Living and Learning: Anti-bullying week

This week is Anti-Bullying Week and today the children thought about the seriousness of bullying. We kicked off our lesson by discussing why we were all wearing odd socks and how this celebrates what makes us all unique.

Year 4 looked at some scenarios and thought about who was being bullied and what type of bullying was taking place.  The class discussed four important words when defining bullying behaviour, and through group and class discussions, we talked about:

• what bullying is
• our Child Friendly Anti-Bullying Policy
• the different kinds of bullying including cyber bullying
• how someone being bullied may think, feel and act
• the negative impact bullying has on mental wellbeing
• how to get help including who we can talk to about bullying
• the acronym STOP

• repetition
• hurt
• power
• intention – on purpose

‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.’

The solution to this is STOP – Start Telling Other People. We talked about which trusted adults the children could talk to if they felt they were being bullied.

STOP

Bullying can be physical and emotional. – Jayden

We need to look out for one another. I’d help someone to speak to a trusted adult if they were being bullied. – Noah

Always ask for help. – Evie

Speak to a friend or a family member. – Amelia

It takes courage to speak up  but it can change lives. 

Anti-bullying week: Odd Socks Day!

Today for our anti-bullying day, we joined the nation by focussing on the message of “reaching out”.  We talked about how this had several meanings: reaching out to a trusted adult for support/advice, reaching out to the victim to see if they are okay, or reaching out to make a change.

We looked at our school’s definition of bullying :

“Bullying is when you hurt someone physically or emotionally (including online), Several Times On Purpose”

Whilst we hope this would never be the case in our school, we also discussed  what you can do if you were to experience bullying at St James’:

“Start Telling Other People. You could use the Living and Learning box, the worry box, email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org or even call Childline (0800 1111).”

We celebrated the message that everyone is different and equal by wearing odd socks to school and creating our own socks.

14.11.22 Spellings

This week, we will be learning the ough letter string. Learn these words for a test on Friday 18th November.

thorough

bough

though

thought

although

brought

sought

enough

Pro Printers!

Year 5 and 6 have been putting our knowledge to the test by practising our very own printing process! So far, we have learnt about two designers:

• William Morris
• Orla Kiely

After looking at their design and printing work, we were inspired to have a go at creating some of our own. The children absolutely loved the process and we will definitely be practising again soon! Here are some images of our work so far – we are really proud of it!

Remembrance Day 2022

Today, children from Year 5 and 6 took part in the remembrance parade in Wetherby. It was great to see children from St James’ being so thoughtful and respectful as well as so many other children from our school representing their community with Brownies, Scouts and Wetherby Gymnastics Club.

A big thank you to Louie, Will, Willow, Eliza and Caleb. 

T2 Week 2

What a fantastic week we have had in Reception. This week we have been continuing our learning around Guy Fawkes. We used junk modelling to create our own buildings that you might find in London. We discovered that masking tape is a good resource for ripping and sticking objects together. We strengthened our finger muscles creating firework patterns in our coloured water tray.

We made a new friend this week. At lunchtime Mrs Payne and Miss Ward noticed a hedgehog walking around the school playground. We know that hedgehogs are nocturnal creatures and so it should have been sleeping. We carefully put the hedgehog in a box with a water bottle to keep it nice and warm. Miss Ward took the hedgehog to the hedgehog rescue centre. They told us the hedgehog was a girl and needed some medication to get better.

Year 6 came to see us on Monday and had with them lots of different things with poppies on. We were keen to find out more about why people wear poppies at this time of year. We discovered that poppies are a way that some people remember others. We decided that we would like to create our own poppies using different materials.

We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to our marvellous maths session on Thursday. If you haven’t returned your slip yet please bring it into school on Monday.

Thank you to everyone who is reading their e-books everyday. We love reading in Reception so please keep up the great home learning. If you are having any problems logging in etc please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Mrs Payne

Festivals and Celebrations

The children have had a lovely first few weeks settling back into nursery. We talked about festivals last week focusing on Diwali and Bonfire Night. The children explored all their senses making Rangoli patterns with rice, designing their own mendi hands and getting messy in cornflour;

‘ This is amazing’ -Deacon

During our circle time we have talked about why some people celebrate different festivals and what it means too them.

‘Diwali’ – Frankie

‘ Festival of light’ – Austin

‘ Sweets and clothes’- Zubaria

‘ We have lots of sparklers and you cant touch them, its too hot’- Gracie

‘ We can eat hot dogs’ – Beau

‘ We can’t go in the fire, it will hurt us’- Deacon

‘ It’s a guy’ – Gracie

This week our focus story was ‘Hodge the Hedgehog’

We had a surprise visit in our KS2 playground this week. A hedgehog appeared!

We rescued the hedgehog and brought it inside to keep it warm, as there not supposed to be out during the day. Fortunately, we found a lovely lady who looks after rescued hedgehogs, she was very pleased that we had looked after her so well. It turns out she was very poorly and needed some special medicine to help get her better.

Here is some useful information if you happen to find a hedgehog out during the day;

We have also talked about Remembrance Day and today the children joined in with a minute silence. We watched a beautiful story from CBeebies that helps children to understand the importance of Remembrance Day.

