Reception Class News

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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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.

Charities

This week, we focus on identity, diversity and community in our Who do you think you are? themed week.  As part of this week, children will think about our school charity.  Currently, we support Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Leeds Mind.  A previous School Council selected these because they wanted to help people, support a mental health charity and wanted to help local and regional charities.  They were chosen because pupils passed on to School Councillors very clear and strong arguments.

We’ve helped these charities for two years now, so it’s time for a change. We need you to have a discussion at home about which charity would be best for us to support. We will now support one charity for a year.  Each class will then discuss this and then the councillors will bring the views and ideas together to decide on the charities.

Once your child has decided on a charity, make sure they have clear, powerful reasons to support their views.

You might want to discuss whether we support…

• a local charity
• a children’s charity
• a charity which helps a vulnerable group in our community

Mindfull or mindful?

Would you like to find out more about mindfulness and how it can be used to support your child at home?

As part of our whole school themed week next week, all children will be taking part in mindfulness workshops.  There’ll also be a parent/carer session on Monday 20 November at 2:30-3:15pm.

Please contact the office if you would like to attend.

Christmas school dinner themed menu

Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 07 December. Please contact the office, before Monday 20 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.

Watch out!

We’ve been busy making magic potions in Reception and most children liked the idea of turning people into animals.

You have been warned!

Marvellous maths

Thank you for attending the Early Years Maths workshop last week.

Here are the key points from the workshop:

• It’s important to be positive about maths
• Don’t tell your child you’re not good at maths
• Everyone can be good at maths
• Being numerate is arguably more important than being literate
• Your support and encouragement is vital to your child’s success
• Everyone can learn maths to the highest level
• Mistakes are valuable
• Questions are really useful
• Maths is about creativity and making sense
• Maths is about connections and communicating
• Maths is about learning, not performing
• Depth is more important than speed

There are 4 key aspects to counting:

1. Number names: There are many words to learn, they need to be in the right order and you need to be able to say them in sequence forwards and backwards.
2. One number for each item: Children need to be able to match one number name to each item in turn, making sure they don’t miss any out or count any twice.
3. Cardinality: Children need to know that the last number in the count gives you the answer to the question, ‘How many are there?’
4. Conservation: Children need to learn that the number of items in a group remains the same even if we rearrange them or count them in a different order.

Support your child at home:

• Lots of counting as part of everyday life- both rhymes and counting objects
• Sorting objects and making patterns
• Spotting numbers and using the language of number
• Playing with construction toys (girls and boys)
• Playing simple board games
• Baking
• Solve problems; work out how many altogether, how many more…
• Watch Numberblocks on CBeebies
• Have fun!

Who do you think you are? themed week 20 November

Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 20 November, which also coincides with national Road Safety Week.  A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.

Events during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging, self-esteem and mindfulness, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion, disability and gender.  Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations such as St Gemma’s, local care homes, Moortown Community Group and taking pride in the local community by litter picking.

Road Safety Week will run alongside our themed week where children are encouraged to take a walk/scoot/bike in the community on their way to and from school, maybe even picking up a piece of litter on the way.  If your child walks, scoots or bikes, they should complete the slip at the bottom of the letter sent home (spare tokens are available in class), each day, for a chance to win a £10 shopping voucher for each class.  We hope you will support this initiative in helping children make a healthy start to their day and also helping towards reducing congestion at our gates.  Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter.  Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.

During the themed week, children will be researching local, national and international charities and a new school charity will be chosen at the end of the week to replace our current charities, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Mind Leeds.

Friday 24 November will be a non-uniform identity day.  Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage.  We invite a donation for the PTA Christmas fair.

Who do you think we are?

Do you think you’d recognise some of our staff in their early years?  This photo competition is back and will run throughout the week with details to follow separately.  Proceeds will be given to our new school charity.

Community coffee morning Wednesday 22 November 9-10am

As part of the week, we welcome parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA, our governing body, Moortown Community Group and Friends of Moortown Park.  I will also be available to speak to parents about our new Living and Learning scheme of work.  A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 10am in the main playground.

Mindfulness information session for parents

Please see the separate letter to sign up for this parent workshop on Monday 20 November, 2:30pm-3:15pm.

Can you help?

Pupil feedback from our previous Who do you think you are? themed week was to ‘learn more languages that other people speak.’ Do you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this?  If so, please contact the office to pass on your details.  Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?

Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard with lots of information about the themed week too.  It’s going to be a busy week!

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/

Pumpkins!

We’ve been practising our fine motor skills using pumpkins.