Class 12

In TSU this week, we have been learning about different aspects of Indian culture. In groups, we chose one key aspect to focus on and research in greater depth. After carrying out this research, we wrote a script for either a podcast or video. The aspects we chose from were:

• Religion
• Music
• Food
• Traditional dress
• Sports
• Festivals

The groups who chose to record podcasts used an online voice recorder and downloaded the audio files so that they could be uploaded to the school website. The groups who chose to record videos used the Chromebook cameras and downloaded the video files so that they could be uploaded to the school website.

Follow the QR code links in the document below to listen to our presentations on Indian culture:

Below is a selection of photos, videos and blogs from our time at Herd Farm.  Please read and enjoy!

We left school at 2:30pm and played football once we got there. When we arrived there, we placed our luggage outside of our rooms and brought our Torches out for the night walk.

Everyone waited outside, sitting on the benches waiting for the others. Once everyone was out, we started our journey in the forest and passed by the farmers carrots. It was a long walk as the journey was about two-hours. After that long walk, we came back and ate dinner 

(fries,sausages,meatballs and beans);we had brownies for dessert. We soon after walked upstairs and met Mathew ,who guided us through the day. I (Lazo) went over to play pool while my classmate (cj) went over to play table-football. While that was happening, others watched Megamind on the tv. Miss, soon said that it's time to go to bed and we ran over 

to our rooms to go to sleep. Sadly, I couldn’t go to sleep because everyone in my room was chatting and I slept at around 2-3am. 

                                                               Day 2

The second day was amazing because we did lots of activities such as zip lining the zipline going 30 miles per hour! I personally loved it and my classmates also loved the zipline. I did not like the sound that it made when you were going down. First I did nightline and orienteering ; while Lazo did zipline and archery. After the zipline and the archery Lazo did night-line and orienteering. While Lazo was doing that, I was doing crate stacking and I got to the max (which was 12). Me and Conner were terrified because it felt higher than it actually was. The lunch was really nice but we had to make the tables before we could eat. After that, we went upstairs to play in the playroom that had pool and table football and there was also a movie on the screen. Then we showered and brushed our teeth. Soon after, we went to sleep.

                                                              Day 3

Today was our final day of being at Herd farm. We first brushed our teeth and got ready for 

Breakfast. It was quite yummy. We hurried for our final activities, CJ’s was archery and Lazo’s was crate stacking. I got 6 on my first but on my second try I got 9. When those activities were done, we played football until our bus came. The bus arrived, we waved our goodbyes to Herd Farm and sat in the bus. We sang songs on our way back to school and chatted all

the way there.

                                     Herd Farm Residential 2024

 Day one.

As we arrived, we got out of school and got to the coach on about 2:20pm.  It was quite loud on the coach as everyone was super excited to go to the ravishing residential! When we arrived at the fabulous farm, we had to play outside because our rooms weren’t quite ready.  As we were playing, me Evan, and my friend Morrison  accidentally kicked a football and we didn't get it back.  We came inside to see that most of the rooms were in this really cool glass corridor but it got super hot (two rooms were just inside the main building.) After we were let in our rooms we were told we had 40 minutes to make our beds. In the eagle room where I stayed (Martha) Summer basically made all of our beds except Hollie’s. In the Common Buzzard room (where I Evan stayed )My other friend who is called Lazo kept on saying

“Oh please can someone help me make my bed because I can’t do it!”

So I helped him and then he gave me a little toy to play with. We all then went through a large door into the dinner hall where we had sausages and brownies for pudding. Above the long dinner table and room was a relaxing area with DVD’s (we watched mega mind 1) pool, football and more! When we were up stairs Martha made a building out of old jenga blocks and Evan was playing pool against Lexie and she won. We then got ready to go on a night walk it was right after tea so it was more of an evening walk. You might not know what this is but while we were walking we saw the set of the famous show Emmerdale; we even saw the vans which had all of the filming equipment.  When we got home, we had some time to eat some more of our snacks and then we had to go to are room and we had a little amount of time to talk or something. I (martha) handed out glowsticks everyone enjoyed them.

