Living and learning: I take part in democratic decisions
This week has been a very special week at Scholes as we have held our Junior Leadership Team elections. All children were invited to prepare a speech – explaining why they would like to be part of the JLT and the changes they would implement. Lots of children did this and presented their speeches to their class on Wednesday. They were absolutely fantastic! Each class then had a voting slot on Thursday morning where they placed their vote into a box in the hall. The winner from each class was announced in assembly today – a huge congratulations to the winners and also a very big well done to everyone who took part and put themselves forward! You were all wonderful and should be very proud of yourselves!
It has been great to see all children taking part in the democratic process of an election and getting a great understanding of what it means to vote and how this system works.
Geography fieldwork – not on the field!
We had an exciting afternoon on Tuesday this week doing some field work in our locality. All classes went on a walk along Station Road identifying trees and counting how many were on our route. The variation of trees was not as wide as on our school field but the trees were much bigger. We looked carefully at a map to mark our route, the trees and a landmark (the shop).
Help at home by looking at the leaves, seeds or berries on different trees and trying to identify them. The Woodland Trust have some ways to help on their website. This guide could also help.
3,4 A Class News
We’re drawing to the end of a busy week in Year 3 and 4!
As part of our Geography topic – Where in the world am I? – we went out into the local area to do some fieldwork. We investigated land use in our locality.
Help at home by quizzing your child on the five types of land use we’ve learnt about: agricultural, residential, recreational, commercial and transport.
This week, we also heard speeches from all the children who wanted to represent our class in the Junior Leadership Team, the JLT. We talked about democracy and carried out a class election. We will find out tomorrow who won the vote.
On Wednesday, as always, we enjoyed book club. This is our chance to enjoy our books and celebrate the reading records the children have brought in. We also heard some of the class share about what they’re reading and how they’d rate it. Below are some pictures from this session.
Help at home by regularly listening to your child read and discussing it with them.
Thank you for your continued support! 
Science – taste
In Science, KS1 have been looking at the 5 sense. This week the sense we focussed on was taste. During this week’s Science lesson, we tasted 3 different pieces of food. We smelled the food first because we know that our sense of smell links to our taste buds.
After we tasted the food we described it in our books. We decided:
- lemon is sour
- dark chocolate is bitter
- crisps are salty
- biscuits are sweet
We had a lot of fun in this lesson.
Living and learning: I take part in democratic decisions
As a school we pride ourselves on the idea of promoting democracy. We really value pupil voice and being part of the Junior Leadership Team is a way that children can make positive changes around school and have their voice hear. This week, we’re holding the elections for a new JLT team. The children in 5,6B have been busy writing their speeches at home and read them aloud in class yesterday. The children spent last night pondering over who they will vote for in the elections today. Who will be lucky enough to be elected? Let’s wait and see!
Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Living and Learning – Democracy
This week we are learning about democracy and what that means for us and for others. We know that grown ups have a democratic vote to choose who they want to lead the country in a fair way. During a vote, everyone gets the opportunity to have their say and the majority of votes will decide who or what the winner is. School will be holding a democratic vote for the new members of the JLT this week. In class, we practised by voting for a story to share. The book with the most votes was read and shared with everyone.
Geography Fieldwork: How much carbon is stored within trees in our locality?
Over the last half term, we have been learning about Geography.
During this topic, we have learned that trees are really important for a number of reasons. One of these is that they store carbon in their trunks, roots and branches. Because carbon dioxide is a gas that contributes to climate change, the more carbon that can be stored, the better.
In order to work out how much carbon is stored in our locality, we went out into Scholes and measured the girth of different trees.
Help at home: Which of our vocabulary can your child remember?
From these measurements, we are able to work out how much carbon each tree stores and work out a total for Scholes by using our sample.
In our geography lessons this week, we will be collating our results and working out the total amount of carbon stored.
Come back later this week to read our results!
For ways to help plant more trees in our locality, visit: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/campaign/trees
Philosophy Friday!
Every morning, children have a morning task as soon as they arrive at school.
This could be practising their number facts, times tables, spelling, reading skills and more! This is one reason why it’s vitally important that your child arrives at school on time.
On Fridays, our morning task is a little different. Fridays are now… Philosophy Friday! On these mornings, children are given the task to ‘think and be ready to share’ about a given statement.
These have included: We rely too much on technology; What is the meaning of a good life?; If you discover buried treasure, is it yours?; and more!
Help at home: have discussions with your child and give them the opportunity to develop their thinking skills by asking thought provoking questions!
Geography in 1,2B – fieldwork
We carried out some fieldwork as part of our geography topic this week.
We identified and counted trees on our school field.
We also returned to 1372 conkers we collected by throwing them into the bushes. The squirrels will now have plenty of food and we hope maybe some will become trees too!
Help at home by looking at the leaves, seeds or berries on different trees and trying to identify them. The Woodland Trust have some ways to help on their website. This guide could also help.
