Living and learning: online safety assembly
This week, Louise from West Yorkshire Police came to deliver a whole school assembly all about staying safe online.
There were lots of clear online safety messages around content, contact and conduct.
At the end of the assembly, the children reflected on what they were going to do after hearing Louise’s messages.
I am going to ask my adult to take off the chat on my Roblox settings.
I am not going to accept friend requests from people I don’t know.
I am not going to play games that have a age rating older than me as they won’t be appropriate for me.
Help at home: ask your child how content, conduct and contact are linked to online safety.
Writing: Flooded
Year 2 have thoroughly enjoyed reading a beautifully illustrated book called ‘Flooded‘ by Mariajo Ilustrajo. We surmised that the book had two key themes: the flood and teamwork. We used our reading skills to summarise, sequence and infer from the story. This week, we have started using our writing skills to retell and orally compose the story along with story mapping to aid us with our own story writing.
Help at home by retelling the story and talking about the main themes in the story. If you could change where the story was set, where would you choose?
Topic: Our locality – Fieldwork
Over the past few weeks we have been studying out locality – Moortown. On Friday, we went to visit our local area. We plotted our route on a map and visited five different locations around school. During our fieldwork, we assessed each location against different criteria.
The children stayed safe by listening to all the instructions, walking sensibly with their partner and wearing high-vis vests to be visible.
Help at home by discussing our local area. Are there any areas for improvement in Moortown?
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
This year, our Junior Leadership Team democratically selected Yorkshire Air Ambulance as our new school charity to support.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a lifesaving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across the whole of Yorkshire. Money raised keeps both of their air ambulance helicopters maintained and in the air.
This week, we welcomed representatives from Yorkshire Air Ambulance for an assembly to hear first hand about the excellent work they do and how our donations will help the charity.
Did you know it costs £21,000 per day to keep the Yorkshire Air Ambulance running.
It’s great to hear the children have already got ideas of how we can raise money for YAA. They are encouraged to put these ideas into our class Living and learning boxes for the Junior Leadership Team to consider.
Living and Learning: Being safe
Being safe is a key part of our Living and Learning curriculum.
We took part in the NSPCC Speak out Stay Safe online assembly.
During the assembly, we heard about Sam and some things that were upsetting Sam.
Thankfully, Sam told a teacher about her worries. We thought about which grown-ups would be good to talk to in school and out of school (start telling other people). Brothers, sisters and friends would also be good to talk to and discuss feelings but telling a grown-up (over 18) would be the best thing to do to get help.
Our Living and Learning box, in the classroom, is another way the children can speak out and write down any worries.
We also heard about Childline – ask your child to show you the way to remember the number.
To follow up this learning, we welcomed staff from NSPCC to deliver a Speak out stay safe workshop. They were very impressed with the children’s learning and understanding.
Help at home: Buddy Zone, on the Childline website, has some games and activities for the children to do.
Maths: TTRS
This week, we have talked through how the children can access and use Times Tables Rock Stars. Login details are the same as for Numbots.
In Year 2, the children learn the two, five and ten times tables and these are the tables that have been assigned to the children. There will be division questions related to those times tables too.
Soundcheck is used in Key Stage 2 to check all the times table facts up to x12 so this isn’t recommended in Year 2 as the children haven’t learned these other times tables yet.
We encourage the children to continue to use Numbots too to help to secure their addition and subtraction number facts.
Another resource to support times tables and other number facts is Hit the Button. This is a great, fast-paced game and children can choose which times tables or number facts to work on during each game. This game is free to play online.
If you have any further questions regarding the resources mentioned, do not hesitate to contact us.
Active travel and safety around the school gate
Spring term after-school clubs
We’ve had a great first week to our after-school clubs. There are some places available on the following clubs if your child would like to join. Please refer to the letter below to show the relevant year groups.
Exploring habitats at Lotherton Hall!
Today, Year two had a fantastic trip to Lotherton Hall to learn about animals and their habitats. Guided by the educational specialists, we explored different habitats and the animals that call them home.
We compared the skulls of a herbivore and a carnivore, noticing how their teeth are perfectly suited to their diets. The children were fascinated to learn that penguins have sharp tongues to help them grip slippery fish!
Help at Home by:
- Explore your garden or local park and talk about the animals and their habitats.
- Read books about animals and how they survive in the wild.
- Watch nature documentaries together
Living and Learning: drug education
In our latest Living and Learning lessons, we’ve been learning about safety around medicines and household products.
We considered:
What are medicines?
What do they look like?
How are they used?
Why do people use them?
The children had lots to share about their experiences of taking different medicines and what they are used for.
Using different scenarios, we thought about what would be the best things to help. Sometimes a hug, some water, rest, a tissue or sleep can be enough to help someone feel better and medicine might not be needed.
One of the class talked about their inhaler medication – what it is used for and how they use it.
Then, we considered safety rules at home and how to keep themselves and others safe.
We sorted the following safety rules depending on whether they were true or false or if it depends on the situation.
We shouldn’t take someone else’s medicine. It is just for them.
Medicine should only be given by adults.
These might be tablets so they shouldn’t touch them.
They should tell an adult they have found them.
Help at home: please reinforce this key safety message at home. Make sure your child is aware of possible dangers at home, such as medicines and household products, and how to seek help if they need it.