Diverse Dolls
Take a look at this amazing article spotted and shared by a member of Y6 while we were reading First News.
We discussed why representation is so important; it makes people feel more confident in who they are and more tolerant and understanding.
The girl who spotted it felt especially awesome – she has vitiligo herself!
Keep being awesome, Y6.
Living and Learning: Children’s Mental Health Week
Set up by children’s mental health charity Place2Be, Children’s Mental Health Week shines a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health.
Young Minds is also a great source of information and support about young people’s mental health.
Mental health forms part of our Living and Learning long term plan and we encourage pupils to look after their mental health as well as their physical health. This maybe through the use of mindfulness and calming down techniques, recognising their own and others’ emotions and knowing how to seek help if needed. This guide shares some of the techniques we use.
In addition to Children’s Mental Health Week, Every Mind Matters is a national mental health campaign from Public Health England.
Living & Learning – online safety.
We had another visitor from Y6 favourite d:side who came to remind us about safe choices to continue making us happy and healthy people.
All the children spotted the strong links with our computing topic. Challenge your child to explain how d:side’s visit linked with:
- digital footprint
- phishing
- dis- and misinformation
Amazing art
We all have at least one thing that we are really good at. One Y6 pupil has suddenly displayed an amazing artistic talent. Check out the art work that Rabiya has produced in her own time, at home- wow!
School Savings Club
The next School Savings Club paying in date is 03 February 2020 at 3.15-3.45pm.
The account is open to all children and it is free to set up. As there is not minimum deposit requirement, it is a great way for your child/children to begin to manage their own money and understand the importance of saving. We offer paying in sessions every half term where you can bring along any savings to be paid into your child’s account.
As an extra incentive, Year 3 pupils who open an account, or who currently have an account, will be credited with £10.
If you’re unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be deposited to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Mrs Tiffany.
Here are the remaining paying in dates for this year (the penultimate Monday of each half term).
- 23 March
- 11 May
- 06 July
To find out more about the accounts or if your child would like to open account, please enquire at the office.
Spring term after-school clubs
Our spring term after-school clubs will be starting next week and while many of the clubs are full, we do have some spaces available for the following clubs.
Tennis Taster!
Living and Learning: I know what a drug is.
Year six were delighted to welcome Dave from d:side to talk with us today.
We spoke about what drugs are, who uses them and why.
We talked about how they can help your body, but only if they’ve been prescribed to you by your doctor or given to you by an adult to suit your illness and age.
We also talked about how they can harm your body and how to keep safe.
As always, Y6 asked thoughtful questions, shared maturely and listened politely; they should be very proud of themselves.
Vocabulary Games
There are several simple but fun games we’ve been playing to keep on top of our computing vocabulary. 
Game one: describe the term to the person without saying what it is. For example: “It’s when you break down a task into small steps!” would be a great description of decomposition.
Game two: everyone in the group has a word on their head. They take turns to ask yes or no question in order to determine their term. For example: “Am I something that exists digitally?” could be used to determine if you have the word content on your noggin.
Game three: one person stands in front of the group and they have a word on their head. The rest of the group has to describe what the term is without saying predetermined words. For “digital footprint”, our banned words were “mark” and “internet”.
Tricky! Give it a go at home.
Animals Adapt
In our Science lesson this week, we investigated how animals with blubber are more adapted to a cold environment than animals without. Challenge your child to fill in the gaps with the words below – the ones from our Science vocabulary list for the half term are in bold.
- inherit
- evolved
- survive
- thin
- adapted
- environment
