All stand for the judge…
Having learnt all about the gunpowder plot during our topic lessons, we attended court to find out more with lots of us taking on the roles of the main characters.
Not only is this a fun way of extending our knowledge, but it also helps us with our writing. We thought about what questions we’d like to ask the different people involved in the story and what their answers would have been at the time.
The suspects: Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, John Wright
The witnesses: Mary Arkwright, Arthur Coniston, Lorn Monteagle, King James I 
The prosecution and the defence
The jury
The media
At times, the prosecution really put pressure on our suspects!
Bradford Media Museum
Yesterday, Year 6 went to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. We were exploring what engineers do to bring inventions to life as this is our theme for our Time Travel big topic. It was a jam-packed day; we got to see and do all sorts!
Not only did the IMAX film we saw make us squeal and reach out for the things that seemed to be coming out of the screen at us, but it also inspired many of us to want to be engineers. We realised what amazing things engineers achieve to help people and solve problems.
The Wonderlab was a great room to explore, finding out what UV light is, how sound waves can move water, how infrared cameras show which part of our bodies are hot and cold and how light can manipulated to create moving images.
The Engineering Show demonstrated how light can carry sound and taught us how our 3D glasses worked.
The Games Lounge was a step back in time to the very first arcade games which turned out to be just as fun as the games we play today.
We also explored the TV and Animation galleries, seeing how technology has advanced over recent years due to the skills of scientists, engineers and computer programmers.
Active travel in October – week three winner
Well done to our week three winner who made active journeys to school every day last week.
Our active travel section on the website has recently been updated. Have a look at some of the initiatives we take part in to encourage a happy and healthy start to the school day.
Living and Learning: Confident Me self-esteem and body confidence workshop
Recently, Year 5 and 6 took part in a Confident Me self-esteem and body confidence workshop led by representatives from Dove and Unilever.
Body image forms part of our Living and Learning later in the year and as children comment they enjoy visitors delivering Living and Learning, we were keen to run this workshop once again.
The Confident Me Workshop is one of the Dove Self-Esteem Project’s programmes. It addresses issues of body confidence and low self-esteem. The workshop covers topics such as: appearance, beauty and body image and examines how images of models, actors and celebrities are fabricated or manipulated to portray a ‘perfection’ against which our kids often measure themselves. Most of all, the workshops help young people develop the skills and behaviours that lead to positive self-esteem and body confidence.
Resources are available to parents to support and follow up this learning at home.
Active travel in October – week two winner
Well done to our week two active travel winner (08 – 12 October) who was randomly selected to receive the latest £10 voucher.
Our week three winner will be announced early next week.
We have a final weekly prize to award and also a prize for someone who has made an active journey to school every day in October. These prizes will be awarded straight after half term once our Living Streets travel tracker data is available.
Remember an active journey can be walking, biking, scooting or parking away from the school gate and striding the last part of the journey.
Lost property
School Council are involved in a project to try and reduce the amount of lost property we have at school.
Starting this Friday, lost property will be available to look through in the playground to hopefully reduce the pile we have already this term!
Naming your child’s items helps to get things back to their owners so we will also be offering a clothing name labelling service for 20p per item. Profits will go to our school charity, Make-a-Wish.
New additions to the library – thank you, school councillors
At their final meeting, our current school councillors spent time, using part of their budget, choosing new books for our library.
From sport books to science books, there’s a great selection. The books will soon be available to borrow from the library.
School Council elections
In our whole school assembly today, we launched this year’s School Council election process. Our School Council is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Our current school councillors spoke about their role over the last year and the qualities needed to be an effective school councillor.
These included:
- use the 8 Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
Watch out for the whole school homework this week all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday 25 October.
Remember…remember…
It’s a little early but, during our Time Travel topic, we’re hurtling through the history of Britain and we find ourselves in the year 800AD. In Britain, the Vikings are taking over. Meanwhile, in China, they’re creating an invention that will change the world: gunpowder.
This invention has had a huge impact on Britain and without it, the gunpowder plot in the 1600s would never have been formed. In topic, we’ve learnt all about the people involved in this devious (ask us what this means) plan and created some artwork inspired by it.
History of Britain…as an acrostic poem
After our visit from the Hobgoblin Theatre, we thought about how we could sum up a history of Britain and we decided to write acrostic poems. Our challenge was to rhyme and lots of us stepped up to this challenge successfully.
Enjoy!