Day Two

On day two, we all woke up and had toast or cereal for breakfast; then we brushed our teeth and got ready for activities. My (Evans) group went to do the zip wire and Me, Noah, Miron, Lexie and Aaliyah were so scared to go on it but when we actually got to it we weren’t that scared. My group (Martha) started off the day with archery me and Summer were super good we kept going on blue(Summer even got a bullseye) . We then played a pizza game were each colour was required to make a pizza for example the colour white was dough and red was sauce. We split into boys vs girls; Mrs Baldwin kept on burning our pizza but at the very end she got the sauce we needed. The boys won though as they made 2 whole pizzas! After the Zip wire,  Mrs Haylings group went to do archery. The teams of archery were Lexie, Me, Aaliyah, Kayla and Ava vs Coben, Colby, Noah, Lazo and Mirons.  By the way my team won. Mine next activity (Martha) was the nightline we got blindfolded and got a partner mine was Summer and we went to the woods we then held on to a rope line me and summer kept on tripping over the branches -  I also got stuck in a tunnel. Mrs Haylings group also did the night line so it was me and Coben.  We kept on falling over and at the end we got so muddy but it was worth it because we placed second. We all finished up our exciting activities and headed for lunch which was jacket potato (which me and Evan didn't like so we had a sausage roll). After lunch we helped to tidy up and clean the kitchen and helped to clean the table and stuff. We quickly played upstairs then did our third activity Martha’s was orienteering. We had Sunday dinner then headed in our rooms to get ready for tomorrow…

Day three

On day three, Martha's group did the zip line and my (Evans)group did the crate stack and the crate stack was really really fun.  My group (Martha) went on the zipline it looked SUPER scary but when I did it, it was fun. While I was zooming down I saw Evan’s group doing the crate stack. On my second go of the zipline I was blindfolded(at the end of the zipline there's a huge bump that sends you flying) because i was blindfolded it was scary as i didn’t know when the bump was. On the crate stack was so fun because you went really high and at end the crate under you got kicked down. When we got back to eat pasta for lunch and we had mousse for afters.  Following that,  we got a bit of time to go up stairs but it was only like 10 minutes, me (Martha) was playing with CD’s and jenga blocks, and me (Evan) played Connect 4 with Morrison.  We then headed upstairs to have a talk from the herd farm staff. We gave them feedback and we wrote on a whiteboard what we liked about the residential.  We said bye to the herd farm and went on the coach. All Through the coach ride there was music by Taylor swift playing so we all knew the bus driver was a Swifty! We all went into the small hall and said hi to all the students who didn't go to the residential  . Mrs Haylings handed out our souvenirs and we went outside to our loving guardians. That was our stay at Herd farm thanks for reading.

Evan and Martha

DAY 1

When we arrived, we met Matthew who told us to put all our luggage in a glass hallway and then made our way out to the football field to have a little play around while the rooms were getting sorted out and also so the members of the public could leave. After about half an hour we had to make our beds. Which was quite funny because in my room people's bed sheets kept on flinging off. During making the beds there was a practice fire drill. After we had tea, which was sausage and chips, that was nice. We -the children- were in charge of help cleaning up the kitchen. I (Harper) helped dry and put away the plates and pots Coben helped sweep up and wipe down the tables . Then we went on a night walk led by Dec that was really fun and funny. We ended up where Emmerdale is filmed. We spent some time looking at the set then headed back where some of us wanted to collect rocks to take home. Once we got back we had to get changed and brush our teeth etc and then went to bed…..

DAY 2

Day two was a busy day all the groups had three or four activities. The first one I did was the night line, which was where you got to choose a partner and get black out goggles and had to follow a rope. For me, I didn't like it the most because I kept on head-butting trees or falling over logs. One time I went headfirst into a tree then tripped over a log at the same time . Don't worry we had helmets on . My next activity was orienteering where you got a map and a sheet of paper which you got to clip the piece of paper with a hole puncher that was fun even though my partner gave up and it was only me doing it.  Next was the crate stack which, in my opinion, was one of the best activities! Basically you got attached to a rope/wire and had to climb on crates with your teammates would have to put down for you -  the limit was 12 crates and me and my partner got to 10/11 crates! But we fell off! As I got on the eleventh we  just hung in the air until your supervisor did some dance trick to lower you. Finally, it was lunch which was jacket potatoes (which wasn't my cup of tea really) and then for desert it was yoghurts. We were now on our last activity for the day which was the………………… Zipline which is my favourite. It was really good fun! We got attached by  our harness and we had to walk down a hill till our feet couldn't touch the floor on the first go you had to hold on but on the second go you could let go if you wanted and do a trick like superman or iron man something like that. Then it was tea and chicken dinner but I didn't particularly like it. 

