Private School News

No Chairs at Chafyn!

Last Friday was designated ‘No Chairs Day’ at Chafyn Grove School. The purpose was to explore a kinaesthetic style of teaching by which pupils learn by doing. Staff devised a wide variety of lessons that were thoroughly enjoyed by the children. There were puzzles in Maths, performance poetry in English and a Year 5 group acted out and filmed their ‘gothic’ stories in the grounds. In Science, a massive body was created on the Ist XV pitch, using rope, cones, pudding basins and other ingenious flotsam to show the intestines, skeleton and organs. The Roman army formed up in Latin and, armed with cardboard and rolled up paper, attacked various hapless victims – most frequently the Geography classes who were out mapping the school grounds. History lessons involved searching for clues about the early years of Chafyn Grove School and studying photos and documents from the archive. These included brilliant footage of ‘drill’ and football on cine film from the 1920s. Year 3 and 4 spent the day learning about the Aztecs. This included making headdresses and learning how to dance, Aztec style, in the sports hall. In Pre-Prep, a day of Guy Fawkes based learning, culminated in burning the guys that they had made.