Leeds Playhouse
Drama can be used to improve the quality of children’s writing. This is because, when children are acting out a story, they’re learning about genre, narrative and how characters function in stories, which improves their knowledge of story structure. As well as this, by taking on a character and becoming immersed in their life and world through drama, children can experience how it feels to be a certain person with a particular personality, which enables pupils to write more thoughtfully and creatively. Drama is also ideal for developing and extending vocabulary.
Today, to enhance our Big Topic, Year 4 have been taking part in a drama workshop delivered by The West Yorkshire Playhouse. The session was based on our current class novel ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman.
After being transported into the story, the children thought about the various characters and how they may have been feeling at different parts in the novel. We were all very impressed by the standard of rich, descriptive language floating around the room.
Following this drama experience, Year 4 will be producing some descriptive writing. The children’s motivation to write has been enhanced by their involvement and enjoyment of today’s workshop.
Fe Fi Fo Fum! The Easter production has begun…
Big news in Years 3 and 4! We have officially kicked off rehearsals for the Easter production.
The production is called ‘Fe Fi Fo Fum’. So far we have held auditions and allocated the parts to pupils. Fe Fi Fo Fum is an action packed panto which brings the story of Jack and the Beanstalk up to date with a hilarious script, colourful characters and irresistible songs. Jack has to overcome his terrible fear of heights – a bit of a problem when trying to climb a beanstalk!
How can you help?
It is vital that your child brings their script into school every day. We are rehearsing regularly and annotating onto our scripts.
Please encourage your child to practise their lines at home and know what they need to say and any actions they need as well.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Easter production. Thank you for your support at home on this.
Active travel update
Here’s an update on our latest active travel initiatives for this half term.
Living Streets WOW Travel Tracker
Meltem from Living Streets visited school for an assembly today to launch a new challenge for our WOW active travel tracker.
Currently, children record how they get to school on the WOW daily online travel tracker and those who complete at least one active journey per week to school (bike, scoot, walk or park and stride) are rewarded with a themed monthly badge.
As this has been a big success, with increased active journeys and less journeys by car, from March, we will be challenging children to make at least three active journeys per week to earn their monthly badge.
There were some queries that were raised at the assembly.
Can your three active journeys be different?
Yes – active journeys include walking, biking, scooting and park and stride so as long as your journeys are any of these three in a week you would qualify for a badge.
What can be included as park and stride?
Ideally park and stride is where you park away from school and walk the final 5-10 minutes to school. This ensures that areas close to school are free from traffic. Marks and Spencer has many spaces available for families to park and walk the final part of the journey to school.
Sustrans Big Pedal 2019
Get set… the Big Pedal is back! We’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2019, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved. For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting.
This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
On each day, schools compete to see who can get as many of their pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school then our results will determine our final position in the national league table.
If you need the car to bring your child to school, perhaps you could park and stride the last part (our suggested park and stride site is Marks and Spencer car park).
The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Why we’re taking part
It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school in an active way. Also, schools will be entered into a daily prize draw for rewards including equipment and accessories if over 15% of our school community cycle, walk or scoot on that day of the challenge.
What do you need to do?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle, scoot, walk or park and stride to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.
Living and Learning: Being me
- I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze). Get your child to demonstrate the ‘vampire’ method to family members at home.
- I can say something good about myself. It’s important that your child can confidently talk about themselves in a positive way.
- I pay and receive compliments in a sensible way. Try paying compliments each day to each other! Some children struggle to hear positive words about themselves, but this is important for self-esteem. Try paying (and listening) to praise and compliments.
- I recognise my talents. Talk to your child about talents, whether academic, physical, social or emotional. Some of us may have a natural talent, but most have talents that derive from lots of practice.
- I know the difference between being proud and showing off. We encourage compliments to be paid – but encourage your children to know the balance between being having self-esteem and showing off.
Living Streets (Moortown group) update
An update and a call for support (by Friday 15 March) from our local Living Streets group.
WE HAVE GOOD NEWS!
Back in autumn we submitted a response to the ‘Connecting Leeds’ consultation for improvements in Moortown. The feedback you provided in our survey helped us to share a number of ideas with Leeds City Council to help make the routes to school safer and more pleasant for all members of the community.
It’s very pleasing to see that a number of suggested improvements have been incorporated into the revised proposals, including:
• Priority for pedestrians at both the entrance and exit of the parade car parks (kerbs to run through with visual priority for people on foot so drivers know to give way).
• Replacing the badly positioned concrete bollards on the northern parade with a continuous low-level fence (to match the south parade) to prevent vehicles blocking the footpath.
• Low-level fencing at Manning Stainton to allow access only via the official dropped kerb and not across the full length of the footway.
• Planters adjacent to the road outside Manning Stainton to enhance the area and prevent HGVs and other vehicles driving and parking on the footway.
• Improved crossing times for pedestrians at the main M&S lights.
• A widening of the public footpath/reduction in road space adjacent to the south parade to allow for the future introduction of a pavement at the shops (not in the scope of this project).