‘ We remember all the soldiers in the war’ – Gracie

‘ Animals- horses’ – Frankie

‘ There are purple and red poppies’ – Deacon

Here it is below for you to watch with your child at home

Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip

Here are some more photos of what the children got up to in Nursery this week!

Reminders

• Next week, Monday 14 November is ‘Anti-Bullying’ day in school. It is also Odd Socks Day and children and staff are encouraged to come to school wearing odd socks to celebrate that we are all unique.
• As the weather has been particularly wet this week our outdoor area is starting to get quite muddy! please could all children ensure they bring a pair of wellies to school, you are more than welcome to leave them with us.

Miss Ward

Science: What’s that Sound?

This half term, our science topic is ‘What’s that Sound?’

We’re focussing on where sounds come from and the science behind noises. Check out what we got up to in today’s lesson…

Be sure to chat to your child about their science learning – perhaps they could carry out their own careful observations at home doing a similar experiment!

Friday 11th November 2022

Be sure to practise your spellings a little bit each day! Little and often is better than cramming your practice in on Friday morning before school..!

• continue
• peculiar
• popular
• regular
• particular
• queue
• knew
• rescue
• amuse
• venue
• issue
• conclude

…or you may have been given a separate spelling list. These words are:

• because
• every
• with
• many
• busy
• could
• should
• would

This week’s message (Friday 11 November 2022)

As we always do, the message this week – second week of the half-term – is all about the new topic. The message comes from Mr Wilks, who leads Science and foundation subjects across Sphere Federation. The message ends with some important guidance to help tackle online bullying…

What do we mean by topics?

Topics are the vehicle for delivering much of the learning in the foundation subjects (eg History, Art, Geography, Design Technology). Each half-termly topic has a driving subject – the main focus for teaching pupils the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. The driver changes with each topic to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum.

Although the learning in each topic is provided by the driving subject, there are opportunities for enrichment through other subjects. For example, learning in an art topic may be enriched by geography learning about where an artist was born and lived.

Read more about the intent, implementation and impact of our topics.

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term, we’re artists. We’ll develop our art knowledge and skills.

The learning this half-term has two aspects to it:

• art history: your child will learn about some specific artists and their work
• art process: your child will practise and develop skills by creating art

Each phase has age-related knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. Please see pages 11 and 12 of the Curriculum Statement document. 

Children in Years 1 and 2 have two featured artists who they’ll study across the half-term: Georges Seurat and Bridget Riley. They’ll compare their art, talking about similarities and differences. They’ll discuss what they like and dislike about the art and how it makes them feel. They’ll also learn about the artists’ lives and where in the world they lived.

In practical art lessons, children will hone their artistic skills and knowledge by sketching objects using pencil and creating sculptures inspired by Bridget Riley’s art.

Children in Years 3 and 4 will learn about the work of two architects: Christopher Wren and Zaha Hadid.

They’ll compare and contrasting the buildings that these architects designed. They’ll look at the influence of classical Greek architecture on the two architects and look for examples of this in buildings locally. In practical art sessions, children will develop observational drawing skills, before focussing on digital art by manipulating images of buildings using technology and creating pieces of art using these images alongside digital art software.

Children in Years 5 and 6 are learning about and studying the work of two designers: William Morris and Orla Kiely.

They’ll look at examples of products that use their designs and then focus on the designs, analysing them using technical vocabulary. They’ll also compare the designs, spotting similarities and differences.

In practical art lessons, children will sketch their own designs inspired by Kiely or Morris. They’ll then create relief prints of their own designs which they’ll turn into a wallpaper design using a design website.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning. The Class News page of our website is a good place to go to find out more about what your child is doing.

Familiarise yourself with the artists and the artwork that your child will be learning about in class. Look in books or on the internet for pieces by the artists and talk about them. Find art by other artists that you like and compare it to the featured artists. If you feel confident, you can go into more depth using the topic-specific vocabulary. However, if not, leave that to the teachers and just enjoy looking at the pieces and asking general questions:

• What do you like or dislike about the art?
• How does the art make you feel?
• What colours can you see?
• Can you spot influence of Greek architecture in buildings (eg columns or pediments)?

The Tate Gallery has a good children’s website with games and activities which children can explore.

If you’re in Leeds, the Leeds Art Gallery and Henry Moore Institute are both free to enter and if your child has already visited during a trip, they can be the tour guide and show you around!

Moving on… Did you know next week is Anti-Bullying Week?

STOP

In our school, STOP stands for both the problem and the solution for bullying:

• Several Times On Purpose is the definition of bullying
• Start Telling Other People is the solution – encourage your child to tell any trusted adult if there’s a problem

We’ll mark the week with our Anti-Bullying Day on Monday, which happens also to be Odd Socks Day.

STOP online

According to Ofcom’s 2022 Media Use and Attitudes report, children are now more likely to be bullied via technology than they are to experience it in person. 84% of 8 to 17-year-olds who reported being targeted said it had taken place via messaging, social media, online gaming and so on, as opposed to 61% who had been intimidated face-to-face.

Just like its offline counterpart, online-bullying creates feelings of isolation and anxiety in its victims along with a loss of self-esteem.

Read about how to support your child and tackle this problem.