Sensory Needs in Leeds
As part of our themed week (Who Do You Think You Are?), we’ve been thinking about identity, diversity and community. To help us understand different people in our community, we were joined by two people who work closely with deaf people in Leeds. (Incidentally, Leeds has a high number of people who suffer from hearing disorders compared with other parts of the country.)
They taught us about why some people are deaf and helped us to understand the impact this can have on their lives. Perhaps the most fun part of the workshop was when we were taught some sign language. We learnt how to say the alphabet, how to ask someone their name, how to say ‘My name is_____’, how to ask how someone is and how to say ‘3,2,1 stop!’.
Ask your child if they can remember how to say their own name – they could even teach you how to say yours!
Dove Self-esteem Workshop
On Monday, we were joined by some people from the Dove Skincare Company. They came in to talk to us about self-esteem.
We started by watching this video. It highlighted to us that what we see in the media is often unrealistic, over-edited and an inaccurate representation of everyday life.
In groups, we discussed how this video made us feel: ‘upset’, ‘let-down’ and ‘disappointed’ were just a few common responses. We concluded that beauty is not what you see on the outside but what makes us who were are on the inside. At the end of the session, we made a pledge to ourselves to stay self-confident over the coming years.
Takeover Day Madness!
On Friday, the teachers weren’t feeling too good so let the children take over for the day! In Year 5, Mr Catherall didn’t really do anything all day because each member of the class had a job to do. It was great fun to take over the classroom and everyone did a great job – there were plenty of laughs throughout the day, too!
Anti-bullying drama!
Last week, in our living and learning session, we thought about Anti-bullying Week. We looked over our definition of bullying and discussed what we could do if we saw bullying happen. We then discussed the impact that being bullied could have on a person.
To conclude our learning, we acted out some short scenarios in groups. Each scenario showed an incident that could be deemed as bullying – we discussed each one as a class.
Anti-Bullying Dance Workshop
Written by Grace and Noorpreet…
The dance workshop, for anti-bullying week, was great fun because we got to dance to songs. Each song was written by an artist who experienced bullying when they were younger. Our song was by Little Mix (Salute), encouraging us to stand up for ourselves. Near the end of the day, we got to share all of our dances, as did the the rest of KS2, and showed it to the rest of the school.
Homework Review
Written by Lori and Nicky…
First, we went looking around at each other’s homework, which was excellent of course. After that, we watched Danny’s presentation. Then, we threw the bean bag around to see which one people liked the most.
Here’s a few examples of our favourite responses:
Mindfull or mindful?
Would you like to find out more about mindfulness and how it can be used to support your child at home?
As part of our whole school themed week next week, all children will be taking part in mindfulness workshops. There’ll also be a parent/carer session on Monday 20 November at 2:30-3:15pm.
Please contact the office if you would like to attend.
Super Vocabulary
In our writing lessons this week, we’ve been using our topic learning as a stimulus for our writing. We continued reading ‘The Land of Neverbelieve‘ but this time we focussed on the language used and the impact this has on the reader. We used our reading skills to work out what some of the trickier words might mean (learning about writer’s use of language) and then thought about how this impacts on the atmosphere/mood created (learning about atmosphere/mood).
Today, we looked at one page in detail…
…and thought about which different moods/atmospheres had been created by sorting each section into groups.
Tomorrow, we’ll create our own labels in the style of the author to add to our own made-up ‘Lands of Neverbelieve’ (learning about organising and combining visual and tactile elements).
Christmas school dinner themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 07 December. Please contact the office, before Monday 20 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
Who do you think you are? themed week 20 November
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 20 November, which also coincides with national Road Safety Week. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
Events during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging, self-esteem and mindfulness, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion, disability and gender. Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations such as St Gemma’s, local care homes, Moortown Community Group and taking pride in the local community by litter picking.
Road Safety Week will run alongside our themed week where children are encouraged to take a walk/scoot/bike in the community on their way to and from school, maybe even picking up a piece of litter on the way. If your child walks, scoots or bikes, they should complete the slip at the bottom of the letter sent home (spare tokens are available in class), each day, for a chance to win a £10 shopping voucher for each class. We hope you will support this initiative in helping children make a healthy start to their day and also helping towards reducing congestion at our gates. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
During the themed week, children will be researching local, national and international charities and a new school charity will be chosen at the end of the week to replace our current charities, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Mind Leeds.
Friday 24 November will be a non-uniform identity day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. We invite a donation for the PTA Christmas fair.
Who do you think we are?
Do you think you’d recognise some of our staff in their early years? This photo competition is back and will run throughout the week with details to follow separately. Proceeds will be given to our new school charity.
Community coffee morning Wednesday 22 November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA, our governing body, Moortown Community Group and Friends of Moortown Park. I will also be available to speak to parents about our new Living and Learning scheme of work. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 10am in the main playground.
Mindfulness information session for parents
Please see the separate letter to sign up for this parent workshop on Monday 20 November, 2:30pm-3:15pm.
Can you help?
Pupil feedback from our previous Who do you think you are? themed week was to ‘learn more languages that other people speak.’ Do you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this? If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard with lots of information about the themed week too. It’s going to be a busy week!