Year 1 homework
Year 1 had a great discussion about different charities following their talk time homework. It was great to hear about such a variety of good causes covering many areas from homelessness to giving shoes to children in Africa. Some children also selected charities we had worked with in our themed week, for example RNIB.
Once we had come up with our full list, we held a vote for the charity we wanted to be the Year 1 choice. Harry’s choice of Plastic Oceans Foundation was chosen by the children. He was very passionate about this!
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?
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.
We are all different
Today, we were joined by some visitors from the National Institute for the Blind.
Following our own identities activities yesterday, we now thought about how people are not all the same.
People are different in many ways and today we thought about what it must be like to be blind or partially sighted.
I was so impressed with the questions the children asked.
“How does your white stick help you?”
“Do you bump into things a lot and hurt yourself?”
“How do you manage when going on the bus?”
All the children showed empathy and were very thoughtful when listening to the our visitors.
We had the chance to look through various types of glasses and goggles.
These either blurred or blocked our vision and gave us a good idea of what it must be like to be visually impaired.
Who do you think you are?
As part of our community week and a focus on identity, Year 1 joined in a workshop on mindfulness this morning. This is something we all can benefit from. The children were taught some techniques to help when emotions or situations become hard to deal with. Today’s learning helped us to realise how there were lots of different ways we could be mindful of ourselves and mindful of others.
Ask your child about mindfulness and breathing techniques.
In class, we looked closely at who we think we are. The children came up with some great responses to this. Following that, we started some work about our own individual identities.
Some super self portraits!
Shapes everywhere
During the week, as part of their maths learning, Year 1 have been looking closely at shape.
It’s important that by the end of Year 1 children can do the following:
- recognise and name common 2-D and 3-D shapes, including:
- 2-D shapes [eg rectangles (including squares), circles and triangles]
- 3-D shapes [eg cuboids (including cubes), pyramids and spheres]
The class have studied shapes carefully and have been learning to use appropriate shape vocabulary.
- name of shape
- sides
- curved or straight
- corners
- flat
- round
- point
We played a guessing game with shapes. The children had to guess the shape in the bag without seeing it. We gave clues by feeling the shape and describing it to our classmates. Year 1 were confident to use the mathematical language they had been taught to work out the correct name for the hidden shape.
This game would be easy to do at home, too!
After a shape walk around school (again a great activity at home or whilst out and about), we got to work on our own shape creations.
Take a look…
Celebrating learning
It’s the end of our Explorers topic this week and we’ve spent time reflecting on what we have learned.
This morning, we met with our Year 1 friends to discuss the topic. We looked at each other’s topic books and talked about the different learning. Next, we looked at some specific skills which we might have used during the topic (e.g. comparing and contrasting, teamwork, problem solving) and found pieces of learning which evidenced these skills.
The children were questioning each other about their learning.
- “Tell me about this work. What did you find out?”
- “Explain this learning to me.”
- “Would you like to do any of the activities again and why?”
Have a look through our photos showing how we celebrated our learning.
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.
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!