DAY 3

We got dressed, had breakfast and got ready for the last activity of the day and residential. We had to take the bedding off the beds so they could get washed and then tidy up the bedroom and sort out any last things to go in our suitcase. We went to the archery and it wasn’t as good because I kept burning the pizza and if you don't know what I mean…it's a game where you have to hit all the colours on the target but if you hit the black 2 times then you burnt your pizza but there wasn't much to do on day 3. For lunch we had pasta with sauce or not it was up to you. For like an hour we went into the games room and also tidied our rooms just to make sure everything was out of the bedroom. Personally this residential was  amazing 👏

Summer

Herd Farm Residential

May 15th-17th

Day one! 15th May

         We left school at 2:30 on the coach! On arrival, a man called Matthew greeted us and we put our bags away. We had 45 minutes to play on the field, which was located in front of the herd farm building, while they tidied our rooms. Some of us were doing gymnastics and the others (the boys) were playing football, others were planting trees. Some what after, It was time to make are beds. It was a very big struggle for some people (mainly the people in kestrel). The time was also spent unpacking. We spoon after had a fire alarm! After a good hour we went for dinner (it was delicious). We had sausage(pork) and chips but if you don't eat pork you could have veggie sausages or meatballs. For dessert we had brownies without cream nor could have cream on it. Soon later, we got to go upstairs and have some free time; we could play pool, table football or watch a movie (it was your choice). Later on, we went on a night walk or many people would say day walk. We had a laugh, chat and jump in muddy puddles on the walk. Half way through the walk we reached were Emmerdale was filmed.  A bunch of girl were sing a song were you clap to the rhyme. When we got back, we started getting ready for bed. We had a little bit of time to chat and get comfy in our rooms. After that we had to settle down because it was lights out. None of us got sleep that night.

Day Two!16th May

       Some rooms woke up a little bit early, so we had some more time to chat. We got ready and had time to talk some more. Soon after, Mrs Haylings came and got us for breakfast. The options were toast (complemented with a side of different fruit jams or butter).  The kind, generous teachers served it and we cleaned up. It was so appetising. After breakfast we had time to go upstairs and play, I(Aaliyah) was a bit tired of waiting for the pool so I decided to go and do handstands. On the other hand, Ava watched Megamind on the tv. We soon went down to swap out of our indoor shoes to our outdoor shoes. Mrs Haylings group went to ziplining, this was our favourite. You should have heard me (Aaliyah) scream I was petrified (I hate heights).I went on with my 3 friends.(Lexie, Evan and Ava). Me/Ava went on with Kayla, Colby and Aaliyah. After a couple of go’s later, we went to Archery. We had a demonstration and we (ava and Aaliyah) got a bullseye straight away.it was amazing! We then played a game called make a pizza. I got a bullseye during this time but i was almost called a red but he said if it's on the line it classes as inwards so i got a bullseye. After we had finished we had lunch which was jacket potato and beans. We then had one last activity for the day which was the night line. It was were you had to be blind folded and had to hold on to a rope while walk through a forest with logs and trees. I(Aaliyah) was partner with Lexie and after the tunnel, she gave up and face planted the mud. We soon headed back to set the tables for dinner, which was roast chicken. We also had a very nice pudding. We soon after went upstairs to play. Around 2 hours later, we had a talent show. I(Aaliyah) did cheerleading with me doing it as a bunny. I think it was the best! We soon went back to our room to have showers, get ready for bed, then dozed off.

Day three!17^th May 

We woke up and got ready for the day .We had the job of stripping our beds and cleaning up after ourselves.  Soon after we headed to breakfast which was toast and cereal! After we cleaned up we headed to are activities which was Crate stack, this was where you stacked crates and had to get as high as possible. Aaliyah and Mrs Haylings ,then me and Lexie. Ava went with Kayla both times .We had lunch which was pasta and sadly we had to leave  soon after. We had ordered pens, pencils and keyrings so we were given them. It was soon time to depart and go back to school.

