It’s Anti-Bullying Week
This week, it’s anti-bullying week and the theme for this year is ‘Change starts with us’.
Don’t forget – we are also taking part in Odd Socks Day on Tuesday 12th November.
Recently, some of our Year 6 pupils have created a child friendly anti-bullying policy which will be shared with the rest of the school during this week.
Child friendly anti-bullying policy
Written by: Evie, Zidaan, Omar and Eve (Year 6)
What is bullying?
In our school, this is what bullying means:
Bullying is where you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.
What might bullying look like?
If any of these things happen several (lots of) times, it is bullying.
- Hurting peoples’ feelings, for example, name calling, teasing, threatening, ignoring or spreading rumours
- Hurting peoples’ bodies, for example, hitting, punching or kicking
This could be in person or online (cyber bullying) and could be because of someone’s race, disability, gender or appearance.
What could you do if you are being bullied?
Start
Telling
Other
People
Who could you tell?
- Mrs Weekes/Mrs Freeman/Mrs Russell/Mrs Small (they are child protection staff)
- Mrs Taylor (Health Leader)
- Any other members of staff
- Friends
- Someone in your family
- Childline (0800 1111)
- Write a worry slip and put it in your Living and Learning box or the whole school worry box
- Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org
Our views on bullying
STOP bullying – bullying is wrong!
We’re a happy and healthy school.
Learning at home
Thank you for all the ‘home learning moments’ you have been sending.
It’s wonderful to see how keen the children are to continue their reading and writing at home.
Please keep sending those ‘wow’ moments.
Phonics
Phonics
Thank you for attending the phonics mornings last week. We hope you found them useful.
We are continuing with phase 2 of our phonics programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’ and are learning ck, e, u and r. Children will be taught that two letters making one sound such as ck is called a digraph. Other digraphs include qu, th and sh.
In this phase children will be taught the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes), which phoneme is represented by which grapheme and that a phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, /ll/ as in b-e-ll. We use Jolly Phonics actions to help children remember these phonemes. Each week the children will bring a set of letters home to learn. Please practise these every day and keep them in their book bag for us to add to.
Your child will be taught how to pronounce the phonemes correctly to make blending easier.
Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible (e.g. try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’).
We will begin learning ‘tricky words’ next week which are words which are not phonetic. Please help your child to read these by recognition. The first tricky words are the and to which we will be sending home for the children to learn.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Autumn fun and learning!
This week the children have been rolling conkers and pumpkins. They held a competition to see whose conker rolled the furthest.
Anti-bullying week – Odd Socks Day
Next week is Anti-bullying Week. This year’s theme is ‘Change starts with us’ and we will be taking part in Odd Socks Day on Tuesday 12 November.
This day is to raise awareness of our differences, individuality and personal choice. There is no need for any payment – your child should simply wear odd socks and join in the fun!
Thank you for your support.
Living and Learning: Identity
Our Living and Learning theme this half-term is Identity. Pupils will learn about what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others and what is meant by community. This will be taught through our Living and Learning sessions and two focused weeks.
Anti-bullying week (11 November) ‘Change starts with us’
My Community themed week (25 November)
Our new school charity will be chosen as part of the My Community themed week. Every year, we nominate a new charity to support. This year, we have been supporting WWF. We decide this on the basis of a Talk Time homework, and then school councillors make the final decision.
Our Living and Learning long term plan details the learning for each year group across the year and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the parent noticeboard in the playground and also on the school calendar. We will begin and end this half term with a focus on manners.
I apologise when I need to.
I say please and thank you.
School Council elections
We have recently launched this year’s School Council election process. Our School Council is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Here are some of the qualities our school councillors think are needed to be an effective school councillor.
- use the 8Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
Our current whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday 24 October.
Bonfire night themed menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Tuesday 5th November. Please contact the office, as soon as possible, if your child would like a school meal on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
The learning journey
Thanks to everyone who came to the learning workshop that Mrs Burke led. Early literacy skills are so important, including speaking, to give your child a good start on their learning journey.
We appreciate that it is hard for everyone to attend workshops due to other commitments but if you have any questions, please pop in and see Mrs Burke. The powerpoint is too large to attach but if you would like a copy, please ask.
There is another workshop on 18 November at 2.15pm or 6.00pm which will look at how you can support your child with their maths skills.
Shapes
This week we have been exploring shape. The children have been playing with shapes and finding different shapes in the classroom and around school.
Why not go on a shape hunt at home and see how many shapes your child can identify?
