Who do we think we are!

We’ve enjoyed having lots of different visitors and activities as part of our themed week.

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Keeping safe in the community

Year 1 became police officers for the afternoon during our themed week and were under the instruction of PCSO Michelle.

After an initial safety briefing, it was time to go outside school to learn about road and pedestrian safety in our immediate area.  Then, all children had the chance to check whether drivers were following the new 20mph speed limit along Shadwell Lane by using the hand held speed gun.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news with children catching drivers in excess of the 20mph limit.  We talked about the reasons for the new speed limit and the children were very concerned that not all cars were travelling as slow as they should have been.

Thank you to PCSO Michelle for working with us.  Make sure you say hello if you see her in the community.

Who do you think you are?

It’s been a very busy week in Year 4.

With a big focus on our identity, we began the week discussing and thinking about  all the different things that make us who we are.

As well as identity, we thought about the community we live in and how that is a big part of our lives.

On Wednesday, Year 4 spent the morning visiting St Gemma’s Hospice in Moortown.

Who We Are 

“We are a Leeds-based charity providing expert care and support for local people with terminal illnesses. We offer specialist medical and nursing care to thousands of local people each year and offer invaluable support to their families and friends. Opened in 1978, we are the largest hospice in Yorkshire and one of the largest in England.

We provide expert care, support, advice and information for patients and their families, carers and loved ones. We are also a world leader in palliative care research and our Academic Unit provides training and education for professionals. We provide information and support for children and young people when someone in their family is seriously ill or has died.”

This hospice is a big part of our community and lots of us have personal links to it. During our visit, the children learnt how the charity supports some very poorly people and their families.

The St Gemma’s Young People’s Service arranges all kinds of fun activities for children of all ages, to help them cope with their feelings and worries.

These are some of the methods used by the team to help families.

• We meet with children, young people and their families.
• We sometimes do activities such as artwork or an activity book. We also talk about the person who is ill or has died.
• We are used to talking about difficult things and don’t mind if you get upset.
• Sometimes groups of children and young people meet together to talk about how things are.
• If we are working with a child or a young person and they ask a question, we will answer it openly and honestly.

Did you know that St Gemma’s was originally a school? It was run by a group of nuns.

During our visit, the children were able to look around the beautiful, well tendered gardens. These are a great comfort to many and a lovely area to spend time with loved ones.

It is always a very humbling experience visiting St Gemma’s. This was made even more so by the respect, care, patience and behaviour of all of the Year 4 children. It was an absolute pleasure to take them.

We Are Mindful Superheroes!

Today, we learnt a new superpower: mindfulness! This new skill can help calm us down in stressful situations and can help us talk about our emotions and understand them.

To demonstrate how mindfulness works, we were shown a bottle of water. We named emotions and assigned them to colours of glitter, which were poured into the bottle one by one. If the emotions were shaken up and not dealt with, it was hard to see through the water clearly. We practised some breathing techniques…

… to calm and relax us. As we did so, the glittery emotions in the bottle settled and the water (symbolising our thinking) was now clear!

In the wise words of Master Oogway: “Your mind is like the water. When it becomes agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear.”

Police Officers for the Day

Today, we had a special visit from Police Community Support! We talked about how to be safe when crossing the road and walking home, and how we can help our parents decide the safest place to park!

First, we put on our hi-vis jackets (so people could see us and we were safe) and listened to our briefing.

Next, we went outside to the road in front of school and one by one had a go using the speed gun to measure how fast (or slowly and safely) the cars were going.

“They taught us lots of bits about road safety that we might not have known.”

– Felix

“Hold hands with your adult and ask them not to park on the yellow lines.”

– Liam

“I liked it because I got to wear a police hat.”

– Phoebe

“I liked using the speed gun because you got to do something that not many other people could do.”

– Emma

“I liked the speed gun because it was fun seeing how fast the cars go.”

– Isabella

More cooking

Following the success of our veggie burgers, half of Year 6 returned to the kitchen today for a new recipe. This time, we cooked paneer tikka masala which every single child said was delicious!

First, we needed to create a marinade for the paneer.

Then we created the base of our sauce.

Once that was done we blended all of these ingredients together (minus the cinnamon stick) and put it back in the pan. Miss Rushbrooke cooked the paneer once it had marinated for half an hour as it can be quite spitty.

A small amount of cream and butter were then added to create a smooth texture and we added garam masala and fresh coriander at the end along with the cooked paneer.

Everybody had a taste, using poppadoms as spoons and then we each got a box to take home with us. Another great session of cooking with Year 6 and another successful recipe.

Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre

Yesterday, we were fortunate to be invited to the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre.

We had a great afternoon! When we arrived, we split into two groups. One group went to the kitchens to have a go at baking some traditional Jewish bread: challah. The other group completed a short dementia awareness course. We learnt about the brain and its many vital functions before discussing the impact that having dementia has on day-to-day life. We also focussed on how we can ensure that people suffering from dementia (and other mental illnesses) can be included within our communities. Then, we swapped to make sure everyone had a go at both activities.

After this, we joined up in the hall to sing and dance with some of the day visitors. We had a lovely time meeting some of the older members of our community and it was great to see that our visit (and considerable energy!)  put a smile on everyone’s face!

Here’s a few images from the afternoon…

Creative Homeworks

Here are favourite homeworks from last week’s creative description of a new land.

Who do you think you are?

Our themed week is in full swing with many highlights so far.

• Mindfulness workshops for Year 1, 2, 3 and Reception.
• Dove self esteem sessions for Year 5 and 6 (Visitor feedback – ‘We really enjoyed running the sessions and the classes we had were great and very engaged!’)
• Visits from RNIB, BID sensory services and the Leeds deaf and hearing impairment team for all classes
• West Yorkshire Police Hate Crime session for Year 5 and 6
• Some Year 5 and 6 children attended the Moor Allerton Elderly Care ‘Old & New Games’ afternoon (Visitor feedback – ‘They were brilliant and a pleasure to have.’)
• Whole school assembly about charities by Val from the Salvation Army charity shop in Meanwood
• Year 4 visit to St Gemma’s Hospice
• Year 5 visit to Marjorie and Arnold Ziff centre
• Year 2 visit to Donisthorpe Hall

Thank you to parents who have attended our mindfulness workshop on Monday and our community coffee morning and wake up shake up today.

There is still more to come.

• PCSO visit to talk about community safety, road safety and monitor speed outside school in 20mph zone for Reception, Year 1 and 3
• Mindfulness workshops for Year 3, 4 and 5
• Learn languages in our community for Year 3 and 4
• Two more chances to walk, bike or scoot to school (Road Safety Week) to be in with a chance to win prizes on Friday
• New school charity will be chosen
• Have a go at the Who do you think we are? competition

Take a look at the class news pages to find out more about your child’s learning this themed week.

Takeover day

It’s takeover day today so the children have been taking over various class duties.

We’ve had a couple of people taking the register and organising dinner choices:

One of our excellent spellers took control of the spelling test: