Anti-bullying week All Different, All Equal
Next week is national Anti-Bullying Week and our Living and Learning statement is I know how to STOP bullying.
The theme this year is ‘All Different, All Equal‘ with the following key aim:
The idea is to help children and young people celebrate what makes them, and others, unique and help them understand why it’s important that every child feels included in school, able to be themselves, without fear of bullying.
Our school definition has recently been reviewed by the new School Council and remains unchanged.
‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’
As part of their learning this week, children will discuss these aspects of bullying:
- Our definition of bullying (above)
- Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
- What to do if children experience or witness bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)
STOP can stand for two key messages: the definition (Several Times On Purpose) and the solution (Start Telling Other People).
All classes have access to their class I want to say box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.
KS2 classes will also be using dance to show this learning through dance workshops arranged as part of the week.
For further support, bullying resources can be found at…
- https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/advice-parents
- https://www.kidscape.org.uk/resources/
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
- https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/get-involved-in-anti-bullying-week-2017-all-different-all-equal/
- https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/keeping-children-safe/
- https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/types-bullying/
- https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/bullying/
Homework
Yet again, Year 4 produced some amazing, creative homework. The children were asked to use their knowledge from den building at school and produce a piece of work relating to this. During our homework review, we looked closely at each other’s work and then gave some feedback as a group.
Crosswords to help our reading skills
We all took on a tricky crossword today which gave us clues to words in a text. We had to understand the definition of the word in the clue and then find it in the text above to decide whether it was the correct word.
Once we’d got all of the answers, we checked that we now knew what these word meant, using the clues and how they were used in the text above.
Homework review – Talk Time
Last week’s homework was Talk Time which involved discussing the children’s response to the question, ‘Is tourism a good thing?’
Using the notes we’d made at home, Year 6 engaged in a debate today and everybody had something to say; it was great.
Explorers Art Project
This week, we’ve been linking our Explorers topic with our writing and art learning. (There’ll be more about our descriptive writing in a separate post.)
We’ve created our own version of ‘The Land of Neverbelieve‘ and have been busy creating/designing this fictional land. We started by imitating the style of the book to create the outline of our island and have been thinking about how to turn this shape into a magical, mystical island. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be completing our final, neat versions which we’ll combine with our writing learning.
Here’s a few pics of our learning so far…
An orca inspired island.
The original ‘Land of Neverbelieve’.
Ethan practises drawing the ‘head’ of the island.
Pia gets her ideas down on paper – this island involves a tribute to Pia’s hamsters.
A shark-shaped land of mystery.
An imaginative take on a ‘Land of Neverbelieve’.
A detailed sketch of the final piece.
Football Training
Football training continued this week with 20 children from Year 5 and 6 in attendance. We focussed on our ball control and shooting before playing some small sided games.
Please note: we’ll always be outside for training (even in the rain). Please make sure your child has suitable, warm (if necessary, waterproof) clothing.
Roundhegians RUFC Engagement Afternoon
During the first term, we were lucky enough to be visited by some rugby coaches who are affiliated with Roundhegians RUFC. We learnt lots about rugby union and it was great to see our skills improve each session.
As a celebration, Roundhegians organised an engagement afternoon on Monday. Some children from Year 4 and Year 5 went along to Roundhegians to play in a non-competitive, fun tournament. Well done to all those involved. The coaches were extremely impressed with your attitude and behaviour – you certainly represented Moortown Primary well!
If you’re interested in playing rugby union, please visit Roundhegians RUFC. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me before or after school.
Veggie burgers
Today, half of Year 6 made veggie burgers. Everyone found it extraordinarily fun as we have not cooked in ages! We all used cooking skills to make our bake: bridge and claw chopping methods, grating, frying, blending, moulding and – of course – washing up.
We tried out three different recipes. One was carrot-based, another was courgette-based and the final was mushroom-based. Not everyone expected they’d enjoy it but many loved it! For example, Noah didn’t expect to like it but absolutely adored it!!!
Take a look at us in action.
Adding detail
Our great writing continued today as we explored the effect of using adverbs in our writing. We finished the lesson by completing word studies in pairs on quite ambitious adverbs – but ones which it would be possible to use in the descriptive writing we’ll be doing later in the week.
Word studies are a great thing for you to do at home too, particularly with spelling words the children are finding difficult to learn or understand.
In our studies this week, we made sure we identified the definition of the word, drew an image of what it means and used it in a sentence. Then we could decide what our final quarter would be: word family, spelling practice, synonyms or antonyms.
Great writing
In our Writing lessons this week, we’re learning about all the different ways we can add detail to our writing, particularly to add lots of description.
We’ve explored how expanded noun phrases can be used: towering mountain with snow blanketing the top.
Then we moved on to look at using preposition phrases. Working in pairs and using a great image of the Land of Neverbelieve, we came up with preposition phrases we could use in a piece of writing we’ll be doing next week.
