This section of the website is to showcase all of the fantastic opportunities the children have at Round Diamond. From cross curricular days to adult led workshops for the children to showcasing our curriculum.
Everything we do at Round Diamond is carefully planned to ensure the children get the most out of their time here.
We hope you enjoy viewing our showcase page.
Every day teaching and learning can be found on class pages which are updated weekly.
Year 2 History off the Page
Year 2 took part in a Great Fire of London workshop, linking to what they have been learning in history. It helped to enhance and develop their knowledge and understanding. Throughout the day they took part in lots of different activities, this included doing jobs which poor people would do, for example, baking bread, becoming a seamstress and a scrivener etc. In the afternoon they became archaeologists examining artefacts left from the fire trying their best to identify a specific person or job. They then looked through leftover items people had saved and read a diary entry to help identify who they belonged to. After making a decision about who these items belonged to and what their job was, we had to identify where they lived on a map of London.
Reception Autumn Walk
Reception enjoyed their autumn walk wherein grandparents were welcomed to join their grandchildren for a walk in the local area. They specifically looked at the changes they could see in the leaves and in the natural surroundings.
A look into our learning
In the afternoon the children have an enriching curriculum that allows them to learn through substantive concepts and disciplinary knowledge. We encourage the children to not just learn the subjects but think like geographers, historians, artists, scientists and sports stars!
Year 6 PGL
Year 6 had a fantastic time at PGL this year. The children represented the school brilliantly and took part in a range of activities that developed all of their PRIDE learning behaviours.
Music Festival
The children took part in our annual music festival on July the 10th. Luckily the weather held off and we were able to celebrate all of the musical talents to the parents and staff. Mr Meek our specialist music teacher led the festival and each class had the chance to perform on stage.
Cuffley Camp - Year 5
The year 5 children had a fantastic time in Cuffley Camp. There were 2 nights sleeping in tents alongside their friends and completed a range of exciting activities such as axe throwing, camouflage, high ropes, bridge building and camp fires!
Year 6 Police visit
Lamex Stadium
Some children from year 6 had a lovely morning learning about the importance of having a healthy lifestyle with 'BeeZee Bodies', Equality with 'Inclusive Minds' the 5 ways to Mental Wellbeing with 'with youth' and were even lucky enough to have a tour of Stevenage FC's Lamex Football Stadium!
Chessington World of Adventures
The year 6 children enjoyed a fun day at Chessington to celebrate the end of their SATs!
Florence Nightingale Experience
The year 2 children were paid a visit by Florence Nightingale! They spent the morning learning about life in 1854 and then in the afternoon completed a make believe shift at the Scutaria Hospital. Everyone got involved in cleaning, cooking, being an injured soldier and being caring nurses.
Year 5 Cycling Proficiency
The year 5 children have taken part in cycling proficiency to ensure they are safe whilst out and about on their bikes!
World Book Day 2024
The children loved dressing up as a word for world book day. There was a range of words from creative to nocturnal, absorbent to monochrome! The children enjoyed stories throughout the morning and learnt about the meaning of words and how they can be used with impact.
Year 3 visit to the Stevenage Muslim Community Centre
Year 3 visited the Stevenage Muslim Community Centre as part of their RE learning. They learnt about important customs, items and prayer.
KS2 PrimeVR experience
The children of KS1 and KKS2 took part in a prime VR workshop. The VR headsets took them on an alternative trip around the world. They stood on top of mountains, viewed historical sites and came face to face with lions! Each year group took part in a workshop that linked to their geography or history learning and gave children an experience they will not forget!
Father Edward visit from St Nicholas Church
Father Edward visited the children to teach them the story of the birth of Jesus. This consolidated the children's RE learning about this important event and reminded them what Christmas is all about!
Year 1 History workshop - toys from the past
Year 1 have been learning about toys from the past and took part in this exciting and engaging workshop. They got a chance to make toys such as spinning tops!
EYFS Stay and Play December 2023
Year 3 Ancient Egypt Workshop 12th December
Christmas Jumper Day 2023
Year 2 St Hugh and St Johns Church visit
House Afternoon November 2023
On Thursday 23rd November, all the children took part in our House Afternoon where children were in mixed year groups with other children from their houses.
The theme of the afternoon was being environmentally responsible and the house captains planned the activities, created the PowerPoint quizzes and supported the teachers to deliver the sessions. In years 1 to 6, the pupils learned more about recycling, took part in a book swap and created hats and leaves from recycled materials. In Nursery and Reception, children planted seeds which they will now be helping to grow.
Sports Crew Training
The sports crew have been busy learning about what makes a good leader, learning new games and learning what makes a good leader.
Cross Curricular Days - Circus
The Circus was in town on Thursday 28th of September. This started off our cross curricular days with a bang and the excitement and buzz that came from the Big Top was fantastic! The children were in awe at the performance and got to have a go at developing new skills such as juggling and plate spinning. This experience may have been something new for many of our children who mentioned 'I loved it, it was so funny' and 'I have no idea how he could do that trick, it was amazing!' This showstopping day fed into the learning on Friday which was linked to this experience.
