Living & Learning – I know the importance of personal hygiene.
What does being healthy mean?
Lots of us also said about the important balance of mental and physical health.
How might you know if you are ill?
More importantly, if you are ill you could:
– go to the doctors
– test yourself
– take medicine (ask a trusted adult first)
– go to the chemist or pharmacy
– rest, get enough sleep, fresh air, keep drinking water
Why is personal hygiene important?
“Otherwise, we’ll spread germs, viruses and bacteria to others around you,” said Leah.
“It keeps you clean and if you don’t you might get sick,” explained Christina.
“It keeps yourself and others safe,” said Billy.
What should you do if someone is having an allergic reaction?
“If it’s serious, call 999 or 112 and ask if they have an injection that might help. If they do, read the instructions for how to use it. See if they’re doing well. Help them to sit in a position to help them breathe. If it’s still getting worse, get ready to perform CPR,” explained Khadija.
What is a vaccine and how does it work?
Aadil says, “A person named Edward Jenner wanted to be a doctor. He practised in his home town where there was a serious virus called smallpox. There was another mild one called cowpox. The people of the town said if you got cowpox it’s very unlikely you get smallpox. He went to the gardener’s son and gave a bit of the cowpox pus to the boy. He recovered quickly. Then, he also gave the smallpox pus to the boy and amazingly he did not get infected. The name vaccine comes from the Latin word for cow which is vacca which you’d say ‘wacca’!”
Big Walk and Wheel
Get set… we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2022 (the new name for Big Pedal), the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 21 March to 1 April. It’s free and we would love everyone to be involved.
What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event. Park and stride (parking your car further away from school, for example, Marks and Spencer car park and walking, scooting or biking the final part of the journey) also counts.
Why we are taking part
As a happy and healthy school, Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a great way to build physical activity in children’s daily routine which is important for their physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school runs also help to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate. A 2021 YouGov study showed nearly half of UK children worry about air pollution near their school. Children thought active travel was the best away to bring down these pollution levels.
Plus there are some great prizes to be won every day if we get enough children taking part!
Useful resources
To help you prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide packed with advice, games and challenges to help you have hassle-free cycle, walk or scoot to school.
Download your free family guide here.
Cross country runners
Well done to pupils who took part in the Leeds Schools Athletics Association Saturday morning race at Middleton Park. These races are open to Key Stage 2 children. This was the final race for the season but we will continue to offer these races next year.
It was great to hear they were encouraging each other at the event. Great work!
World Book Day
To celebrate all things books, Y6 had a lovely morning enjoying the library, completing activities related to their favourite books and chilling out and reading.
We looked amazing in our costumes and we all took turns to share who we’d come as, which book we were from and who was the author!
Amber from the Midnight Gang takes her mind off her broken arm.
Gangsta Granny is probably researching another jewel heist.
Mr Poe is giving the competition his best shot – good luck!
If you’d like to still enter, bring in £1 and bring your competition sheet back by Friday 11 March.
And finally…
Where’s Wally?
Cross country opportunity
We are pleased to invite KS2 children to compete in an upcoming cross country race as part of the Leeds Schools Athletics Association cross country programme of Saturday morning races. Children will compete against pupils from other Leeds schools.
The race will take place at 10am on Saturday 5th March at Middleton Park (next to the John Charles Centre for Sport, Middleton Grove, Leeds, LS11 5DJ).
There are opportunities for Year 3 and 4 girls and boys (under 9) to race 900m and Year 5 and 6 girls and boys (under 11) to race 1500m. Once your child has completed their race, you are free to leave the event.
Please note, parents/carers are responsible for taking and supervising their child/children.
If your child is interested in taking part, please respond to the the message recently sent out.
We look forward to pupils representing our school at this event.
If you are unable to take part in this event, you may want to join the free Sunday morning junior parkruns held locally at Roundhay Park, Temple Newsam and Boddington.
Half term Dog’s Trust workshop
Rachael, from the Dog’s Trust in Leeds, visited all classes last week in our Staying Safe themed week.
She is holding a half term workshop next week and she would like us to share this with our families.
Contact Rachael, by email, if your child is interested in attending.
Discussion Texts
Y6 are aiming to find out the answer to this question:
Is it fair to say the Islamic Golden Age was much more advanced than Viking society?
In order to answer this question and discuss it in a balanced argument, first we needed to practise some writing skills.
We’ve focused on cohesive starters – challenge your child to list five.
Have a look at these great examples of practising these skills at home where they focused on quality over quantity.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe
What an action-packed week we had last week!
We were learning all about staying safe, looking after ourselves and making safe choices, including online.
We had lots of visitors, including Mrs Hill from Dogs’ Trust who taught us about how our behaviour can change how a dog feels and therefore reacts. We can make safe choices around them to help everyone.
“If a dog is eating or sleeping, just leave them. When they’re awake, then you can pet them,” said Evie.
Asthon explained, “When a dog comes near you that you don’t know, you can put your hands across your body and turn away.”
Leeds City Council’s Road Safety Team came to talk to us about the choices we can make to stay safe on the roads. We also looked at what they do in order to protect us.
“I learnt that lots of road safety equipment cost a lot of money!” shared Aadil.
“I enjoyed the lesson – it was a good idea to use a real life situation where we only had a certain amount of money in order to help people,” said Billy.
Go Wise came in to talk to us about the safe choices we can make online. Check out the pictures above for their golden rules plus what to do if you have a problem.
“There can be some weird people on the internet so we can be safe by blocking strangers you don’t know or not accepting random friend requests,” said Harman.
Da’wud simply stated, “Screenshot. Block. Report.”
Lots of our favourite visitors were the fire officers. We discussed fire hazards in the home and had a great chat with them about how they keep us safe in our community.
Khadija learnt that they have to wear a special suit to protect them against the fire and they have a tank filled with air that’s very heavy.
“I liked when they came in because they showed us the fire equipment up close,” said Christina.
“It’s best to close your doors at night because they can stop the fire from spreading around your house,” said Vedant.
We also talked about safe choices when it comes to setting physical boundaries and being in charge of you. The book below is a great way to open up the conversation.
“I liked how it shows real life situations and it made me feel more confident about not just going with it like you’re crossing a road or you don’t always have to hug someone – you can high five them if you prefer!” reassured Sasha.
Finally, we watched a virtual assembly, hosted by some familiar faces, which was all about speaking out to get the help you need in order to stay safe.
Super Scientists
This half term, we’ve been learning about biology. Our topic is evolution and inheritance.
We’ve been finding out how animals and plants have adapted to the environment they live in. If they didn’t change to suit their habitat, their species would eventually die out.
Adaptation is one of our science vocabulary this half term along with:
- natural selection
- variety
- prehistoric
- trait
- inherited
- evolution
- fossil
Challenge your child to define these words!
Check out our fabulous posters below, displaying information about the specific adaptations of some amazing animals.
We won the Choice Cup!
Well done to Y6 for your superb choices. Let’s retain it next week!