Existing proposed designs for this future work can be found in Moortown Community Group’s Neighbourhood Design Statement (available at moortowncommunitygroup.org.uk).
BUT IT’S NOT A DONE DEAL YET. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP…
Although the public consultation for Moortown is now complete, there will still be some local targeted consultation with residents and business owners directly affected by the proposals. They will hopefully support the revised proposals too, but there’s also a chance some won’t, particularly if it affects current parking arrangements.
We want to ensure that the improvements for pedestrians many of us have been campaigning for are delivered and a great way to demonstrate your support is to post a comment about the revised plans on Twitter, tagging both Connecting Leeds and Moortown Living Streets Group, or email Connecting Leeds directly if you don’t use Twitter:
Twitter: @ConnectingLeeds + @MoortownLSG
Email: connectingleeds@leeds.gov.uk
Follow this link to see the updated Moortown plans as well as a number of other local schemes which are now open for public comment (including Alwoodley, Scott Hall Road and Chapel Allerton).
Many thanks once again for your continued support!
Dom Jacques
E: moortowngroup@livingstreets.org.uk T: @moortownlsg
World Book Day school dinner menu
On World Book Day, Thursday 7th March, there will be a special themed menu for school meals.
Please contact the office, as soon as possible, if your child would like to have a school meal on this day.
Living and Learning: I can assess my own risks
Following our staying safe learning last week, we thought about how that links with another area of living and learning, rights and responsibilities.
I have the right to be safe.
I have responsibility to make safe choices.
This week, our living and learning statement encourages us to take responsibility for our own safety. Using the learning from our themed week, we thought about how we can assess our own risks and stay safe.
Using one piece of large paper, Year 4 created a poster. Throughout the day, the children added their own thoughts about assessing risks to the sheet.
Ask your child about other potentially unsafe situations and how they can take responsibility and assess their own risks.
Investigating Shadows
This week, Year 4 have been investigating shadows. The children were able to recognise that shadows are formed when the light, from a light source, is blocked by an opaque object.
Before we began our investigations, we enjoyed watching a short film clip about creating shadows called ‘Wonderful World.’ In this show, the audience are on the same side of the screen as the puppeteer so you can see him working.
During the presentation the creator shows shadows of both an adult hand and a child’s hand at the same time. Both hands belong to the same person.
How did he do it?
We discussed our thoughts and suggested ideas.
“Is one hand close and one far away?” questioned Noah.
“I think that the light is moving closer,” stated Jess.
This led us to thinking about how shadow sizes can be altered.
The class were asked to set up their own experiment that would enable them to be able to investigate the following:
- find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change
- make systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units
- recording findings using simple scientific language and tables
The children actively investigated how shadows change as the light source is moved further away from an object. They worked in teams to take measurements and look for patterns in the data they collected.
The class discovered that:
- an object close to the screen casts the clearest shadow
- the distance of the light source from the object affects the size of the shadow
- the further away the light source, the smaller the shadow.
Were there any patterns?
“Our results did show that the shadow of the object gets bigger the closer it gets to the light source.” Group 4
“Our results did not really have a pattern. We thought that the reason for this might’ve been that the room wasn’t dark enough. Our shadow was hard to see and measure.” Group 1
Finally, the children used their results to form a conclusion. 
Great investigating Year 4!
At playtime, it was lovely to see that some of Year 4 were creating their own shadows using the sun as the light source.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe week comes to an end
The final two days of our Staying Safe themed week continued to be filled with visitors, visits and more great learning.
Thank you to Allerton Grange who supported our themed week by hosting two of our classes. Year 6 had to be very safety conscious when attempting to scale the climbing wall. The technology department allowed Year 5 to safely investigate and explore a variety of different equipment.
Rachael from the Dogs Trust visited all classes on Thursday to talk about keeping safe around dogs. The children were taught to always check with an owner to see if it is safe to stroke a dog and what to do if a dog runs towards you. Have a look at Year 3’s class news post to find out more.
Jane Cusworth from Leeds Beckett University also joined us on Thursday to cover some basic first aid with different classes. Thank you to those parents and carers who joined her for the first aid workshop at the end of the day.
On Friday, Steve from British Military Martial Arts gave some great self defence tips to the children. BMMA run a martial arts after-school club at school every Monday so contact the office if you’d like more details.
There was also a water safety theme to the day with a visit from the Canal and River Trust to help to keep us safe by rivers and canals. Key water safety messages were given such as lying down on the floor when pulling someone out of the water.
Finally, thank you to Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, who gave hand hygiene sessions to Reception and KS1 classes. Keeping our hands clean and safe from germs will protect us from becoming sick and passing on germs to others.
There have been some great safety messages across the week from all our visitors. Ask your child/children what they have learnt across the week in respect to staying safe
- online
- at home
- at school
- in their environment
Safety Week Summary
We have come to the end of our ‘Safety’ themed week. Year 4 have had many visitors relating to different aspects of staying safe. We would like to thank Mrs Taylor who works hard to organise the events during a themed week. She has provided us all with many interesting and exciting safety workshops.
Below are a few snippets from some of the sessions.
