KS2 Cross Country event
This weekend is the final Saturday cross country race of the season. Please sign up online or inform the office ideally by tomorrow Thursday 29 February if your child would like to take part.
LSAA Cross Country race Saturday 2nd March Woodhouse Grove school, Apperley Bridge, BD10 0NR
We are pleased to invite KS2 children to compete in an upcoming cross country race as part of the Leeds Schools Athletics Association cross country programme of Saturday morning races. Children will compete against pupils from other Leeds schools.
The race will take place on Saturday 2nd March Woodhouse Grove school, Apperley Bridge, BD10 0NR.
This race is an afternoon race at 1pm. Limited parking is available so please car share where possible.
Please note, parents/carers are responsible for taking and supervising their child/children at the event. There will be a parent representative at the event.
There are opportunities for Year 3 and 4 girls and boys (under 9) to race 900m and Year 5 and 6 girls and boys (under 11) to race 1500m. Once your child has completed their race, you are free to leave the event.
We look forward to pupils representing our school at this event.
Big Walk and Wheel
We are taking part in the 15th year celebration of Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 11-22 March 2024. It’s free to take part and we would love everyone to be involved.
Last year, in our category of small primary schools, we finished in 24th place out of 514 schools with an average of 91.14% of our journeys to school being active. We achieved the highest national (24th) and Northern England (5th) ranking out of those schools in Leeds taking part.
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 can also be included if you park at Marks and Spencer or further away from school and walk/scoot or bike the final part.
Why we are taking part
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 journeys 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. And that 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 to walking, cycling or scooting to school. It is packed with advice to help you have hassle-free journey to school.
Download your free family guide using this link: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/sign-up-to-receive-your-free-school-run-guide/
For more information about the event go to www.bigwalkandwheel.org.uk . Enjoy the challenge!
Cross country star
Congratulations to our Year 3 runner who represented Leeds today in the West Yorkshire cross country final. Competing against pupils from Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Leeds, he ran a fantastic race at Temple Newsam and should feel very proud of achieving a top 15 finish.
Living and learning: being safe
Being safe is a key part of our Living and Learning curriculum which includes a Staying Safe themed week coming up in July.
There are lots of different situations in our lives where we need to make safe choices. Some examples include staying safe online, road safety and water safety.
We have been thinking about what is a ‘safe risk’. For example, putting your hand up in class to answer a question even if you are unsure of the answer is a safe-risk. Jumping off a cliff is not!
We also thought about which grown-ups would be good to talk to in school and out of school (start telling other people) if we ever feel unsafe. 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.
Help at home: by asking your child what a ‘safe-risk’ is.
Yorkshire Museum
Last Friday, Year 3 and 4 visited York to go to the Yorkshire Museum and to see the flood defences.
Yorkshire Museum had exhibitions that were perfect for us to link to our History learning about the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
Here’s some pictures of us exploring and learning about the artefacts!
We also walked down to the river Ouse to look at York’s flood defences. York After periods of heavy rainfall, York floods so there are flood defences around the river to keep the houses and buildings safe. We’ll be learning about this in our Geography topic after Easter.
A wonderful day had by all!
Help at home by asking your child one new fact that they learnt while at the museum!
Living and learning: I know what a drug is.
In Living and Learning, Year 4 have learnt about what a drug is and how to handle medicine and other household products safely.
We know that drugs are substances that have an effect on our mind or body.
We had a visit from D-Side Dave who taught us about alcohol. We spoke about how to identify if something has alcohol in it and why is it important that children do not consume alcohol until the legal age.
We learnt about how alcohol is measured and discussed why adults might choose to drink it.
We ended our lesson by trying on a pair of glasses that made us feel like we had drunk alcohol. It was funny to see how Year 4 reacted but provided us with a clear take home message, too.
James and the Giant Peach
Last week, we were reading at an extract from James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.
We practised the skill of inference through ‘hot-seating’.
Hot-seating is where one child becomes a character and then the rest of the class asks the person questions about their behaviour, background, motivations or feelings.
The child then has to answer the questions in character!
Help at home by hot-seating with your child when reading their guided reading book!
We are historians!
This half term in topic, we are historians.
In history, we are learning about the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
This is our vocabulary for this topic:
| chronology | arrangement of events or dates in time order |
| empire | a large group of countries or states ruled by an emperor |
| invasion | when a country or region is invaded by an armed force |
| tax | a payment you must make to a ruler or government |
| to resist | to stand up to or fight back against something |
| innovation | an improvement or replacement for something |
| bias | a viewpoint that may be based more on opinion than fact |
| kingdom | an area of land ruled by a monarch (a king or queen) |
Before we learn about how the Romans came to invade Britain and how the Anglo-Saxons lived after the Romans had left, we needed to learn about what the timeline of British history looks like.
A timeline shows us the chronological order of events.
We have learnt that before the Romans invaded, Britain was living in the Iron Age. The people who lived at this time were called Celts.
The Celts:
- lived in tribes
- were farmers
- lived in wooden, thatched huts
- had no rulers but did have chiefs
- made tools and weapons out of bronze and iron
After the Romans invaded, who had power in Britain changed. During the Iron Age, there were lots of tribes each with their own chief. However, in Roman Britain, there was one emperor who was in charge of the whole Roman Empire.
Help at home by asking how power changed from Iron Age Britain to Roman Britain.
Spring term after-school clubs
*UPDATE*
We do have the following availability for clubs should your child wish to sign up.
The after-school clubs for this term are available for booking. We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund
This week, Lauren from Children’s Heart Surgery Fund came to visit.
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund is our new school charity, voted for by the Junior Leadership Team, and we learnt all about their work and how our donations will support the charity over the next year.
Here are some of our Junior Leaders with Lauren.
