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Living and Learning: United against bullying

Posted on Sunday 15 November 2020 by Mrs Taylor

This week, it’s Anti-Bullying Week and the theme for this year is ‘United against bullying’.

Don’t forget – we are also taking part in Odd Socks Day on Monday 16 November.

STOP is a key message linked to bullying. In our school, STOP stands for two things:

  • the definition: Several Times On Purpose
  • the solution: Start Telling Other People

Recently, our school council met to review our school definition of bullying and our child friendly anti-bullying policy. Thank you to the school councillors for their valued contributions. As a result, our definition and policy have now been updated.

Child friendly anti-bullying policy

What is bullying?

In our school, this is what bullying means:

Bullying is where you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.

What might bullying look like?

If any of these things happen several (lots of) times, it is bullying.

  • Hurting peoples’ feelings, for example, name calling, teasing, threatening, ignoring, leaving people out or spreading rumours
  • Hurting peoples’ bodies, for example, hitting, punching or kicking

This could be in person or online (cyber bullying) and could be because of someone’s race, disability, gender, appearance, age or any other protected characteristic.

What could you do if you are being bullied?

Start

Telling

Other

People

Who could you tell?

  • Mrs Weekes/Mrs Freeman/Mrs Russell/Mrs Small (they are child protection staff)
  • Mrs Taylor (Health Leader)
  • Any other members of staff
  • Friends
  • Someone in your family
  • A trusted adult
  • Childline (0800 1111)
  • Write a worry slip and put it in your Living and Learning box or the whole school worry box
  • Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org

Our views on bullying 

STOP bullying – bullying is wrong! We’re a happy and healthy school.

 

Week beginning: 09 November 2020

Posted on Monday 09 November 2020 by Miss Wilson

Good morning Y6!

I hope you’re well and enjoying our learning as much as I am. I’m especially loving our History learning.

Remember, if you want to listen along to the class novel, Wolf Brother, you can find parts one and two (and more!) on YouTube.

If you need any help or want to ask any questions, please don’t hesitate to send an email to jenwilson@spherefederation.org!

Now, onto this week’s learning.

Maths

In school, this week, we’re focusing on a range of areas: division, mental calculations, reasoning and arithmetic.

Children should use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheets. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. We’re concentrating on a mix of times tables, so your child should focus on the times table they find most difficult. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the spelling section of the website for this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. (You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our learning.)
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies Guide . (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

 

Reading fluency

This is the text we’ll read in class to build up fluency skills this week.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: Read the pages of Wolf Brother on our homework page this week, completing this grid.

We’re then going to be reading two famous poems this week:

1. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth

Follow these slides on the poem and complete the lesson explained on them.

2. Matilda, Who told Lies and was Burnt to Death by Hilaire Belloc (it’s a comedy, honest!)

Follow these slides and complete the lessons explained on them.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.

 (Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

 

 

Writing

We’re continuing to think about promotional writing and we’ve read Torak’s Weapons in class as an example of what we want children to write.

This week, we will be answering the questions on this sheet to plan our writing, before then writing our own promotion of an Ancient Egyptian pyramid.

Have a look at this example of how we might start it (yellow words are highlighted to show expanded noun phrases, which we’ve been revising recently).

Watch this video on expanded noun phrases. Try to include these in your writing!

 

Topic

This week’s topic learning is about history. We’re continuing our topic all about prehistoric Britain compared to advanced ancient civilisations.

In class, we’re going to research facts about:

  • Indus Valley
  • Ancient Rome
  • Ancient Greece
  • Ancient Egypt
  • The Shang Dynasty

Your task is to do the same. You need to find out three facts about each of the advanced societies above.

Then, answer these questions:

  1. What makes the advanced societies similar to each other?
  2. How are they different?
  3. What makes them similar to prehistoric Britain?
  4. How are they different?
  5. Which advanced society would you have lived in and why?

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)

 

Science 

We’re starting a new topic of forcesThis lesson from Oak National Academy links closely to what we’ve been doing in class.

Email me to let me know how you got on!

 (Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Wolf Brother

Posted on Thursday 05 November 2020 by Miss Wilson

This week, we’ve been thoroughly enjoying our new class novel Wolf Brother!

In reading, we ‘unwrapped’ the book by analysing and discussing its front cover, title and blurb.

Our task was to comment on:

  • likes and dislikes
  • connections or links to what we’ve seen, heard or read before
  • powerful vocabulary
  • questions we had

Ask your child about their favourite part so far! What predictions do they have for the rest of the book and why?

If you want to listen to part of it together at home, check out the audio version (chapter one – part one) read by Ian McKellen.

A busy week so far!

Posted on Wednesday 04 November 2020 by Mrs Wood

The children have returned to school confidently and ready to learn! We have been really impressed with their learning attitude and behaviour.

In maths, we read a book called ‘The button box’ and the children had a great time looking through my mum’s button tin!

We discussed what the button might be from and what it was made of.

We then sorted them using different criteria.

We have read lots of books with a witch theme and the children have written recipes for potions and witch’s soup.

There was  great excitement when we discovered a real spider in the classroom! The children then designed and built a ‘spider house.’

Week Beginning 19 October 2020

Posted on Sunday 18 October 2020 by Mr Roundtree

We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.

Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.

Maths

This weeks maths lessons are from the Oak National Academy.  They will help you consolidate the place value lessons you have done.

These lessons roughly match the lessons we are doing in school.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2 

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2:  Watch this video and learn about the ‘ow’ digraph.

Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oi’ digraph.

The two videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.

Day 4: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1:

Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).

Activity 2

Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.

Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week, we’re starting our new topic learning about The Great Fire of London. Find out what London was like in the past using this this Oak National Academy Lesson. 

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our  learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Living and learning – self care techniques

Posted on Friday 16 October 2020 by Miss Wilson

Today, we had a great class discussion about how to look after and be kind to yourself. Take a look…

Week beginning 12 October 2020

Posted on Sunday 11 October 2020 by Mr Roundtree

We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.

Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to number and place value.

These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:

Lesson 1: video

Lesson 2: video, worksheets, answers

Lesson 3: video, worksheets, answers 

Lesson 4: video, worksheets, answers

Lesson 5: video, worksheets, answers

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2:  Watch this video and learn about the ‘oo’ digraph

Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ar’ digraph.

Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘or’ diagraph

The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1:

Year 1 children: Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).

Activity 2:

Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.

Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

Get arty with topic learning at home.  Look at the piece art below:

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

Think about these questions:

What do you like about it?

What don’t you like about it?

Do you think it is modern or old?

How do you think Mona Lisa is feeling in the painting?

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our  learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Our weekly message (09 October 2020)

Posted on Friday 09 October 2020 by Mr Roundtree

Some statistics to start this week’s message…

It sadly seems that the country is facing more restrictions due to coronavirus. Despite the challenges facing Leeds, it was encouraging to note earlier in the week that:

  • no school in Leeds is completely closed
  • in fact, 191 schools are fully open
  • a further 84 schools are operating despite a bubble closure
  • so, all 275 schools in Leeds are open to 114,814 pupils and 13,539 staff

Whilst the rate per 100,000 in Leeds has risen significantly (it’s around the 300 mark), there’s not been a significant increase in the number of pupils and staff testing positive. The numbers are currently relatively stable.

In our three Sphere Federation schools, although individual children have stayed away from school to self-isolate or to wait for a test result, we’ve not yet had to close a bubble. Thank you for your support with this. You’ve been sticking to the drop-off and collection times and it’s great that so many of you continue to wear face masks – we appreciate how responsive you’ve been.

Think carefully before seeking a Covid-19 test because colds are common at this time of year. When we showed this chart a couple of weeks ago, it proved popular. Read the full article.

Symptoms chart

Home learning

If your child is absent from school due to coronavirus, make sure you check out our home learning page. Every Monday morning, you’ll find some learning for the week:

  • five Maths lessons (usually from White Rose Maths, which is what’s used in school) (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
  • Times Tables practice using Time Tables Rock Stars (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
  • Spellings practice using the spellings list that’s published each week (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
  • some Reading fluency using the same text that’s used in school (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
  • five Reading sessions, including using the ‘RIC’ text used in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
  • two Writing sessions (suggested time: about 30 minutes each)
  • a Topic lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)
  • a Science lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)

Lunches

If you’re entitled to free school meals, you’re also able to arrange for a light lunch for your child each day, too – contact the school office.

Parent-teacher meetings

Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far for a parent-teacher meeting coming up in the last week of the half-term.

This is the first time we’ve run a parents’ evening online so please be patient with us. We’ll work hard to stick to timings and keep our fingers crossed for good WiFi!

And something completely unrelated to coronavirus…

We’ve added an extra feature to our website. If you go to the Safeguarding page, you’ll see on the right hand side some new content from Parent Info. Parent Info is a collaboration between  and . It provides support and guidance for parents from The content is updated regularly, and it covers six broad areas, such as technology, relationships and parenting, all linked to keeping your child happy, healthy and safe.

Painting with syringes

Posted on Wednesday 07 October 2020 by Mrs Freeman

Year One have been using the book  Here We Are, written by Oliver Jeffers, as their focus for the current mini topic.

We have looked closely at our planet and the children thought of questions they would like to ask about life on earth.

How many humans live on Earth?

Which is the biggest animal?

Is everybody different?

Why is there so much water?

Using Google Earth, we looked down on our planet from space. Then we zoomed in gradually and found our school. The children were fascinated by the colours of our planet from far away.

Listen to 'Here We Are,' Original Track from Apple's Earth Day Special |  Animation Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

Using some water colour paints, we created our very own versions of Earth. The children mixed their own paints and then used a syringe to drop the colours onto some filter paper.

It’s magic! The paint is spreading out!

The colours are joining.

It is light and dark.

The finished planets looked very realistic indeed.

Week beginning 05 October 2020

Posted on Sunday 04 October 2020 by Mr Roundtree

Hi everyone

We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.

Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to number and place value.

These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:

Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 3: video

Lesson 4: video, worksheets, answers

Lesson 5: video, worksheets, answers 

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2:  Watch this video and learn about the ‘igh’ trigraph.

Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oa’ digraph.

Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oo’ diagraph

The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity  1

Watch this video and complete the lesson about capital letters and full stops. It links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2

Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).

Topic

This week’s topic learning is linked to geography. Click on this link and have a go at the different activities.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our  learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)