Trees and Spirituality in Year 1
This week, Year One have been learning all about trees and flowers. We explored their similarities and differences. We discovered that trees are plants too and share many similar features.
On a walk around the school field, we looked closely at different trees, thinking about how they are the same, how they are different, and estimating how old they might be. They carefully drew and labelled their own trees.
Spirituality
There was a magical moment of awe and wonder when we realised that some of our school trees could be over 100 years old! The children sat quietly, taking in their beauty—it was a truly spiritual moment of admiration and respect for nature. I’ve never seen them more peaceful.
Planting New Life for Reception
Year 3 headed down to Reception this week to help plant some new flowers for their outdoor area. The children were split into small groups and had one area to attend to each. The pupils showed teamwork, good organisation and weren’t afraid to get stuck in. The reception area now has even more colour and life than before, and the children were really proud of their contributions. Year 3 received a class positive peers certificate from Reception, which the children were really pleased with.
Netball at Wetherby High
Year 5 took part in a netball skills session at Wetherby High School this week, and it’s fair to say, we have seriously talented children! The afternoon began with lots of small team skills and games, where the children had to show teamwork, resilience and support for each other. I was super proud of how the children looked after each other and showed encouragement to not only our school members, but other schools, too.
The second half of the afternoon took us outside to play some netball games in a mini competition. Year 5 were split into two teams and competed against other schools. The children quickly adapted to the rules and positions needed for netball and showed off fantastic passing and shooting skills.
Again, I’d like to reiterate how proud I am of the Year 5 children and how they conducted themselves. They were polite, kind and gave 100% effort on a very warm day. Here are some pictures from the afternoon:
Living & Learning – But I’m not tired!
This week we have been learning about the importance of sleep. We were surprised to find out that we should be having 10-11 hours of sleep per day to be at our best the next day.
We shared our top tips for a good night’s sleep and learnt a few new ones from our research:
Help at home – encourage your child to keep a diary of how much sleep they are getting. Is it enough? If not, can they try one of the strategies above to help them sleep better?
With thanks from members of St James’ Church
You may remember that we made Holy Week booklets last half term that we shared with parishioners at St James’ Church.
This week we received a thank you card!
‘… At St James’ Church, my husband and I were given the Holy Week booklet you had made. It was so good to see that you knew, from your school lessons, the Easter story.
We kept your booklet and put it with other Easter cards we had received. The three beautiful pictures and your written information about each one was wonderful as well as the cross on the front page …’
I often boast how proud I am of the efforts and work of Year 4 but it’s particularly lovely to share that with people in our wider community.
Well done, Year 4! You made some people’s Easter that little bit more special!
Daily Poem
This week, we’ve enjoyed reading our daily poem I swept the dog by Ken Nesbitt.
Each week, we have a new poem that we read together each day. Reading poetry is a wonderful activity that offers a ton of benefits—both educational and emotional, such as:
- language development
- listening and comprehension skills
- imagination and creativity
- emotional expression
- bonding time
- cultural awareness and empathy.
Help at home: Take some time to enjoy our weekly poem together as part of your child’s homework routine. Do you have any favorite poems you love reading at home? We’d love to hear them—feel free to bring them in and share with the class!
Living and Learning
This week our focus is to ‘recognise the importance of sleep’.
Did you know that at age 10, children are recommended to get around 10 hours of sleep each night. The average person spends 9,582 days of their lifetime asleep.
A good night’s sleep can improve a person’s:
- memory – Overnight, information moves from short-term to long-term memort.
- decision making – Our ability to think and make decisions is improved during sleep.
- concentration and mood – While asleep, activity in the brain improves a person’s focus.
- immune system – The immune system keeps a person healthy.
- body feel full after eating – This means a person who sleeps well is more likely to stay a healhty weight.
- body to grow and repair – During sleep the body repairs its muscles, organs and other cells.
We have been reviewing two different characters and thinking about their sleep patterns. We were able to highlight good and poor quality sleep and say how it might effect a person.
Then we devised our own action plan to help a young person improve their quality of sleep. It was important for us to consider daytime, bedtime and bedroom routines. Children we excellent at suggesting ways to improve these points (for example: less screen time, reading a book, blackout curtains, drinking water throughout the day). Finally, children suggested top tips for better sleep.
Children may be getting poor quality sleep due to worries and concerns. Children know where they can go should they be experiencing this:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This week, we have been reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle.
This book is fantastic as it helped our counting skills and helped us to think about the food that we eat.
We thought about the food the caterpillar ate and decided it was mostly fruit apart from on Saturday.
We know that fruit is good for our bodies, so we decided to make some delicious fruit kebabs to have at snack time. 
“The melon tastes sweet.” Avery
“The strawberry is yummy.” Wyatt
We even made one for Mr Nash! He told us the strawberry was both sweet and sour!
Help at home: Your child could make their very own fruit kebabs out of the fruit they enjoy or maybe even try some new ones! Can they remember the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
Living & Learning – I know the importance of personal hygiene
Earlier this week, we had a detailed discussion about the importance of personal hygiene. The children summarised their key learning beautifully:
Help at home:
Discuss things that you do at home to maintain your personal hygiene. Children could try different hand soaps and different toothpastes to see if they have a favourite!
Arithmetic
This term, together with our weekly spelling test, we’ll complete a short, low-pressure arithmetic test every Friday. This well help us to grow as confident, flexible mathematicians.
Children will complete 15 questions on the 4 operations (+ – x ÷) before reviewing as a class. Papers will be sent home weekly.
Help at home by looking through the paper with your child, working through errors and offering similar questions for additional practice. If you have any questions or need additional support, please don’t hesitate to ask.