Author: Mr Roundtree

Class 5/6A News

A huge thank you to all parents, grandparents and family members who attended our ‘Watch us while we work!’ session on Thursday morning.  It gave parents a chance to see our work on the 6 times table, get to grips with “im” and “in” prefixes and discuss the impact of climate change on Greenland, the Solomon Islands and the East Yorkshire coast.

Daily use of Times Table Rockstars is really beginning to pay off for our students.  Year 5 are currently working on 4-digit by 2-digit multiplication in Maths, and rapid recall of these calculations helps to make these problems much easier to solve.

Writing has seen us begin to prepare for writing a persuasive letter to the UK Climate Minister, Graham Stuart, to get the government to do more to prevent the effects of climate change impacting our lives.  We have explored techniques such as rhetorical questions, emotive language and exaggeration to help the writer put across a strong argument.

Copernicus and Galileo are our featured scientists this half-term, and we have researched key facts about the two astronomers how they came to the conclusion that the Solar System is heliocentric (has the Sun at its centre, whilst all other planets orbit around it).  We also held a lively in-class debate as to whether the Earth was spherical or flat.

 

In Topic, we have been looking at the impact of coastal erosion on the East Yorkshire coast over the past 13o years.  Using an online mapping tool we have been able to measure the impact of erosion on locations such as Skipsea, Hornsea and Great Cowden between 1890 and present day; as well as how the use of defence mechanisms such as groynes aim to slow down the impact of erosion.

In Latin, we have revisited masculine and feminine nouns, and can identify these by their endings.  Nouns which end in an ‘a’ are feminine, with those ending in “us” being masculine.  We could then use this knowledge to make expanded noun phrases and describe objects.  For example ‘hortus magnus est‘ would translate as ‘the garden is big‘.

P.E saw us take on a circuit training session, including skipping, basketball, hockey dribbling, shuttle runs and fitness equipment.

Finally, a huge well done to everyone in Class 5/6A who were crowned the Times Table Rockstars Battle of the Bands competition.  It was a close run contest between ourselves and 5/6C, but we just managed to edge them out in the end.  We amassed over 150,000 correct answers over the course of one week which is truly outstanding!

Have a great weekend!

Mr. Robson

Living and Learning: Speak out, Stay safe!

Our living and learning lessons this week have been about staying safe and knowing how to ask for help. This has tied in with the  NSPCC programme of ‘Speak out Stay safe’ which is a programme that promotes safeguarding. The children have discussed that there are various reasons why they might ask someone for help, but that it is their right to ask for, and receive help.  Of even greater importance is the fact that abuse is never a child’s fault.. The children were confident at identifying who their own trusted adults are and felt comfortable that they could ask for help. We also talked about how to start a conversation with a trusted adult, as this can sometimes be the hardest part.  To conclude we created lists of people, places and objects that make us feel happy and safe.

Help at home: talk to your child and find out who their trusted adults are. Do they know who to go to if they need help or support? Ask them about the video. Can they remember who the NSPCC mascot is? What were the main points?

This week’s message (Friday 27 January 2023)

I can’t believe we’re almost into February already! Safer Internet Day is coming up on Tuesday o7 February. What’re you doing at home to help your child stay safe?

Is your child a gamer?

Check out this guide to keep safe whilst using online software and games. from SWGfL. With advice on reporting and blocking, online socialisation and the considerations on online gaming, the pamphlet can be a useful basis for a conversation about staying safe online when gaming.

Is your child a fan of Fortnite?

Since its release 2017, Fortnite has had a mass appeal for children. This means children are exposed to multi-player chatting with strangers, and financial exploitation via the game’s spend-to-gain-advantage operating style – this allows children to use real world money to gain perks and costumes.

Fortnite has the potential to lead to criminal blackmailing and coercion of nude exchanges by online ‘friends’ posing as children. Internet Matters has published a guide to understanding the game and its terms.

Is your child connected to virtual reality?

Research has shown that two thirds of the UK public lack confidence that child safety is a priority in the metaverse, with 71% of adults expressing doubt in tech companies prioritising children’s safety. However, the study also revealed over a fifth of adults would buy their child a VR (virtual reality) headset if they could, despite these concerns.

To help you understand this new, fast changing issue, the NSPCC has published a guide to both the Metaverse and VR headsets.

Is your child happy and healthy online?

It’s become more and more common for people – including children – to talk to strangers online. A small amount of these relationships turn out malicious – we need to be aware of the dangers if they do.

Children and young people may find it difficult to understand when an online relationship turns out to be a bad one. The Information Commissioners Office, the UK’s information rights agency, has published guidance on what to look for when online relationships turn sour.

And finally, remember some advice from last week, too:

  • check devices regularly alongside your child – doing this means that your child can moderate their own behaviour and have regular opportunities to talk about things that might be concerning them
  • keep the devices downstairs – the more ‘public’ space means that children make the same good choices they would do in ‘in real life’ and have plenty of opportunities to talk about what they’re doing and seeing

PE – basketball skills

This half term in PE we are focussing on attacking skills.

Here’s what we’ve been learning:

Attack is offense in Basketball. On offense, there are many different tools available to your team. The goal of the attack is to break through the opponent’s defence and set up an uncontested shot. For this you will need strong fundamentals: dribbling, passing and shooting.

27 January 2023

This week’s Talk Time has a moral theme.

Who’s responsibility is it to keep me safe?

Safety covers so many areas; your discussions could centre around these forms of safety as well as any others that you know of:

  • Online safety (e-safety)
  • Fire safety
  • Road safety
  • Electrical safety
  • Water safety

For each type of safety, talk about different settings and examples of when you might be faced with risks and how your adult or you would safely deal with them. For each situation, think about who’s responsible for evaluating the risks involved. Is it solely your adult at home/school or do you hold some of the responsibility in keeping yourself safe? Does your age impact on your responsibility?

