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.
Edible homework?
This week, as is often the case, Year 4 produced some superb homework. The children certainly got their thinking caps on and came up with unique, explosive, detailed and edible ideas!
The theme was ‘Extreme Earth’.
Very well done to Pia who came up with the idea of baking buns and using icing. She created volcano, tsunami and earthquake buns – too good to eat!
Dylan and Albert both caused a big eruption!
Take a look at the photos on show.
Another well done to Isaac who made his very own Top Trump cards.
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.
Sharing reading
On Friday afternoon, Year 4 spent some time sharing reading with Reception class. It was lovely to see how well the older children interacted with the younger ones and vice versa. Getting enjoyment through reading is something that we want to promote and all the children seemed to be getting a lot of pleasure through this activity.
What a super way to spend half an hour on a sunny Friday afternoon.
SEAL theme – Changes
We start this half term with a focus on manners.
Our SEAL statement is I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze).
For coughing and sneezing we have referred to the vampire method of sneezing into your elbow rather than a hand. After introducing this method a few years ago, it is great to see children now doing this without reminders.
During this half term, we start to think about changes the children will experience in school in terms of moving class, key stage and even school.
This SEAL theme tackles the issue of change and aims to equip children with an understanding of different types of change, positive and negative, and common responses to change. The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:
- Change can be uncomfortable, because it can threaten our basic needs to feel safe and to belong
- Change can also be stimulating and welcome
- Both adults and children can experience a range of powerful and conflicting emotions as a result of change – for example, excitement, anxiety, uncertainty, loss, anger, resentment
- Worries about change can be made worse by uncertainty, lack of information, or misinformation and lack of support from others
- People’s responses to and ability to cope with change are very variable, and might be influenced by individual temperament, previous experience of change, and the nature of the change – chosen or imposed, expected or unexpected, within our control or out of our control
Some children may welcome most forms of change and dislike routine and predictability. Other children may find even small changes very difficult.
Perhaps you can support your child’s learning by discussing at home any current and future changes, too.
Half term highlights
Yet another half term has passed and what a busy one it has been!
Year 4 has been full of learning with lots of fun along the way. Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks.
In English, we have been planning and writing our own descriptive settings. The standard of writing has greatly improved across the class. Children who have previously found writing quite a challenge were inspired and motivated by the creative way in which we prepared our work.
- “Gazing through the gaps in the leafless trees, shafts of sunlight hurt my eyes.”
- “As I stumbled along the narrow, rocky path, a tiny, yellow bird fluttered past me.”
- “Raging like a lion, water cascaded down the battered rocks and into the deep,blue pond below.”
Our new topic, ‘Natural Disasters’, is proving to be a popular one. The children have so far learnt about the Earth’s layers, volcanoes and the impact they can have on an environment. Our recent trip to Magna was a big success and full of fascinating facts. We even got to see a ‘fire tornado’! Some children have managed to carry their descriptive writing in topic lessons: “Boiling, hot lava charged down the rocky sides of the volcano like soldiers running into battle.”
Safety Week was jam-packed with activities and visitors: Dogs Trust, E-Safety workshop, safety awareness in various settings and bike safety to name but a few. There are a few photos below.
Here are some recent quotes from the children:
- “I love our ‘Reading For Pleasure’ sessions. They are so calm and we can just enjoy reading.”
- “I love school. It’s great fun with all the teachers.”
- “Playtime is great because lots of people play with me.”
- “My favourite subject is Art. I like being creative. Also, I like our SEAL sessions as they are calm and you can share your emotions.”
- “I like writing and you can get some really good ideas from other people.”
Below are a selection of photos from the last half term. Take a look.
Enjoy the half term break and we look forward to seeing you all for the final term of Year 4!
Staying Safe week so far
Our themed week has been jam-packed so far with visits from NSPCC, d:side drug education, Moortown Fire Service, Leeds City Council Road Safety team, Canal and Rivers Trust and Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative.
Children have also worked with different classes to take part in safety carousels including food safety, sun safety, water safety, first aid, safety in the home and the importance of safety helmets.
Ask your child about all the learning they have experienced so far.
Still to come is One Day Creative (e-safety drama workshops), local PCSOs, Dogs Trust and an outdoor adventure day for Year 6 at Yeadon Tarn.
Year 5 and 6 parents are invited to watch the e-safety workshop showback at 2:30pm on Thursday.
The weather has certainly helped to encourage lots of children to travel to school in a sustainable way on foot, by bike or scooter. There are two more days to register your journey to school to be in the prize draw for vouchers for each class.
Bike maintenance with Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative
Thank you to Mark and Jack from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative in Chapel Allerton who checked all the bikes at school today to ensure they were safe and road worthy.
They also delivered some bike maintenance sessions to Year 5 and 6 to make them aware of simple checks they can make to keep safe on their bikes.
Junior Warrior event
Total Warrior are launching a brand-new obstacle event for young people aged between 6 and 11 years old – Junior Warrior!
Total Warrior are a professional events delivery company, putting on events across the country since 2011. They are returning to Leeds for the 4th year, and are expecting over 7,500 people to join them at Bramham Park over the weekend of 24th & 25th June 2017.
In an effort to build on the success of previous years and maintain Total Warrior’s reputation as an epic adventure for all the family, the team don’t want young people stuck on the sidelines this year; they want them getting stuck in. The course will be a (approx) 2K route across the estate at Bramham, with 10 obstacles (tailor built for the age range) to tackle including walls, pipes, nets, loads of mud and an awesome water slide!
It will start and finish adjacent to the car parks and main Event Village in Bramham Park Estate, so navigation on the day will be straightforward. The course will be for children only, but will be easily accessible throughout for spectators. Volunteers and outdoor trained lifeguards (where relevant) will be on each obstacle, and volunteers will be distributed to ensure they have eyes on every section of the course.
Safe travel to school
During our Staying Safe themed week, children are encouraged to test out their learning of being safe in their local environment by travelling to school by scooter, bike or on foot. Children will be learning about road safety and the safe use of scooters and bikes as part of their learning during the week.
Plan a safe route to school, keep safe by wearing a safety helmet if biking or scooting, keep safe in the busy school grounds and safely store your scooters in the scooter pods and bikes in the storage area by Year 3 and 4.
If you do bike to school, Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative will be running a Dr Bike event, from 8:30am on Tuesday 23 May, in the main playground. Bring along your bike for a free bike safety check (parents and carers too!).
All children who bike, scoot or walk to school during the themed week should complete the slips (available in class) each day and post them in their class tube to be in the draw for 7 x £10 Love2Shop vouchers.