Morning Activities to get the children moving in the morning!
Year 6 PGL - September 2023
Our 6 children spent the week at PGL in Caythorpe Court. Activities included raft building, archery, abseiling, bushcraft and lasertag and all were designed to help the children discover new strengths and skills and develop trust and confidence in themselves and as a group. By stepping outside their comfort zone, under the watchful eyes of trained instructors, our Year 6 students discovered ways to manage new situations and enjoyed working as a team.
Knebworth House
Inspirational People Cross Curricular Days
The children were immersed in a world of inspiration for our inspirational people cross curricular days. We had visits from Darren Edwards who is a record breaking disabled adventurer and speaker and Paul Sturgess, a former Harlem Globetrotter and Guinness World Record holder for being the tallest professional basketball player in the world. The children learnt about overcoming challenges and reaching their goals with self-belief and determination.
Brooches Wood
Year 2 planned their Geography field trip to Brooches Woods. First, they looked at the map and planned the route.
They wrote instructions of how to get there using directional language. They followed their maps and instructions to walk to the woods. Once there they did some Science learning looking for and identifying microhabitats and the minibeasts that live there.
Stevenage Museum Visit
Year 2 had a visit from the Stevenage Museum as part of their History topic 'Stevenage Then and Now'. The children were able to show off their knowledge of the building of the old town from last term and also learn lots of new information.
King Charles III Coronation
We celebrated the King's coronation as a whole school. Following the bank holiday Monday children took part in a range of activities including writing their own news reports and performing these to their class, making memorabilia, creating portraits of the King and making whole year stone art in EYFS.
STEM ambassador
A STEM ambassador visited the children. He works for a packaging company as a product data manager and taught the children different aspects and functions of Microsoft Excel. The children of year 4 inputted data into excel and created charts. They were able to ask questions about how our visitor uses the program to support his job role.
Trestle Theatre
The children of year 4 have been lucky enough to have an artist from the Trestle Theatre Company come into school and support children with developing their vocabulary, inspiring the content of their writing and supporting them with making inferences about characters.
The National Army Museum
The children of year 2 had a fantastic day learning about history through their visit to the National Army Museum. They were able to explore fantastic primary sources such as artefacts and photos alongside many more exciting displays the museum has to offer.
Stone Age experience
The children in year 4 had a great day learning about the way of life during the Stone Age. They experienced some typical activities such as trading, making bread, weaving clothing, making breakfast and making some delicious soup!
World Book Day
The children enjoyed a fun filled day with a visit from author James Campbell who has written favourites such as ‘the funny life of pets’. The children adored the ‘masked reader’ where they had to guess their teachers behind the mask as they read their favourite books and at the end of the day they enjoyed sharing their favourite stories from home with their parents and siblings.
Geography Fieldwork
The children in year 3 explored the local area of Great Ashby conducting different types of surveys to find out about their local area.
Cross Curricular Days - Maths
Over the two days the children were immersed in a range of maths learning. They had the focus of the book ‘365 penguins’ by Jean-Luc Fromental exploring different maths problems. On the Friday the children dressed as rockstars in ks1 and ks2 linked to their timestables rockstars learning. The children had head to head battles and made their own board games. In early years the children dressed as number blocks and explored different numbers and how to represent these.
Year 5 Retune Workshop
Year 5 took part in a Retune Workshop to support their wellbeing and emotional resilience. As stated on their website;
'Through live performance, open discussion and pupil participation, Retune’s wellbeing workshops demonstrate the importance of using creative outlets such as music, art, drama, dance and writing to maintain wellbeing and build emotional resilience. Retune teaches young people how to unlock their imaginations, inspiring them to pursue their passions and achieve mental harmony in the process. Sometimes we all feel out of tune, and small adjustments can take us back to where we need to be.'
Prime VR experience
The children in years 3-6 were immersed in the world of virtual reality!
The children explored:
Ancient Maya in year 3
The World's Oceans in year 4
Biomes in year 5
Volcanoes in year 6
This opportunity allowed children to explore areas that they may never get to visit and allows them to understand the areas they are learning in more depth.
Geography Fieldwork
The children have been getting out into nature and the local areas to enhance their understanding of what it is to be a geographer! Firsthand experiences of the world help our children to understand the processes of geography with depth.
STEM
Year 4 had a microbiologist from STEM come to visit them. It was an engaging and exciting way to start the children’s unit on the digestive system. Our visitor, Bea, shared lots of interesting knowledge and carried out a range of enquiries with the children including exploring the length of the intestines, finding out what happens to food in the stomach and looking at why we need to chew our food!
Cross Curricular Days - Space
Over the two days children were immersed in the world of space. Learning was centered around space and gave children an insight into the world of the people whose work links with space discovery and the children also got to experience a planetarium!
