23 September 2022
This week’s Talk Time brings together the learning that has happened in our Reading sessions last week. The Acceptable Use Agreements have been used in all classes as the stimulus for the reading lessons, as well as a copy being sent home to be agreed and signed.
Check out the KS1 and KS2 agreements.
After reading and discussing these agreements, do you feel these rules could apply outside of school too (e.g. at home or using the internet on your mobile phone)?
Do you think it’s a good idea to have agreed rules in place when using the internet?
Welcome to Reception
A big hello from everyone in Reception!
This week we have been busy creating an exciting learning environment for everyone to enjoy. We have welcomed our first group of children for transition sessions and are excited to see our second group on Monday.
We hope you enjoy looking at some of our provision that will be ready for you to explore next week.
See you all on Monday!
The Reception Team
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Tonight, Key Stage 2 performed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat- it really was amazing! The children sang their hearts out and made everybody really proud. Thank you to all the staff who put together a fantastic show and a special shout out to Mrs Valentine’s Mum who spent many hours creating the iconic dreamcoat.
Well done to all the children- it was a huge success!
Our school community working together to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee.
As part of a Wetherby community group, our school has entered a Jubilee craft cake for the Royal Church and Community Fete and Queen’s Jubilee Cake Festival at St James’ Church, Wetherby.
The whole school contributed to this creation and they all thoroughly enjoyed making it.
Reception – Beefeaters
Year 1/2 – stamp rubbings and crowns
Year 3 – clay corgi dogs
Year 4 – clay postage stamps
Year 5/6 – Hama Beads flags
We are all very proud to have been part of this and if you would like to attend the festival, it takes place on Friday 3rd June, 10am till 2pm at St. James Church in Wetherby.
13 May 2022
Y1: have live give love was
Y2: race ice cell city fancy knock know knee gnat gnaw
Amazing animals!
In Literacy, we’ve been reading Walking through the Jungle. We had lots of fun using actions to help us remember the story. Click here to watch us!
The book led us onto learning about rainforests and where they are in the world. We learnt about different types of animals and why tropical rainforests are so warm.
Ask your child if they can remember a fact about rainforests.
In Maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition of numbers to 10 through games and practical experiences, such as investigating different ways to represent 10 sausages from the counting rhyme, ‘10 Fat Sausages’. Composing and de-composing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 7 can be made of 5 and 2 more. We used our fingers, Numicon and counters to help us explore this.
We finally got to make fruit kebabs!
They were so excited when they saw the fruit on Monday morning.
They loved their fruit kebabs that much, they asked for more!
On Tuesday, Mrs Rippon and AM picked two radishes from our vegetable patch. They washed them so we could try some at snack time. Let’s just say it wasn’t very popular!
Home-Link Challenge
We can take part in democractic decisions!
This week, our Living and Learning statement encourages us to learn about democracy and to take part in a democratic decision. Therefore, we took time to hold a vote in class. Read on to find out what we were voting for…
To celebrate the publication of Anna James’ fantastic new book, ‘Hetty and the Battle of the Books’, School Library Service (SLS) have partnered with publisher Barrington Stoke to launch a search for the best young reading ambassadors in Leeds.
They are looking for KS2 children who advocate reading for pleasure and encourage others to find their own love of reading with their enthusiasm for books.
Each school is invited to enter ONE pupil into the competition and the five short-listed applicants will be invited to attend an awards ceremony at Leeds Central Library on Saturday 10th July, where the winner will be announced by Anna James and receive the trophy for Leeds School Librarian 2022. The ceremony at midday will be followed by a FREE event for families with the author who will be introducing their latest book.
So our vote today resulted in Scarlet being selected to be the reading champion in our class. Next, the JLT will choose the reading champion in Key Stage 2 to be put into the draw.
Good luck!
This week’s message (Friday 18 March 2022)
Almost exactly two years ago, schools were closing for the start of the first lockdown. Numbers of Covid-positive cases are rising again, and we’re really noticing that in our Sphere Federation schools – we’ve had close to ten staff members absent each day this week.
