SEAL statement 28 February
For this half term we return to the SEAL theme of Good to be me! The theme was launched with a whole-school assembly on Wednesday 02 March – ask your child to describe the story of the mouse and how she changed during the course of the adventure. Our first weekly statement is ‘I can do something to make me feel proud.’
The SEAL theme Good to be me focuses on three main areas of learning:
- Self-awareness – feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
- Managing Feelings – understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself –assertiveness skills, standing up for your views.
- Empathy
This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.
The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:
Building emotional resilience
Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.
Coping with anxiety and worrying
Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.
Calming down
Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.
Assertiveness
The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.
Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour
The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened /under stress.
Ideas for helping your child with maths
This week we are learning to recognise and write the numerals 0-9. Here are some ideas for helping your child at home.
Choose a number for the week eg 2
Encourage your child to look for this number all the time, at home, in the street and while out shopping.
Choose a different number each week and encourage your child to write the numeral.
Try this website for games to help your child to recognise numerals.
Roald Dahl Book Fair
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B8nkKYmWcE
TAG rugby
For the next half term, Year 6 will be taking part in five weeks of tag rugby coaching on Monday afternoons. The programme has been set up by Leeds Carnegie and we are one of a small number of local schools selected to take part.
Please ensure children have their outdoor PE kit at school for these sessions.
Tag rugby
For the next half term, Year 5 will be taking part in five weeks of tag rugby coaching on Monday afternoons. The programme has been set up by Leeds Carnegie and we are one of a small number of local schools selected to take part.
Please ensure children have their outdoor PE kit at school for these sessions.
It’s half term…
It’s half-term holidays next week, so there are no homework tasks or spellings next week.
Of course, regular practice and learning can still happen: reading each day, swimming, tables practice, trips to the library, walks around Roundhay Park… All will help your child have a happy and healthy holiday!
We can write super sentences!
We have been learning even more about sentences. We all know that a sentence needs:
- to make sense
- a full stop at the end
- a capital letter at the beginning
Now we are even adding a conjunction. A conjunction is a word that joins two sentences together. We have been learning to use “but”, “and” and “because”.
Look at our super sentences!
The Circus is Coming to Moortown!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xbFm6KvhA
SEAL statement 14 February
Reflection is the last of our 7 Rs of learning and this week’s statement is ‘I can reflect on my learning.’
Self-reflection is something we always encourage the children to do whether it is during lessons to understand their next steps or after their work has been marked to understand, and learn from, any mistakes.
This week Key Stage 2 children will be ‘reflecting’ on their 7 Rs of learning and some children will be working with Mr Roundtree to reflect on certain areas of learning through pupil interviews.
Next half term, we’ll be returning to the SEAL theme Good to be me.
Happy and healthy outdoors
Sustrans is a charity that encourages people to travel by foot, bike or public transport more often. Recently, they’ve produced a couple of very thought-provoking articles about children’s experiences of their journey to school (‘A child’s eye view of school travel’) and outdoor play (‘Free range kids’). Here’s an extract from ‘Free range kids’…
90% of us adults regularly played outside in our street as kids, compared to fewer than one in three UK children today. As 73% of them prefer outdoor activities, the charity Sustrans wondered why they aren’t getting out more, benefiting from the sunlight and fresh air…and splashing around in the mud and rain. After all, it’s their preferred way to have fun (whilst burning calories and getting their daily dose of activity).
Emma Kenny is a well-known expert in child psychology, and a parent too. She gives us her thoughts on why these things are so vital for growing children, and what we as adults can do to help.
What are the benefits of outdoor play?
Children who are allowed to explore their personal worlds are bound to feel that, on the whole, life is a playground where adventures are to be had. This means they’re more likely to approach new challenges with confidence, forge new peer relationships more easily, will be less likely to suffer obesity and issues with isolation and feel that they are unique and trusted individuals within their own worlds. Physiologically, the benefits of spending a couple of hours in daylight are proven: the white light we experience means lower levels of stress and healthier mental states and, of course, fresh air is always a healthy addition to our lives.
What might happen if kids don’t have their freedom?
If you cage any animal, it will begin to demonstrate a fear of leaving its environment in spite of this appearing unnatural. We are creatures of habit and we adjust our beliefs to reflect this. If we are inside and isolated much of the time, we will start to fear that which is outside and new. Kids need to have a sense of self within their environment. We should encourage them to do this.
Read more of this and other articles in Sustrans magazine: The Hub, Spring 2011 edition.