Merry Christmas

Just a quick message to say Merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays. Have a well-earned rest but keep up some reading over the break.

We love reading!

Our Creative homework was to convince someone that they should love reading and we had some very persuasive pieces of homework:

• stories to read
• PowerPoint slides telling us about the benefits of reading
• sequels to existing books
• videos

Here are some for you to enjoy.

School Meals

Our school dinner menu is usually changed on a termly basis but this is now changing to half yearly.  Our new menu will therefore be from February 2017.

When we return from the Christmas holiday, we will start on Week 3 of our current menu until the new menu is introduced.

What forces are in action here?

We’ve been learning all about forces for our mini topic and, once we understood pushes, pulls, levers and pulleys, we created our own Rube Goldberg machines. The children worked in groups and planned and made their creations all from their own ideas once we’d explored and researched examples of them through the internet.

Here are a couple of our machines. Our first one had a little hiccup but we really liked their pulley at the end to raise the flag. The second was our most successful; they even managed to sound the buzzer! You’ll see just how excited we were that it worked.

https://youtu.be/S0KjxWH24_Y

https://youtu.be/HUijnyElfWI

Homework review

Thanks to those parents who joined us for our weekly homework review. As I expected, there were a number of brilliant homeworks, celebrating the great learning we did throughout STEM week.

Here are a few of our favourites.

Great job, Year 6!

Sports stars

As part of our involvement with the Leeds North East School Sport Partnership and Active Schools, we have recently entered two sporting competitions.  A huge well done to all children who took part.  For a few, this was their first opportunity to represent our school.

Leeds North East Primary Schools Sportshall Athletics

Fifteen pupils from Year 4, 5 and 6, took part in this action-packed competition, at Allerton Grange, comprising of many field and track events.  It’s always a well-contested event and the children competed well against other local schools.

• ‘I enjoyed everything I did.  Our team was very positive.’
• ‘It was a great experience that wasn’t too competitive.  I loved it!’
• ‘I enjoyed the competition because there were lots of events to choose and do.’

Thank you to Mrs Bald and Mrs Russell for taking the children to this event.

Leeds North East Primary Schools Cross Country Festival

Eighteen pupils participated in the Leeds North East Primary Schools Cross Country Festival at Cardinal Heenan.  There were over 650 young people taking part in the races and over 100 pupils in each race.

A particular well done to Grace and Megan who came 7th and 10th in their Year 5 girls race.  Also, children commented on the resilience of Ripley who took a fall in the mud but got himself up and then continued to overtake many other runners!

• ”I thought it was good because it was different and my mum used to do cross country too.’
• ‘It was really good because even if you don’t like running too much, like me, you still had a fun time.’

As always, we thank staff and parents who helped with these events.

School Saving Club paying in session

Our next paying in date for School Saving Club account holders is Thursday 08 December 3.15-3.45pm. If you can’t make this date, the next one will be on Thursday 02 February at 3.15-3.45pm.

Children must be accompanied to the sessions.

Alternatively, you can bring money to the office in a sealed envelope marked School Saving Club for the attention of Miss Hale.

School Saving Club accounts can still be opened.  Please ask at the office for an application form.

Children who are in currently in Year 3 will have their account credited by Leeds City Council with £10 once opened.

Physical activity – the facts

In August 2016, the Government released its Childhood Obesity Strategy. This document outlines actions which will address the rising rates of childhood obesity.

Yorkshire Sport Foundation have produced the following poster with statistics and key information from the strategy.

We continue to monitor and improve our physical activity provision (see our current PE Provision Plan (pe-and-sport-premium-2016-2017) and our previous PE Provision Plan (pe-and-sport-premium-2015-2016).

Packed lunches

Struggling for ideas for a healthy packed lunch?

Change4life have some great tips and easy to prepare ideas based on the Eatwell Guide.

Also make reference to our Packed Lunch Guidance.

STEM week – Thursday

It’s been a busy day! We started the day by battling with our bookmarks again and attempting to have thirty which had flashing lights. We perhaps achieved half of this target but demonstrated immense patience and resilience in the process. Once again, Mrs Raseta and I were far too busy for pictures but (hopefully) we’ll have some finished products to show you tomorrow.

Following this, we had a fab visit from M&S who talked to us about the history of the company, moving on to focus on their most popular product: the Melt in the Middle Pudding. We learnt the science behind how the pudding is preserved using emulsifiers and explored the ingredients involved in this perfect pudding.

Finally, the moment we’d all be waiting for, we did a (very scientific) taste testing – all in the name of Science of course.