Staying safe online
As a follow up to the recent Safer Internet Day, PCSO Louise delivered an assembly for all classes to reinforce the key online safety messages.
Help at home by asking your child/children how the 4Cs relate to them when they are online.
Living and Learning: Safer Internet
Recently, we enjoyed a day looking at how to be safe online.
Safer Internet Day
One of our sessions involved a visitor!
We enjoyed learning some statistics about being safe online before deciding if some online accounts were real or fake. We learnt not to trust every piece of information we see online: online accounts on social media sites or gaming sites might not always be as they seem!
Think before you post: We also learnt that once we share something online, a picture or post for example, it’s out there for good no matter if you delete it. If you post a picture but change your mind, someone could have easily saved it and passed it on in that time!
Help at home by talking to your child regularly about the pros and cons of being online and monitoring their online usage!
Science: irreversible changes and controlling variables
In today’s science lesson, we explored an irreversible change. We mixed bicarbonate of soda with vinegar to create a chemical reaction which resulted in the formation of carbon dioxide. 
We then discussed how we could increase the amount of carbon dioxide that was formed and the importance of controlling variables.
- control variables (the variables we kept the same): the size of the bottle, the amount of bicarbonate of soda, the type of balloon):
- independent variable (the variable we changed): the amount of vinegar
- dependent variable (the variable we are testing): the amount of carbon dioxide
We found that increasing the amount of vinegar resulted in the creation of more carbon dioxide. However, the 100ml test (green balloon) didn’t support this finding. Possibly there was too much vinegar or maybe the green balloon made a difference! We discussed how repeating this test would make our date more reliable.
Supporting our school charity
St Gemma’s Hospice is our current school charity chosen democratically by the children.
Today, we welcomed Steph and Stewart from St Gemma’s Hospice for an assembly to find out more about the fantastic work they do in our local community.
Here, two of our junior leaders are presenting them with a cheque for £377 for the money we have raised so far.
Steph and Stewart commented on the impressive behaviour of the children and the intelligent questions they asked.
Our junior leaders are planning a visit to the hospice over the next few weeks to continue this partnership.
Cross country finalists
Today, four Key Stage 2 pupils represented our school in the Leeds cross country final after qualifying in the North East Leeds competition.
Well done to all the children who gave 100% in their races of over 100 runners and with a tough hill at the end.
Special congratulations to our Year 6 runner who after finishing 1st in his heat went on to finish 1st in the Leeds final today! A fantastic acheievement! He will now qualify for the West Yorkshire cross country final.
Thank you to parents who transported and supported the children today.
Model of our Solar System
In a recent Science lesson, we learnt about the different planets in our Solar System.
We learnt about the heliocentric model of the Solar System by which all the plants revolve around the Sun that is in the centre.
We learnt that different planets are different distances away from the Sun.
In order for us to fully grasp this concept, we scaled down the actual distances between the planets and represented their relative distances in the playground!
We found out that Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and Neptune is the furthest away!
Help at home by seeing if your child can remember the order of the planets from the Sun. We made a mnemonic in class to help us!
Living and Learning: I know how to seek help.
In our living and learning sessions over the last two weeks, we have been exploring risks and how to seek help if we need to.
We looked at different scenarios and placed them on a continuum based on how much of a risk we thought they posed. Some of the scenarios were:
– learning to ride a horse
– learning to drive
– taking up a new hobby
– drinking energy drinks on a daily basis
– stealing from a shop
– putting your hand up if you’re not sure of the answer
After we’d established the risks involved with each, we spoke about how some things are worth doing because the risks are minimal but other things definitely aren’t!
When would you know if the risks involved made something not worth doing?
We spoke about how we often get that feeling in our stomach if we know the risks are too great. We also spoke about how if we weren’t sure, we should always speak to a trusted adult!
Help at home by talking with your child about different things they may encounter in their lives as they progress to high school and beyond and the risks associated with them! This will help them make informed decisions in the future!
Well done, Y6!
Living and Learning: Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
Over the last two weeks, we’ve been learning all about drugs, alcohol and tobacco in our L&L sessions.
We talked about what drugs, alcohol and tobacco are and the effects and impacts they can have.
We learnt that drugs can have both positive and negative impacts and discussed the difference between illegal drugs and legal drugs prescribed by doctors.
How can you help at home?
Talk to your child and recap/consolidate their learning by having conversations about drugs, alcohol and tobacco!
Spring term after-school clubs
Living and Learning: Mental Health
In a recent Living and Learning session, we learnt all about mental health and we recognised why it is important.
Firstly, we talked about what mental health means. It’s our thoughts and feelings, emotions and how we feel inside.
Next, we chatted about big feelings – ones that could stop us from doing things and small feelings – ones that feel big at the time but go away after time.
After that, we discussed and recorded different self care techniques. We can refer to these when we need to!
Here are some pictures of us during our learning!
