Author: Mr Roundtree

Tomorrow is a bank holiday to commemorate VE Day. We’ll continue with home learning tasks, but remember that on such a day, we completely understand if you want to step back and enjoy – as much as you can – the bank holiday. (The same goes for next Friday, too – this was scheduled to be a training day at school.)

We’ve had a few parents tell us their child has reached the end of the exercise books we sent home just before schools closed. If this is the case, you can call in at Scholes (Elmet) Primary to collect a new book – please avoid drop-off and collection times when it will be harder to maintain social distancing. For parents at St James’ CE Primary, you can call in to school on Monday morning when Miss Beatson will be there.

Fancy getting creative?

Monday’s message was about additions or alternatives to the home learning tasks your teacher sets your child. We know some tasks might end up being a bit tricky for some people, so it’s a good idea to have different things for them to get stuck into…

Your child could create a National Book Token design and win a £10 National Book Token for themselves and each of their classmates. The National Book Token people will select one child’s design to put on a gift card every week for seven weeks. When schools open up again, the young designer and their classmates will each receive a £10 National Book Token displaying the winning artwork.

Talking of which, there are plenty of competitions during the lockdown period. The list comes from Child Friendly Leeds, which has lots of guidance, activities and creative ideas for families, too.

ArtForms in Leeds has different weekly home learning ideas for you and your child to check out. In the current week (Week 7), we love the idea for older children to create their own city using nets.

…And finally, don’t forget your child could get creative alongside you in the kitchen or in the garden if you have one.

Sorry – this message didn’t get published yesterday (although we did send it out by email).

We’re keeping today’s message a happy and healthy one…

All the teachers are missing their children each day (and seeing you, the parents and carers, too). They’re busy working away on your home learning tasks, and enjoying all the emails coming in, but teachers from each school have found time over the last couple of weeks to create three very different videos, all of which were intended to put a happy and healthy smile on your faces!

By now, you’ve probably seen your child’s own school teachers, but we thought it might be nice to bring the three together for today’s message.

The Head of School at Moortown, Mrs Weekes, got her creative juices flowing and wrote a reflective poem. The teachers in the clip start off with the Reception teacher (sporting a fetching lockdown haircut) and working up to the Year 6 teacher and then Miss Rushbrooke and finally Mrs Weekes herself.

Almost all the St James’ CE Primary staff feature in this one – and even pupils at Moortown and Scholes might recognise one or two familiar faces (although I’m sure nobody knows who that strange person wearing five pairs of glasses is). Can you spot another lockdown haircut?

Miss Hague kicks off this video in a very nonchalant mood. She, and plenty of others, get to show off some secret talents in the Scholes (Elmet) video. Now, maybe I’m too cynical, but there’s one clip on here that looks just too good to be true…

We hope you like them.

Yesterday’s message was mainly about additions and alternatives to the home learning tasks. Today, we’re suggesting four different ways to support you…

First… Public Health England has updated their guidance for households with possible coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. The guidance is for households with grandparents, parents and children living together where someone is at risk or has symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

Second… Here is the digital link for our first Families Leeds & West Yorkshire ‘lockdown’ issue.

The issue gathers together, in one place, fantastic resources and advice to help parents manage the next few weeks. (And there are also £100 Amazon vouchers to be won!)

Third… You can access online support for parents and carers during the current situation – use the code ‘north‘ when prompted. This is a service from Northpoint and Silvercloud Health.

The service has been designed by clinical experts with the aim of empowering you to think and feel better. The website includes programmes that are tailored to your needs. It contains easy to use content and interactive tools. The online space is secure and anonymous. No identifying details are required apart from a contact e-mail address.

And finally, fourth… We’re just a little into May, so this one’s not too late… Well-being charity Action for Happiness has published its Meaningful May calendar which has ideas and top tips to help us respond to the global crisis with a sense of purpose and meaning. To help have a great meeting, the charity has published new guidance for people hosting online groups, with some really good ideas.

It seems that the general mood in lockdown is one of ups and downs – we really hope there haven’t been too many downs for you and your family.

Today’s message is about additions or alternatives to the home learning tasks your teacher sets your child. We know some tasks might end up being a bit tricky for some people, so we’ve three alternatives here.

Living and learning during lockdown

Living and Learning is the name for all the teaching and learning we do around Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE). Each week in school, we have a Living and Learning statement. This week’s is I can describe and use ways to calm down. One of the Sphere Federation Health Leaders writes:

Listen to the new story Everybody worries by Jon Burgerman. The story focuses on the emotion of being anxious. Getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions but sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.

Different people use different ways to calm down. Talk at home about the ways people around you calm down. Your child might be aware of different relaxation or mindfulness techniques we’ve talked about at school.

Here are some techniques for your child (and you) to try. Let us know which are favourite techniques!

1. Go to a ‘quiet spot’. Turn calming down into a positive by designating a place where we can go to calm down.
2. Go outside for a walk or run
3. Take some deep breaths. Slowing down our breathing can help our body calm down.
4. Count to 10 (or 100). Try this in your head (not out loud).
5. Listen to some soothing music.
6. Think of something you’re grateful for.
7. Look at a funny picture or video.
8. Use guided meditations.
9. Loosen up – Do some stretches or yoga.
10. Sit quietly and have a drink

Writing

Another additional or alternative home learning task is for your child to get stuck into some writing. Many of you have told us that writing has been the trickiest home learning task, so teachers have reduced the number of writing tasks we’re setting. However, quite a few children are missing getting their creative juices flowing. Download this set of writing ideas – they might spark off an idea! Your child’s class teacher will still be happy to read the writing, and your child might like to share the piece with friends and family, too, of course.

Geography

One parent I spoke with last week substituted a geography home learning task with an alternative for her child: to do a jigsaw of a map of Europe with her child – good idea!

You can help your child at home by looking at online maps (like Google Maps) and finding different places (look at the lists below to judge what type of places), and then doing a quiz full of facts about them. Your child could match capitals and countries, for example. Make it harder by missing out the vowels in the words (so they have to consider the spellings a little, too: dnbrgh – Sctlnd).

Geography age-related expectations can be found in our Curriculum Statement in the Curriculum and expectations page of our website. Home-friendly ones to work on are the facts about locations:

By the end of Year 2, geography expectations include:

• I know the four countries and capital cities of the UK.
• I know the seas which surround the UK.
• I know the world’s seven continents.
• I know the world’s five oceans.

By the end of Year 4, the expectations include:

• I know the main cities of the UK (the four capitals and at least four more).
• I know some of the counties in the UK.
• I know some of the main rivers and mountains in the UK (at least three of each).
• I know some European countries and their capital cities (at least four, not including those in the UK).
• I know some of the main rivers and mountains in Europe.
• I know the position of the Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle.

And by the end of Year 6, they include all of the above, plus:

• I know some of the main rivers, mountains and regions (eg the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, the Highlands of Scotland) in the UK (at least three of each).
• I know some European countries and their capital cities (at least six, not including those in the UK).
• I know some world-wide countries and some of their major cities.