School Savings Club paying in dates
Please note a change of day for the remaining School Savings Club paying in dates.
If your child has a School Savings Club account, we hold paying in sessions on the penultimate week of every half term.
Thursday 18 October 2018 3.15-3.45pm
Thursday 13 December 2018 3.15-3.45pm
Thursday 07 February 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 20 March 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 15 May 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 10 July 2019 3.15-3.45pm
If you are unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be paid in, to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Mrs Tiffany.
If you would like your child to open an account, please enquire at the office. Pupils in Year 3 can still take advantage of the £10 incentive offer.
More adventures for Katie
Throughout our big topic, Katie and…, we’ve been reading many different ‘Katie’ books and finding out about her adventures when she visits art galleries with her grandma.
This time, it is our turn to create an adventure for Katie and we are basing it on one of our favourite Katie books, Katie and the dinosaurs.
Before we write our story, we’ve been focusing on using lots of description just like James Mayhew did.
We used drama to help generate our ideas to describe dinosaur world. Ask your child to tell you some of the adjectives we have used and what noun they are describing.
We’re looking forward to planning the rest of the story this week.
Vertices? Edges? Faces?
As part of our maths learning about shape, we’ve been investigating the properties of 3D shapes to help us to sort shapes. This could include the number of faces; number of vertices; number of edges; name of the shapes; curved or straight faces or shapes of the faces.
Here are some of the ways we sorted the shapes. Ask your child if they can you think of a 3D shape that is not in the groups and say where it would go. Can they explain why?
Living and Learning – body image guide for parents and carers
Our focus in Living and Learning, for the rest of this half term, is body image.
What is body image?
Body image describes our idea of how our body looks and how we think it is perceived by others. This can include our thoughts and feelings about our height, weight, shape, skin colour, and our appearance and attractiveness more broadly.
This parent and carer guide has been designed to give practical ideas to support your child in building their emotional resilience in this area.
Why is travelling actively to school important?
Sustrans have recently published this article about the importance of travelling actively to school.
With just two weeks to go, Sustrans Big Pedal, is one way we will be encouraging active journeys this term alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Sustrans Big Pedal is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved. For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting.
This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
You might also be interested in a current bike promotion from our local Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative branch.
Vertices? Sides? Lines of symmetry?
As part of our current maths learning on shape, we have been looking at the properties of 2D shapes to help us to sort shapes. This could include the number of sides; number of vertices; name of the shapes; lines of symmetry; curved or straight lines or regular and not regular.
Here are some of the ways we sorted the shapes. Can you think of how to describe each of the groups?
Leeds Art Gallery
Year 1 and 2 have enjoyed an art filled day at the Leeds Art Gallery to link with our current big topic, Katie and… There were no stepping in paintings for us today though.
First of all, we took part in a workshop session based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings which are currently being exhibited in the gallery.
We thought about the following.
- What could we see?
- How did it make us feel?
- What made Leonardo a great artist?
Based on his drawings, here were some of the reasons why we thought Leonardo was a great artist. Then, each group had a challenge to find another piece of art in the gallery that showed the same property.
We presented our findings to the rest of the class.
We enjoyed our lunch in the art studio.
After lunch, it was time to explore the galleries and sketch our own versions of some of the art on display.
Finally, it was time to leave the gallery to return to school. We wondered which paintings Katie would have stepped into and which bench Grandma would have taken a rest.
‘I learnt about Leonardo’s life.’
‘We saw that Leonardo da Vinci drew lots of horses and parts of the body.’
‘I learnt how old the pictures and sculptures were.’
‘I know there are lots of different types of art.’
‘I used to think that painting was easy but now I know the artists have to try really hard.’
‘I was amazed by the size of some of the paintings.’
Active travel update
Here’s an update on our latest active travel initiatives for this half term.
Living Streets WOW Travel Tracker
Meltem from Living Streets visited school for an assembly today to launch a new challenge for our WOW active travel tracker.
Currently, children record how they get to school on the WOW daily online travel tracker and those who complete at least one active journey per week to school (bike, scoot, walk or park and stride) are rewarded with a themed monthly badge.
As this has been a big success, with increased active journeys and less journeys by car, from March, we will be challenging children to make at least three active journeys per week to earn their monthly badge.
There were some queries that were raised at the assembly.
Can your three active journeys be different?
Yes – active journeys include walking, biking, scooting and park and stride so as long as your journeys are any of these three in a week you would qualify for a badge.
What can be included as park and stride?
Ideally park and stride is where you park away from school and walk the final 5-10 minutes to school. This ensures that areas close to school are free from traffic. Marks and Spencer has many spaces available for families to park and walk the final part of the journey to school.
Sustrans Big Pedal 2019
Get set… the Big Pedal is back! We’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2019, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved. For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting.
This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
On each day, schools compete to see who can get as many of their pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school then our results will determine our final position in the national league table.
If you need the car to bring your child to school, perhaps you could park and stride the last part (our suggested park and stride site is Marks and Spencer car park).
The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Why we’re taking part
It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school in an active way. Also, schools will be entered into a daily prize draw for rewards including equipment and accessories if over 15% of our school community cycle, walk or scoot on that day of the challenge.
What do you need to do?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle, scoot, walk or park and stride to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.
Living and Learning: Drug education
Drug education forms part of our Living and Learning long term plan and in Year 2 this focuses on the safe use of medicines.
Firstly, we considered why medicines are taken.
The purpose of medicines is to help people stay healthy, get well or feel better if they are ill.
The children were keen to talk about the different types of medicines and that each medicine has specific use. The different types we discussed included sprays, gels, creams, tablets, liquid medicine, injections and inhalers. When might you use these medicines?
Secondly, we thought about where medicines come from.
Medicines can be prescribed by a doctor or bought from a shop or pharmacy.
Who would decide which medicine to use?
Sometimes there are alternatives to taking medicines if someone is not very poorly, such as having a cuddle; sitting or lying quietly; having a drink of water or something to eat.
Finally, in our learning we talked about keeping ourselves safe around medicines. We came up with some general safety rules.
- Never take medicines that are not meant for you.
- Take the right amount – do not take too much or guess the amount
- Store medicines away from children
- Always read the instructions carefully before taking medicines
- Use the correct medicine for the illness
‘Do not get your own medicine.’ Isla
‘Only have medicines from adults that you trust.’ Rizwan
‘Medicine is good for you only if you need it and a grown up gives you it.’ Jack
‘You are not allowed to give yourself medicine.’ Noah G
‘You should only have medicine if you are poorly.’ Junior
‘Do not play with any kind of medicine.’ Iris
We also tested our knowledge by checking some scenarios.
Living and Learning: Being me
- I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze). Get your child to demonstrate the ‘vampire’ method to family members at home.
- I can say something good about myself. It’s important that your child can confidently talk about themselves in a positive way.
- I pay and receive compliments in a sensible way. Try paying compliments each day to each other! Some children struggle to hear positive words about themselves, but this is important for self-esteem. Try paying (and listening) to praise and compliments.
- I recognise my talents. Talk to your child about talents, whether academic, physical, social or emotional. Some of us may have a natural talent, but most have talents that derive from lots of practice.
- I know the difference between being proud and showing off. We encourage compliments to be paid – but encourage your children to know the balance between being having self-esteem and showing off.
