Our daily message to you today concentrates on home learning – we’ve still got lots of our pupils at home and we’re not going to neglect them.
If you’re at home with your child and are really struggling in some way, please do get in touch. Call us on 01937 583 379 or send an email to Natalie Beatson, the Head of School (stjamesheadofschool@spherefederation.org). We’ll do our best to support in some way.
In previous messages, we’ve encouraged setting up a routine to support home learning. In case you’ve missed this, we really like the Education Endowment Foundation’s resources to support parents and carers at home, especially this video and really simple tick list which promote routines.
Another piece of advice was to be flexible. This could be in two ways…
One is to be flexible in terms of occasionally breaking the routine so that it works for you and your child. Routines bring with them feelings of safety and security for your child, and breaking them can bring excitement and extra engagement (and ease some pressure for you), as long as it’s not too often.
The other way to be flexible is about the home learning tasks. The four activities here can be used as additional or alternative home learning tasks.
Design competition for the new Leeds Children’s Hospital
Calling all budding architects and designers! Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is going to build a brand new Leeds Children’s Hospital and they need children’s help to design it.
The judges are looking for design ideas that will make a difference to patients, their families, carers and people who work in the new Leeds Children’s Hospital. The ideas could be:
- an idea that is a practical help (for example, a new way of finding your way around)
- an idea for how the inside or outside of the hospital might look to make patients, families and staff feel like it’s great place to be
- an idea for something to keep patients in touch with their families and friends
- an idea for a space to play, or relax, or spend time with friends and family
- a new idea to inspire their design team in the future
Draw a picture, paint, make a model, write a poem, make it in Minecraft or Lego, make a short video… anything you like – it’s up to your child to decide! Find out more about the competition. Entries are open to anyone under 18 years old and the competition closes on Friday 12 June 2020.
Share your Covid experiences
Across the city, the lives of children and young people have been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. They’re having to come to terms with a whole new normal way of living and finding different and innovative ways to cope. The Leeds COVID Diaries Project is a way to capture their experience and will provide a valuable historical snapshot of Leeds for future generations.
People of all ages across Leeds are being invited to share their stories, experiences and thoughts about the coronavirus pandemic, but they’re particularly keen to hear from children, young people and families.
It might be called COVID Diaries, but it doesn’t have to be a diary entry! Your child’s (or your own) entry can be absolutely anything you want and in any format. It can be hand-written, typed, drawn, painted, recorded etc and can be a blog, video diary, song, piece of music, social media post, a photo, a poem, a piece of artwork… Find out more.
Storytelling and drama from Polka Theatre
For younger children, there are four stories to watch a story and then have a go at some of the related activities from Polka Theatre. You could perhaps spread this across four weeks of home learning, choosing one of the following for each week:
Leeds Children’s Mayor 2020
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Leeds will still hold elections for the next Leeds Children’s Mayor (LCM) this year. Find out more.
Children in Year 5 need to write a manifesto and then send it to us: stjamesheadofschool@spherefederation.org
It’s down to schools to submit the entrants, so send these to us by Friday 12 June. We’ll then make sure we submit entrants to the Leeds Children’s Mayor Team by Wednesday 17 June, the closing date.
Here’s a short video from Wania, the current Children’s Mayor, who explains what she likes about the programme.