Active travel in October – week three winner
Well done to our week three winner who made active journeys to school every day last week.
Our active travel section on the website has recently been updated. Have a look at some of the initiatives we take part in to encourage a happy and healthy start to the school day.
Living and Learning – Democracy
This week, we’ve based our learning around our rights and responsibilities – I can take part in democratic decisions.
First, we wrote down what we knew already about democracy. Then, we watched a video from a trusted news source (Newsround) and wrote down what we had learned. Challenge your child: What was the red line on the floor for in the House of Commons?
Through our discussions, we defined some key words…
… and devised some questions that we wanted to know the answer to.
An interesting discussion arose surrounding the age of voting. (Finlay asked: ‘Why do we have to be 18 to vote?’) Some of us thought that it should be lowered because politics affects children, too. Others thought 18 years of age was appropriate because you are legally an adult with enough life experience.
In the interest of all things democratic, we had a vote on the matter.
Should we change the voting age?
21 out of 28 people said yes. 7 out of 28 people said no.
Zakariya noticed that 28 is in the 7 times table: 4 lots of 7 = 28.
We discussed that 7 out of 28 is the same as saying 1 out of 4 or one quarter. That’s the same as saying 25/100 which is equal to 25%.
Using this knowledge, we worked out that 21 out of 28 is the same as saying 3 out of 4 or three quarters.
“It must be 75 out of 100,” said Maggie. Or even 75 one hundredths or 75%!
1 quarter + 3 quarters = 1
25% + 75% = 100%
7 + 21 = 28
Now we know that 75% of Year 5 think the voting age should be changed.
Next, we had another anonymous vote: Which group would you change the voting age to?
The 15-17 category had the majority.
Good luck to all the candidates standing in this year’s school council elections.
Living and Learning – democracy
Within the upcoming School Council elections, we’ve been considering one of the British Values, democracy, in our weekly Living and learning lesson.
This week, it’s our School Council elections. School Councils are democracy in action and we want to promote democracy as a way for children to have a say in what goes on.
Voting is all about democracy:
demo means ‘people’ and cracy means ‘ruling and decision-making’.
We’re excited to hear all the candidate’s speeches ready for the election on Thursday and we reminded ourselves about the voting process:
- Vote once for one person
- You can vote for yourself
- Choose someone who has the best qualities to become a good school councillor rather than just voting for a friend
- You can abstain, not to vote
Thank you to Olivia and Eleanor who have represented the class so well as our school councillors and good luck to all the candidates this week.
Living and Learning: Confident Me self-esteem and body confidence workshop
Recently, Year 5 and 6 took part in a Confident Me self-esteem and body confidence workshop led by representatives from Dove and Unilever.
Body image forms part of our Living and Learning later in the year and as children comment they enjoy visitors delivering Living and Learning, we were keen to run this workshop once again.
The Confident Me Workshop is one of the Dove Self-Esteem Project’s programmes. It addresses issues of body confidence and low self-esteem. The workshop covers topics such as: appearance, beauty and body image and examines how images of models, actors and celebrities are fabricated or manipulated to portray a ‘perfection’ against which our kids often measure themselves. Most of all, the workshops help young people develop the skills and behaviours that lead to positive self-esteem and body confidence.
Resources are available to parents to support and follow up this learning at home.
Homework Review
The children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their creative homework about The Great Fire of London with their friends. As always, there were lots of effort put in by the children and they were proud of what they had done.
Living and Learning
In our last PE session, Year One combined PE and Living and Learning. The children had to use some of the 8Rs of learning they have been taught this half term to help them complete the throwing challenge they were faced with.
The children were split into teams of six and had to throw their bean bag into the hoop in the middle of the circle. However, if one bean bag missed the hoop or was touching the hoop, the children had to start again.
Here’s how they used some of the 8Rs:
I can show I am ready to learn – The children were expected to watch demos of me throwing the bean bag as well as others to help them learn.
I remember – The children had to remember what they had been taught about throwing in previous sessions.
I reflect on my learning – If the children missed, they needed to ask themselves, ‘Why did I miss?’ ‘Do I need to throw the bean bag harder or softer?’
I respond to feedback – I was walking round the hall giving the children tips on how to throw the bean bag. The children needed to use this feedback to help them succeed.
I take responsibility for my own learning – If the children were struggling to throw the bean bag into the hoop, they needed to take responsibly and ask for help or watch their friend.
I am resilient – The challenge was frustrating for the children as all six bean bags needed to go into the hoop. The children had to be resilient as a group and not give up.
Learning about measures
Our maths learning this week has been all about measuring. The children have been comparing the length and height of objects such as sticks, playdough worms, pencils and each other!
Home challenge
Ask your child to build a tower of five blocks and a tower of 9 blocks. Can they build a tower shorter than one but taller than the other?
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 circle time session this week, we considered the rights we have but also the associated responsibilities.
Responsibility (also one of our 8Rs for learning) was recently one of our words of the week.
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.
The children were then able to come up with their own rights and responsibilities.
We have the right to have friends, and we have the responsibility to…
be kind to our friends (Sophia).
be friends with others – not just one person (Junior).
look after our friends (Olivia).
not to be bossy to our friends (Shasmeen).
not to hurt our friends (Gurvar).
We have the right to learn, and we have the responsibility to…
bring the resources we need (Ewan).
follow the instructions from the teacher (Gabriel H).
look after the equipment we use (Bridget).
be ready to learn (Noah G).
listen (Noah F).
look after the classroom (Saahith).
Help at home by encouraging your child to think about their rights and responsibilities outside of school.
Time Travel – Sources of evidence
We’ve been very impressed by the enthusiasm and engagement from the children during our current learning in Time Travel. As you will have seen in our class assembly, the particular historical event we are focusing on is the Great Fire of London which took place in 1666.
First of all, we calculated how many years ago this event took place to consider how this might affect the sources of evidence available. It happened 352 years ago.
Iris had pre-empted this learning, earlier in the week, ‘How do we know about the Great Fire of London?’ Great enquiry skills.
In table groups, children discussed whether they agreed or disagreed with the sources of evidence provided.
Using their thinking skills, the children then had to share why the sources would be possible evidence or not.
Help at home by asking your child what is the best source of evidence for the Great Fire of London and why.
Active travel in October – week two winner
Well done to our week two active travel winner (08 – 12 October) who was randomly selected to receive the latest £10 voucher.
Our week three winner will be announced early next week.
We have a final weekly prize to award and also a prize for someone who has made an active journey to school every day in October. These prizes will be awarded straight after half term once our Living Streets travel tracker data is available.
Remember an active journey can be walking, biking, scooting or parking away from the school gate and striding the last part of the journey.