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Living and learning – Identity

Our Living and Learning theme this half-term is Identity. Pupils will learn about what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others and what is meant by community. This will be taught through our Living and Learning sessions and also a focused week – Anti-bullying week (12 November).

Also this half term, our new school charity will be chosen.  Every year, we nominate a new charity to support. This year, we have been supporting MakeAWish. We decide this on the basis of a Talk Time homework, and then school councillors make the final decision.

Our Living and Learning long term plan details the learning for each year group across the year and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the parent noticeboard in the playground and also on the school calendar.  We will begin and end this half term with a focus on manners.

I apologise when I need to.

I say please and thank you.

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 – Democracy

This week, we’ve based our learning around our rights and responsibilities – I can take part in democratic decisions.

First, we wrote down what we knew already about democracy. Then, we watched a video from a trusted news source (Newsround) and wrote down what we had learned. Challenge your child: What was the red line on the floor for in the House of Commons?

Through our discussions, we defined some key words…

… and devised some questions that we wanted to know the answer to.

An interesting discussion arose surrounding the age of voting. (Finlay asked: ‘Why do we have to be 18 to vote?’) Some of us thought that it should be lowered because politics affects children, too. Others thought 18 years of age was appropriate because you are legally an adult with enough life experience.

In the interest of all things democratic, we had a vote on the matter.

Should we change the voting age?

21 out of 28 people said yes. 7 out of 28 people said no.

Zakariya noticed that 28 is in the 7 times table: 4 lots of 7 = 28.

We discussed that 7 out of 28 is the same as saying 1 out of 4 or one quarter. That’s the same as saying 25/100 which is equal to 25%.

Using this knowledge, we worked out that 21 out of 28 is the same as saying 3 out of 4 or three quarters.

“It must be 75 out of 100,” said Maggie. Or even 75 one hundredths or 75%! 

1 quarter + 3 quarters = 1
25% + 75% = 100%
7 + 21 = 28

Now we know that 75% of Year 5 think the voting age should be changed.

Next, we had another anonymous vote: Which group would you change the voting age to?

The 15-17 category had the majority.

Good luck to all the candidates standing in this year’s school council elections.

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.

05 October 2018

All of the spellings this week have -fer endings and we’re learning how to add a suffix to these words. There will be no test on Friday but your child needs to practise adding suffixes to these words correctly. Sometimes you need to double the ‘r’ and sometimes you don’t.

All children should be practising their spellings in their homework book, using the techniques suggested at the back which we also use in class.

• refer
• prefer
• transfer
• offer

• -ed
• -ing
• -ence
• -al

This week’s time tables test will be on the 4 x table but we’ll be challenging ourselves with the more difficult questions we’ve been practising recently. We’re improving every day with these.

‘Wheely’ good fun in topic

We’ve gone way back in time this week, right back to the Stone Age when the wheel was first invented. Through our Reading, Writing and Topic lessons, we’ve learnt all about the wheel (and axel), made our own Lego chariots, and written some great instructions for how to make them.

At home, ask us about the wheel and about our learning this week. It’s been really fun!

School Savings Club

The School Savings Club paying in sessions for this year are at 3.15-3.45pm on the following dates (the penultimate Thursday of each half term).

• 18 October
• 13 December
• 07 February
• 21 March
• 16 May
• 11 July

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.

If your child would like to open an account, please ask at the office.

There is an extra incentive for pupils in Year 3 as Leeds City Council will add £10 to your child’s account.

We’re ready to travel back in time

We’re excited to start our new history themed topic, Time Travel.  In Year 1 and 2, we’ll be focusing this learning on houses and homes in the past to the current day.

First, we considered what we want to find out.

‘I would like to learn about where rich and poor people lived in the Victorian times.’ Eleanor

‘What did people live in back in time?’ Sameeksha

‘I would like to learn about bungalows and other houses.’ Kirtan

‘What did Stone Age houses look like?’ Jack

‘How many houses are there in the United Kingdom?’ (Nice link to our Where in the world? topic, Junior!)

‘How would people afford houses in the past?’ Zain

‘I would like to learn how you make a house.’ Isla

‘I want to learn about how dark the houses were.’ Lily

‘I would like to know how houses were built in the olden times.’ Jake

‘I would like to learn about what beds used to be like.’ Bridget

Where in the world?

This week, we have begun our new history themed topic, Time Travel.  Before that we reflected (one of 8Rs for learning) on our geography topic, Where in the world?

‘I learnt there are five oceans in the world.’ Inam

‘Australasia is a continent.’ Noah G

‘I learnt that North America is joined up to South America.’ Gabrielle H

‘I learnt the North Pole and the South Pole are the coldest places.’ Shasmeen

‘I learnt there are four countries in the United Kingdom.’ Soloman

‘I learnt that all countries need a capital letter.’ Olivia

‘I learnt all the oceans and continents in our topic.’ Rizwan