After-school club availability
There’s still time to sign up to our Spring term after-school clubs starting next week.
Please contact the office if you would like to book a place on any of the following clubs which currently have spaces available.
Monday
| Love of reading club
Do you enjoy stories? Join Mrs Charlesworth and delve into books, get into the characters and listen to stories. Share your own favourite stories too. This club finishes at 4.15pm. There are no sessions on Monday 28 January 2019 or Monday 11 February 2019. |
Y1, Y2, Y3 | £12 |
| Netball
Come and learn the skills and techniques of netball in this fun club. Organised by Mrs Taylor and Miss Rushbrooke. This club finishes at 4.15pm. There are no sessions on Monday 11 February 2019 or Monday 04 March 2019. |
Y3, Y4,
Y5, Y6 |
£6 |
Tuesday
| Dance
Join Miss Marsden to learn fun dance routines to perform at a dance festival in April 2019. This club finishes at 4.15pm and continues until Tuesday 23 April 2019. There is no session on Tuesday 12 February 2019. |
Y1, Y2,
Y3 |
£9 |
| Basketball
Come and learn the skills and techniques of basketball in this fun club. Organised by City of Leeds Basketball Club. This club finishes at 4.15pm. There is no session on Tuesday 12 February 2019. |
Y3, Y4, Y5,Y6 | £7 |
Wednesday
| Gymnastics
A fun way to keep fit while learning new skills. Organised by Leeds Gymnastics Club. This club finishes at 4.15pm. |
Y1, Y2,
Y3, Y4, Y5 |
£8 |
Thursday
| Mindfulness
Join Miss Marsden and try a range of mindfulness techniques, both creative and physical. This club finishes at 4.15pm. |
Y1, Y2, Y3 | £8 |
What is a drug?
In Living and Learning, as taken from our long term plan, we will be focusing on drug education for the next two weeks.
Our first statement for this learning is, I know what a drug is.
Our definition of a drug refers to a substance people take to change the way they feel, think or behave. The word ‘drug’ includes:
- All legal drugs, including tobacco, alcohol, solvents and volatile substances, misused medicines and legal highs
- All illegal drugs
- Prescribed and over-the-counter medicines
On Thursday and Friday of this week, we welcome d:side, a health education provider, to school to deliver drug education workshops to each class as part of this learning.
Parents and carers are invited to come to an information session, led by d:side, on Thursday 24 January from 2:45-3:15pm. Please inform the office if you would like to attend.
We’ve “bin” to the Recycling Centre!
Sorry for the terrible joke – it was rubbish.
Here are a few snaps from our time at the Leeds Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility!
We were astounded by the size of the claw and even more so by all that rubbish! (We were on the seventh floor of the building and the pile went all the way down to ground level and 5 m below!)
We played a game where you had to throw the rubbish (a bean bag) into the correct recycling bin. It’s tricky to know what’s what, so check with Leeds City Council if you’re ever unsure.
We also made pledges to become Waste Champions and learnt all about their Living Wall; it had around 110,000 plants on it!
We learnt a lot of facts about recycling from our time at the facility. It’s good to be green!
Watercolour Techniques
This week, we’ve been learning about watercolour techniques (one of our processes of art) using colour (0ne of our visual and tactile elements of art).
We practised a flat wash, a graduated wash, wet on dry and wet on wet techniques.
Next time, we will learn a few more techniques before putting what we’ve learnt into a full painting.
Living and Learning – solving problems
This week’s Living and Learning theme is I can make things better. Year 5 had a very in depth and beneficial circle time to discuss how we can solve problems and improve any tricky situations we are experiencing. We covered some important topics: sleep, resolving arguments and online behaviour.
We first “opened up the floor” to ask if anyone was having difficulty with anything and I would like to thank Year 5 for being very mature, open and honest.
Our first topic was sleep; lots of us said we were finding it hard (or harder) to sleep since returning to school. This included Miss Wilson! Here are our top tips, if you’re having trouble:
Key points:
- Reduce / stop screen time in the hours leading up to bed.
- Write down any worries you have and scrunch them up.
- Listen to calming music or do something relaxing.
Next up – resolving arguments:
Key points:
- Treat people how you would like to be treated.
- Walk away and give yourself time to calm down if you need to.
- Be a good role model for siblings.
Finally, something that was very important for lots of people in the class and seems to have been causing a couple of issues outside of school. Here are our top tips:
Lots of children were sharing their experiences of online behaviour that made them feel upset or uncomfortable. This is a great start. To make things better, often the first step should be to talk to someone.
Key points:
- Do not – DO NOT – ever share your password with someone under any circumstances! This is your personal information and should be kept a secret. Would you give anybody a key to your house or car? It’s the same thing.
- Change your password if you suspect anybody knows it. And make it as complex as you can whilst it still being memorable.
- Act online how you would in real life. Hiding behind a keyboard does not make you brave. Make sensible, kind choices online – just like when you’re face to face.
Thanks to Year 5 for our mature and beneficial talk this week.
If any parents or children are still having issues or have concerns, please come in to speak to me or to Mrs Weekes to discuss this further. Thanks!
What’s the matter with materials?
To kick off our mini Science topic – What’s the Matter? – Year 5 carried out an investigation into the properties of materials.
We discussed what made certain materials suitable for certain jobs. For example, glass is suitable for a window because it lets light through it but glass would be unsuitable for a teddy bear because it is very fragile and hard!
Each material (wood/plastic/fabric/metal/glass) was tested for four different properties. We wanted to find out which materials were:
- magnetic
- translucent
- waterproof
- electrically conductive
We collected lots of data!
Our findings helped us to group materials by their properties…
… and this sparked some brilliant discussion about what was the same and different about each material and what they would be useful for. It also prompted some quite ridiculous and funny ideas for materials that would be a bad choice for certain jobs!
Performing Poetry
In this week’s reading and writing lessons, Year 5 have focused on poetry. We have read a variety of poems that were structured in different ways (using semi colons) or were about serious issues (climate change).
We performed poems using actions…
… and were inspired to make our own short piece of drama that had an environment theme.
It was important to remember to (R2s) be loud, have an expressive voice, be confident – even if you didn’t feel it – and work cooperatively with your other actors!
Themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Friday 18 January. Please contact the office, by Friday 11 January, if your child would like a school meal on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
Living and Learning
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I know how to seek help.
- I make safe choices, including online.
- I can assess my own risks.
Keeping active
As part of our commitment to being a happy and healthy school, we’re always looking at ways to increase our pupils’ physical activity both in and out of school.
The government’s childhood obesity plan has set out the ambition for all children to achieve 60 minutes, or more, of physical activity every day (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes outside of school).
In response to this aim, we’ve compiled a physical activity guide suggesting out-of-school physical activities available to families in our local area.
The information on the guide is correct as of November 2018. Keep an eye out on our news and class news pages where will promote any new activities throughout the year.
We’d love to hear feedback about any activities you or your child try based on this guide.
