Community Week
As part of Identity week in school, Foundation have been thinking about our school community and the people who work here. Mrs Coster from the school office spoke to the children on Monday about her role and Mrs Philip spoke to the children this afternoon about the work that the lunchtime staff do to ensure the children have a healthy lunch. F2 children also went out in groups throughout the week to do some busy jobs with Mr Atkins and talk about the work he does in school and how it keeps us safe.
The children thought about the people who help us in the wider community. They have enjoyed our new ‘Doctor’s Surgery’ role play, our sensory firefighter’s play, our ‘dentist’ fiddly fingers tooth brushing experience and dressing up as police officers in the outdoor area.
We worked together this week to create a map of Wetherby – the community in which we live. We looked at aerial photographs of Wetherby and the children printed green paint to create the background. Later in the week we added roads, rivers and buildings. Today, the children added their own house with their picture on. Keep an eye out for how we use our wonderful map creation in our next themed role play area, coming soon!
A visit from a vicar
This week in Year 1 and 2, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Revd. Stroma, from St James’ church, as part of our Identity week.
We’re looking at the different types of identity that we have, both as an individual and as a school. One of our school identities that we have is that our church identity. We are lucky to have close links with our local church St James’.
The children enjoyed the session, looking at items from the church that make up part of the church’s identity. The children could retell lots of interesting facts.
- “We learnt about things about God and Jesus.” – McKenzie
- “We learnt about festivals and celebrations in the church.” – Fleur
- “Revd. Stroma told us about the stoles, when they wear them and why they wear them.” – Daisy-Mae
- “Yesterday, we learnt about the things that are in the church like the white, pink and blue candles.” – Nicholas
Self-esteem workshop
As part of our themed week and our Living and Learning statement ‘I know who I am,‘ Year 5 and 6 took part in a workshop, linked to the Dove self-esteem project. The children discussed self-esteem, body image and body confidence.
A Christmas Carol
Today, we read a section of A Christmas Carol by candlelight and howling wind sound effects. Creepy…
This week in Foundation…
This week, the whole school have been thinking about how to STOP bullying – it was national Anti-Bullying Week. In Foundation, we’ve been thinking about what it means to be a kind friend and what actions may hurt other people or make them feel sad. Alongside discussing this with the children, they took part in a sorting activity where they had to decide which pictures showed behaviour of a kind friend and which pictures showed unkind actions.
This week we introduced ‘challenge cubes’ for the F2 children. Each week they will find their pictures in various areas across the classroom, where they will be expected to challenge themselves. When they have completed the challenge, they receive a cube. If they complete five challenges throughout the week they will earn themselves a special certificate. Can your child tell you which activities they have challenged themselves with this week?
Finally, thank you to everyone who donated buns and wore their spots today to help us support Children In Need– you all look fabulous! 🙂
A big thank you…
To all of the parents and carers who were able to attend our ‘Fiddly Fingers’ Stay and Play yesterday. The children loved sharing their learning with you and we hope that you all enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did! Thank you for your continued support; we look forward to seeing you all at our next Stay and Play sessions, later in the school year.
St James’ remembers
In November 2015, to mark 100 years since the beginning of World War 1, pupils and staff at St James’ created ceramic poppies, similar to those which surrounded the Tower of London.
This year, to commemorate Remembrance Day, we have constructed a display of our ceramic poppies in the entrance hall, made by pupils past and present.
Come and have a look as you visit our achievement assembly tomorrow at 2.45pm.
Watch us while we work
This week, many of you came to ‘Watch us while we work’. This was a visit to school to get a flavour of what Reading, Writing and Maths teaching and learning is like in school, and hopefully to help you understand more about your child’s progress and how you can support at home.
The children loved having people watch them learn and were exceptionally keen to show off their books under the visualiser during the lesson, demonstrating just how much pride they take in their presentation and handwriting. It’s wonderful to see how much this has improved so much in such a short space of time.
Elsewhere in the week, we’ve been building up to writing a setting description using the third and final book in Aaron Becker’s Journey series – Return.
Our penultimate stop for our ‘explorers’ topic was a dense jungle. We created some artwork in the style of Rousseau, trying to re-create the scene you see below.
The wonderful world of witches and wizards!
Foundation have settled quickly back into school after their half-term break.
On Monday, the children took part in a ‘talk writing’ activity, where they shared news from home about their holiday week whilst mark-making, drawing and writing. It was lovely to hear their news and also to see how much their confidence is growing when speaking to and sharing ideas with adults and friends.
Inspired by current interests, our reading area has been transformed into ‘The wonderful world of witches and wizards’. This week we focussed on Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom , watching the film version to pick out rhyming words, writing spells in the mark-making area and re-creating scenes in the small world area. The water-tray ‘potion-making’ inspired some fantastic imaginative play, with children describing all of the magical things they could do!
Outside, we had some pirate fun! We searched for treasure (letter sounds and words) in the sand using magnets and used our counting skills when collecting shells for the pirate ship.
Next week’s learning is linked to this weekend’s celebration of Bonfire Night. The children have been showing lots of interest in celebrations, especially birthday parties. They have also been fascinated by the magnets we used this week. Have a look on Monday morning to see if you can spot where we have used these ideas to create more fantastic learning opportunities!
A snap-happy visitor
Just before the holidays, as part of our ‘Explorers’ topic, we had a very special visit from Dr David Ian Higgins, who has a serious passion for wildlife and wilderness and is a perfect example of a 21st century explorer.
David is a world class photographer and brought in some examples of his excellent photography work. However, the children were even more amazed by his camera equipment that he uses to capture such wonderful images.
Emily, described the visit: “My most favourite part was the pictures and story about the lion traffic jam because I thought it was funny that a lion was blocking the road. I was amazed how he went swimming with a whale shark and surprised how they have tiny teeth and couldn’t swallow us”.
Alfie said, “Dr Higgins made me want to swim with whale sharks and see the dolphins with phosphorescence.
Rodi added,“He inspired me to be a photographer when I grow up and travel around the world to see unusual creatures.”
We still have a few weeks remaining on our topic. Who knows where our ship could end up next.
