Living and Learning: Rights and Responsibilities
This Living and Learning statement is a really important one for helping us to live in a respectful, responsible way. It can relate to lots of different aspects of life. Having rights links well with British Values (Individual liberties).
In our Living and Learning session this week, we considered the rights we have but also the associated responsibilities.
Responsibility is one of our 8Rs for learning that we have been learning about this half term.
For example, we have the right to think and believe what we wish to so we have the responsibility to respect other people’s thoughts and beliefs.
We have the right to food, and the responsibility to make our own healthy choices.
We have the right to play, and we have the responsibility to play safely and sensibly with our friends.
We have the right to learn, and we have the responsibility to follow our school rules.
We also heard about the inspirational young woman from Pakistan, Malala Yusafzai, who claimed her right to an education.
Help at home by encouraging your child to think about their rights and responsibilities outside of school.
Raising money for WWF
In Year 2, we are supporting our school charity, WWF, by adopting a polar bear (as voted for by the children). The adoption costs £30 for the year and so we have been thinking about how to raise this money.
After only deciding yesterday that we would bring in any spare 1ps and 2ps, we were amazed this morning to see how many children had remembered this and started to fill our tube. Thank you for your support!
Here is the latest update from WWF on the polar bears we are supporting.
‘WWF is pleased to announce that the collaborative polar bear patrol model is successfully reducing the number of conflicts between people and polar bears.
Since introducing the programme in 2010, WWF and the Hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut, Canada, have dramatically reduced the number of polar bears killed by people protecting themselves and their property. An average of eight bears were killed each year before 2010, but that’s now dropped to one per year, despite an increasing frequency of encounters between people and polar bears.
Polar bear patrols have also advanced in Russia and Greenland. Your support helps to provide funding to reduce instances of conflict between polar bears and communities, including hiring guards to patrol communities and scare away bears. ‘
Bonfire night themed menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Tuesday 5th November. Please contact the office, as soon as possible, if your child would like a school meal on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
We are constructing.
Last week, Years 1 and 2 joined forces to begin their work on constructing boats. The children chose from a range of materials and were able to use these appropriately.
The children were supportive to one another offering help if needed.
My boat is not very secure. I’m going to add more tape.
How can I make the mast more stable?
I wonder if this material is waterproof?
The finished products were amazing!
Supporting your child’s learning
Thanks to everyone who attended the learning workshop last week. We hope that we were able to answer any questions that you had and that you feel able to support your child’s learning at home.
Remember, short chunks of time will work best to keep your child focused and interested. Try learning a few spellings or times table facts a night rather than looking at them all at the same time; listen to your child read for 10 minutes but then read to them too; and make sure they see you read for pleasure, even if it is a newspaper or magazine.
Here is the powerpoint that was used for the workshop. Please come and ask if you have any questions.
The learning journey
Thanks to everyone who came to the learning workshop that Mrs Burke led. Early literacy skills are so important, including speaking, to give your child a good start on their learning journey.
We appreciate that it is hard for everyone to attend workshops due to other commitments but if you have any questions, please pop in and see Mrs Burke. The powerpoint is too large to attach but if you would like a copy, please ask.
There is another workshop on 18 November at 2.15pm or 6.00pm which will look at how you can support your child with their maths skills.
Cool Class Cup Winners!
Cool Class Tokens are given for good behaviour and attitude around school and can only be awarded by teachers from other classes.
This week, Year 5 accumulated the most ‘cool class tokens’ out of any class in the whole school!
As a result, they were awarded the Cool Class Cup in Friday’s assembly.
The cup has settled into its new home in our classroom for all to see.
Keep it up Year 5!
Design and Technology: treehouse building
We’ve researched. We’ve designed. We’ve planned. Now, it’s time to make.
Starting with our three main criteria, we have moved into the making stage of our design process. Our platform, entry/exit and team flag were the criteria that every group had to include in their design and all groups have added these to their trees this week. Some groups have moved on to their other criteria too.
We’ve found it really tricky to attach things to our trees and are having to develop our knotting skills and analyse whether what we’re attaching is sturdy enough.
There’s been some great teamwork throughout the whole design process. Now, we’re having to work together to decide what the best materials are for the different parts of our plan and weigh up the cost of these materials too.
At home, ask us what we’ve achieved on our treehouse so far and what obstacles we’ve had to overcome.
Living and Learning: 8Rs
Having reflected on all eight Rs for learning, Year 4 decided they learnt most about resilience this term in our tower building lesson.
As a team, we had to try and build the tallest tower but it kept getting knocked down. Despite our frustrations, we had to encourage each other to carry on and start again. We talked about situations that make us feel like this and strategies we had to help us to keep going.
At home, see if we can tell you what the 8Rs are and ways we can showing we’re using them in our learning.
World Mental Health Day
Yesterday was World Mental Health Day, and Y6 did some research to find out more.
First, we learnt what makes efficient search terms. Challenge your child to explain! Take a look at this RIC:
For example, to find out the answer to this question: “What is the population of people living in Leeds, West Yorkshire, this year?” you would use much more efficient search terms. Ask your child what they would enter into the search engine.
Next, we focussed on being safe online by discussing bias (ie paid advertising vs factual content), quality of life (ie were these web pages contributing positively to our lives?) and protecting ourselves (ie not entering passwords/email addresses, avoiding pop ups). We researched some questions about World Mental Health Day using effective search terms, a variety of search engines and trusted websites.
Some important information we found out is that mental health can affect everyone. To look after yourself you need to:
- know you’re not alone
- understand it will pass
- talk about your worries
- keep active
- get enough sleep