Ava and Aaliyah

Herd Farm Residential 

May 15th-17th

Day 1 (Wednesday 15th May)

On May 15th, we left school at 14:30 to go to our exciting residential Herd Farm. When we arrived, we met Matthew at the front gate and put our things down in the glass corridor where the rooms are. We played for about 45 minutes because another year group was there. Afterwards, we went to our rooms to make our beds. A little bit later, we ate dinner, which was chips and sausages. In my opinion, that was the best meal there. Then we went up to the playroom while some people helped clean the kitchen. At around 5:00, we went on a night walk for about 1 hour, where we walked around the area and the little forest. The night walk was a little bit tiring; the views were really nice. Some of us got showers while others got ready for bed.

Day 2 (Thursday May 16th)

We woke at 8:45 to make our beds and at 9:15 we had breakfast (some of us had toast and others had cereal). Then we played in the playroom for a while and brushed our teeth. I had a lot of fun playing pool and table football. When we had all prepared we sat outside on some benches and split into groups. My group's (Mrs Baldwins group) activity was archery first. My favourite activity was archery probably because it was competitive and the pizza game was fun. Our next activity was called the night line. In the night line, we found a partner and got blindfolded. We then held onto each other's shoulders and they guided us along the rope in the forest. There were a couple of obstacles but we managed to complete it. Our third activity was orienteering, where we had a guide and map to find different letters to spell out a word. Unfortunately, we didn't find all the letters (there were 25).  Then we ate lunch, which was jacket potato and beans. At the near end of the day, our group went to crate stack, where two of us were the climbers and we had to stand on crates up to 12 crates while the other people were stacking them. There were other two people called the pullers who pulled the rope whilst we stood on them. Then we had to walk back up which took forever then we all gathered up and had dinner. We had chicken dinner. Just before we left to sleep, we had a talent show.

Day 3 (Friday May 17th)

In the morning we took out our bed sheets and put them in the laundry basket. Then we brushed our teeth and ate our breakfast. It was toast and cereal. Some of us helped clean the tables, some of us swept the floor and some of us washed the dishes. Our last activity of the residential was the zipline. We all put our outdoor shoes on and went outside to split into our activity groups. Then we put on our harness and went to the zipline. The zipline was so long! Declan checked our harness and two people went down first. I was the 3rd person to go! We all went on 3 times. Finally when we finished we all got our harnesses off and went to lunch. We had pasta, tomato sauce and cheese. After that, we got all our luggage and went on the coach and went back to school at normal time and went home.

Lewis & Abdul

Herd farm residential May15th-17th

Day 1

On day one, we left school at 2:30pm but when we arrived there was a delay because the bedrooms were not ready for us to put our stuff in. 

After we put our stuff in the hallway, we had to make our bed. We had sausages and chips for tea which was delicious.  After tea we went to the night line and Morrison was partnered with Conner and we bumped into a tree 12 times!! Jack was with Charlie and they bumped in to a tree 20 times!

 Day 2

On day 2, we woke up early after not sleeping very much!  We were all very tired zzz.  We all had breakfast at 8:30am and Jack had coco pops and Morrison had coco pops. When we finished breakfast thankfully the teachers gave us the food but sadly we had to clean up.  When we finished we did orienteering we had to find numbers and there was a stamp for each one we found.  After that we went to create stack. There are 4 stackers and 1 person pulls up and then down and the other person locks it in place and the 2 people climbs up the boxes and when people got to 12 boxes and Morrison got to push 2 people down.  For lunch we had jacket potatoes then we went zipline and that was scary - Jack  went 30 miles per hour.

Day 3

In day 3 we had breakfast and Morrison had toast and Jack had coco pops again. After that we did archery.  We did a practice archery shot with a man.  When we could shoot properly we played the pizza game.  The pizza game is where white is dough black is burnt it and u had to restart red was tomato sauce and bullseye is cheese.on our way home the driver played dance monkey and everyone sang it but some people was to tired.

By Morrison and Jack

Herd farm Residential May 15^th -17^th

Day one when we arrived, we played outside for half an hour and then Matthew showed us around the area. After that we made our bed sheets, we both found this hard! Then we went on a night walk for two hours . When we set out dinner after dinner we cleaned and washed up the plates and

went upstairs to play for a bit. After a while it was bedtime. It was a very late night for some of us!

