Our best sporting achievement to date
Today, at the West Yorkshire School Games, our Year 6 orienteering team have successfully won bronze medals competing against over 20 of the best teams from across West Yorkshire. A fantastic achievement! Well done to the whole team.
Production
A quick reminder that Year 3 and 4 will showcasing their production of ‘Darwin Rocks‘ at 2pm tomorrow and 6pm on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the children will need to return to school for 5.30pm. Please can you let us know if this causes a problem.
Both classes have worked very hard over the last few weeks and are very excited to perform to family and friends.
Please try to arrive on time as latecomers can be quite off-putting for the children.
We hope you enjoy the show.
Don’t forget our phonics mornings!
Come and learn how to support your child’s reading and writing at home.
See you there!
Living and Learning homework: What is beauty?
Last week, our homework was a Talk Time: What is beauty?
Yesterday, we spent some time discussing this as a class. To start with, the children established that there is no right or wrong answer. We agreed that we would listen to and respect each other’s opinions, even if we disagreed.
The children passed a beanbag to each other and, on receiving it, they then stated what they thought about beauty.
I was so impressed how mature all the class were during our review. Lots of children had spoken to someone at home in great detail. Below are some of the responses:
- Zidaan – “Beauty is what is on the inside.”
- Alexander – “A painting can be seen to be beautiful by some people but not to others.”
- Eliza – “Beauty is an opinion.”
- Poppy – “Everyone is unique. You don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.
- Maggie – “There are different types of beauty. Some can be good and some can make people sad.”
- Eve – “Trying to be beautiful, could be dangerous.”
- Daniel – “Beauty is internal.”
- William – “Beauty is skindeep.”
- Gurnoor – “Beauty is fashion.“
- Milo – “Beauty is something that attracts others.”
- Eleni – “Beauty goes beyond the eyes.”
- Finlay – “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
- Henry – “Not everyone sees beauty in the same way.”
Living and Learning – Body Image
In our Living and Learning sessions, our current theme is ‘Body Image’. During the first session, we discussed the importance of talking about ourselves in a positive way. The children shared their positive thoughts about themselves on big pieces of paper.
In our second ‘Body Image’ session, we talked about how each and every person is different and that it is important to celebrate the different qualities that each person has. First, we found a partner and described the differences and similarities between us and our partner.
After this, we walked around the classroom and gave a compliment to a friend about one of their qualities.
Moortown Park consultation
Thank you to those parents and carers who came to view the proposed plans for Moortown Park.
As part of the pupil consultation, Helen Forman, Senior Design Officer at Leeds City Council, met with our School Council and spoke to all children in a whole school assembly. She commented the children had lots of intelligent questions and comments.
The feedback will be considered and they feel hopeful to incorporate the changes that were suggested including the monkey bars that quite a few children asked for.
The equipment will be ordered soon, ready for installation at the play park so thank you for your input.
Living and Learning – feeling relaxed
Today, our Living and Learning lesson focused on how to make our bodies (drop the y for an i – body) feel relaxed. We thought of some ways we can become relaxed and the children shared some great ideas.
We focused on yoga, in particular, as a way of stretching and relaxing our bodies.
Here’s the mountain pose – standing tall and straight.
Next, here’s the star pose – stretching into our hands and feet to keep our arms and legs straight.
Breathing is very important in yoga. When we become excited, angry or upset, our breathing can become very fast. Trying to slow it down by taking deep breaths can sometimes be a helpful way for us to feel calmer.
We learnt different breathing techniques as part of our mindfulness learning earlier in the year and today we tried back to back breathing.
‘It was relaxing to feel your partner breathing at the same time as you.’
Ask your child to show you two other poses we tried – the flower pose and child’s pose.
Living and Learning – proud but not showing off
In our Living and Learning lesson today, we had a good discussion about this week’s statement. Here’s a summary of the some of the differences the children thought of.
Social Media and Us!
Today, as part of our reading session, we read the FirstNews papers. We came across this article on the front page and the children decided it was an important issue to discuss.
We immediately put a stop to our reading session and discussed our use of social media as a class. We discussed a lot about being online: the benefits, the negatives, how much we time we spend online, how adults use social media and much more!
Much of what we discussed was positive. Children were able to see the huge benefits that being online and social media can have. They were able to say what they should do if they come across something they’re not happy with and most children said they have spoken to their parents about how to stay safe online and when using social media. We also learnt that some parents keep the password for devices from their children so that they know exactly what their children are doing online.
However, there were also some less positive things that we learnt through our discussion:
- Despite the recommended age for using social media sites being 13+, 17 children said they use at least one site regularly (Facebook, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Musically etc)
- 14 children claimed they are online for more than 2 hours every school day
- 13 children claimed they are online for more than 3 hours every school day
- 8 children claimed they are online for more than 5 hours every school day
- 10 children said they think they spend too much time online
- 3 children admitted they think they spend too much time online but don’t know how to stop
- 21 children said they have constant access to a device that lets them get online (phone, tablet, laptop, Xbox, PlayStation)
- When playing games online, some children have played as part of a group with someone they don’t know
- 13 children admitted that they have talked to someone online that they didn’t know (we discussed how we all make mistakes but the best thing to do in this circumstance would be to block the person and tell our parents about the incident)
We also discussed how it’s not just children that are affected by the things we discuss. Adults are just as vulnerable online! And, 25 children in Year 5 said they think their parents spend too much time on their phones, tablets and laptops.
Obviously these facts are not 100% reliable but it was interesting to hear the children discuss this with complete honesty and great maturity. Please discuss this with your child – it’s super important for this generation!
PE – yoga
Today, we practised our yoga skills during our PE lesson. We’ve been learning all about yoga this half-term and we’re now getting pretty good! We know that yoga can improve our flexibility and balance but we’re most impressed by how relaxing it can be. Today, we used some poses we’re familiar with to create our own sequences. Then, we performed our routines for another pair who gave us feedback using an observation sheet. Here are some action shots…
