Allerton Grange visit
Yesterday, Year 2 walked to Allerton Grange for a sports session led by some of their sports leaders.
For the Level 1 sports leaders, this was their first session working with other children and we felt they did a great job encouraging and motivating the children and teaching and organising the session. The class were particularly excited to find out the session was based around football skills – football is definitely a class favourite!
These sessions, where we work in partnership with Allerton Grange, support the leadership skills of the sports leaders and also give our children the chance to visit a local high school and take part in an active PE session in a different setting.
PE kit in school
On Tuesday morning, we will be visiting Allerton Grange for a PE lesson led by their sports leaders.
The children will be walking to Allerton Grange so please ensure they have tracksuit bottoms or leggings, PE t-shirt and some trainers or pumps in their PE kit to wear.
Living and Learning: What’s the matter?
As well as a science focus for the What’s the matter? topic, we’ve also been thinking about What’s the matter? from an emotional point of view.
Hopefully you got chance to find out more about this in our recent class assembly.
A focus for our writing, as we start this new term, is using conjunctions. We’ve used different pictures as a stimulus to ask What’s the matter? and in our responses we’ve been using a variety of conjunctions.
Ask your child if they can spot the conjunction that has not been highlighted.
Materials and their properties
As part of our What’s the matter? mini science topic, we been identifying and also describing the properties of materials. There’s been lots of new words to learn. Ask your child if they can name something that might be rigid, opaque, transparency or stretchy.
In this learning, we combined science with maths to sort objects according to their properties using a venn diagram.
Ask your child what might go in the centre of the venn diagram and what might go outside the venn diagram.
Living and Learning – solving problems
This week’s Living and Learning theme is I can make things better. Year 5 had a very in depth and beneficial circle time to discuss how we can solve problems and improve any tricky situations we are experiencing. We covered some important topics: sleep, resolving arguments and online behaviour.
We first “opened up the floor” to ask if anyone was having difficulty with anything and I would like to thank Year 5 for being very mature, open and honest.
Our first topic was sleep; lots of us said we were finding it hard (or harder) to sleep since returning to school. This included Miss Wilson! Here are our top tips, if you’re having trouble:
Key points:
- Reduce / stop screen time in the hours leading up to bed.
- Write down any worries you have and scrunch them up.
- Listen to calming music or do something relaxing.
Next up – resolving arguments:
Key points:
- Treat people how you would like to be treated.
- Walk away and give yourself time to calm down if you need to.
- Be a good role model for siblings.
Finally, something that was very important for lots of people in the class and seems to have been causing a couple of issues outside of school. Here are our top tips:
Lots of children were sharing their experiences of online behaviour that made them feel upset or uncomfortable. This is a great start. To make things better, often the first step should be to talk to someone.
Key points:
- Do not – DO NOT – ever share your password with someone under any circumstances! This is your personal information and should be kept a secret. Would you give anybody a key to your house or car? It’s the same thing.
- Change your password if you suspect anybody knows it. And make it as complex as you can whilst it still being memorable.
- Act online how you would in real life. Hiding behind a keyboard does not make you brave. Make sensible, kind choices online – just like when you’re face to face.
Thanks to Year 5 for our mature and beneficial talk this week.
If any parents or children are still having issues or have concerns, please come in to speak to me or to Mrs Weekes to discuss this further. Thanks!
Learning updates
Going home with your child (Year 1 to Year 6 only) today are the end-of-term Learning Updates. These ‘mini-reports’ aren’t new – we’ve used these before during parent-teacher meetings.
This year, we’ve listened to what you said in the annual surveys: you asked for more frequent updates on your child’s learning. As a result, we’ve tweaked when we do things a little so you now get an update at the end of most half terms:
- Autumn 1 (the parent-teacher meeting)
- Autumn 2 (the Learning Update)
- Spring 1 (the parent-teacher meeting)
- Spring 2 (the Learning Update)
- Summer 2 (the end of year report)
If you’ve any questions, comments or concerns about the report, please contact your child’s class teacher.
Living and Learning: Creative cultural and spiritual homework
Wow – what fantastic creative homework based on the children’s cultural and spiritual experiences. We spent time looking at all the homework and the children were able to give stars to each other about what they liked. The homework gave a great insight into the identity (our current Living and learning theme) of the children in terms of what they celebrate or what they enjoy culturally.
We even heard about a festival for dogs, Dog Fest, and Jack had a great suggestion for a brand new festival to celebrate friendship.
Living Streets update
We are pleased to work alongside the Living Streets local Moortown group to support our aim for children to make healthy, active and safe journeys to school. Here is an update from the group.
A BIG THANK YOU!
Both Living Streets UK and Living Streets Moortown would like to say a big thank you for all the noticeable improvements you have helped to bring about on journeys to and from school this year:
• Reduction in parking in Allerton Avenue (which is access only for residents) and on the double yellow or zig-zag lines adjacent to the school
• Reduction in vehicles mounting the pavement near to the school
• Reduction in vehicles parked with engines idling
• Increase in the number of families opting to Park & Stride from M&S* when driving is unavoidable
* M&S has 200 free 2-hour spaces available and the short walk to school is much safer and more enjoyable with fewer cars passing through key crossing points on the routes to school (such as Allerton Avenue and the
shopping parade entrance & exits).
This is fantastic progress and with continued support from all the families at Moortown we’ll see further improvements in air quality, safer ‘vehicle-free’ pavements and more families choosing to make and enjoy active trips to school.
OUR CURRENT PRIORITIES
While all the improvements we have seen around the school gates are encouraging, there is still a lot to be done. Cars, vans and HGVs continue to be driven up footpaths and recently there appears to be an increase in drivers passing through the main M&S lights while the green man is on so please be mindful of this when crossing.
We are already campaigning to deal with issues like these and the great response we had to our recent survey of parents and carers has helped us to submit a feedback document to the ‘Connecting Leeds’ consultation – a proposal to improve bus and other sustainable travel options in Moortown. We recently met with a representative from the project and are hopeful that some of the suggested pedestrian improvements will be incorporated into the scheme which is due to be delivered next year.
THE YEAR AHEAD…
The Moortown Living Streets Group is still in its first year, but we already have some exciting plans for 2019, including a project to monitor local air quality as well as some great ideas to get Moortown moving!
➢ Register to get involved or receive news here
➢ Access info on walking to school here
Thank you once again for you support to date – it’s making a real difference and we’re keen for that to continue throughout the year ahead.
Season’s Greetings!
From everyone at Moortown Living Streets Group
E: moortowngroup@livingstreets.org.uk T: @moortownlsg
Air resistance is amazing! Part 2
To test the science behind the parachute slowing us down when running, we set up an experiment involving parachutes, eggs and a window.
Year 5 worked in groups to make three different parachute sizes. We wanted to investigate which parachute had the most air resistance and therefore slow the egg’s fall the most to prevent it from breaking. It was important to keep everything else the same so that we could tell that it was definitely the parachute size affecting the results.
Next, it was the moment of truth. We waited patiently below to observe the speed of the parachute’s fall and whether or not our eggs cracked. A slower fall would mean more air resistance and, ultimately, an egg in less danger!
We found that the larger parachutes fell slower and had more success protecting their eggs. Smaller parachutes fell very quickly to the ground. This means larger parachutes have a greater air resistance and smaller parachutes have less air resistance.
Science mini topic
We’ve now started a science mini topic based on forces. To begin this topic, the children were shown a series of forces-related photos and asked to come up with questions based on what they would want to know.
There were some great scientific questions and these will lead into some investigations we will be doing based on forces.
BBC website has a number of videos on forces if you want to find out more.