This term a new group of children are taking care of our garden area. After all the hard work of last term’s children, this new group are beginning to harvest the crops that they have grown. We have tomatoes, peppers and potatoes to enjoy. The sunflowers that last year’s Y5s and Y6s grew are looking fantastic too! We are going to take the potato crop that we have collected so far to our Harvest Festival service on Thursday.
We’re three weeks into the new school year and our children have settled well into school routines – this includes our new Nursery and Reception children who have all settled really well. Parent-teacher meetings aren’t too far away, but remember you can contact your child’s class teacher with any questions, comments and concerns you might have.
Settling back into routines is hard, and even more so after Covid situations. Without the staggered starts, children are expected at 8.50am. It’s more important than ever for us all to be punctual. Arriving a few minutes late each day means a child misses out on almost half an hour of learning across a week. Just as important is that it can be unsettling for them to arrive in class on their own, with lots of their friends noticing they’re late. Set your alarm five minutes earlier to make sure you arrive at school on time.
The phonics screening check determines how well a child uses the phonics skills they’ve learned, ensuring that they’re on track to become fluent readers.
The check was cancelled by the government for Year 1 children last year. Instead, in December, the phonics screening check will be taken by all children in Year 2 (and pupils who don’t meet the expected standard then will take the statutory check again in June 2022, alongside Year 1 pupils.)
The check contains 40 words divided into two sections. Both sections contain a mixture of real words and alien words.
Children are encouraged to add sound buttons or use phoneme fingers to read a word. Here’s a video showing how we do this.
Help your child at home by reading anything and everything!
The session this week was about reading at home and was specifically for parents / carers of older children. If you missed it, watch the recorded session.
There are still a few Zoom sessions coming up:
All the sessions start at 6pm and last around 30 minutes. If you’re interested in attending, either send us a message on the School Gateway app or email the school office. We’ll then email the Zoom joining details out to all those who have expressed an interest. (If your child’s in Early Years, look out for a range of sessions specifically for you.)
Biking and scooting are one of the ways we encourage children to actively travel to and from school. Next week, we’re taking part in Bike to School Week (with Sustrans and the Bikeability Trust). We’re pleased to be part of this UK-wide event, encouraging families to cycle, or scoot, to school. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate active school journeys and the positive impact it has on children’s health and wellbeing – as well as the environment.
According to government guidelines, children and young people aged 5 to 18 need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.. At 1.6 miles, the average primary school journey is a distance that can be cycled, scooted or walked.
You can pledge to cycle or scoot to school during Bike To School Week. Every family pledging their journeys will be entered into a competition to win a Frog Bike worth up to £400. Plus you’ll be joining families all around the UK highlighting the benefits of an active school run.
If you’re worried about your child’s relationship with food or their body, it might be worth looking for some support. If your child’s eating habits negatively affect their everyday life, they may have an eating disorder. This is when someone uses food to cope with certain situations or feelings. Teenagers between 13 and 17 are most at risk, but anyone can have an eating disorder. It can be helpful to know the signs and what to do if you’re worried about your child.
Finally, in case you missed it, we sent a list of key dates for the school year home this week. Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Next week, we’ll been learning how the ‘oa’ sound can be spelled in lots of different ways. For example, in the word ‘Joe’, the letters ‘oe’ make the ‘oa’ sound but in the word ‘slow’ it’s the letters ‘ow’.
To help consolidate this learning, we’d like you to practise spelling these words at home.
yellow group blue group
notice boat
suppose smoke
though though
although flow
heroes home
those those
glowing glowing
phone road
We’ll test ourselves on Friday 1 October to see how we’ve got on.
For some tips and tricks on how best to practise your spellings at home, visit the Y3,4 spelling page on our website and click here.
In Science this half term, we are learning about different states of matter. We used a lot of scientific reasoning to decide whether something is a solid, a liquid or a gas. We have some great chemists!
In our writing lessons, we’ve been learning about all the things that make a great diary entry-Leah’s writing today is an awesome example of WAGOLL (what a good one looks like!)
You’ll find all sorts of technical stuff-fronted adverbials, fab adjectives, emotive language, capitals all in the right places as well as being in the first person.
Nice one, Leah! Keep up the hard work! 👍😁⭐️
The first postcards of the year are written and stamped and ready to go in the post box.
Throughout the year, your child might achieve something significant, continue to show a fantastic learning attitude or just generally be an all round great member of our class – for these reasons (and many others, I’m sure!) a postcard will be written and sent to their home address.
I’ve written six so far… could there be one arriving through your letterbox?
Today’s music lesson was EPIC! Year 5 & 6 learned one of the classics-Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin on a Prayer’.
I was totally surprised at what a tuneful bunch they are and their sensational efforts at the well known key change were memorable-I especially loved their signature ‘power grab’ at the end..!
I can’t wait to hear more as for the rest of this half term, we’ll be focussing on singing.
Awesome effort by all.
Zacchaeus is friends with Jesus: Luke 19: 1-10
In today’s story, we hear about a man called Zacchaeus. He had always been a loner. He had never had as much as one friend. Not surprising, really. He had lived most of his life as a cheat. It was easy. Just demand more money. That was the beauty of his job as a tax collector. People were a bit afraid of tax collectors. You would not want to get on the wrong side of a tax collector, especially one like Zacchaeus.
He was a small man, was Zacchaeus. Perhaps he was bullied or laughed at. Sometimes people get picked on by others – the tall ones, perhaps, or the short ones, or ones with straight hair, or ones with curly hair, or ones with the wrong clothes. People are certainly not born cheats.
