Children’s Mental Health Week – THIS IS MY PLACE

In HUB 2 today, we have talked about the word BELONGING and the different ways we can feel that we belong. From this, we created our own unique maps, entitled THIS IS MY PLACE, which identify the places, groups, activities including our interests that provide us with a sense of belonging.

As you can see, our hobbies, interests, pets, families, friends alongside our special places ( school, home and favourite restaurants) all have a special place in our daily lives as they all make us feel that we belong.

 

Y6 Design and Technology: Truffle Making – Focused Practical

Year 6 are in the process of preparing to be chocolatiers this week to create a produce (truffles) with a purpose (a gift) for a person of their choosing.

This week we took part in a focused practical activity and observed the process of how to make the truffles using a simple recipe. With a little assistance and guidance from Miss Stewart, some children weighed, snapped, crumbled and added the necessary ingredients to create a batch of delicious truffles, which were shared and devoured before being evaluated.

Our next step is to be the chocolatier and independently create and design our own truffles so watch this space…

HUB 2: FESTIVE BISCUIT DECORATING

In HUB 2 this week, we demonstrated our creative flair and decorated some homemade shortbread biscuits with a range of Christmas themes alongside some of our own personal interest.

We persevered, focused and carefully concentrated on the task to ensure that our designs were delectable masterpieces.

And voila…from Christmas Trees, Christmas Stars and Snowflakes to Sonic, Batman, Spiderman and the Joker, we certainly enjoyed the task before devouring and sharing our fine creations with our loved ones.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Y5H discussed the emotional and physical impact of spreading rumours and calling people names in our Jigsaw lesson today.

We began the lesson by playing the game ‘WHISPERS’ around the class to show how a simple statement can be altered, changed or become misconstrued.  This activity helped the children identify that rumours are often stories which are circulated that are not always the true as they can be altered in the way they interpretated by the receiver.

We then discussed and debated a scenario based upon a girl called ‘Carol’ who had started a new school but felt isolated by a group of girls as they would not accept her as part of the group and they began to give her nasty looks. Carol then began receiving anonymous text messages calling her nasty names which resulted in Carol feeling sad, lonely and worried about attending school.  From this, the Y5 children identified what Carol both should and should not do to help her situation:

  • Speak to a trusted adult (Parent/Carer, Teacher, Friend or a trusted relative) – Never keep it to yourself or ignore when someone is being unkind to you
  • Call Childline (0800 1111) or the NSPCC helpline (0808 800 5000)
  • Show the text messages to a trusted adult  – Never delete them as the situation may not just go away – the messages need to be reported
  • Never retaliate as the situation could become worse
  • Be an Upstander not a Bystander – if you see or hear that someone is being unkind to another person – SPEAK UP and TELL A TRUSTED ADULT
  • If the situation escalates, call the non-emergency number 101 for help and support

The children then created a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ board game related to Carol’s scenario highlighting 4 things that we should do to help a situation like Carol’s as well as 4 things that we should not do as they could make the situation worse.

We are looking forward to playing each other’s games next week!

HUB 2 P.E – AUTUMN TERM

The HUB 2 boys have been enjoying a range of activities with Brad and Callum from Tigers Trust during this Autumn Term’s P.E sessions.

We have been demonstrating the great ‘SPORTSPERSONSHIP’ values of  RESPECT, TEAMWORK, RESILIENCE, PERSEVERANCE and TOLERANCE while participating in a range of games such as Bogey Tig, Stuck in the Mud, What Time is it Mr Wolf, Monkey-Ball Tig,  Dodgeball and Penalty Shoot-out.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Brad and Callum for all your hard work this term!

Y5 EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH – Raksha Bandhan

Year 5 have explored the many ways in which children of faith communities express their religious beliefs through rituals, traditional dress and celebrations this term.

The Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan allowed the children to demonstrate their creative flare by creating ‘Friendship’ bracelets for their talk partner.

 

This wonderful faith celebration takes part in August in the month of Sravana in the Hindu lunar calendar and is celebrated in many different ways around the world.  One of the most common traditions is where sisters make a bracelet which they tie around the wrist of their brother; and upon receipt of the special gift the brother wishes their sister good health and good fortune.

Our own creations allowed the children to celebrate their bond of friendship and express their gratitude for one another. We discovered that ‘Racksha’ means ‘protection’ and that ‘Bandhan’ means ‘tie’.

 

CHILDREN IN NEED 2025 DANCE-A-THON CHALLENGE

Year 6 certainly rose to this year’s Children in Need ‘DANCE-A-THON’ challenge and busted some great moves on the dancefloor this afternoon.  Everyone, including the staff, had a great time dancing to some fantastic tunes whilst raising funds for this super charitable event.

ANTIBULLYING WEEK 2025 – POWER FOR GOOD

 

This week, both Years 5 and 6 took part in the online BBC Antibullying lesson with the overarching theme being Power for Good.

We had various codes to crack and missions to undertake, whereupon the children explored how to identify when an altercation between parties may be considered as an act of bullying and how we should, and should not, deal with the situation.

We also explored and familiarised ourselves with some important terminology:

Target…the person or persons being bullied

Ringleader…the person causing physical and emotional harm to another

Bystander…an individual who witnesses bullying happening but does nothing to stop it

Upstander…an individual who stands up for the target and gets help

We unanimously agreed that being an UPSTANDER was by far the best in order to use our powers for good to stop or prevent an individual being harmed. In addition, we all agreed that kind hands, kind feet, kind words and being accepting and tolerant of others makes our world a much better place.

Y5 Comparison of Autumnal Religious Festivals

In Year 5 this term, we are learning how people of faith express their religious beliefs through the festivals they celebrate, the ways in which they practice their faith within their communities and through the clothing that they wear.

Today we compared 3 Autumnal festivals in the way that they are celebrated and the messages that they each convey to their faith followers:

The Christian celebration of Harvest is a festival that teaches that we should help and share those who are vulnerable and less fortunate within our community and be thankful to God.

The Hindu celebration of Diwali is a time for faith followers to reflect and and of uniting with others in their community to celebrate light overcoming darkness.

The Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashana is time for Jewish faith followers to reflect on the year that has passed and to seek forgiveness.

Our comparisons found that each of theses magnificent festivals occur in the Autumn; that each faith believes in a God or Gods (Hindus worship many Gods) and that sharing food either within or outside of their faith community is important.

We then enjoyed trying and eating ‘Apples and Honey’ which is a dish shared and eaten during the Jewish festival of ‘Rosh Hashana’ that symbolises the hope for a sweet new year ahead.

European Day of Languages 2025 – German

For this year’s ‘European Day of Languages’, Y6F learned and practiced a few German words, questions and phrases with Miss Stewart.  Here are the children putting some of their new language skills into practice to a familiar tune. Wunderbar kinder…Wunderbar!

In Mr Sutton’s class we looked at a variety of different ways for greetings and the children had to guess where the languages came from when given specific words. The children then worked together to create a class poster displaying the world flags and languages used.