Merry Christmas to all…
Latest competitions
We’ve had a busy end to the term with two recent competitions.
Firstly, our Year 5 and 6 cross country teams braved the elements in traditional cross country weather to take part in the Leeds North East competition at Cardinal Heenan. Despite the conditions, all the children were keen to compete and a special well done to Gloria, finishing 14th in her race.
Back indoors was the second round of the Sports Hall Athletics competition at Roundhay School. Unfortunately we didn’t progress to the next round but the children never gave up and there were lots of cheering and encouragement to support the team. Well done to all children who took part. They’ve learnt lots of new track and field events in the process.
We certainly looked the part with our new school polo shirts and hooded tops purchased by the PTA.
Getting green-fingered
On Friday, Year 5 braved the cold and headed out onto the field behind school. We helped dig up oak tree saplings to be planted elsewhere and kept a few ourselves to plant when we’ve get our own green space.
Bedtime reading
We like these top tips to promote bedtime reading from Book Trust.
Although these are specifically for children who are starting to read by themselves, there are plenty of tips to support children of all ages.
(The Book Trust’s advent calendar is brilliant, too!)
Students become teachers
I was able to put my feet up earlier this week as the children became the experts. First, we recognised what aspects of our learning we were stronger and weaker at. We then practised how to teach somebody else something we were confident with. Finally, we paired up and had a go at teaching.
Both student and teacher were positive about this approach and asked if we could do it more often.
8Rs for learning
Resilience, resourcefulness, readiness, responsibility, risk-taking, responsiveness, remembering and …reflection.
This week we complete our 8Rs SEAL theme. Children will have the opportunity to not only reflect on their learning in general but also reflect on how the 8Rs supports their learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about how they learnt, why they learnt it, when they’ll use their learning, how they would teach this to someone else, what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today…
Can your child remember the 8Rs and the associated animal?
The run up to Christmas
There are two weeks left before we all disappear for the festive season. It’ll be busy, as usual, in Y5. What will we be up to?
Topic – We’re starting to round off the learning we’ve enjoyed about space through Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS (International Space Station). To celebrate what a fantastic topic this has been, we’ll be collating all of our knowledge to take on a D&T/Science project to create our own rocket for launch. We’re still using Makewaves to showcase our learning.
English – Our noses are in newspapers at the moment. We’ve explored reports of the moon landings from 1969 and we’ll be coming back to the present next week to report on Tim’s upcoming mission. For the final week, we’ll get our creative juices flowing again and see if we can write for a given audience. The aim will be to create a Christmas story book to be read to the children in Reception and Year 1.
Maths – Dig out your protractors next week as we start learning how to measure angles. We’ll recap the names of different angles before learning how to measure them and then explore angles in shapes.
I can make healthy choices
We had lots of brilliant, interactive pieces of homework this week. During our homework review, it was great fun not only looking at what we had all done, but playing the different games and challenges that had been set.
There were all sorts of different challenges: word searches, pairs game, top trumps, voting slips and much more.
Braces, fillings and other teeth queries
This afternoon, Dr Natwer Tibrewal, a local dentist from Corner House Dental Practice, visited us to answer lots of dental related questions alongside discussing the importance of dental health.
- ‘What are fillings made from?’
- ‘How do you brush you teeth with braces in?’
- ‘Why does the dentist call out letters and numbers when you go for a check up?’
It was interesting to see how aspects of health are linked to the world of work.
One of your 5 a day for free
Our weekly fruit tuck shop runs on a Tuesday playtime. It’s for Key Stage 2 children, with a charge of 20p per portion and a pre-payment option available.
Today, as part of health week, all children, including Reception and Key Stage 1, were invited to an extra tuck shop free of charge. This gave children who might not normally come to the tuck shop the chance to try it out.
It was great to see everyone enjoying a fruit-filled playtime.
