We won!
We are one cool class!
Well done, everyone!
Scientific enquiry
Scientific enquiries are what children do in order to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
What are the benefits of scientific enquiry?
As children carry out scientific enquiries, they develop a host of skills and competencies, knowledge and understanding, bringing enormous benefits to them as growing scientists.
Scientific enquiry increases children’s capacity to:
- problem-solve and answer questions
- work with independence
- ‘be a scientist’
- communicate effectively
One way to work scientifically is to carry out an observation over time. In Year 4, we are doing this using two amaryllis bulbs. The children are observing and recording information on a daily basis. This involves measuring, recording, observing changes and watering if needed. Each day, the observation generates questions.
What happens if…
“Predict what you think would happen to the growth of the plant if we added some plant food.”
Over the half term holidays, the bulb, planted in stones, had a small amount of plant food added to its water. Year 4 made predictions about whether or not the food would make any difference to the plant’s growth.
- “I think the plant will grow a lot more as it is getting nutrients from the food.”
- “Why is the stem leaning?”
- “Do you think we can see rapid growth? How can you prove this?”
We studied the line graph and the children used great scientific language to describe the changes they could see. The purple line represents the the plant given food.
- “The plant that had food is growing rapidly now! I know this because the purple line is now moving up vertically and before it was quite steady.”
- “I wonder why the speed of the growth has changed?”
- “Do you think this speed of growth will continue?”
Bulbs before half term and…
…after half term!
University visitors
As part of our Life Forces topic, we had a visit from two university students who are both studying to be doctors. They taught us all about the circulatory system and how we can keep ours healthy.
We got to hear our hearts beating through a stethoscope which made lots of us jump if you tapped it when it was in our ears.
Then, Miss Rushbrooke had to put on a very attractive vest so that we could decide where all of our organs are. We were confident about some but didn’t have a clue about others.
Lots of learning and lots of big words discussed!
Cross Country finalist
Well done to Grace for finishing 14th in the Year 6 girls Leeds Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam.
A great achievement!
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone for filling in and returning the recent settling in feedback forms. Many thanks for your support and positive feedback – we all really appreciate this.
Many of you feel there’s not always enough information available and that it’s not always accessible. We’ll continue to send regular newsletters containing information about what we’re learning and any important diary dates. Do continue to check the website and our notice board for dates and information. In addition, please look at our class news to see what we’ve been up to each week – we’re posting more pictures and information as a result of the feedback.
You’re always welcome to look at your child’s ‘Learning Journey’ during ‘Relax and Read’. If you can’t attend at this time, please ask us for a time to pop-in and have a look. The children love sharing their book and talking about their learning. The learning journeys are on the door in the entrance to the classroom. You might even want to borrow them to look through at home.
We’re continually reviewing the way we assess and share information with parents and e-profiles is something we continually consider in order to get best value and best practice for our children.
If you’ve any concerns or need information, please contact Reception staff – we’d be happy to talk through your child’s learning with you.
Meet a creature
On Monday, we had the most amazing experience meeting a variety of unusual animals during our ‘Meet a Creature’ workshop. These included a snake, a tortoise, a tarantula, a gecko, bearded dragons and a chinchilla. Some of the children were extremely brave and held or just touched the creatures. 
We learnt lots of interesting facts about the creatures’ habitats and how they adapt to their environments.
World Book Day themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 01 March.
A spring spruce!
Yesterday, we took advantage of the sunny afternoon and swept, mopped and scrubbed our outside area until it sparkled!
Why not encourage your child to clean at home? It helps to develop their upper body strength, which is essential for writing.
Meet a Creature
This half term had an exciting start as our first lesson of the day involved meeting some exciting creatures. We learn all about how these creatures have evolved into what they are today as well as some interesting facts about them.
We held quite a few lizards, all of which are reptiles and have cold blood so generally live in warm environments.
Snakes and tortoises are reptiles too but snakes have evolved to have no legs – and make an excellent scarf.
Spiders have eight eyes as well as eight legs and some of us were perfectly happy holding this one – it actually tickled a little bit.
A number of us weren’t too keen on some of the creatures – lots of children who appear very confident in the playground and classroom were not so happy when confronted with a giant millipede!
Even the staff had a go. We had to wrestle the snake off Mrs Small as she liked the look of it as a scarf… but she wasn’t so keen on the tarantula.
Who knew a giant millipede could make you so happy!
Football Coaching
In PE this half term, Year 6 are taking control of coaching each other in football. We have 6 five-a-side teams who are in charge of improving each other in preparations for the games we play.
I shall say no more as the teams’ press officers have prepared a short summary of what went on in today’s lesson.
Written by Grace: Firstly, the physio -Nishaan- gave us some stretches to do to warm up our muscles ready for the lesson. Nishaan gave us four stretches then he told us to jog around the playground to get our heart pumped. Then, our coach, Abdullah, did a drill with Nishaan and Stanley while Grace and Pavan practised some dribbling skills using cones as defenders. When we became more confident with dribbling, we included it in a little match against another team. We were not allowed to tackle because we hadn’t practised that yet but it was still fun. We played that for about 10 minutes but then tidied away and discussed our lesson before going back into class.
Written by Edward: In my group we had Edward, Aleena, Matthew, Hibba and Megan. The first part was OK when we practised skills but we took the football game way too seriously. Hibba and I were the people who thought we were
not as confident in football. I enjoyed the game but people were taking it too
seriously and were tackling when you were not supposed to. I would rate this
football lesson 7.4/10.
Written by Isobel: In PE, we have started to play football until the end of term. We have all been given roles: coach, manager, kit manager, physio or press manager. In my group, Harry, Nico, Pohnum, Umiamah and I, we focused on dribbling. We did a set of drills that helped our dribbling skills and at the end played a small game with extra rules to help our dribbling skills.
Written by Pippa: Today, Year 6 did football for PE. There were five people in a group and each had their own role: coach (Noah T.), manager (Archie V.), kit/equipment manager (Pheonix L.), physio (Zach I.) and press officer (Me, Pippa G.). The press officer is who wrote the post, the coach trained everyone, the manager took charge, the physio fired up and cooled down everyone on the group and the kit manager got and put away the equipment. First, the physio took charge to get everyone ready. Then, the coach trained the group to warm them up. Next, everyone had a match against another group. Finally, the press officers wrote about it.
Written by Saleem: Today, Year 6 were asked to form a group of 5 and had each been given a role to play: coach (Oliver), manager (Brandon), kit/equipment manager (Iqra), physio (Owen) and the press officer (Saleem) . Children were asked to create a drill practising their dribbling skills as a group. At the end, the children played a match. Our group played very well due to some weather issues and played very well with each other. Today we had a great time and will hopefully continue this.
Written by Neive: Today we did football coaching: Enya was the physio, Neive was the press officer, Daanyaal was the kit manager, Elias was the manager and Matteo was the coach. Firstly, Enya did warm ups. We did ten star jumps, a game of tig and some stretches. After that, Matteo did our drill. Before he started, Daanyaal went and got some equipment for it. The drill involved us dribbling from cone to cone but there was a defender in our way. Next, we did a match against another team. We had to dribble to a line then stop it exactly on the line. We played for about ten minutes. Penultimately, we tidied away. Finally, we discussed the pros and cons of our session – Elias led it.⚽
