Living and Learning: I respect others.
This week in our Living and Learning session, Year 5/6 explored an important and powerful topic – discrimination. We began by unpicking what the word really means and discovered that discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly because of who they are or because of a particular characteristic they have. Through thoughtful discussion, we looked at real-life examples and reflected on the impact discrimination can have on people’s lives.
We also learned about the Equality Act 2010, which helps protect everyone from discrimination and ensures that certain characteristics are recognised and respected. To help us remember these, we used the brilliant mnemonic DR S GRAMPS:
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Disability
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Race
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Sex
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Gender reassignment
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Religion or beliefs
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Age
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Marriage or civil partnership
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Pregnancy and maternity
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Sexual orientation
The children listened, reflected and spoke maturely about a sensitive topic _ and we were really proud of the respect they showed throughout the lesson.
Help at Home: Can your child list the protected characteristics without peeking? Who do they think is responsible for making sure these are upheld and respected?
Phase 3/4 Poetry
The children across the phase have been working hard to learn the poem ‘Let No One Steal Your Dreams’ by Paul Cookson.
On Thursday, they will perform this poem together in a special assembly to celebrate National Poetry Day.
We have focused on voice projection and adding expression as we read.
In reading lessons, the children have explored the meaning of the poem and words they’re curious about.
Help at home by encouraging your child to recite the poem, adding expression and projecting their voice.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills continue to be really important in Year 1 and 2. We are trying to refine and improve our handwriting and presentation in our books. Using playdough, colouring carefully and cutting out are so useful to help us do this!
Help at home by doing jigsaws, colouring in and letting your child cut out.
Topic – urban green spaces
This week, we’ve been thinking about how Leeds has developed and expanded over time. We considered the importance of green spaces in cities and how these are decreasing due to city expansion. The children were able to identify the benefits of green spaces, such as carbon stores, reducing pollution and lowering global temperatures. They also looked at the impact green spaces have on humans such as improved physical health and improved mental health. The children created posters to show all the benefits.
Living and Learning: Protected Characteristics
Over the next couple of weeks, we’re learning all about respect.
We’ll be revisiting what the protected characteristics are. These are characteristics that are protected by law to stop discrimination.
disability, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation
We can use this useful mnemonic to help us remember: DRGRAMPSS.
As well as reminding ourselves what the protected characteristics are, we’ll be exploring themes around them such as…
- Why are they protected?
- What would society be like if they weren’t protected?
- How do they link to the British Values?
We’ll also look at different scenarios where the characteristics aren’t being protected and see if we can identify the problem and the characteristic.
Help at home: Have a chat with your child about why we have protected characteristics and the importance of them.
Goodbye conkers!
In 1,2B we’ve loved using the conkers we collected to count, organise and play with. We collected 1281 in total. Today, as part of our science learning, we returned them to nature. We threw them into the bushes and trees for the animals or to grow into trees one day. There was even a squirrel busy on the field when we were there.
Living and Learning: rights and responsibilities
This week, our L&L statement was: I know that rights come with responsibilities. This week, our Living and Learning statement is I know that rights come with responsibilities.
We have been learning that rights are the things that everyone deserves (like being safe, cared for and listened to) and responsibilities are the things we should do to make sure we and others can enjoy those rights (like following rules, showing respect and helping others).
We’ve had brilliant discussions about how we all have rights, however these come with certain responsibilities. We came up with some rights we have within school and the responsibilities that come with these:
- We have the right to learn and go to school. We have the responsibility to help others learn while at school and be good learners.
- We have a right to eat lunch but a responsibility to be respectful and polite to the lunchtime staff.
- We have a right to use the classroom equipment but a responsibility to look after it.
- We have a right to playtime but a responsibility to play safely and respectfully.
- We have the right to feel safe and a responsibility to make others feel safe.
We watched this video https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqgm7yc#zmghp4j and discussed what rights and responsibilities that we have at school and at home.
Help at Home: Talk to your child about their rights and responsibilities at home. For example, they might have the right to play with toys but the responsibility to tidy them away afterwards. Sharing examples together will help to strengthen their understanding.
Dinosaurs
As the children continue to explore the provision lots of different interests have been emerging, this week it has been dinosaurs. We’ve developed a small world dinosaur land to encourage creative play and communication.
“This dinosaurs says roar”
” my dinosaur has sharp teeth”
We enjoyed using the ramps last week. This week we used them to roll some of the apples and conkers that we found in the nursery garden. We counted them as they reached the bottom.
We experimented with other things that roll too. In the paint this week we tried our hand at painting with rollers. This up and down motion will help us later when it comes to developing our skills as a writer.
