Free bike check Wednesday 06 February
Living and Learning: Staying Safe information
A variety of safety related information will be sent home during this themed week. Have a look through the information with your child to support and reinforce this learning at home.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe week begins
Our Staying Safe themed week started today with a launch assembly by Leeds City Council’s road safety team. This included some key active travel and safety messages.
The trainers worked with a number of classes throughout the day.
- Year 3 pedestrian training
- Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 scooter training
- Year 6 Speed Indication Device – checking vehicle speeds in the 20mph zone on Shadwell Lane
Another visitor, Richard from One Day Creative, has worked with three classes today to deliver e-safety themed drama workshops. Other classes will take part in this learning tomorrow.
Ask your child what they have learnt so far based on our four main objectives for the week:
- Staying safe online
- Staying safe at home
- Staying safe at school
- Staying safe in the environment
Thank you to those parents and carers who attended the e-safety session at the end of the day. We hope you found it useful to learn more about your child’s e-safety learning. To help with practical support with devices at home, O2 in partnership with NSPCC offer a free service over the phone, 0808 800 5002, or in one of their stores.
Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day so there will be lots of in class learning on this subject. Have a look at our e-safety end of year expectations for your child’s year group.
Natural Disasters – Flooding
On Thursday, Year 4 had a visit from Mr Pearson who leads a flood risk management team across the UK, protecting communities from this natural disaster. This visit fits in well with our current topic. During this workshop, the children asked some great questions and learnt lots of new facts.
Mr Pearson spoke to the children about his role and how this links to STEM.
STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating children in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Noah stated: “I really want to be an engineer.”
Year 4 learnt that computer models are used to identify areas that are at risk of flooding. When an area has been predicted to flood, there is only a two day window in which to put measures in place. The children studied graphs and diagrams showing water levels at different times of a day. What are the consequences of flooding?
“People could die,” commented Sami.
“Houses collapse,” said Jemima.
“People can get trapped in cars,” mentioned Musa.
Mr Pearson spoke about the places most at risk of flooding. Places such as Hull are very flat and prone to floods. We discussed the need for effective teamwork in these disastrous situations.
“How long does it take for flood water to go down?” asked Daisy.
“How does a flash flood happen?” questioned Kashif.
What is being done to prevent flooding in high risk areas?
Year 4 found out about different types of flood defences being used to minimise devastation. The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to restore the river’s flow towards the sea. 
Ask your child if they can remember the meaning of the word ‘recede.‘
There was some super learning during this session.
Well done Year 4 and thank you Mr Pearson!
Volcanos
On Tuesday, Year 3 and 4 made volcanos!
We started our day by learning about a crutial skill we would need to succeed at making volcanos: teamwork.
First of all, we talked about what bad teamwork looks and sounds like. Then we compared it with examples of good teamwork.
Edris and Evie– “Bad teamwork is if you were writing a story, and not sharing resources or ideas . Good teamwork would be working together and sharing ideas taking turns.”
Sukhmani & Madison – “Bad teamwork is when you don’t work together but good teamwork is even when you’re not friends you can still work together.”
Harman and Ashton – “If we were fighting over resources we wouldn’t be working as a team. Instead, we could share.”
We talked about different jobs where teamwork is really important: footballers, doctors, professional dancers, the Royal Air Force and firefighters.
We then worked in our teams to put the instructions, on how to make a volcano, back together.
Have a look at some of the pictures from our volcano making, below.
Have a look at the finished results:
Well done Year 3 and Year 4 – you’ve really impressed us with your teamwork and communication skills!
Living and Learning – Homework Review
Last week, the whole school had the same Talk Time homework:
What is a drug?
This homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement, is a first step in children becoming aware of drugs. During our homework review today, the children each shared some of the conversations they had had at home. Year 4 showed great maturity and a good awareness about drugs that are helpful and those that are harmful.
Below are some of the question prompts that we gave to the children to help shape their discussions…
What is a good definition for a drug? “A drug can be good for you but some can be bad for you.”
Are all drugs bad? “We need some drugs to help us when we are ill. These can be dangerous if they aren’t taken correctly.”
A poem by Phoebe
What is a drug?
Drugs can be helpful
Drugs can be bad
Some make you happy
Some make you sad
Everyday drugs
That we can see
Caffeine in morning coffee
And afternoon tea
Beer, wine
And spirits too
Can make people laugh
Or be sick in the loo
Medicines
Are all drugs
That doctors prescribe
For illness and bugs
Drugs can be helpful
Drugs can be bad
Some make you happy
Some make you sad.
Following our homework review, Year 4 went on to discuss the risks of drinking alcohol. Using a ‘ Where alcohol goes in your body‘ diagram, we talked about some of the effects alcohol can have on the body.
Once swallowed, alcohol enters the stomach. The alcohol is absorbed into the small intestine and the bloodstream through the stomach walls. The blood vessels carry the alcohol to almost every organ in the body including the heart, lungs, liver and brain.
The children asked lots of questions to each other.
“What other dangers are there to your health?’
“It can damage your brain.”
“Why do people chose to drink alcohol?”
“Because it can make people feel relaxed.”
The children learnt how alcohol can affect the body and they could explain why drinking alcohol may pose a greater or lesser risk, depending on the individual and the amount of alcohol consumed.
Living and Learning: Parent/carer workshops Staying Safe themed week
Thank you to all the parents/carers who have signed up to the workshops on offer next week during our Staying Safe themed week.
There are a few places left if you would like to come along.
Benchball
Some of our KS2 children took part in a come and try benchball event at Roundhay School tonight.
Competing against other local schools, they showed great teamwork and PE skills.
Benchball uses a lot of the same skills as netball and we hope that some of the players come and join the netball after-school club on a Monday – we have a few places left!
Living Streets new badge design competition
We are proud to work with Living Streets to support our aim for active and safe travel to and from school.
WOW is Living Streets’ year-round walk to school challenge and every day our pupils log their daily journeys to school on the WOW Travel Tracker. Those that make an active (walk, bike, scoot or park and stride) journey to school at least once a week for a month earn a WOW badge. There are 11 to collect across the year all of which have been designed by pupils in their annual badge design competition.
Living Streets are now asking for our pupil’s help to design a new badge. Details will be sent home shortly but take a look for some more information. Return your badge designs to your class teacher or the office.
Fantastic Fireworks
Year 4 have been introduced to their new class novel.
Plot summary
A young girl called Lila wants to become a firework-maker, like her father Lalchand. Despite her talents, Lalchand believes this is an unsuitable job for girls. Lila disagrees, and journeys to get Royal Sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend at Mount Merapi, as all aspirant firework-makers must do.
We discussed who’s read the book already, who’s read any other Philip Pullman stories and if anyone has seen The Golden Compass (a film based on one of Philip Pullman books).
Having read the beginning of the story, we examined how Philip Pullman chose to open the adventure. The children went on to think whether they could name any other stories that have similar openings.
Year 4 discussed the writer’s choice of vocabulary for the fireworks and the effective this has on the reader. In English, we looked at some of the names that Philip Pullman gave to the fireworks. Names like `Leaping Monkeys’, `Crackle-Dragons’ and `Tumbling Demons’.
Then, using a verb and a noun, we invented our own firework names and created an ingredients list. This was really exciting -we loved it! Take a look at some of our fireworks.
To add to this learning, the children used coloured chalks to sketch their explosive inventions.
