Local Illustrator Victoria Owen is running a sketchbook club designed around self image and wellbeing. The children are enjoying learning about self portraits and how to express themselves through their artwork; developing a personal style and using sketchbooks.

The Inventors class had an exciting visit from Mr Hedges (Head of DT at SMCC). The school has been chosen to take part in a pilot project funded by Rolls Royce. The children partook in an afternoon learning about Tinkercad (a computer aided design programme) and used 3D printing techniques. The children spent time designing a lego brick key ring in 3D modelling software. In another task, the pupils became archeologists, excavating 3D printed dinosaur bones in a group challenge. Collaborative skills were needed to construct and complete the dinosaur skeleton.

Parents will be delighted to hear that each child now has a logon to use this fantastic design website at home. Mr Hedges is keen to see how the Year 5 and 6 children explore this further; mentioning he will print any of the creative designs at South Molton Secondary and bring in the models.

This was a fantastic opportunity for the pupils to be inspired by the technology which many professionals use as part of their daily jobs. Do we have some budding architects or car and product designers among the Inventors class? Watch this space!

Many thanks to Mr Hedges and his DT team for the masterclass session.

The Inventors were visited by Mr Plaza, a Science teacher from Park Community School. As the class has been learning about space, Mr Plaza challenged the class to question whether science illustrations of the Solar System are actually accurate? 

Using playdough, the children made scaled versions of each of the planets and ventured to the field to demonstrate the vastness of the solar system. 

Mr Plaza was highly complementary of the Inventors learning, stating that the questions they fielded were some of the best he’s ever heard from the Primary Schools he has visited.

The Appledore Book Festival visited Swimbridge this week. Joshua Seigal, the author of ‘I Bet I Can Make You Laugh’ visited Year 4, 5, and 6 as Nick Toczek, author of ‘Dragons are Back’ shared his poetry with the Adventurers and Discoverers class. 

The sessions were filled with creativity, imagination and laughter which inspired fantastic writing. It was a great opportunity for the children to meet a successful author and talented poet who embody the school’s vision for Swimbridge children to love books and to have a lifelong love of reading.