Next week, we’ll talk about the changes that we are noticing outside. Look out for a brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure that you find and return it to Nursery.
Our focus story is the popular story “We’re Going on a bear Hunt” We will be exploring this story using our own puppets and props.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – watch the story hear told by Michael Rosen.
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week will be Baa Baa Black Sheep. Listen to the rhyme together here
Reminders:
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- Please don’t forget to send a family photograph for our home corner display Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat every day.
The Everywhere Bear
We’ve been reading The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
The story follows a class bear that goes on quite the journey. Journey is our word of the week!
We’ve been re-telling parts of the story using this story map…
and we used the story introduce our own travelling teddies- Ziggy and Buddy.
We looked at an aerial view of our school, to find the different places our class teddies had visited.
Ziggy and Buddy will be coming home with a child each weekend, along with paper to record their adventures!
Maths; counting principles
In Maths, we’ve been using toys to demonstrate accurate counting. We’ve been reminding our toys to…
- “stop at the stopping number” and recall the the total amount- cardinality
- only count each item once- one-to-one correspondence
- know that objects can be counted in any order- order irrelevance
We’ve also been looking at ways to make counting easier, such as moving objects or lining them up. We’ve been counting things that cannot be seen (such as sounds or actions) and things that cannot be moved. We introduced the idea of using a ‘tagging wand’ to support careful counting.
Music: Charanga
In our Wednesday afternoon music lessons, we follow a scheme called Charanga.
The children are introduced to a wide variety of music, including traditional nursery rhymes. This week they enjoyed Happy by Pharrell Williams.
During lessons the children move in time to the music, identify what they can hear (voices/instruments), discuss tempo and pitch and make comments about how the music makes them feel. The lesson was finished with some familiar nursery rhymes; Pat-a-cake and Row Your Boat.
We love our music lessons!
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) g, o, c and k. They have also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letter).
We have started reading words, by putting sounds onto our phoneme fingers.
Can your child show you how we use our phoneme fingers in class? You could write out the following words for them to try: sat, map, tin.
We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; is. Tricky words are those we have to ‘look and say’ because they have ‘tricky’ parts that we cannot sound out.
Please continue to use the ‘Learn at home’ sheets with your child, to review our new sounds and tricky words each week.
eBooks
Reading records have been sent home today, so please check in your child’s book bag. On the back of the record book, you’ll find login details to access your child’s eBook on the Collins Hub website. Your child has already shared the wordless story in their reading sessions this week. We hope that you enjoy reading and talking about the book together and we look forward to beginning their reading journey with you.
Please let us know if you have any problems accessing your books online.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Breezy Weather
Click here to watch Sunshine Class recite this week’s poem
Did you know…
Your child has their own special place, to display their learning
Next time you’re in class, check out our ‘proud walls’. The children can display learning and creations that they are super proud of, which will later be added to their learning journey books.
And you as parents and carers have a special place too! This week (and whenever you can thereafter) we’d love you too add to our ‘parent partnership’ boards. Tell us what your child is interested in at home and we’ll aim to create learning opportunities that follow their interests in the classroom.
Some pictures of our learning this week…
Reminders
- PE days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please send your child to school in their PE kit on these days (school photo days are an exception)
- Library day is Thursday. Please send your ‘love of reading’ library book on Thursdays each week.
- Reading records should be returned to school each Friday.
- We are still finding a small number of un-named and unclaimed items, especially jumpers and cardigans. Please ensure all of your child’s items are named, so that we can reunite them with any that are lost.
- Please note that Reception are not included in ‘Watch us while we work’ (13 October 2:30pm–3:00pm) We will have separate stay and learn sessions throughout the school year.
Diary Dates
Phonics Phase 2 and coffee morning: 06.10.25 9.00am-10.00am
Individual school photos day: 07.10.25 (please send your child to school in school uniform, not PE kit on this day)
FOSP Disco: 17.10.25 3.15pm-4.15pm Please collect from the classroom doors.
Reading
KS1 are really enjoying our novel this half term, ‘The Enchanted Wood’ by Enid Blyton.
Everyone has been really engaged during story time and listened very well.
So far in the story we have been introduced to three children, Joe, Frannie and Beth. They have moved to a cottage in the countryside next to a magical forest called the Enchanted Wood. The children have met lots of ‘peculiar characters’ along the way including a Fairy called Silky, a grumpy elf and an unusual man called Moon Face. I wonder if you can guess why that is his name!
Help at home by asking children to recap stories and encourage them to act out their favourite parts.