Author: Mr Catherall

What a start to the year we’ve had! It’s been a pleasure to get to know all of you over the first term. I hope you all enjoy a well-deserved break and come back to school ready and fresh to learn on 02 January.

As it’s the holidays, there’s no homework this week but there is a few things I think you should try and do over the festive break:

• spend time with family
• spend time with friends
• play outside
• throw a snowball
• build a snowman
• read a book, or two (or three)
• do something nice for your parents or carers
• spend some time relaxing and being mindful – remember our workshop?
• investigate something you observe
• be polite to everyone you meet
• eat a few treats (and plenty of veggies!)
• and, last but not least, have a generally awesome two weeks

Well done, Year 5 – here’s to more hard work and fun in the new year!

Yesterday, Year 5 and 6 got into the Christmas spirit by performing some carols outside Marks & Spencer’s. We had a great time and raised some money for a charity at the same time. Thank you to all the parents who came to watch and all the members of the public who were generous enough to donate some spare change.

As we come to the end of our gymnastics unit in PE, we have spent some time learning how to use the apparatus safely and purposefully. We had a go on a range of equipment and learnt how to use each piece to improve our gymnastics skills. It’s also really fun to challenge yourself and take a few safe risks. I was particularly impressed by how resilient some of us were when we were attempting things we found a little scary.

This afternoon, we were visited by some firefighters from Moortown Fire Station. They came in to give us some information about how important fire safety is.

They started by explaining what a fire is. We found out about ‘The Triangle of Fire’. For a fire to start, you need three things: heat, power and ______ (ask your child what the third component is).

Then, just as our actual smoke alarm sounded (don’t panic, the incident was dealt with quickly) we were told about the importance of having smoke alarms fitted in our house. We watched a video simulation of a fire and saw that in just three minutes the room was filled with smoke. The smoke alarm sounded after 15 seconds meaning that anyone in the house had a better chance of making it to safety.

We also learnt that having a ‘Fire Action Plan‘ in place for your house can significantly improve a family’s chances of survival in the case of an emergency. A good action plan would incorporate the following points:

• think (Are exit routes and hallways clear? Have you considered alternative exit routes)
• plan (Where are keys kept? Are they easily accessible? Where are house phones and mobile phones kept?)
• tell (How will you  tell each other about the fire? How will you tell the fire service?)
• be safe (Remember not to try and fight the fire yourself. If in doubt, stay in a room, close the door, cover the cracks in the door with towels and open the window. Then, wait for the fire brigade to arrive.)

Ask your child if they can help you create a suitable fire action plan for your own home.

In our Living and Learning session this week, we learnt all about how we respect ourselves and other people. We started by studying this quote:

‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite’ – Nelson Mandela.

We discussed what it meant and the children were brilliant at understanding the message Nelson Mandela was trying to get across – we also had an interesting discussion about apartheid. Ask your child what they understand by this quote.

Next, we thought about all the different types of discrimination that might be prevalent in society: racism, homophobia, sexism and ageism to name a few. After reflecting on how lucky we were to be part of a school were these things are not an issue, we discussed what society can do to overcome these terrible prejudices.

We learnt about the Stonewall campaign to kick homophobia out of sport – Rainbow Laces. We discussed that charities and other organisations can rasie awareness of discrimination or raise money to help victims. However, as individuals in Year 5, what can we do? We made this (brief) list of things we can do to overcome discrimination:

After, we each took a moment to reflect and decided on one thing we could do to be respectful of everyone in our community and help to overcome discrimination.

• ‘I will see if I can put some rainbow laces in my boots for my next football match.‘ Josh
• ‘I will make sure I don’t look at someone’s appearance but focus on their personality instead.’ Noorpreet
• ‘I will bake some cupcakes and decorate them with rainbow coloured icing. Then, I’ll sell them and donate my money to the Stonewall charity.’ Grace