Living & Learning – Protected characteristics
Our Living & Learning statement this week was:
I understand some characteristics are protected by law.
This week we learnt about the protected characteristics. We discussed what they are and how and why they’re protected.
What is discrimination?
Discrimination is defined as ‘the unfair treatment of people because of who they are or because they have a certain characteristic(s)’. We discussed examples and the impact of discrimination.
Protection from discrimination
We discussed how the protected characteristics are protected by law – The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics.
We reminded ourselves of a helpful way to remember the protected characteristics by using the mnemonic:
DR GRAMPSS
Disability
Race
Gender reassignment
Religion or beliefs
Age
Marriage or civil partnership
Pregnancy and/or maternity leave
Sex
Sexual orientation
We are already pretty confident recalling the protected characteristics so we thought deeper about why they are important. What would our world be like if we didn’t have protected characteristics?
Can everyone achieve?
Later in the week, we watched a video celebrating the life and achievements of Jane Goodall (Watch Newsround video here) who is our featured scientist of the half-term. We discussed how important it is that people are able to have the same opportunities regardless of their sex (one of the protected characteristics). In the 1960s, when there were very few female scientists, Jane made significant contributions to the fields of conservation and anthropology. We hope that The Equality Act (2010) will mean that anyone who wants to be a scientist can be one without facing discrimination.
Help at home: Discuss why you think our world is a better place for having protected characteristics.
This week we celebrated National Poetry Day with a special poetry assembly.
Let No One Steal Your Dreams
We’ve been practising our poem by Paul Cookson all week and the children delivered it to parents, families and the rest of the school beautifully. Learning a poem by heart really is quite tricky!
They projected their voices fantastically and recited the poem with great prosody. It has also be a joy to speak to the children about what their dreams for the future are and to see how they have represented them through art.
If
Some children wanted an extra challenge so also performed the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling. Some of the words were quite challenging to understand but it was a great chance to think about what you can do to help yourself be happy.
Hearing the last line performed in unison was really impactful!
Why are poems important for children?
Recent research from the National Literacty Trust found that when children consume or create poetry in their free time, they experience important benefits that can impact them in and outside of the classroom.
Children and young people who currently engage with poetry said that poetry:
- helps them to relax
- helps them to learn new things
- helps them to work through emotions
- helps them to understand the views of other people
- helps them to feel more confident
Help at home: visit the children’s poetry archive and explore their brilliant website. Which is your favourite poem?
Living & Learning – I know that rights come with responsibilities
We are very excited about the new Sandringham Park but disappointed that not all users have taken care of it. This led us to reflect on our Living & Learning statement I know that rights come with responsibilities and how this links to using the park.
We’re going to send our suggested rules to Wetherby Town Council and see if they would like some hand made posters to encourage users to make the park a happy and healthy place to play!
Science – grouping animals
We’ve really enjoyed talking about some of our favourite animals in science. The children blew me away with their knowledge about amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds and fish.
We enjoyed thinking about how many different ways we could group animals by using different criteria. Other popular choices included: can fly/can’t fly, lives in the water/lives on land/can live in both and pet/not a pet. I can tell we are going to love this topic so if you do any extra learning at home please let me know so we can share this learning in class and reward the children for their efforts!
Help at home – BBC bitesize has lots of great material on the topic of classifying animals. This is a good page to start from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfsqtcw
Doubles
In Mastering Number this week we’ve been thinking about doubles. Specifically, we’ve been looking at:
- 2 x 6 = 12
- 2 x 7 = 14
- 2 x 8 = 16
- 2 x 9 = 18
The children have quickly picked up how to check their doubles using their fingers.
Help at home – ask your child to teach you how you can use your fingers to help you work out your doubles facts.
Book Club
We started our book club with a recommendation from Freddie. Freddie has been enjoying the book he chose from the school library last week and there is now a waiting list for it!
We shared some of the challenges we’ve completed this week in our Reading Records and reminded ourselves of all the different activities we can choose from. After that, we enjoyed some independent reading in various spaces in the classroom.
Help at home – help your child be ready for next week’s Book Wars we will be having at Book Club on Friday next week. See your child’s Reading Record for full details.
Maths – Column addition
We’ve started the year reviewing column addition. What great mathematicians we have in our class!
Today we have been adding two numbers using equipment to support our understanding about what happens when the column sum is greater than 9.
Help at home – play schools! Ask your child to be the teacher and ‘teach you’ column addition. They might want to make paper tens and ones or draw them. Please let me know if they have been a great teacher and I can reward them with a golden ticket!
Thank you!
As we start the second week of Year 4, I wanted to say thank you for a great start to the year! I can tell this is going to be a great year!
I’ve been so impressed with how quickly the children have settled in to their new routines. We can already respectfully and safely hand out books and equipment and collect it back in again, come in to class ready to learn and get straight in to our morning task. We really are fantastic at being cheerleaders for each other; past the initial embarrassment, they now love saying together “Wow **insert name of classmate**, you’re amazing!” when one of their peers pushes themselves to try something they didn’t believe they could do.
A few of us are still working on having our hands empty, silent voices and eyes on the speaker (which helps us all to concentrate on our learning) so we are working on that as our class target. Every time we achieve our class target we earn a shell. Every time we collect 10 shells we earn an enhancement to our end of term treat. Given how well they are doing I can see this is going to be a BIG treat!
Help at home
Ask your child what is going well for them in Year 4 and what they would like to get better at. If there is anything you or your child need help with please let me know either by email, calling me at school or at pick up. The door is always open!
Living & Learning – Our School Rules
This week we’ve been revisiting our school rules:
We shared some top tips to help us keep our school rules.
Be respectful
Remember 2 wrongs don’t make a right (Max and Arthur)
Always listen to the teacher (Lillie-Jane)
Always listen to your friends (Orianne)
Always respect nature in school (Sophie)
Use fidgets under the table so you don’t distract friends (Orianne and Sophie)
Be ready
When you hear the whistle at playtime you need to freeze. (Monty)
Stop at 2 when it is “3-2-1 stop” (Freddie)
When you hear “3-2-1 stop” you need to listen (Aria)
Be safe
Don’t stand too close to people in the line so you don’t knock them over.
Don’t stand too close to the fence. (Sophie and Orianne)
Help at home
Help at home by discussing our school rules with your child. Ask them when they find it difficult to follow the rules and how they might be able to overcome this.
What do I need to be ready for school each day?
If you have any questions please let me know.