Me and My Communities Week
To start off the week, Year 6 looked at the Moortown Primary School Community. We discussed what our logo looks like and why there are three different coloured children interlinked together. Our idea was that the logo represents children coming together, no matter their race or religion, working together and being friends to make the school a happy and healthy place.
The children also went to visit St Gemma’s Hospice. Whilst there, the children were given a tour and were told about St Gemma’s Hospice’s purpose. Year 6 learnt about how they help their patients.
In the afternoon, we talked about respect and self-respect. Then, they went on to describe what makes them unique and created a poster of all the things they were good at, their favourite things and what communities they are part of.
On Tuesday, we had a workshop about self esteem. The children discussed how it makes us feel when we compare ourselves to others; they said it would make someone feel unworthy, sad, upset and maybe even frustrated. Year 6 talked about how if we all looked the same it would be a boring world so we should celebrate out differences.
On Wednesday, we started the day with a zoom British values.
Our fluency text in Reading this week has been about one of the British values: respect.
Year 6 then had a visit from RNIB (The Royal National Institute of Blind People). The taught us lots of new information about blind or partially sighted people. Did you know only 7% of blind people can see absolutely nothing whereas the other 93% can still see something (light, shapes, colours etc.)? Chloe – a volunteer – talked about her experience her with sight too.
Help at home: Get your child to tell you the different ways you can help blind or partially sighted people.
We ended the day with a zoom about protected characteristics. We identified 9 and were able to name them all: Disability, Race, Sex, Gender reassignment, Religion or beliefs, Age, Marriage or civil partnership, Pregnancy and/or maternity leave and Sexual orientation.
On Thursday, we learnt about stereotypes and how to challenge them.
‘ I can challenge stereotypes by saying that it is not right to the person saying it.’
‘Discrimination was meant to be mean. Don’t join it, ignore it!’
‘Just be yourself.’
‘You can’t stop me from having fun.’
Help at home: How would you respond to these comments to challenge their stereotypes?
We also recapped our knowledge about the key facts about each of the 6 major religions. We talked about the religious communities that some children in our school might be part of.
Help at home: Discuss with your child all the different communities they are part of and what would the world be like if there were no communities?
Saturday morning cross country races
The Leeds Schools Sports Association Saturday morning KS2 cross country races will start next month at Cardinal Heenan.
These races are competitive and the distances are approximately 900m for Year 3 and 4 and approximately 1500m for Year 5 and 6. Races start at 10am.
There are four races across the year.
Race 1 7th November – Cardinal Heenan
Race 2 28th November – The Clearings (Middleton)
Race 3 27th February – Woodhouse Grove
Race 4 13th March – Prince Henry’s Grammar School
You can sign up via Arbor and you don’t need to enter all four races. Due to a new registration system, only register your child if you are sure you can attend.
Reading: Retrieval
In Reading this week, our focus text is ‘The Hobbit’ by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
The Hobbit is a classic story of Bilbo Baggins – a home-loving hobbit who enjoys a quiet and contented life in his cosy hobbit hole and has no desire to travel afar. But then the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services, and soon Bilbo finds himself part of an extraordinary expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the Dragon – and on the way becomes the possessor of a very unusual ring.
Food Technology: Mushroom and Chickpea Curry
Last week, Year 6 made a mushroom and chickpea curry as part of their food technology learning.
They had to chop onions, measure spices, crush garlic and stir the mixture in order to make the curry. They knew how to stay safe and used cutting techniques like the bridge grip.
Once it was finished, they were able to taste what they had made accompanied with some naan bread. Most loved the taste with many children asking for more!
Help at home: Use the recipe we have sent home. Is there something they would change?
Half term football opportunity
Here’s a new football venture starting locally during half term.
Living & Learning: Me and my community week 2 November
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 2nd November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year. In our ‘Me and My Community’ week, children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities.
Active travel in the community
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will be keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then travel the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter.
Email us ([email protected]) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of three vouchers. Entries to be submitted by 4pm on Thursday 5th November.
New school charity
At the end of the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist and the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they would like our school to support, replacing our current charity, Martin House Hospice.
Identity day
Friday 6th 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. There is no donation or contribution required for this day.
SAVE THE DATE PTA coffee morning Friday 6th November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome all parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 9:50am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this or you would like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Reading Records
At Moortown, reading records help us to celebrate our love for reading. As a reminder, here is the key information you and your child need to know:
- Each time one of the children signs out a new book to read from the library, they can make note of these in their reading record and rate them out of 5 stars.
- Every Friday, I chose an activity for the whole class to complete in their reading record. More information on these activities is found inside the record.
- The children bring in these reading records every Friday for our Book Club lesson where we’ll discuss their books and develop their love of reading.
- Please accompany your child’s weekly activity with a short comment sharing with us the reading your child has been doing at home.
Take a look at some fabulous activities Year 6 have completed so far:
Help at home: Read with your child every day.
Science: We are biologists.
In our current unit of science – Living things and their habitats – Year 6 have been learning to classify organisms by their observable characteristics. An organism is a living thing (animals, plants and microorganisms).
This week, Year 6 have been learning about Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist that changed the way people classify living things. He introduced a two-part naming system called binomial nomenclature. Each species was given a scientific name made from two Latin words. For example, humans are called Homo Sapiens.
Help at home: Can you find out any scientific names for other organisms?
Writing: Notes and Summaries
This week, we are learning about notes and summaries. The purpose of these are to communicate key points. In yesterday’s lesson, the children distinguished between notes and summaries.
By the end of this week, the children will be able to make notes on a variety of different topics. They will have learnt how to use bullet points too.
Help at home: Watch this video about Ancient Egyptian pyramids. Can they create notes about this topic?
Living and Learning: I respect others.
In our Living and Learning lesson this week, Year 6 learnt about discrimination and the protected characteristics.
Discrimination is defined as ‘the unfair treatment of people because of who they are or because they have a certain characteristic(s)’. We discussed examples and the impact of discrimination.
The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics.
We remember the protected characteristics by using the mnemonic:
DR S GRAMPS
Disability
Race
Sex
Gender reassignment
Religion or beliefs
Age
Marriage or civil partnership
Pregnancy and/or maternity leave
Sexual orientation
Help at home: Who makes sure these characteristics are protected?