Day Two

This was a busy day!  We had to do 3 activities!  We took part in archery, zip lining and orienteering - all these activities were great.  We had lunch and the teachers had to serve us our food which was funny.  After lunch we took part in our last activity for the day and then came back inside for tea.

After tea we held a talent show where lots of people showed off their talents and the teachers were the judges.  Everyone was really tired on this night and we all went to bed much earlier than night 1.

Day 3

We took part in our last activity on the morning after we had cleared our rooms and packed our cases.  We had lunch and then had a talk from one of the leaders who asked us what our favourite thing was and then we went on the coach back to school.

By Connor and Gracie

24th May

Today class 12 celebrated Heritage week by sharing stories from our families heritages.  Lazo and Jimmar brought in some traditional dishes from Iraq and Congo, while Abdul brought in a traditional drum and fan from Ghana.  Some of the children shared their stories while others preferred to speak about the languages they can speak at home.

We found out that in class 12 Lingala, Russian, Greek, Amharik, Polish, Kurdish, Mampruli, Mandarin, Arabic and Patois are all spoken at home with many children speaking and also understanding these languages!

Class 12 have been learning all about Earth and Space in Science.  We were set the task of researching and presenting our findings about why on Earth we have Day and Night.  We had to include specific vocabulary in our presentations to help us explain how the Earth moves and creates the hours of daytime and nighttime we have.  We really enjoyed researching this and presenting to each other.

26th April

On Monday 22nd April, we celebrated Earth Day. In class 12, we researched different ways that we could help the environment. The ideas had to be simple, straightforward things that we can easily do ourselves to take action. We used our research to write an Earth Day pledge that we are going to put into action and encourage others to do the same. We also listened to our new Earth Day Song which was written especially for us by Shine. The song is called, 'Our World, Wonderous World'. We discussed the lyrics and practised singing it together. Finally, we looked at two poems which we will learn and perform to school soon. 
 

Bikeability 2024

Class 12 completed their Bikeability training this week! The trainers complimented the children on their listening skills and commended each one of them for the effort they put into their lessons.  

Here they are proudly showing off their certificates of achievement.

Class 12 enjoyed sharing their stories with some children from Nursery on this year's World Book Day.  We read to them and discussed the pictures and then shared biscuits and juice with the younger children.

8th March

Biodiversity Week 

In guided reading this week, Class 12 have been looking at newspaper articles. We read an article about climate change and how recently the planet passed the key 1.5 C climate mark across a whole year for the first time. We also did an activity based on an article reporting the migratory species which are threatened with extinction. The good news was that we can take action to reverse these events and we discussed practical steps everyone could do to help. In addition, we read an article reporting on three new species of amphibians which scientists had recently discovered.

In fluency, we read 'Dear Earth' by Isabel Otter. This inspirational picture book charmingly blends fiction with non-fiction as we journeyed through the varied landscapes and habitats of the world with the main character Tessa. The story encouraged us to appreciate the wonders of the natural world, including the varied animals, oceans and environments, as well as what can be done to protect it. The beautiful illustrations brought each location to life and opened up discussions about the problems the earth faces and the solutions we can all take responsibility for.

In year 5, our biodiversity activity was to complete a field sketch around our school grounds. In this way, we could observe and record the biodiversity of Beechwood. We used 'OASIS'- Observe, Annotate, Scale, Information and Slow Down to help us to record our findings. We explored the grounds and garden to identify plants, trees, birds, insects and animals. We were amazed to discover the biodiversity of our school. The children saw a wide range of birds including red kites, blackbirds, blue tits, pigeons and seagulls. Beechwood is lucky to have different species of trees such as hawthorns, willow, laurel and oak trees. Plants and flowers identified included daffodils, crocus, snowdrops and daisies. We even found a fox's den! The afternoon was spent outdoors observing a recording in the early March sunshine. Once we had shared our findings, we were able to summarise the different species present in our school. We fed this information forward to year 3 who are going to use it to help with their geography topic this term. 

1st March

Class 12 returned to school after the half-term break and worked incredibly hard. During our English sessions this week, the children researched key events of WW2  to write a non-chronological report answering one of our key TSU questions. The children researched events such as the Dunkirk evacuation, the Battle of Britain, VE Day and VJ Day. They started to write their reports incorporating the grammar aspects they have been learning about such as embedded relative clauses, parenthesis and modal verbs. In PE, Class 12 have started a new gymnastics unit based on symmetrical and asymmetrical balances. The children showed excellent partner skills working together to create sequences. Next week they will apply these skills whilst using a range of different apparatus. 

