Don’t forget…
Today’s Phonics Superstar would like to remind you about our phonics mornings this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
See you there!
Football Coaching
Here are weekly reports on our football coaching…
Written by Stan: Today, Year 6 played some great football and there were no arguments. Everyone has their own role: kit manager (Pavan); manager (Nishaan); coach (Grace); physio (Abdullah); and press officer (Stan). After a few arguments last week, we were argument-free this week. This week we practised our passing: I definitely saw an improvement in Pavan’s passing. The last thing we did was play a match but it wasn’t an ordinary match – we weren’t allowed to tackle and we had to stop the ball on the line instead of shoot in the goal and the whole team had to touch the ball. I think most people would like to tackle but we’re practising tackling next week. I’m hoping to play a proper match next week. 😀
Written by Elias: Today, Year 6 were asked to join the groups they had last time and were given new roles: coach (Matteo), manager (Neive),kit/equipment manager (Enya), physio (Daanyaal) and the press officer (Elias). The 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 astonishing help by the people who were more confident helping the people who weren’t as confident and played very well with each other. Today, the children had a great time and hopefully this will be one of many.
Written by Archie: Today, Monday the 26 February 2018, Year 6 did football for PE. In this week’s session, we did passing. In my team, I had Phoenix, Pippa, Noah and Zack. When we were doing drills, our coach (Pippa) told us that we would be doing basic passing and gradually build it up to having defenders. Then, later on in PE, we grew into a match. Not a match you would normally think of. We had to pass it between our whole team and then stop it on the line. There was a hard part though: we had to make sure the opposition didn’t receive it.
Written by Isobel: After our warm up, led by Umiamah, we focused on passing. Harry created a drill that helped us with our passing and a bit of dribbling (which we focused on last week). At the end, we played a mini match where you scored a point by stopping the ball on the end line, helping our control skills. We had extra rules to help us with our passing. It was a draw. Overall, everyone enjoyed our PE lesson.
Written by Owen: Today, Y6 played some football and used great teamwork. This led to a fun and active PE lesson. Also, we learnt a lot to do with passing and receiving. The kids were getting along and smiling. We all had different roles: Press Officer- Owen, Physio- Saleem, Kit Manager- Iqra, and The Coach- Oliver.
Written by Megan: After having a few disagreements last week, this week’s PE turned out to be a lot better. Aleena started us off with some stretches which were important because otherwise we could have hurt or strained our muscles.
Next, Matthew led a drill, helping our dribbling, passing, communicating and stopping skills. After practising our skills to become more technical footballers, we played in a game versing another team. We had to stick to some rules though: everybody in your team had to touch the ball at least once before anyone could score; you could only intercept, not tackle; and you had to stop the ball ON the line (not any before or after).
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.