Here are some examples…

  • My adult lets me have a social media account and regularly monitors it to make sure I am safe but it’s also my responsibility to keep myself safe by telling my trusted adult if something happens that I do not feel comfortable with.
  • My adult lets me walk to and from school on my own but it’s also my responsibility to keep myself safe by walking on the footpaths, using crossings to cross the road safely and not talking to strangers.

Here are some R2s (Remember tos) to help you stay safe:

  • Think before you act.
  • Assess the risks. Is it safe?
  • If something goes wrong, again, think before you act.
  • Who can help you and how can you reach them?

Science – materials

In this weeks science, we have been completing comparative tests. We have been discussing  diiferent materials and their properties. We then made  predictions to decide if they would be absorbent or not.

We poured the same amount of water on each piece of material to test our predictions.

One of the materials (wrapping paper) we tested on both sides due to one side being shiny and the other dull.

Help at home by identifying different materials and discussing their properties.

This week’s message (Friday 20 January 2023)

Today’s message is a long one. Hopefully, the sub-headings later on will help you to read the parts that matter most to you. We do encourage you all to read this next bit…

Did your child get an electronic device for their Christmas?

Recently, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman has said she is ‘not comfortable’ with primary school aged children having unlimited internet access. She said there was a ‘great deal’ that could be done to really limit the content to which young children are exposed: ‘The first thing you can do is not give a child a smartphone when they’re too young,’ she said. ‘I’m very surprised when primary aged children have smartphones, for example, and even in early secondary school. It’s really hard to manage that.’

Whether you agree with her or not, the reality is that we’re having to increasingly address problems that children encounter online at home, especially bullying comments on WhatsApp (despite a minimum age of 16).

I had a chat with a parent this week about this. It was great to hear that she had rules in place at home for her children and online devices:

  • sitting alongside the children, Mum or Dad check the devices regularly – knowing this means that children moderate their own behaviour and have set opportunities to talk about things that might be concerning them
  • the devices are kept downstairs – the more ‘public’ space means that children make the same good choices they would do in the playground and other spaces and have plenty of opportunity to talk about what they’re doing and seeing

These two simple rules mean that online behaviour is open – nothing is secret.

If you’ve not already done so, please draw up a few ground rules to stay safe online.

Watch us while we work

Next Thursday (26 January), we’ve another session where we invite you into school to check out the teaching and learning. Come and join us in the classroom to watch us. It’s an opportunity to see some Maths and Reading being taught – it might help to support your child at home.

Safer Internet Day

On Tuesday 07 February, we’ll join schools across the UK in marking Safer Internet Day 2023. Safer Internet Day is a global campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology, which calls on children and young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more, to help to create a better internet.

Using the internet safely and positively is a key message that we promote in school. Safer Internet Day is an opportunity for us to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year.

Please continue the conversation at home – use these activities and information to help you. Whether you have five minutes to start a conversation or hours to spare, there are top tips, quizzes and films which you can use at home with your child.

If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher or Miss Hague.

Speak out, Stay safe

Teaching children how to talk about their worries to stay safe is so important. Next week, as part of our Living and Learning lessons, all classes will be completing the NSPCC Speak out Stay Safe assemblies to ensure our pupils know what to do and who they can speak to.

The NSPCC has also developed an adapted version of their assembly for parents/carers to use at home with their children.

To complement the assembly, there are some resources that can be used to enable further discussion whilst doing activities with your children.

You’ll also find online safety information for families of children with additional needs and disabilities.

Childline also have a website with age-appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools.

Governor elections

Well done to Scholes (Elmet) parent, Liam Ffrench, who has been elected as Sphere Federation’s new parent governor. Thank you to all three candidates, and thank you to you if you voted.

Industrial action

Earlier this week, we sent a message about the forthcoming strikes:

Yesterday, the National Education Union (NEU), one of the trade unions representing the teaching profession, announced its intention to strike.

For schools in our region, the dates of the planned strikes are:

  • Wednesday, 01 February
  • Tuesday, 28 February
  • Wednesday, 15 March
  • Thursday, 16 March

In some schools there may be little or no impact from strike action but in others it may mean that changes are made to the way they operate – this includes partial or full closure.

At the moment, we are not in a position to indicate whether Scholes (Elmet) Primary will be affected.

We will keep you informed. In the meantime, it would be advisable to prepare for some disruption on the days listed here.

Miss Hague and I have assessed the situation and the likely impact on our school. Under the current legal framework, workers have the right to change their mind about taking industrial action so we can’t be 100% certain; however, at the moment, we’re confident that we can remain open on the strike days.

With our very best wishes for a happy and healthy – and warmer – weekend.

Science: Out of this world!



As part of our Science topic of Space, we have been looking at the planets which make up our system and exploring the idea that the solar system is heliocentric (that the sun is at the centre of the solar system).

To help us understand this more easily we can use models to bring these concepts to life.  To show the sizes of the planets in relation to one another, we have used various fruit to make a model of the solar system.  In terms of the distance of each planet from the sun, we used a roll of toilet paper to measure each planet’s distance from the sun, and used differing number of pupils to show their size.  Understanding the position of each planet in relation to the sun helped with our final model where we replicated each planet’s orbit speed.  The key learning point from this model was that the closer the planet is to the sun, the quicker its orbit speed due to an increased gravitational pull.

Our pupils have had a lot of fun this week bringing the solar system to life in various ways!