British Sign Language
The children in year 4 have been enjoying British Sign Language each week. They told me 'we enjoy the sign language because we can communicate in different ways. It helps lots of people.'
Below you can see some photos and a video made with the children.
NSPCC Children’s Day 2022
Year 6 hosted a fantastic afternoon of fun and games for the rest of the school as a way of raising money for the NSPCC. The year sixes spent the morning using their team work and enterprise skills to plan and resource different games and activities. In the afternoon each class visited the year 6 playground and used their donation money to have a go on a range of different games; from pin the nose on the teacher to penalty shoot out!
Geography Fieldwork
As part of our geography learning we have been learning more about our local area from exploring our school through photos in nursery to creating our own maps and analysing house prices in year 6. We believe that fieldwork is fundamental in ensuring children learn what it means to be a geographer.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations - 26th May
On the 26th of May the children participated in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The day consisted of every year group making their own section of a whole school timeline, drawing portraits of the Queen, creating performances for the Queen and a jubilee picnic!
Comic Relief 2022
As part of raising money for comic relief Round Diamond held a talent show. Children performed to their classes and then the winning act voted for by their class performed in front of Mrs Phillips, Boro Bear and Stevenage football ladies captain Lucy Webster. The children showed great confidence and talent as you can see in the photos below.
World Book Day!
The children enjoyed a fabulous day for world book day on the 3rd of March.
They received videos from an author, listened to many stories, completed activities linked to different stories and took part in playing the masked reader.
Well-being Wednesday!
A brilliant day was had so for well being Wednesday! The children enjoyed a range of activities including music composition, designing and painting and an array of sporting activities. These activities were rotated throughout the day and finished with some mindfulness.
Geography Fieldwork
Year 3 took a walk into the local area to explore physical and human features of Great Ashby. They looked at houses, traffic, the landscape and made observations with their peers as part of their geography learning.
Chinese New Year
The children in EYFS learnt all about the tradition of Chinese New Year. They learnt about the Great Race and completed activities linked to the celebration including giving money wallets, retelling the story, creating pictures of the animals and learning to use chop sticks.
Viking Warrior Workshop
Year 6 experienced a Viking Warrior workshop run by St Albans Cathedral. They got to experience an educational talk which featured a Viking Warrior. The Viking Warrior talked to the children about what life would have been like during the Viking period, such as the daily life, battles, and key objects. The children were able to ask questions and even asked a question to extend on their learning from the previous week on the invasion of Lindisfarne. They asked about the supplies they would have needed to take, and were told they would have taken food on their longships such as hard bread and salted meat. It was a great experience which helped the children to consolidate and extend their history knowledge and vocabulary.
We saw the artefact of a necklace. It had a symbol which represented Thor - Jaiden
Their shield is made from wood and leather - Amreen
To get water, they collected it from the sea or rainwater - Isla
The dragon that is on longships and shields are a sign of strength - Saffron
I learnt that the Vikings filed their teeth to look menacing. I now know that there are different types of axes and it was really interesting - Rylen
I enjoyed that although we didn't go on a school trip, we could still have the same learning online - Liam
I enjoyed how they had a Viking to ask questions to - Farren
Dance and Drama Club
Cross curricular days - Parliament Week
The children took part in a range of activities linked to parliament including making their own campaigns, debating, voting and learning about the history of the UK government.
Art Autumn 1
In art the children have been learning to paint. This video showcasing the learning through Autumn 1 term. The skills can be seen to be progressing from nursery all the way up to year 6.
Well bee-ing Wednesdays!
As a way of enjoying the great outdoors, being mindful and bringing some more colour to Round Diamond Mr Haig has been running a well-bee-ing Wednesday activity every Wednesday with years reception to year 6.
The children help plant flowers, learn about the important pollinators and enjoy some outdoor time with their friends.
Facebook Reading Lives
At Round Diamond we value parental engagement and are eager for parents to experience a moment in the classroom. This term we focused on reading and every year in the school welcomed the parents into their classrooms via Facebook live.
The parents were able to see a reading lesson taught by their child’s class teacher and follow along with the skills and knowledge covered in the session.
Parental feedback included
‘These were a really good way of enabling parents to still experience the classroom session which we would normally have done in person (when we used to be able to come into class for a short period). It was nice to still be able to see the children interacting in their lesson.’
House afternoon Summer term
Butterflies of Mindfulness
The children took part in some collaborative learning across the school as a way of being mindful. Each class were assigned a buddy class and swapped half of the children with their buddy class.
They discussed the activities they do when feeling anxious or worried and then drew them on one half of their butterfly. Their buddy class friend drew on the other side to make a complete butterfly. They will be displayed in the school for all to see! The children demonstrated friendly behaviour to their buddy class and their collaborative learning was outstanding.
A sneak peak into our design and technology across the school during the Autumn Term. You can find more information on our curriculum using the curriculum tab on the website.