Year 4 - Linking Schools: Zoom Meeting
What an exciting day on Monday! The Year 4s had the opportunity of linking live via Zoom with their linking class from St Matthew’s in Blackburn. The children showed St Matthew’s some of the Makaton signs they’d been learning and asked their new friends some curiosity questions they’d prepared, before answering questions from the link class. We then finished our session playing a couple of games together. It was a great first meeting and we can’t wait to meet our new friends in the summer term.
Year 5 - Emotional Literacy
Today, Year 5 explored the concept of emotional literacy through a discussion about the poster. The class developed a strong understanding of what emotional literacy means and how it can help us navigate difficult situations. Together, we identified key ways to support one another during challenging times, including being understanding, recognising emotions in ourselves and others, showing empathy, offering help and practicing mindfulness to manage emotional difficulties. Through this discussion, the children reflected on the importance of kindness and emotional awareness in building a supportive and caring environment.
Year 4- Creating Gymnastic Sequences
In our gymnastics lesson today, we were creating a sequence of gymnastic actions including matched shapes and mirrored shapes with a partner using apparatus. They also incorporated changes of level and direction. We also peer evaluated to identify the strengths of a performance and areas for improvements. The children provided constructive feedback against the given success criteria which was great to listen to. The children are working really hard to develop their oracy skills and provide comments that are both positive and helpful for their peers.
Reception - Chinese New Year
This week, Reception have been learning about the celebration of Chinese New Year. We have been looking at the traditions and festivities celebrated in China, but also by people all over the world too! We read the story of the great race and learned about the position the animals came to determine each year. This year is the year of the snake. We performed dragon dances and will be tasting some traditional Chinese food!
Holocaust Memorial Day Worship
Our first collective worship of the week had a serious and somber tone as we held in our thoughts and prayers all of the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. We looked out of our spirituality windows to learn how the Nazis did not show love to their Jewish neighbours like God commanded but instead treated them really badly during World War II. We watched a BBC interview with a Jewish survivor, who described some of the personal tragedies he faced at the young age of 6 when his family sent him away to save his life from the Nazi regime. He shared how he travelled on the Kindertransport and a British family showed him love and compassion and became the light in the dark. Through our spirituality mirrors we were able to reflect on how hearing of these events made us feel, and how the Jews must have felt back then. Finally, through our spirituality doors we learned of the many survivors who have worked tirelessly to make people aware of the devastation that was caused so that it would never happen again. We reflected on how we should always love our neighbours regardless of whether they look like you, pray like you, speak like you or think like you and stand up to anyone who is being mean to others.
Wellbeing Warriors Badge Design Meeting
Today our Wellbeing Warriors had a working lunch, so that we could prepare for the WOW design a badge competition. The children will be launching this in Celebration Worship tomorrow. This years theme is ‘Walk with Joy’ and every child in school will get to design their very own badge for the competition. We want them to be big, bold and colourful. Diversity and originality are key to stand out from the crowd. WOW badges are only 3cm, so simple designs without small details will work best. The Wellbeing Warriors can’t wait to receive and judge the entries, so let’s get cracking!
Whole School Worship - Who Is My Neighbour?
In our collective worship, we were considering the question, “Who is my neighbour?” We discussed what it means to love your neighbour as yourself (as mentioned in parts of the Bible such as Leviticus and the Gospel according to Mark) and that there are times when it can be incredibly difficult. In hearing about the life of Martin Luther King Jr, as today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, we discovered that, even when it feels impossible to love our neighbour, when we are mistreated, ignored or disrespected as he and other black people have been, we must try harder to follow God’s greatest commandment, just like Martin did. Our children considered this and spent some time reflecting on the Christian Values that Martin demonstrated and the ways that they would like to make the world a better place and make a difference. Some of the children’s examples included: protecting nature, making peace when we have disagreements, putting a stop to pollution and eradicating poverty. We finished with prayers thanking God for Martin Luther King Jr and all that he did to the make the world a better place and asked Him to give us the courage to stand up for what is right. Rev Ben finished with a special blessing and we sang 'I can make a difference'.
Year 4 - Linking Schools: Curiosity Questions
In Year 4, we are preparing for our first online meeting with our linking class by thinking of curiosity questions. Before we can write good questions for our linking class, we needed to explore curiosity questions with each other. We played human bingo, in which we had to work in pairs to find one person to match each statement on our grid. We asked questions such as, “Are you left-handed?” and “Do you like pizza and chips?”, to get to know a bit more about each other. Then in our next session we will be considering questions for our friends at St Matthew’s.
Online Safety in Year 4 - Using the Justalk Kids App
As part of our PSHE we looked at online safety both in and outside of school. Today we shared a poster that told us all about an app called Talkids. We looked at all the positive aspects and discussed these in smaller groups. Our main findings that we highlighted were: * specific to our group (13 and under) * a safe space to chat online * parental controls * helps prevent cyber bullying
India Mill Winners Disco
Well done to our children who are in India Mill House Team. Their team won the most Values points this half term and were rewarded with a non-uniform day and a disco. The children enjoyed some sweets, danced lots and played musical bumps too.
Year 4 Adventure Art and Trail Quiz Walk
Year 4 have had a great day today taking part in the Advent Art and Trail Quiz Walk. We walked to the Rose Garden first where we did the Advent Trail Quiz and the children worked really well to follow the clues and answer the questions. Next we walked around the garden admiring the beautiful pieces of artwork that the children from St Barnabas had completed. After that we walked to Mrs Gardner's home to enjoy hot chocolate, marshmallows and cream or a hot vimto with a side of chocolate biscuits. Finally, we walked back to the park and went on the playground before heading back to school. The children were great at showing the 4 Bs both in and out of the classroom and it was lovely to watch them all with huge smiles on their faces too.
PSHE -Valuing Difference Part 2 in Year 4
In today’s PSHE session the children started by discussing how we celebrate difference and treat each other with respect and fairness. We then moved on to identifying different celebrities and finding how they are different from one another and what are their attributes contribute to who they are as a whole person.