23rd February

This week, Year 5 started a course with Cycle Leeds. During their sessions, each child will have the opportunity to learn how to ride a bike. They practise these skills on the playground to achieve their level one certificate. Once they are confident at riding, turning and stopping correctly, the children move onto level two. For level two, the children are taken out on the local roads and learn how to ride on the road. The sessions are taking place over a week and a half. So far our children have impressed the instructors with their determination, perseverance and resilience. Well done year 5! We have also been excited to start our art topic looking at the work of Henry Moore who was commissioned during WW2 to make sketches of people sheltering in the London Underground. We looked at different pieces and discussed his uses of tone, line and shape to capture the feelings of anxiety experienced by those in the shelter.

This week in class 12 we have been working in groups to find out how any why WW2 started and how people in the United Kingdom reacted to the news.  We used various secondary sources to find quotes from real people living and experiencing the outbreak of war.

We also researched how Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill reacted to the invasion of Poland.

Click the links to listen to each of our "Wireless broadcasts"...

Group 1: Martha, Mirons, Ava, Noah and Alfie

https://voca.ro/1eYp8A0RtMkx

Group 2: Evan, Gracie, Hollie, Lewis and Connor

https://voca.ro/1huy0oqv5zgw

Group 3: Darcie, Lazo, Ellis, Natalia, Summer and Jimmar

https://vocaroo.com/13bk8TYyCjOg

Group 4: CJ, Kayla, Aaliyah, Morrison, Colby and Jack

https://voca.ro/1nsjTp7LYdB6

Group 5: Lexie, Feng, Harper, Abdul, Savannah, Coben

https://voca.ro/12rPnklG2t0L

26th January

In history, we had a fantastic workshop with Matthew Bellwood. We looked at the Home Front during WW2 and answered some of the key questions we generated at the start of the topic. We found out what the Home Front was and how people who stayed at home did their bit to help the war effort. Matthew used a range of different primary and secondary sources to teach us about different aspects such as ARP wardens, the Fire Guard, the blackout, shelters, the role of women, Dig for Victory and evacuation. Each child took on a role and participated in an air raid. It was a fantastic session where the children learned a lot about the Home Front. They have started to create an informative booklet to show their learning. 

In PE, Class 12 are enjoying dodgeball sessions with GT Sports. In this week's lesson, we practised accurate throwing and catching. 

Our English sessions have been continuing to look at the story of Goodnight Mr Tom. We generated lots of vocabulary for each setting and character ready for our writing next week. 

In guided reading, we looked at wartime poetry. Our focus was GIST and visualisation. We looked at poems such as Newsreel of Embarkation by Timothy Corsellis and an alphabet war poem. 

This week we have been reading more of our class novel Goodnight Mr Tom.  We explored the key themes running through the story including:

Grief/loss

Friendship

Love

Compassion

Acceptance

Abuse

We worked I small groups to act out a chosen section of the text which represented one of the key themes.

You can see our Freeze Frames below.  Can you identify which these we chose from looking at the photos?

8th December

The last few weeks have been extremely busy in Class 12! Last week, we had a brilliant day participating in the first ever 'World Day Wednesday'. We spent the day immersed in nature and learning about the importance of trees. We had a go at calculating the age of different trees on the school grounds and did some lovely artwork based on a tree during the four seasons.  In English, the children have worked hard writing a section of the story of Oliver Twist from Oliver's point of view. They have tried to include all the aspects of grammar they have been learning including relative clauses, parenthesis and figurative language. During their history lessons, we have continued to use various primary sources to investigate what life was like in the Victorian era. We found the crimes and punishments from the time very interesting and were very shocked at how harshly people were treated for even quite low-level crimes! We also enjoyed using Digimaps and other sources to learn how Seacroft has changed since the Victorian period. In RE, our lessons have explored the codes of conduct followed by different religions. This week, we learned how peace is a value held highly by all religions. Class 12 wrote some lovely poems exploring this idea. On Tuesday, we had a fantastic visit to the Leeds Playhouse to watch Oliver with our friends from the LEPP trust. It was an amazing show and a great way to celebrate 10 years of the LEPP. 

