Author: Helen Lyons

KS2 pupils took on a challenge to complete a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle as part of their focus on developing teamwork and communication skills. The picture says it all.

Completing jigsaw puzzles can improve cognition and visual-spatial reasoning. The act of putting the pieces of a puzzle together…

Staff team "Willow Bank Wanderers" completed another 10K run of the season, on Sunday 3rd March starting from the Totally Wicked Stadium in St Helens with personal best times for 2 members. The next event in their illustrious running career to be decided - watch this space.

A fantastic trip out with the football team. All pupils did an amazing job in very tough conditions. The played 4 games in total winning 3 and drawing 1. 

• Game 1 score 3-0 ⚽️
• Game 2 score 2-2 ⚽️
• Game 3 score 3-0 ⚽️ 
• Game 4 score 2-0 ⚽️

Great attitude and sportsmanship demonstrated…

Practical lifecycle experience at Willow Bank where the Science lab turned into a creche facility. Here expectant pupils and staff took turns in monitoring and recording the lifecycle process of the hatching chicks.

• egg wobble and cheeping just before hatching commences
• chicks pecked their…

After exploring the work of Tim Burton, a year 9 pupil was inspired to research characters from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ to create

• a digital mood board. 
• draw three pieces of Tim Burton’s artwork and apply colour using pencil crayons. 
• create a 3D sculpture using air drying clay…

Year 7 pupils exploring the woods developing survival skills - hammock, using ropes and lighting a fire.

A KS2 pupil creation in Design Technology where they spent 3 weeks designing and creating a magnificent Dragon.

Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. This year it is the year of the Wood…

A year 7 pupil chose to create a Modroc Mask using the following techniques to gain an AQA Unit Award.

• create a plastic mask mould and cover it with cling film and secure with tape. 
• cover the mould by cutting strips of Modroc, dipping into water and smoothing over the mould to apply…

Year 10 have had another busy lesson separating liquids using simple distillation. They set up their equipment independently, and separated a mixture of ink and water

This week Year 10 have been using the separation methods that they have been learning about to separate various mixtures based on their properties. Here they are separating salt from a rock salt mixture that is used to melt ice and snow using filtration and evaporation.

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The team had a fabulous day. Pupil attitude and sportsmanship during the games was first class.  Training focus moving forward is to improve their match tactics to learn the rules and further understand the different positions that can contribute to their competitive game.

Year 10 have prepared agar plates today with swabs taken from various contact areas around school as part of their Health, Disease and Development of Medicines topic. I wonder what will grow over the weekend?