Supermovers
The BBC and Premier League have launched a campaign called Super Movers to encourage children to become more active while learning. Teachers will be using the video resources to get children moving in lessons throughout the day. This physical activity can contribute to the 30 active minutes children should be doing at school.
Why not use the Super Movers video resources to support your child’s learning at home. Activities range from learning times tables to apostrophes.
Living and Learning – D:Side Internet Safety
Last week, we were joined by Dave from D:Side who came in to teach us all about staying safe online. We had a great time learning about how to be safer online and, in general, Y5 were pretty savvy when it came to spotting risks online.
During the course of the session, many things stood out to me that I’d like to share with you as parents:
- 25/30 children in the class claimed to be using social media on a regular basis, using phones, iPads and home PCs (mainly, children are using Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp). The recommended minimum age for these sites is 13.
- Children who use Snapchat admitted that they follow lots of people that they don’t know.
- Similarly, on Snapchat, most children were unaware that Snapchat introduced a new technology called Snapmaps which allows other users to pinpoint your exact location. On the app, you must opt-out of this feature.
- Most children in the class thought that if you upload a picture online and then delete it, it’s deleted from the internet for good and nobody could ever see it again – this is not the case.
- When faced with a fictional scenario where someone has received four follower requests from complete strangers, only two children in the class said they would not accept any of them. That means 28/30 children were happy to become online friends with someone they did not know. The main reason children were happy to accept the requests were because these people were a similar age or had similar interests – if your child can lie about their age to set up their account, so can others.
- Many children are playing games online against people they don’t know and are striking up conversations with these people over headsets.
- There was a particular quote that stood out which many children agreed with: ‘The more followers you have, the cooler you look!’. Please do all you can to change this perception.
All of the above points apply to adults as well as children – please stress this to your child! It’s important that children are aware of this so that they don’t think they only need to be careful because they’re a child.
Living and Learning – staying safe online
On Tuesday, we learnt all about staying safe and being responsible online as part of National Internet Safety Day.
We were joined by a visitor from Splats who helped us create a short play about the evil Meanies and the robots. In the play, the Meanies were making the robots (or the people using the internet) say and do mean things. Eventually, the robots were able to pass on some kindness and defeat the Meanies. This scenario replicated being online and the negative things that could happen when we are using the internet.
In class, we watched a Newsround video about three people and the choices they made online. We discussed the importance of keeping passwords safe, not playing online too much and making sure we know who we are communicating with online.
Ask your child what they learnt during the day.
Here are some questions to consider during your discussion…
- Are they being responsible online?
- How do they know?
- How do you know?
- What should they do if they are ever unsure of something that happens when online?
- When/how often are they online?
- When online, what apps/games are they using? And, how safe are these?
Reading Journals
Earlier this half-term, all children in Year 5 and 6 were given a ‘reading journal‘. The idea behind these books was to promote a love of reading and provide children with a way to record their reading journeys (both in school and at home). As we’ve been using them for a few weeks now, we had a look at some of ours in class. Here a few examples of responses by children that may, hopefully, provide some inspiration:
Skipping
Funded through our PE and Sport Premium, Year 2 and Year 4 have recently taken part in a skipping workshop led by ‘Skipping School’; both classes will then be part of a Leeds wide skipping competition.
- ‘I learnt a lot! It was fun and I learnt new skills.’
- ‘I think it is a good idea to skip because we are a happy and healthy school.’
- ‘I liked the skipping because I got to learn new things.’
- ‘I loved the skipping and the new skills because skipping makes you fit.’
- ‘First, I was really bad at skipping but when Jodi came I got better. Now I like skipping.’
We are offering all children the opportunity to learn these new skills, from their peers, by introducing skipping as a physical activity at lunchtimes. This is one way we are promoting physical activity during the school day for children to get their active 30 minutes.
The Government’s Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action, shares the expectation for all primary schools to provide a minimum of 30 active minutes every day for all pupils. The Chief Medical Officers recommend a minimum of 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity for children aged 5-18. Schools are expected to provide 30 of these minutes and families to achieve the other 30.