Leeds Industrial Museum Visit

On Wednesday, year 5 visited the Leeds Industrial Museum to experience what life was like for a Victorian child. Each child took part in two workshops, one in the Victorian school room and one in the mill itself. During the school room workshop, the children were transported back to the late nineteenth century and learned the importance of the three R's - writing, arithmetic and reading. They discovered Victorian teachers were much stricter than today's! The children used slate boards and pens as well as ink, a pen and blotting paper to write. PE was a drill session done in unison outside to embody the principles of "healthy mind, healthy body". The children were shocked to learn they had to pay for their morning's schooling before heading to the mill to work! Once on the mill floor, our pupils were assigned roles such as scavengers, doffers, fillers and overseers and set to work! They discovered how hard and dangerous jobs for children were. The trip was a fascinating insight into life for Victorians in Leeds and the impact of the Industrial Revolution. The staff at the museum were impressed with our children's knowledge and fantastic behaviour. 

27th October

Another busy week for Class 12 who have really impressed Mrs Sturman and Mrs Haylings with their first half term in year 5. In English, we have returned to Oliver Twist and have been exploring the themes of the story. In groups, the children practised freeze frames of moments from the story which showed examples of the three main themes (poverty, society and class and criminality). In guided reading, we have been practising and performing a variety of different Victorian poems such as The Chimney Boy’s Story and How Doth the Little Crocodile. As part of our history work, Class 12 researched the British Empire and learned about why the empire grew during Queen Victoria’s reign. They also enjoyed sharing their learning for Black History Month with their grown-ups on Wednesday morning. The assembly was a chance to showcase everything they learned about three significant Black Victorians during their Zoom session with the National Archives and share their stories which might have otherwise been hidden histories. A very busy and successful first half term in year 5 - well done Class 12! 

🟢NSPPC🟢

Today we had a special workshop with the NSPCC where we learned how to keep ourselves safe from different types of abuse. We spent a long time discussing different ways we can help each other keep safe and who our trusted adults may be. 

This week we have been working on our skills in music.  We have been learning how to clap, sing and play tuned percussion in time to a beat.  We have learnt the words to a popular song and then performed our version in class.  

20^th October

Class 12 have enjoyed lots of fantastic art lessons this week. They used their observational drawing skills to copy Victorian tiles and applied their knowledge of pencil gradings to shade and add detail. We had a brilliant watercolour lesson where we tried to colour mix different shades from William Morris pieces and used a colour thesaurus to create a name for them. The children practised their printing skills using three different methods of stamping to create a repeating pattern. They also created their final design for their William Morris-inspired designs using floral details. In RE, Class 12 learned about how Sikhs reflect continually on how they live their lives and do not consider pilgrimage a necessity. Instead, they practise daily spirituality. Inspired by this, we followed a guided meditation and really focused on ourselves and being in the moment. In our final dodgeball session, Class 12 enjoyed a match and were able to apply the skills they had been learning. 

6th October

As part of our guided reading sessions this week, Class 12 have been looking at articles from the children's newspaper, First News'. We looked at a range of articles about the environment and climate change and practised the summarising skill GIST. In English, we drafted the against argument for our statement about a Victorian child's right to an education. Our maths sessions have been continuing to look at the short methods for multiplication and division and also carrying on the work we started with the Energy Heroes team last week. On Tuesday, we took part in a fantastic Zoom workshop with the National Archives in Plymouth. Historian Sarah led the session and we used a variety of primary sources to investigate the lives of Black Victorians living in Britain. Sources included census records, photographs, newspaper reports and even a play bill! It was a great opportunity to explore the hidden histories of people who may otherwise have been forgotten

This week, Class 12 started to write a piece of persuasive writing linked to their Victorian topic. The question was, should all children be entitled to an education? Writing as though they were in the 1880’s, the children wrote their arguments for this statement this week. In guided reading, we started to look at non-fiction texts linked to Black History Month. It was very interesting to learn about Mary Seacole and compare and contrast her with another well-known Victorian nurse. Tuesday’s PE lesson was dodgeball and the class had a fantastic session practising catching, throwing and dodging. It was a great session with fantastic partner work. RE this week was learning about the significance of a pilgrimage to Mecca.  One of our classmates shared with us her experience of this special journey with her family which really helped Class 12 to understand.  Another busy week packed full of amazing learning! 

