Year 2 pupils have been working with film maker and photographer Jon Robson as part of their Creative Partnerships enquiry school project this year.

‘Our Newland Avenue’ is the title for the project which will include a series of short films and the publication of a photography book.

Pupils have been learning all about digital photography and taking pictures of their community, they have also been producing short films using innovative software applications.

Here is a selection of the class’ first films.

The DVD comes with a really good activity book with facts, games and puzzles. The DVD showed us how the cubs were treated and where the mother hid her cubs when she was going hunting to feed the cubs. The DVD showed clips from ‘The Lion King’ and other Disney characters too. The close up shots of real lions in the African Savannah were amazing.

Did you know that lions manes are used to scare other animals and when fighting the mane is used to protect the neck on the lion? Also did you know lions sleep up to 20 hours a day? I learnt this and many other interesting facts from watching the DVD. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to all families and schools.

By Naledi

Lions DVD Review by Lewis

Everybody sat down to watch the DVD called Disney’s Magical World of Animals. The DVD was wicked, a 10/10 movie on lions.

It was really interesting. I never knew that cheetahs and leopards were cousins of the lion. The DVD was fantastic it tells you lots of interesting facts about the king of the animals. Plus I never knew that a male lion could eat up to 30kg in a meal without chewing.

The clips we were shown were really good. I never didn’t know a fully grown cheetah could run up to 120km per hour.

To sum it all up, I think it would be worthwhile to give it a go. It’s a fantastic DVD, great for teaching children. The children will really like the animations. They are wicked.

Lions DVD Review by Jasmine

Today I watched a DVD about lions. It was very interesting. I learnt a lot about lions and their lives. It showed the life of a lion cub from a tiny cub to a big strong lion. It was made with real clips and video from Disney cartoons and films. It also had a quiz & question every ten minutes or so.

When the lion is a cub it is looked after by its mother. When its mother is out hunting the cub is left in the care of another female who will care for it as her own cub. That way the cub has always got some nice warm milk to drink and won’t go hungry. Lion cubs are very playful and like to climb trees and play with their father.

A few years later the cub has changed a lot. When it was small it was speckled all over. Now the cub has no speckles, has started growing a mane and is nearly as big as its mother.

Two years later the cub is nearly adult and its mother has no time for it any more. The cub is nearly full grown and has quite a big mane so it is time to find its own lion pride. It wanders the Savannah for a few years and eventually finds a pride. The lion cub is a fully grown lion now. He and the male already there have a fight and the young lion wins. He now has his own pride.

Then he gets a girlfriend and after a while she has some little cubs. Then the lion hunts a wildebeest. The female looks after the cubs under a tree. After a while her and her cubs rejoin the pride.

It was a very good DVD and lions are very interesting. That is why I liked it.

Lions DVD Review by Alex

The DVDs are a great way to learn about animals, their lives and their natural habitats. I learnt that it is the lioness that hunts and not the male and that the mane is a part of the body that scares other lions away. Lion cubs try to scare away other animals trying to eat their food. All male lions have their own territory to defend from other lions. I enjoyed seeing the amazing close up shots of lions in the Savannah and I also enjoyed seeing the cartoon clips from ‘The Lion King’ that are throughout the film. Sometimes while the lions and lionesses are resting the elephant comes and scares them away to another spot. After around three years of age the lions go off and the lioness starts to let the young lion care for themselves. I also learnt that when the cubs are born they have freckle like spots but when they get older their spots start to fade away.

When the female lion is out hunting aunties take charge. Lion cubs fight each other but it’s not viscous. It’s a great way to learn how to fight for bigger challenges. Lions and cubs like to chew branches and other things to get their teeth stronger so they can tear off the meat that man has caught.

I would recommend this DVD set to every child because it’s a great way of learning. You should also try the quizzes to see if you can answer the questions at the ‘question time’ parts that run after every section in the DVD.

I really enjoyed it and I am sure that you would too!

After seeing the London Eye for the first time I felt very nervous, it looked like a huge white frisbee which had yoyos stuck to the sides of it.  

The London Eye didn’t stop to let us on because it went so slowly we had to jump on.  I was scared that when I had to jump on I would fall in the gap between the pod and the water.  The water looked dim and cold and that is one place I’m glad I didn’t end up!  As soon as I had jumped into the pod I sat on the bench in the middle.  I didn’t move it’s not that I’m scared of being so high off the ground it’s the fact that it went out over water!

I concentrated on the roof tops, I looked down once and all the people looked like dolls and the houses looked like their houses! You could see right across London because the pods were made of glass.  I saw Buckingham Palace, Wembley Stadium and there was a building which I would describe as a blue cucumber!  You could see for miles right across London.  

I was scared that the doors would open and I would fall out.  I thought I was very lucky because it’s not every day that I’m able to ride the London Eye!  I noticed how excited everybody was and I was sat not moving and I was very scared.  When we were nearly at the bottom I was relieved but the last thing I needed to do was get off it.  I jumped and landed safely on the ground, when I got out I was quite glad that I was off but I was also happy that I could tell people I had actually rode on the London Eye.

By Molly

Waiting in line, I was hardly nervous at all just very excited with the London Eye looming above me.  When we were getting on the pod it didn’t stop so we had to jump on over a gap where I could see the surface of the murky, gushing river.  I had sudden second thoughts, I didn’t want to die I thought of jumping off over the now rather large gap.  The doors closed I didn’t feel scared anymore I was warm and cosy.

I took some photos of the fantastic views even though we weren’t even a quarter of the way up. For a while I just looked at the view happily.

Rising slowly we were nearing the top I was a little bit upset because when we got to the top we would have to start coming down.

With my hand on top of Big Ben I got Zarah to take a picture of me with my disposable camera. The Houses of Parliament were standing in front of a beautiful sunset and the bridge with the tiny little moving rectangle lorries it was unbelievable. The view was almost blinding especially the sunset from the safe white wheel.  It was indescribable.

Then we started going down.  I looked through the glass at the wonderful view and took some more pictures.  An announcement told us to go to the northeast and northwest sides of the pod for a photograph.  For a while, we waited for the pod to get near to the camera, a big flash lit up the pod and then we landed.  We had to quickly jump off.  The ground felt funny when we got off because we were no longer moving.

By Jasmine

From a selection of poems by year 4 pupils.

From a selection of poems by year 4 pupils.

From a selection of poems by year 4 pupils.

From a selection of poems by year 4 pupils.

From a selection of poems by year 4 pupils.

From a selection of poems by year 6 pupils.