Internet Safety
Technology is becoming increasingly apparent in all of our lives. Because of this, we know that it is of vital importance to stay safe online.
This Tuesday (Safer Internet Day), we talked about different ways to stay safe online – we even thought of our own tips and tricks, too!
Rayn made his own useful mnemonic:
T – Tell people you trust
A – Always check for a padlock
R – Remember you can block
B – Be safe!
Internet Safety Day
For Internet Safety Day, Y6 explored online persuasion in the form of advertising, pop ups and games as businesses. They created and presented what they had learnt.
Top tips:
- fully close the app if a pop up appears and you’re unsure – delete and reinstall if necessary
- do the legwork when searching online – check multiple sites and customer reviews
- keep a happy and healthy balance when gaming – go outside often or put a limit on your screen time
Is your child in Year 4?
The government is introducing a new assessment for Year 4 pupils. In June, each child in Year 4 is set to complete an online multiplication tables check (MTC). Read more about this new assessment.
There will be 25 questions covering the full range of facts children are expected to know, which means questions going up to 12 x 12. However, there’s slightly more weighting towards multiplication facts involving 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 due to these being the most difficult to learn. For example, there will be between 2 and 4 questions involving multiplying by 6.
For each question, children are presented with a multiplication fact and an empty box. This may be written as __ x 6 or as 6 x __ .
If you’d like to practise at home, our own website has lots of spreadsheets you can download.
There are also lots of websites that you can use. This one is very similar to the MTC. It’s possible to alter the settings on this website to focus on particular times tables.
Another exciting way to practise times tables is through the ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ website. Every child has their own individual login details that enables them to access their account at school and at home. Feedback so far is that this is proving an enjoyable way to practise times tables facts at home!
Skipping ropes
Following the skipping workshop with Jodi from Skipping School last week and in preparation for an upcoming skipping competition, we do have some skipping ropes available to buy at a subsidised price of £2.
If your child would like to buy a rope to keep learning their new skills at home, please come to the classroom at the end of the day or send £2 in a sealed labelled envelope with your child.
New school dinner menu
Our new spring/summer school meal menu, starting after February half term, is now available on our Meals page. It continues to follow a three week cycle.
The menu has been created in liaison with Catering Leeds to ensure it meets the School Food Standards. We have also incorporated feedback from our school cook, pupils and parents/carers. We will continue to offer a meat free day every week. This will be every Tuesday.
Pupils will continue to make their daily food choices at the start of the day to ensure they receive their first choice of main meal.
If you would like a paper copy of the menu, please ask at the office.
Remember, children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 continue to receive free school meals and we encourage pupils to take up this offer. For families in other year groups, please check if you are eligible to receive free school meals for your child/children.
We welcome feedback on the school dinner menu from pupils and parents/carers.
Storm Ciara
To finish our science seasons topic this week, we researched about the events of Storm Ciara over the weekend. We’ve been learning about how the weather can change across the seasons and that storms can even happen in summer.
This gave us the opportunity to look at safe internet searching and to consider the websites, images and videos that our search revealed.
Revisiting ENPs
In our writing lessons, Year 4 have been working towards writing a non-chronological report about a fictional tree. We’ve got the tree of horrible hands, the pasta tree, the forgetful tree and the sail tree. Ask your child which tree they’ve chosen to write about.
On Friday, we worked with other people who had chosen the same tree as us to create expanded noun phrases to use in our paragraph describing the appearance of our tree. 
We used thesauruses to expand our use of vocabulary and it was a great recap of the learning we did before Christmas on descriptive writing.
Using our science to make games!
Now that we know how to make a circuit and what makes a circuit complete and incomplete, Year 4 have been able to create their very own buzz maze game.
Lewis was able to explain how the game worked really well, using lots of our key words for this topic: components, circuit, conductor, insulator.
Look at these images together at home and see whether your child can explain how the game works.
Next, we’re going to combine this with our computing knowledge to program a machine to keep score of how many buzzes we make in a game.
And relax ……….
For their homework, Year 2 were asked learn a new relaxation technique. During our review, the children demonstrated a variety of techniques that help to calm the mind.
Diverse Dolls
Take a look at this amazing article spotted and shared by a member of Y6 while we were reading First News.
We discussed why representation is so important; it makes people feel more confident in who they are and more tolerant and understanding.
The girl who spotted it felt especially awesome – she has vitiligo herself!
Keep being awesome, Y6.