpark.school/shop/categoria-producto/houses/