Or perhaps Zacchaeus just thought that money could bring him happiness, or friends. Or maybe he was just a rogue!
One day Zacchaeus was out and about in the streets of Jericho. He heard people talking about Jesus. All excited, they were, that Jesus was going to be passing through their town that day. Read the story to find out what happened to Zacchaeus.
Reflection:
Zacchaeus was a man with a hard heart and no friends. We don’t know why, but Jesus cared for Zacchaeus. Jesus also believed that Zacchaeus had some good in him, if only he could be persuaded to change his ways. Zacchaeus mattered to Jesus, and Jesus’ friendship was able to change how Zacchaeus acted. Think about yourself and your friends. Are there any ways in which you can treat people that might help them to become friends?
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that you know us and that you care for us.
Help us to be kind and generous to other people,
like Zacchaeus after he met Jesus.
Amen.
This week’s message come from our Science and Foundation Subjects Leader, Mr Wilks, who’s based at Moortown Primary. The message is about the current topic that children in Years 1-6 are learning about this half-term: Geography. It’s a long message – you could skip to the last section on helping your child at home if you need to. (There are links to the recent Zoom sessions on phonics and Early Years at the end, too.)
Topics are the vehicle for delivering much of the learning in the foundation subjects (eg history, art, geography, DT). Each half-termly topic has a driving subject – the main focus for teaching pupils the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. The driver changes with each topic to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum.
Although the learning in each topic will be provided by the driving subject, there are opportunities for enrichment through other subjects. For example, learning in a history-driven subject may be enriched by observational drawing of an artefact.
Read more about the intent, implementation and impact of our topics.
This half-term, the topic is called Where in the world am I? and your child’s a geographer.
In this geography-driven topic, we’re focusing on the geography of the United Kingdom and helping to develop the children’s sense of where they live through the use of fieldwork. Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic.
Children in Years 1 and 2 will learn about the different countries that make up the United Kingdom and their capital cities. They’ll learn about the difference between physical and human geography and identify examples of both in the local area. They’ll also be learning about the four compass points and using geographical vocabulary to describe what is north, south, east or west of them. Fieldwork in the local area may include taking photographs of features in the local area and then locating them on a map. It could also involve conducting a survey about what they like and dislike about their local area. They may even survey parents or members of the local community.
Children in Years 3 and 4 will develop their locational knowledge by using maps and atlases to locate some of the other cities in the United Kingdom. They’ll learn about counties and use the eight compass points to describe their locations. The big focus for this phase is on maps. They’ll learn how to use Ordnance Survey maps and their keys. They’ll learn about four figure grid references and use these to locate features. They’ll then apply this learning more locally by mapping a route to school.
Children in Years 5 and 6 will learn about National Parks, using maps to locate them. Like Y3,4 they’ll also use Ordnance Survey maps but this time they’ll be tasked with using six figure grid references to locate places. Importantly, they’ll get an understanding of how a geographer works by completing fieldwork on urban green spaces.
Regardless of the year group your child is in, Google Earth is a brilliant tool to help develop children’s understanding of their sense of place in the world. Zoom right in on your home and then zoom out to reveal the area of Leeds that you live in. Zoom further out to see what city you live. Zoom further for the county. A little further and you might start to spot some National Parks. Further still and you can see the country that we live in. Keep zooming and you’ll see the continent we live in (though this isn’t labelled). Before you know it, you’re floating in space and circling the Earth!
Google Maps is another great tool for investigating where you live. Try the Street View option and you can walk along your street. You can even toggle between different data points to see what your house or garden looked like in previous years. (My lack of gardening skills were laid bare in a staff meeting when we compared my unkempt garden in 2020 to the lush, wildlife haven the previous owners had lovingly created in 2008!)
Quizzing your children about some locational knowledge will help them to remember important information. I’ve listed some examples below. Use the age-related expectations to find the right pitch for your child.
If you can, go to the library and get some geography-related books, especially an atlas. You could compare maps of the same place to see what type of information they show. For example, you find lots of maps of the United Kingdom. One might show the countries and capital cities. Another might show the mountains, rivers and National Parks. Another might give information about the climate.
Children could draw a plan/map of their bedroom with a key. Older children could try to do this for each room of their house. You could also create a map of a mythical location with an accompanying key.
For children in Years 3-6, there are lots of different games and activities on Ordnance Survey Mapzone. I especially like the jigsaws in the Map Puzzles section of the Games.
Also for older children, there are lots of information and some tasks and quizzes on BBC Bitesize.
Thanks to Mr Wilks for this guided tour of our Where in the World am I? topic. As always with learning at home, keep it simple and make it fun.
Thank you to everyone who has attended our recent Zoom sessions to help you support your child at home. Watch the phonics session and the Early Years introduction. (And apologies for the distracting cursor in the latter – maybe that’s a nervous habit of mine!)
Enjoy your weekend.
Next week, we’ll be learning how the ‘ee’ sound can be spelled in lots of different ways. For example, in the word ‘breathe’, the letters ‘ea’ make the ‘ee’ sound but in the word ‘bee’ it’s the letters ‘ee’.
To help consolidate this learning, we’d like you to practise spelling these words at home over the week.
yellow group blue group
believe clean
breathe key
beneath queen
complete team
extreme teeth
increase mean
money theme
people treat
We’ll test ourselves on Friday 24 September to see how we’ve got on.
For some tips and tricks on how best to practise your spellings at home, visit the Y3,4 spelling page on our website and click here.