Author: Mrs Taylor

School dinner consultation

Thank you to all parents and carers who provided feedback on the recent school dinner consultation of meal choices for the September menu.

Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, can offer an alternate jacket potato and sandwich option alongside the meat and vegetarian daily option and we welcomed your feedback on whether this would work for you and your child(ren).

There were a number of parents/carers who were interested to try this option but the majority of responses expressed an interest to keep the options as they currently are. The main feedback was for children to have a hot meal for their school meal rather than a sandwich.

As a result of this, we will continue with the existing daily meat, vegetarian and jacket potato option. 

The September menu is currently in the planning stages and we have liaised with Catering Leeds to ensure the menu is tailored to our children’s preferences, while still meeting the national school food criteria.  Once finalised, this new menu will be made available to parents/carers at the end of the summer term.

Our current menu can be viewed in the Health section and is displayed around school.

Thank you once again for your feedback on our school meals.

Measuring length and height

This week, we’ve started a new block of maths learning all about measuring, starting with length and height.  So far, we’ve been learning how to use a ruler to measure items and also to draw lines of certain lengths (to the nearest cm).  If you’ve a ruler at home, find some things to measure.  We’ve investigated when to use centimetres (cm) or metres (m) as the units for measuring length and height.

Taken from the Year 2 age related expectations, here are the related objectives we will be learning.

24. choose and use appropriate standard units to estimate and measure length/height in any direction (m/cm); mass (kg/g); temperature (°C); capacity (litres/ml) to the nearest appropriate unit, using rulers, scales, thermometers and measuring vessels
25. compare and order lengths, mass, volume/capacity and record the results using >, < and =

Here are some example questions of how this learning might appear in a maths reasoning SAT paper.

Supermovers have a great video to show when to use different units for measuring, cm and m in Year 2, and for keeping active, too.  The children love to join in with these in class.

Also, take a look at Mathletics as new activities have been assigned for the children to follow up this learning at home.

We’re looking forward to seeing all the measuring related homework this week, too.

Living and learning – Mental health

Today, we began our mental health topic in Living and learning.

We started by reading this book which introduced the concept of mental health in a child friendly way.

Today’s learning was to consider the importance of special people in our lives and why they are important to us.

  • ‘My dad is special because he lets us go to fun places.’
  • ‘My family are special because they keep me safe.’
  • ‘Henry is special because he is my best brother.’
  • ‘My grandad is special to me because he died and I will never forget him.’
  • ‘My friend is very kind and special to me.’
  • ‘My baby sister is special to me because she is my first sibling.’

Big Pedal day 2

We’ve had a great increase in the number of journeys to school by bike and scooter with 24% of pupils travelling in this way today.  Thank you for your support to promote this sustainable travel.

Reception continue to be the class with the highest number of pupils biking or scooting with Year 2 in second place today.

Remember, if you have to come by car to school, park further away so your child can scoot or bike the rest of the way.

The Big Pedal

Today was the first day of the Big Pedal, a Sustrans initiative to encourage sustainable travel to school by bike or scooter, running from 23 April to 04 May.

Well done to Reception who were our winning class today with a third of the children travelling to school by scooter.  Year 3 were second and Year 4 were third.

Schools will be entered into daily prize draws if we have over 15% cycle or scoot on each day of the challenge.  Let’s try to increase numbers of children who bike or scoot to school tomorrow as we compete with schools locally and across the country.

The Big Pedal is back!

Get set… we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2018, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school.

The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.

The Big Pedal challenge focuses on journeys made by bike and scooter and runs from 23 April to 04 May.  We would love everyone to be involved.

The details

On each day of the challenge, schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Our best five days will determine our final position in the challenge. We’ll be competing against other schools right across the UK, and if we clock up the most bike and scooter journeys, we’ll win!

 Why we’re taking part

It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school on their bikes and scooters. We will be competing to become one of the UK’s top schools for two-wheeled journeys and will be in with a chance to win prizes including bike and scooter stunt shows and fantastic cycle and scooter storage.

What’s next?

All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle or scoot to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.

If you do need the car to bring your child(ren) to school, you could park further away from school and bike or scoot the last part.

Living and learning – Healthy minds

This half term, our Living and learning theme is Healthy minds. Each week, we have a Living and learning statement.
  • 16 April I can name emotions.
  • 23 April I recognise emotions in myself and others.  Being aware of different emotions – both positive and negative – is an important basis for good mental health.
  • 30 April I show empathy.  Talk to your child about empathy, both in real-life situations and also when discussing characters in a book, film or TV programme.
  • 08 May I can describe ways to calm down. We all get worked up from time to time – how do different people calm down?
  • 14 May I use calming down strategies.  Calming down strategies might include any of the mindfulness techniques children have been taught or counting to ten, going for a walk, getting a glass of water – discuss what works for you and your child?
  • 21 May I recognise mental health is important.  We want our children to be happy and healthy! 

This text is a great introduction to the topic of mental health for children.

We’ll end the half term with a focus on money management.  Children will learn about their choices with money – saving, spending and the wider world of work.
Moneysense provides further resources to support your child to develop good money habits.
A savings account is a good way for children to recognise the importance and value of money.   In association with Leeds Credit Union, we offer the chance for children to open a Schools Savings Club account.  Over 10% of pupils hold an account and we have regular half termly paying in sessions.  If you’d like your child to open an account, please contact the office.

23 March 2018

This week the homework is creative and is due Thursday 29 March:

I can recognise my talents.

It’s important to recognise that we’re all good at something and this homework is a great opportunity for your child to show their friends, teachers and peers what they are talented at in a creative way.  We’ll be celebrating these talents in our Living and Learning lessons.

This homework could be presented in different ways:

  • a poem
  • a video of their talent
  • a piece of art
  • a song
  • a poster

Any other creative way, that shows and recognises their talent, could be chosen.