Our new SEAL theme – Getting On
For this half term, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme Getting On covers four main aspects:
- developing the social skills of friendship
- working well together in a group
- managing anger
- resolving conflict
A key resource for children to refer to during this theme, and at other times, is Peaceful Problem Solving. This encourages children to sort out their own problems. You may wish to talk through this with your child(ren).
When group work takes place in school, some questions for children to consider are:
- Did everyone take turns?
- Did everyone listen to what other people thought?
- Did each person have chance to tell the group what they thought?
- If people had different ideas could the group reach a compromise?
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, managing feelings and social skills.
We start our weekly SEAL statements with a focus on manners, I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or with my hand).
Meet our new School Council
Congratulations to our new school councillors who were elected by their class in our whole school elections. Their first meeting will be held after half term.
An eighth continent…?
Our age-related expectations set out what children in each year group should know by the end of the year. The expectations are based on the National Curriculum.
In Geography, for Year 2, one of the expectations is to name the seven continents of the world and find them using an atlas, map or globe.
This might need to be changed based on a story in today’s news!
Our learning so far…
We are half way through our Time Travel Houses and Homes topic and currently we’ve reached the Tudor time in our travel back in time. So far we have learnt about houses at the present time, houses in Victorian and Tudor times and about a particular event in history – The Great Fire of London. This was a definite favourite so far!
After the half term, we will continue to travel back in time to the Norman period in history – think moats, battlements and defences.
Our final learning will be about the early types of houses (Celts and Iron Age). On Friday 24 February, we will visit Herd Farm to visit a reconstructed Iron Age farmstead. We wouldn’t expect that to be up the road!
Hopefully you will have all heard the lovely news that Emily Grace Wilks was born on Monday. Congratulations to Mr Wilks and his wife.
Hope you all have a restful half-term and we’ll see you back at school on Monday 20 February.
School Council election
Well done to all children who gave very confident, well-prepared speeches to the class this morning. The election proved to be very exciting in Year 2 as following our initial vote at the ‘polling station’, three children ended up with the same number of votes – Leo, Harris and Maya.
This meant a re-vote was needed. Again the voting was very close with just one vote in it.
Congratulations to Maya and Harris who have taken over as our new school councillors from Albie and Sakina. Commiserations to Leo – it really was so close.
We hope children who weren’t successful this year will try for the role again in Year 3.
School Council election
In an assembly this week, our current school councillors told us what characteristics are needed to be an effective school councillor. These included being responsive, fair, confident, resilient, a good listener, have good suggestions and accept the views of others.
Following in-class election speeches this week, our School Council elections will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 09 February. All children have the opportunity to vote at our polling station using the following instructions.
Before voting, please read the following:
- Vote once for one person.
- Place one X only on this ballot paper beside the name of the candidate you have chosen.
- Do not write or mark anything else on the ballot paper; if you do, your paper will be invalid and your vote will not be counted.
- When you have marked the ballot paper, fold the paper and place it in the box provided.
Votes will be counted tomorrow and our new School Council will be announced at the end of the day. This will be made up of two children from each class with the highest number of votes.
Good luck to all our candidates.
Safer Internet Day
Today is Safer Internet Day.
As part of our learning about internet safety, we are reading Digiduck, a story about friendship and online safety, in our whole class guided reading.
Did Digiduck make the right decision? Why?
The book also includes some key advice for parents. Further information on online safety is available from our website.
Parents’ evenings
Thank you to everyone who came to the parents’ evening appointments over the last couple of days.
It was great to celebrate your child’s successes and suggest some ways to support their learning at home.
If there is anything you would like to discuss further, please let us know.
Testing times
Forgive the pun… When we say ‘testing times’, we’re not talking about Trump or any other tricky ‘T’ word. Instead, we’re talking about the tests children in Year 2 (the end of Key Stage 1) and Year 6 (the end of Key Stage 2) will do in May.
For children in Year 6, the tests are in the week beginning 08 May. For children in Year 2, the tests – which we often call ‘special work’ – don’t need to be on specific days, but will be around the same time.
To help familiarise yourself with the tests, check out these videos:
Upcoming elections
Our current school councillors recently held their final meeting as we prepare to elect our new School Council.
This year’s election date is Thursday 09 February.
Children from every class, including Reception, are encouraged to prepare a speech to present to their class as part of the election process. Our whole school homework before the election date (03 February) will give children the chance to plan their speech.
Thank you to our existing school council who have been involved with many decisions and discussions throughout the year.
They are welcome to stand again at the elections.
