Living and Learning – Identity
For our next few Living and Learning sessions, we have asked the children to bring in something that represents them. This links in with our current theme all about Identity and what makes them special and unique.
We will do this over the next three weeks so please note the dates and groups below.
Tuesday 27 November Arctic Ocean
Tuesday 4 December Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean
Tuesday 11 December Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean
The children should choose to bring in or talk about something to do with their family, an interest they have or any achievements they have made and be ready to share this with the class.
Topic Review
As it’s the last week of our big topic we’ve mixed up the classes to review what we’ve learned.
The Year 2s and the Year 5s have spent part of the morning talking about the learning in their books.
They then fed back about what each other had learned and particular pieces of learning that impressed them.
Time Travellers at Herd Farm
Our visit to Herd Farm, to take part in the Forest Schools’ Time Travellers workshop, has been a perfect end to our Time Travel big topic. Herd Farm was an amazing setting, in glorious Autumn sunshine, to discover different types of homes from the past.
First of all, we went right back in time to set up our own Stone Age camp. Lots of teamwork and problem solving skills were needed.
Safety first – Tina taught us how to hold the sticks correctly.
Next, we went to explore the replica Iron Age village.
Tina showed us the frame of the Iron Age roundhouse to explain the materials used and how the houses were put together. What materials were needed to build the houses? How was this different to houses built today?
All the class managed to fit in the larger house. Some Iron Age roundhouses were 40m wide!
What was inside the house? Why were these needed?
Now time to have a snack, enjoy the view and ask Ian, an archaeologist, questions about another type of home we have learnt about, castles.
Ian lit a fire in a traditional way. How did he do this?
The Iron Age roundhouses provided a great backdrop to sketch.
Finally, we spent time looking at the buildings at the residential centre which date back to 1760 and used to be a farm. We spotted alterations made to the old stone barn and farm house since this time to make it into the centre that it is today. The most modern building at the site was a sustainable building made from metal and wood.
We thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor learning experience discovering a range of houses from the past.
School dinner feedback
We always welcome feedback on our school dinner menu.
As a result of pupil, parent and staff feedback, there are a number of changes we are implementing, as we work with Catering Leeds to prepare our next menu, for after February half term.
- There will be a jacket potato choice on Thursdays to give three main meal choices rather than the current two choices.
- We will be trialing meat free Monday on week 3 of the menu cycle.
- Jacket potato choices will continue to be the most popular fillings on a rotation basis – cheese, tuna and beans.
- Vegetable choices will continue to be the most popular ones selected by pupils.
School dinners are always an agenda item at School Council meetings so children are encouraged to use their pupil voice to provide feedback to their school councillors or via a suggestion slip in the Living and Learning box.
The menu will be circulated to parents and posted on our website once this is available.
Takeover Challenge Day
Takeover Challenge day is on Friday 23 November
What is Takeover Challenge?
Takeover is a fun engagement project which sees schools and organisations across England opening their doors to children and young people to take over adult roles.
It puts children and young people in decision making positions and encourages schools and organisations to hear and act upon their views and ideas. Children and young people gain an insight into the adult world and schools and organisations benefit from a fresh perspective about their work.
Recently, our new School Council discussed how children could be involved in ‘taking over’ at school. Therefore on Friday, takeover activities will include serving school dinners (representatives from Year 4), working in the school office (representatives from Year 5), leading assembly (representatives from Year 6) and accompanying Mrs Weekes on a learning walk around school (representatives from Year 5 and 6).
In addition there will be opportunities within class where children will takeover. For example, taking the register, spelling/times table tests, parts of lessons, PE warm ups and guided reading.
Check our class news pages to see this in action.
Christmas dinner menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 13 December. Please contact the office, before Monday 26 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
Reading skills
We’re using the picture book, A house that once was, to support our adjective and description learning in English this week.
Today, in our reading learning, we thought about the characters in the book and considered what we would ask the characters using what we know about the text so far.
- How did you find that house?
- How did you get there?
- How are you feeling?
- When did you discover the house?
- What are you looking at?
- Who are you?
- Where are you?
- What is covering the path?
- Are you meant to be there?
- Are you scared?
- Have you been to the house before?
We then used hot seating to ask these questions to our ‘characters’.
At home, try asking your child questions about the characters in fiction books to show your child’s understanding of the text.
Living and Learning – Anti-Bullying Week
During Anti-Bullying Week, we used the following image in our reading learning to retrieve and interpret information based around bullying.
We started by considering whether this is bullying.
Well done to Gabriel H who confidently stated, ‘this isn’t bullying because we don’t know if they have done this several times on purpose.’
In another reading lesson, looking at word meanings, we used the school definition of bullying as there were some words we wanted to make sure we all understood.
Finally, the children came up with their own scenarios and asked the rest of the class whether it was bullying or not and why.
To support at home, ask your child what bullying means at Moortown Primary and what they would do if they were to experience bullying or witness bullying. STOP is a key message we use to reinforce the problem and the solution (Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Other People).
Living and Learning: Anti-bullying week ‘Choose Respect’
This week, all classes have been learning about different aspects of bullying during national Anti-Bullying Week.
Thank you to those families who supported our Odd Socks Day on Monday, celebrating that we are all unique.
At their first meeting, our new School Council reviewed the school definition of bullying and this remains unchanged.
‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’
In addition to this definition, each class has considered the following.
- Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
- What to do if children experience or witness bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)
STOP can stand for two key messages: the definition or the problem (Several Times On Purpose) and the solution (Start Telling Other People).
All classes have access to their class I want to say box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.
Our whole school homework this week, will allow children to consolidate this learning and show what they have learnt in a creative way.
We encourage you to discuss this learning with your child and for further support, bullying resources can be found at…
- https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/advice-parents
- https://www.kidscape.org.uk/resources/
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
- https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/get-involved-in-anti-bullying-week-2018-choose-respect/
- https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/keeping-children-safe/
- https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/types-bullying/
- https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/bullying/
A few reminders
It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow!
In the morning, we are visiting Herd Farm for a Forest School Time Travellers experience based around our current big topic.
Here are a few reminders for the trip.
- The children should wear uniform as normal.
- We will be outdoors for the morning so please bring a warm, waterproof (although the forecast looks dry) coat, a hat and gloves.
- Bring wellies to wear for the trip. Children can change back into school shoes when we return.
- We will be back at school for lunch so no packed lunch is needed (unless your child normally has a packed lunch at school).
We’ve been checking the weather in class and fingers crossed it will stay dry. Ask your child how we found this out.
Please also ensure your child has their PE kit at school as in the afternoon we will be going to Allerton Grange for a PE session led by their Sports Leaders.