On a much more positive note, with daffodils springing up and the weather looking brighter, it’s really starting to feel like Spring.
This week, amongst the various messages, we’ve one related to Covid. We’ll start with an important one about reading…
The benefits of reading at home
A recent news article caught our eye. The article talks about a research study about trips to museums and art articles, which suggests that such activities don’t improve exam results. (The article also points out other research indicates cultural trips like these have lots of other benefits, even that they ‘could actually lead to a longer life’.)
What we thought was more significant was the findings about reading – findings that come as no surprise:
…researchers did find that reading activities by both parents and their children played a role in exam grades. They measured activities such as reading for pleasure, visiting a library and discussing books at home. Such activities boosted GCSE scores by a significant amount.
Parents often ask how they can support their child more. Our advice would always be to make sure your child’s reading and talking about what they’re reading.
Brighten someone’s day
The theme of this year’s Comic Relief fundraiser is ‘You’ – inspiring people to do something, however modest, to brighten someone’s day. A lot of those uplifting actions, we’d venture, can easily be accomplished online. Check out this poster highlighting ways that we can all spread some much-needed happiness through the digital world. What about each person in your household agreeing to do one thing each week?
Dealing with worrying content online
In contrast, this poster addresses the timely and delicate issue of speaking with children about worrying content they’ve seen online. Your child, by now, could well be very aware of the situation in Ukraine, even if they’re not quite old enough to comprehend it fully. Many will have watched or read potentially upsetting news items online covering the invasion – and, in all likelihood, will need extra reassurance from trusted adults during these unsettling days. Check out the practical advice on raising the subject with young ones, allowing them to express their concerns, and helping them to avoid feeling overwhelmed by their fears.
Covid vaccination for at-risk 5 to 11 year olds
The Department for Education has asked us to share the following information with parents and carers of at-risk 5 to 11 year olds…
Children aged 5 to 11 years who are in a clinical risk group or who live with someone who is immunosuppressed can get the COVID-19 vaccine, in line with advice set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Eligible children include those with diabetes, immunosuppression, learning disabilities, and other conditions as outlined by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in the Green Book.
Vaccinations help to increase protection against COVID-19, which is particularly important for those with underlying health conditions.
Further information is available in the guide for parents of children aged 5 to 11 years published by UKHSA. We have published some frequently asked questions on the vaccination programme including information on eligibility, accessibility and advice for parents of children at high risk from COVID-19. Following advice from the JCVI, healthy 5 to 11 year old children will also be offered two 10 microgram doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The NHS will prepare to extend this non-urgent offer to all children during April.
As we said at the start of the message, it’s really starting to feel like Spring’s in the air. Enjoy that feeling this weekend!
Week beginning 13 December 2021
Hi everyone
We hope you’re feeling happy and healthy at home. We miss having you in school but we want you to know that you’re still very much part of our school community. Enjoy your home learning for this week.
Maths
Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to multiplication and division.
-
Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 3: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 4: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 5: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 6: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 7: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 8: video, worksheet, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on all times tables up to and including 12 x 12. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
We’ll be using this RIC text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)
Topic
Our topic this half-term is about art.
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
Our focus this half-term is about light.
These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.
If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
PE
Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!
Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!
Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)
Extra stuff…
As an extra (or as an alternative, if this helps to motivate your child)…
Fancy learning about a new religion? You don’t have to be religious to learn about, and appreciate, religions from all around the world. Check out this set of lessons from Oak National Academy – you could choose to focus on one religion or dip into each set for an overview.
What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on keeping safe!
Science with Skittles – observing closely, asking and answering questions
Today, we enjoyed our science lesson. We poured water onto a plate of Skittles and observed closely to see what happened. The children offered suggestions as to what they thought.
What happened to the Skittles in water?
“The colours came off and mixed together”.
“The water made them disappear”.
“They cracked in the water”.
“The water changed to brown because the Skittles mixed with it”.
“They dissolved”.
