Welcome back!
We hope you had a restful break. It’s been great to see the children back at school ready for the summer term of learning.
We’ve has lots of recent success with children reaching their next level in Lexia.
Well done to Matin, Nate, Aaron, Saavi, Hollie, Talha, Charlie, Aliza and Sophie.
As well as Lexia (to support reading and phonics), Numbots (to support addition and subtraction) and Times Tables Rock Stars (to support multiplication and division) are both available for the children to practise their maths knowledge at home.
Our Numbots top three this week were:
1st Daniyal
2nd Aaron
3rd Rico
Since we have started using TTRS, our top five children who have earned the most coins are:
1st Hadi
2nd Grace
3rd Aaron
4th Rory
5th Elena
Great work! Keep working hard at home.
Big Walk and Wheel
Thank you to all the families who have supported the Big Walk and Wheel over the last two weeks.
Overall, we were placed 150th in the small school category, out of 643 schools, with a daily average of 74.29% of journeys to school being active. In Northern England, we were 18th out of 107 small schools. Well done to everyone who took an active journey to help to achieve this.
Over the two week period we actively travelled 1,358 times!
It would be great for these active journeys to continue. Travelling actively (walking, park and stride – Marks and Spencers car park, scooting or biking) is a safe and healthy start to the school day.
Computing – Beebots
During our Computing topic this half term, we have been learning all about algorithms. These are sets of instructions and we can use them to program computers. We have practised writing our own algorithms as well as debugging (fixing) them. This week, we thoroughly enjoyed putting out computing knowledge of algorithms into action with the beebots. We can now write algorithms to programme a Beebot to make a shape and to navigate it through a maze with obstacles in the way. We made sure to write down our algorithm first and then debug it if it went wrong. It was great fun!
Living and Learning: First aid
Our Living and Learning focus has been first aid over the last two weeks.
The children have learnt how the emergency services can help others, what is first aid and what situations might need someone to give first aid.
Listen again to a 999 call that was made by a 6 year old when her mum collapsed. We heard the key questions that would be asked if someone needed to call 999.
What emergency service do you need? Where are you? What happened?
Then, we thought about some of the injuries and illnesses that might happen that would mean they need first aid (inside the outline of the person).
Then, we drew a line from the injury to the outside of the outline of the person, thinking about what first aid the person might need to help them recover.
Around the outer edge of the person we added some things you could say to someone to comfort them.
Science
This half term, our science learning has been all about microbes and we have learnt so much! Hopefully you will have noticed how much more hygienic the children are!
It was part of a working scientifically topic and our vocabulary for this learning is below. Check the words your child knows and which they can explain to you.
Our investigations included how soap helps to get rid of harmful microbes on our hands and also what happens when someone sneezes and doesn’t catch it in their elbow or a tissue. Ask your child to explain how we did these experiments.
Below are some true/false statements for you to check your child’s understanding.
Skipping
This week, we had a fun and active afternoon of skipping with Jodi from Skipping School and she was very impressed by the skipping and effort she saw!
Jodi taught us lots of different individual and group skipping skills to practise for our Year 2 skipping festival with other schools later in the summer term.
Skipping ropes are available to buy, at a subsidised price of £3, from the office to practise these new skills at home.
Living and Learning: Health and prevention (sleep)
Our recent Living and Learning lesson was all about the importance of sleep.
Our learning explored why sleep is so important in our lives, how it can sometimes be difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep, and how to manage this. We also considered what the children can do to help themselves have good habits that can help them to fall asleep.
Firstly, we heard a story about a girl called Mia. We had to identify the things that were STOPPING her from getting to sleep.
As a class, we had a great discussion about what can HELP Mia (and us) to get to sleep and what might STOP us from getting to sleep.
Here are some of the ideas generated.
Hopefully the children have been sharing this knowledge to help with their own bedtime routines.
For further sleep support, here are some resources you might want to look at.
• NHS sleep specific website for younger children
• Childline – for general advice about concerns
• Specific NHS advice on sleep is available here
• Sleep Charity – for sleep tips and links to other organisations
NSPCC Speak out Stay safe
During our recent Staying Safe themed week, all pupils took part in the NSPCC Speak out Stay safe learning featuring Ant and Dec and Buddy.
We are proud to receive our certificate to recognise this.
Topic- computing
Our topic this half term is all about computing.
We’ve starting with ‘offline computing’ – learning all about algorithms.
We are going to be playing, and making, lots of online and offline games. As this is a computing topic, we’ll be using a range of technology including Blue-Bots and iPads.
Here is a lost of some of the vocabulary that will be taught in the coming weeks.
Big Walk and Wheel
Get set… we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2022 (the new name for Big Pedal), the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 21 March to 1 April. It’s free and we would love everyone to be involved.
What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event. Park and stride (parking your car further away from school, for example, Marks and Spencer car park and walking, scooting or biking the final part of the journey) also counts.
Why we are taking part
As a happy and healthy school, Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a great way to build physical activity in children’s daily routine which is important for their physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school runs also help to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate. A 2021 YouGov study showed nearly half of UK children worry about air pollution near their school. Children thought active travel was the best away to bring down these pollution levels.
Plus there are some great prizes to be won every day if we get enough children taking part!
Useful resources
To help you prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide packed with advice, games and challenges to help you have hassle-free cycle, walk or scoot to school.
Download your free family guide here.