This week in class 12 we have been investigating the effects of Air Resistance as a Force.  We made parachutes and then decided upon the variable that we would change to test the idea that the amount of Air Resistance would change.  We dropped our parachutes from the same height and times how long the took to reach the ground. We then took an average measurement for each parachute and came to our conclusions.  
Martha concluded that “the larger the canopy, the longer it took the parachute to reach the ground” 🪂 

29th September

Class 12 have really impressed Mrs Sturman and Mrs Haylings with their superb home learning. Lots of children have conducted their own research at home and shared their findings with Class 12. We have loved listening to the fascinating facts they discovered and have tried to use them in school to help our learning. Aaliyah even made an amazing peg doll and wrote a diary in role as a workshop child! Keep up the amazing work Class 12 🙂 

Class 12 had lots of fun on Friday for our French Day. We started the day with our Northern Ballet session, followed by French playground games.  We then learned how to sing a French song and ended the day with some more French dancing.  

22nd September

Class 12 were excited to start their art topic this week and began to learn about the Victorian artist William Morris. They learned about William Morris's background and how he created repeating floral patterns to bring nature into people's houses after they began to miss the countryside during the Industrial Revolution. We were even lucky enough to take part in an interactive Zoom workshop with Amanda from the Leeds Art Gallery. Amanda took us on a virtual tour of the gallery and helped us to investigate Victorian art. In particular, she showed us the beautiful Victorian tiled hall which helped to inspire our upcoming tile project. On Tuesday, Matthew Bellwood visited Class 12 to teach us all about Victorian leisure and entertainment. Matthew used a variety of different sources to show us that the Victorians had some similar entertainment choices (such as aquariums and the theatre) but some very different ones too! We were very shocked to learn the Victorians watched public executions and even learned a sad Christmas ballad from the 1850s called 'Mistletoe Bough'. 

15th September

Another busy week in Class 12! In history, we researched one of our key questions about Queen Victoria and the royal family. Children used chrome books to make notes and turned these into different outcomes such as family trees or fact files. We were amazed to learn how many of Queen Victoria's children and grandchildren became part of royal families around the world earning Queen Victoria the nickname of the grandmother of Europe! As part of our work on Oliver Twist, we turned the story into a playscript creating dialogue and adding stage directions. During our RE lesson this week, we discovered the importance of the Western Wall to the Jewish faith and how visits here make people reflect. Our maths lessons have been based around place value and we have been revising rounding, approximating and column addition and subtraction methods. Class 12 have worked extremely hard all week in their sessions. 

At the end of Year 4, the children entered 'The Incredible Diary Of ...'  creative writing competition. From thousands of entries sent from all across the UK, these children have had their diary entries chosen to be published. They will have their writing published in 'The Incredible Diary Of ... Magical Tales' later this year. We are incredibly proud of them for this achievement and cannot wait to share their writing with the rest of the school.

8th September

Class 12 returned to school really well after the summer holidays and have quickly settled into their new classroom. They have impressed Mrs Sturman, Mrs Haylings and Miss Riley with how hard they have worked! They started year 5 with some PSHE work and a MindMate lesson exploring the theme, 'Feeling good and being me.' As our history topic this term is the Victorians, the children took part in an exciting pre-launch lesson revisiting their previous learning. Pupils revisited their knowledge and understanding of chronology of British, local and world history topics they have studied. In their launch lesson, Class 12 formulated their key questions which will guide their learning across the autumn term. In French, we took part in a phonics lesson where we learned how to read and pronounce the sounds in French. We found it quite tricky at first but soon started to get the hang of it! 

In English, we have started to read Oliver Twist. This story was written by the famous author Charles Dickens and explores how the poorest people in society were treated the worst. Class 12 used drama techniques such as freeze frames and conscience alley to investigate the thoughts and feelings of the characters. During our guided reading lessons, we have also started to read extracts of Hetty Feather which is the story of a young girl in a Foundling hospital. In addition, one of our PE sessions this half term is dodgeball. We started to practise throwing skills to aim at a moving target. Our science topic this half term is forces so we had fun experimenting with Newton meters and practised measuring force using them.