New school meal menu
The new school dinner menu, from our school meals provider, Catering Leeds, will be introduced in September and continues until February half term.
As well as on our website, the three week cyclical menu is also displayed on our dining room window for you to discuss with your child. Have a look for the weeks ahead to make your child aware of what the daily meals are. If you would like a printed copy, please ask at the office.
School meals continue to be free for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. If your child is in Key Stage 2, please check for eligibility for free school meals. (It’s important to check for eligibility for younger children, too, because school receives additional funding for each child who is eligible for a free meal, even when they’re free in Reception and Year 1 and Year 2!)
If your child would like to start having school dinners, please inform the office. A combination of packed lunches and school dinners is also available.
Children are consulted on school meals through our regular School Council meetings. Feedback may also be given by speaking to an adult in school or completing a suggestions/comments slip and posting it in their class SEAL box.
Thank you to parents who also raise questions and give feedback. We can then ensure this is passed on to the kitchen staff.
Key Stage 2 tuck shop preview
You may have heard about the requests from Year 2 to go to the Key Stage 2 tuck shop.
As part of our writing, the children wrote persuasive letters including many reasons why this should happen.
- It would allow them to try different fruits in addition to the free fruit that Key Stage 1 currently have daily.
- It would help them to get their 5 a day.
- They are very polite and sensible and would be good customers.
- It would make our school even happier and healthier.
After considering their request, we decided the children had used enough persuasion skills to allow them to try it out for themselves.
Therefore, for the next two Tuesdays, Year 2 will be customers at the tuck shop to support their transition to Year 3.
Next year, in Year 3, children have the option to prepay for the weekly tuck shop (20p per portion) or pay on the day but no payment is needed for these two visits.
The children were excited to hear their persuasion had worked and are looking forward to choosing their healthy fruit snack.
Hot and cold
Our final area of measurement learning in Year 2 is temperature. The children used thermometers, the correct units (degrees Celsius) and reading a scale as part of this learning.
Ask your child what they found out.
You may want to refer to temperature when checking the weather forecast.
Pirate positional language
As we’ve started a pirates topic this week, we’ve created a treasure map and some instructions for finding the treasure.
We’ve then written an algorithm using positional language to get the treasure and another to escape back to the ship.
Suffix fun
We’ve been learning about suffixes and learning how to use a Venn diagram.
Water safety advice
Following from our Staying Safe themed week and in association with National Drowning Prevention Week, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) has released the following water safety advice.
As the Summer months are approaching and with more good weather on the way, young and old alike should be aware of the dangers of open water.
An open water source may look like a good way to cool down on a hot day, but every year, in the UK, around 400 people die from drowning as a result of an accident in or around water.
Nationally, the emergency services respond to over 100,000 water-related rescues, and flood events every year.
Reservoirs may look tempting to take a swim in but they can be killers and we’d like to raise awareness of these risks amongst young people. Cold water shock can lead to hyperventilation, increased blood pressure, breathing difficulties and heart attacks plus water temperatures remain just as cold in summer as in winter. Yorkshire Water have produced Cold Water Kills video to reinforce this message.
A summer safety message from the Royal National Life Saving Institute (RNLI), ‘Float to Live’, is a hard-hitting video, with advice on how to react should you become stricken in cold water.
Everyone who falls unexpectedly into cold water wants to follow the same instinct, to swim hard and to fight the cold water. But when people fight it, chances are, they lose. Cold water shock makes you gasp uncontrollably and breathe in water, which can quickly lead to drowning.
If you find yourself unexpectedly in the water, the message is to float until the cold water shock has passed and you will be able to control your breathing and have a far better chance of staying alive.
Safety Advice for Dog Walkers
- Avoid throwing sticks or balls near water for dogs – they will go after it if they think you want it back even if you’ve thrown it too far or into dangerous water
- Never enter the water to try and save a dog – the dog usually manages to scramble out
- Even dogs that like swimming can usually only swim for short bursts
- Keep and eye of your dog and don’t let it enter the water if it’s older or tired
- If your dog loves the water keep it on a lead and make sure you have control to prevent it jumping into hazardous or unsafe areas
- Remember the wet riverbanks, steep edges or jagged rocks can make it hard for a dog to scramble out and be a slip risk for owners
- Don’t lean into water and try and lift your dog out – you can topple in
- Dogs can have cold water shock too
- If your dog has struggled in the water it may have inhaled water and should see a vet as dogs can drown after the event if water has entered the lungs
What to do if someone falls into deep water
- The first thing to do is call for help – straightaway. Call 999, ask for fire service and ambulance. The emergency services will need to know where you are. Accurate information can save precious minutes. If you have a smart phone and have location services or map tool enabled, this can help.
- Don’t hang up – stay on the line but try and continue to help the person if appropriate.
- Never ever enter the water to try and save someone. This usually ends up adding to the problem. If you go into the water you are likely to suffer from cold
- Can the person help themselves? Shout to them ‘Swim to me’. The water can be disorientating. This can give them a focus.
- Look around for any lifesaving equipment. Depending on where you are there might be lifebelts or throw bags – use them. If they are attached to a rope make sure you have secured or are holding the end of the rope so you can pull them in.
- If there is no lifesaving equipment look at what else you can use. There may be something that can help them stay afloat – even an item such as a ball can help.
- You could attempt to reach out to them. Clothes such as scarves can be used to try and reach or a long stick. If you do this lie on the ground so your entire body is safely on the edge and reach out with your arm. Don’t stand up or lean over the water– you may get pulled in.
- Be mindful that if the water is cold the person may struggle to grasp an object or hold on when being pulled in.
Upcoming diving competition
The Swim England Diving National Age Group Championships 2017 are taking place at Ponds Forge, Sheffield on 06 – 09 July 2017. This is the largest national diving competition in England, with athletes battling for national honours across individual events on the 1m and 3m Springboards and the Platform, and as synchronised pairs from the 1m and 3m Springboard.
Tickets are available if you would like the opportunity to watch a National Diving Competition.
Maybe you might be inspired to give diving a go.
Dancing raisins
In our Food mini-topic so far, we’ve been learning about sources of food, where in the world our food comes from, different food groups and which are the most important for our health (check out the Eat Well Guide). Today, we became scientists to carry out an experiment with a type of food – raisins.
The children suggested their own question to test using different equipment and resources provided. It was great to see the progress the children have made with their scientific questioning throughout the year. The chosen test was to see what happened when we put raisins in the still water and the fizzy water. After using another key scientific skill, predicting, we started our test by making sure it was fair, too.
The results were dancing raisins in the fizzy water!
Our observation skills were needed to watch what was happening to the raisins and the bubbles. After the investigation, there were some great suggestions about what we could test next. Isabella wondered what might happen if we tried it in apple or orange juice?
Finally, we did some mindful eating (using our senses) to try some raisins. Most of us were able to wait until we actually tasted them!
American Independence Day themed menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special American Independence themed menu on Wednesday 05 July.
Please contact the office by Friday 16 June if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
Capacity finding
We’ve been making a mess this morning in our maths lesson. Children had to find the capacity of different containers in litres. First they estimated the capacity and then used a litre measuring jug to find how close their estimates were.
