Author: Mr Catherall

Friday 15 November 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework which children should be ready to discuss as part of our homework review on Thursday 21 November.

I know how to STOP bullying.

This homework is a response to our learning this week during anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, each class has had the chance to talk about what bullying is, what the different types of bullying are and how we can STOP it:

• Start
• Telling
• Other
• People

As part of your discussion you may find our school definition of bullying useful, as agreed by our School Councillors:

Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.

As the homework is Creative, you can do anything you want to respond to the statement. Here are a few ideas to help you:

• Create a cartoon strip of a bullying scenario and how it is solved.
• Create an acrostic poem using the word bullying.
• Write your own ‘kindness statements’ for your class.
• Create a scenarios quiz for your class to decide what they would do.

Friday 11 October 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework. In preparation for the upcoming School Council elections, children should complete one of the following tasks:

• I can prepare a speech (School Council elections).
• I know the importance of voting.

It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new School Council.  With two representatives from each class chosen democratically by their peers, all children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.

Elections for our new school council will take place on Thursday 24 October with our polling station and ballot boxes at the ready.  Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech in class to their peers.

What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council.

• ‘use all the 8 Rs for learning’
• ‘be respectful’
• ‘help others’
• ‘be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)’
• ‘tell the truth’
• ‘be confident with your ideas’
• ‘accept the views of others even if you don’t agree’
• ‘be friendly and approachable’
• ‘make good choices in class and around school’

Hints for your speech include:

• What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
• What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
• What do you think would make the school better?
• What could you do that people would really like?
• Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do.

Thank you to our current school councillors for all their ideas and contributions.  We hope you have enjoyed this role and responsibility.  You’re welcome to stand again for election.

Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections.

If you choose not to stand in the election, you should instead consider the importance of voting.

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can see maths all around me.

Maths is all around us. But, how often do we appreciate this? This homework is all about spotting maths in our everyday lives and we’re exposed to it more than we realise sometimes. We’d like to children to find some examples of maths from their everyday lives and show these creatively. There are many examples of maths in the world around us but here are a few examples:

• travel, TV or film timetables
• measuring ingredients
• finding examples of shapes in buildings
• counting out objects
• spending money when shopping
• distances on road signs
• %s in sales
• cutting food into the correct amount of slices or pieces

Children should be ready to celebrate their learning in our weekly homework review in class by Thursday 03 October 2019.

Please note: this homework should take no longer than 30 minutes.

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can illustrate happy and healthy choices.

This homework links to our weekly living and learning statement and is something we talk about a lot in our school. Can you encourage your child to make a new healthy choice every day this week? Or think about one new healthy change your child can make? Try to help them make sure the choice is a realistic, achievable one, such as avoiding being on an electronic device after a certain time to help sleep, or adding one extra daily portion of vegetables to their diet each day.

As this is a Creative homework, children could respond in a variety of ways:
• Create a blog, video blog or diary to show the changes we’ve made.
• Create a poster convincing others to make a happy and healthy change.
• Make a cartoon strip in which a character makes a happy and healthy change.
• Write a song, poem or rap that will encourage others to make changes.
• Reflect on change they’ve made and how it made them feel.
There are of course lots of other ways to respond, too.

Children should be ready share, and celebrate, their homework in their class by Thursday 11 July 2019.

Friday 07 June 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can illustrate a moral choice.  

A moral choice is committing to act for what you believe is right and good. As responsible citizens, we have a duty to ensure that we, and others, act on what we think is correct. This homework, which links to our on-going living and learning work, will help children to further understand this.

As this is a creative homework we look forward to receiving a range of responses. Children should think about something they feel passionate about and illustrate this however they see fit.

They could…

• create a piece of art that shows the choice
• write a news report about someone making a moral choice
• find a key person from history and explain how, and why, they made a moral choice
• create a short piece of drama to show the choice being made.

This homework should be completed by Thursday 13 June 2019.

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can show what I know about a particular job.  

This homework is in preparation for our themed week which is next week. Throughout the week, we’ll focus on money. One aspect of this is how money is earned. Obviously, our children are a little young to be earning money but it is really important that they have aspirations.

For their homework this week, children should decide on a job (maybe one they want to do or one that a family member has) and find out some useful information about the profession: what a ‘normal’ day looks like, how much you can earn, what qualifications/experience you need, etc.

Children could respond to this creative homework in a range of ways:

• Create a poster
• Make a ‘project board’
• Re-create a ‘day in the life of…’ and document this in pictures
• Make a presentation
• Compare a few different jobs
• Devise a short play to show their peers what the job involves
• Research the salary and decide how they might spend their money
• Write a job application

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Friday 24 May 2019.

 

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: I can pay and receive compliments to/from people outside of school.

This homework, which links to our living and learning statement, is an opportunity for children to discuss the benefits of paying compliments to people. Here are some questions that might shape your discussion:

• How does paying a compliment make you feel?
• How does receiving a compliment make you feel?
• Why is it important to be sensible when paying or receiving compliments?
• Can you compliment people too much?

Children should be ready to discuss what they’ve talked about at home by Thursday 28 March 2019. It would be even better if children were able to talk confidently about times when they have given, or received, a compliment.

Our homework this week is Creative: I can show my talents. 

All of the children in our school are blessed with an array of talents. This week, our homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement (I can recognise my talents), gives our children the opportunity to celebrate and share their talents. Children should respond creatively and be ready to show off their talents to their peers as part of their homework review. They could do this in a range of ways:

• create a short performance to show to the class
• film themselves showing off their talent
• make a collage of their many talents
• produce a piece of art to show off their talents

There are, of course, many other ways that children could respond. Children should be ready to show off their talents by Thursday 21 March 2019.

This week, our whole school homework is Creative: I can present a summary of our class novel so far.

Every class in our school is currently enjoying their class novel topic. As such, we’ve read quite a bit of our books. This week, children should summarise what they’ve read so far. A good summary would give an overview of what’s happened, focussing on key events and characters. There are many ways in which children could choose to respond to this but here’s a few ideas…

• use an app to create a movie trailer for what’s happened so far
• create a timeline of key events
• turn what’s happened so far into a short comic
• write a song, rap or poem about one of the main characters/events
• create an image about a key event
• draw a portrait of a main character and label their characteristics

However children decide to respond, their efforts will be celebrated as part of our weekly homework review in class. This homework is due by Thursday 07 March 2019.