‘Skipping School’ also sell their ropes and we would like to offer all children the chance to buy a rope at a heavily subsided price (funded by our PE Premium) to continue learning these fundamental movement skills at home.
Ropes will be on sale at a price of £2 (normal price £5) before and after school during the week of 05 February. Starting with a stall at the PTA cake sale, Year 6 children will be selling the ropes in the playground subject to the weather. Please bring exact change wherever possible.
After-school clubs
Safer Internet Day 06 February
Splats Team Robot v Meanies e-Safety Show
As part of Safer Internet Day, on February 06, the pupils from Years 3 to 6 are learning and performing a show-in-a-day with Splats Entertainment e-Safety show.
The day is all about how we act online and in life. Each group of pupils work with the ‘Splats’ director where they learn their scene and then they make props in the classroom. The show is then being performed at the end of school at 2:30pm which we would like to invite you to attend. The day and performance is led by the ‘Splats’ director and the pupils join in and act out the parts.
It is a fun and light-hearted look at what is, of course, a very important issue of safety. The day is designed to get the pupils thinking, talking and developing their awareness of their online behaviour. We hope it will help facilitate discussion at school and at home and help the pupils be responsible and careful in their online activity.
Topics covered during the day include: keeping personal information safe; how we never know who we are talking to online; how to deal with any mean messages; how we never know how other people feel with what we say online; and if we are unsure of anything, we should always seek help from a trusted adult.
If you would like to come and watch the e-safety show, please complete the reply slip, on your child’s letter, and return to school as soon as possible as we have a limited number of spaces.
New school dinner menu
After half term, our school dinner menu will be changing. This menu, provided by our school meals provider Catering Leeds, will be served until the end of the summer term.
Our School Council have recently repeated a vegetable survey to find out children’s favourite choices. These preferences have now been incorporated into the new menu.
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. If you would like a printed copy, please ask at the office.
Have a look for the days ahead to make your child aware of what the daily meals are. Following pupil and parent feedback, children now make their main meal choice at the start of the day. This ensures they get their first choice of meal.
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 I want to say box. We have a few new dishes on the menu which we encourage the children to try.
Thank you to parents who also raise questions and give feedback. We can then ensure this is passed on to the kitchen staff.
Safer Internet Day 2018
Pupils will be taking part in different activities to support their learning of this important subject. As well as in class learning, children will have the opportunity to work with the following external visitors.
We welcome ‘Splats Entertainment’ who will be delivering e-safety drama workshops for pupils from Year 3 to 6. Children will be learning and performing a show in a day. Please see your child’s letter to request tickets to watch this show at 2:30pm on 06 February.
D:side, an online safety charity, will be visiting classes Y1-Y6 on 01 and 02 February to deliver internet safety sessions with the following focus:
- What we use the Internet for (KS1)
- What is / is not safe to share online (KS1)
- What to do if we are not sure about the internet (KS1)
- Using emails safely (KS2)
- Social networking and safe profiling – including use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, Oovoo, etc. (KS2)
- ‘Chatting’ with care (KS2)
- Responsible and safe use of the internet (logins, email, photography, password protection, personal information and self-protection). (KS2)
- Using text and picture messaging (KS2)
- Behaving responsibly (KS2)
Dave Hill, from d:side, will also be delivering an online safety workshop for parents/carers on Thursday 01 February at 2:30pm-3:15pm. There will be chance to find out what your child has been learning in this area, to give you some skills and knowledge to keep your child safe online and to ask questions on this subject. There will be limited places for this workshop so please complete and return the response slip, on your child’s letter, if you would like to attend.
If you are unable to attend the workshop, please refer to the guidance that will be sent home with your child published by the NSPCC/O2. Further guidance can be found on our website. There will also be a workshop for parents of older children later in the term, specifically looking at the use of social media.
Make-a-wish
This year, we’re supporting Make-a-wish as our school charity, chosen by the School Council.
Today, we welcomed John Russo, a volunteer from Make-a-wish, who told us about the charity, the kind of wishes they make happen and how the money we raise might be spent.
Children were asked to consider how we can support the charity over this year. They could either write a suggestion for their ‘I want to say’ box or pass on their ideas to their class school councillors.