Philosophy - trying your best!

This week in philosophy we looked at the book ‘Ish’ by Peter Reynolds. Whilst the book is about art we took the theme of trying and doing your best as our discussion point.

Here are some of the children’s ideas.

Year 2

Year 3

Should we always try our best?
Yes	No
You do better if you do your best. People are proud of you. You feel proud of yourself. You get people saying nice things to you. You get good feedback. If you try your best you will get better and better. You might be scared but you have to try and then you might find you can. It might get you somewhere good like in a competition. You might make some money. If you try harder then you know you can do it. It feels great. You can get it right.	You can’t do your best all the time but mistakes are ok. Not if the prize isn’t a good one. Not at home, because no one is watching.
If you do your best will you always succeed?
Yes	No
Mistakes don’t matter you can turn them into something else. The race doesn’t finish until the last person crosses the line! (6yr old) If you keep on trying your best you will always get better. You succeed if you finish. Even if you fall you can get up and keep trying. You might not win but you will get better and be proud of yourself.	You might make a mistake. You might be tripped, fall or be bumped. You might get a try for the other team. Even if you do your best there might be someone better. You could be up against a lot of people like in a marathon. Something might go wrong fro you.

Young Writers Workshop - Poetry with Rachel

Recently some talented writers worked with Rachel from YWW.
Children involved were :

Year 5 students

Emma 

Julius 

Thomas

Lydia 

Samantha

Atlanta

Y6 students

Brydie

Jadey 

Phoebe 

Gemma 

Nate 

Ella

Adam 

Jaeda 

If you would like your writing published please drop me your book. The first of our writers to share are here:

Nettle

The misty grey morning

chilled the air when I was

walking on the dewy green

grass with a little tinge 

of white. I could hear the 

soft pattering of rain and the

small squeaky chirps from birds.

In the garden I reached over

and grabbed the wet handfuls 

of lettuce.

Suddenly, pains started grasping my

skin, like rocks scarping repeatedly

on my arm.

The gloomy green stinging nettle

had briskly brushed against my 

hand. The pain was everlasting, 

like numbers going on forever.

The sky was swirling,

the watery plants blurring

screams of fright, sunlight 

turning off.

Julius

A Penguin in the Amazon

As the flightless bird

wanders freely in the 

humid rainforest, he is slowly 

dying from not being in the 

right climate. As sweat binds

on it's feathered 

forehead, it waddles down 

the Amazon River. Bullsharks

ferociously jump and try

to tear at the penguin

trying to take a bite 

at the helpless bird.

It walks back up the bank 

into the deadly forest.

Its orange feet are in pain

as it walks

across broken sharp sticks

and bark off trees like its 

shattered dreams and memories 

of home.

Nate