Stanningley Primary School

This week, the children completed their investigation about the impact of wire length within a circuit. The children had to decide if a shorter or longer wire length would make a component work 'better'; this included bulbs, buzzers and even motors! The children created their own circuits to explore this.

This week, we welcomed Marcus from 'On the Verge' to Stanningley Primary. Marcus delivered two workshops to the children: one workshop about gangs and another about online safety. The two sessions were absolutely amazing - Marcus was inspirational (and I know the children will agree with this!). On The Verge is a Leeds CIC which stands as a beacon of hope, actively engaging with children and young people between the ages of 9 to 18 to address critical issues such as County Lines, Knife Crime, Gangs Joint Enterprise, Online Safety, Reality of Prisons, Serious Youth Violence, CCE (Child Criminal Exploitation), CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation), Grooming, Exploitation, and the Glamourisation of Music. The organisation offer so much for schools and the young people of Leeds - we were incredibly lucky to have them in our school!

This week, Year 6 were visited by staff from Leeds West Academy music department. The children were invited to take part in a very exciting, Christmas themed music workshop! After warming up our voices (with some interesting tongue twisters!), the children practised the words to 'Merry Christmas Everybody' by Slade! The children then created movements to go with the song and some even chose to sing a solo/duet! It really was a super session and gave the class a good insight into music lessons at Secondary School.

This week, we welcomed Debbie from the National Holocaust Centre and Museum to SPS. The children stepped back in time to Nazi Germany, and into the life of Leo, a young German Jewish boy growing up in 1930s Berlin. Everything changed for him under Nazi rule. Eventually, his family made the brave choice to send him to safety in the UK, as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. The children took a journey into one of the most dramatic periods of world history, to help them to think about identity, friendship and kindness in their own life today. It was a FANTASTIC morning and the outcomes from the children were astounding!

This term, our science topic is 'Electricity'. This week, I gave the children some equipment to make their own circuit. However, I did not give them any guidance as I wanted to see what they could remember from Year 4 (the last time they completed this unit!). ALL of the groups were able to create a circuit and supported each other incredibly well! The children even progressed to drawing circuits and labelling circuits (using scientific circuit symbols).

The children went to tremendous efforts to dress up for their final Halloween Disco! The effort families went to was astounding! Well done to Jimmy and Jessica who won the Year 6 'Best Costume'. However, well done to everyone - it really was so hard to choose!

The children thoroughly enjoyed their final Harvest Festival at SPS! During music lessons, the chose and learn a song to perform for everyone - it sounded super! We also had a selection of children who sang beautifully as part of the school choir and even children who led the whole church in Makaton for one of our whole school songs! Finally, a huge well done to Poppy, Lallana, Evie and Jake for their fantastic (incredibly confident) readings!

The children had a super end to their time at Robinwood. They enjoyed Nightline, Dungeon of Doom and were absolutely amazing at archery -Miss Di even hit the bullseye! Well done to every child in Rapids Group. We are all very proud of you!

For their final day, the children enjoyed challenging themselves to complete 'Quest', reaching the dizzy heights on the Giant Swing and finally, the Piranha Pool! Despite the miserable weather, they didn't let this stop them! What a super time the children have had!

It has been a fun-filled second day for the children in Waterfall Group! After a delicious (large!) breakfast, the children enjoyed a range of activities! This included the zip wire, Crate Challenge, canoeing and raft building, the 'Dungeon of Doom' and finally, caving! There are more activities to come this evening after their evening meal, too! The children are having such a super time and giving their everything to all activities! Well done to Team Waterfall!

**To be updated**

What an amazing day Spring Group have had! The children all slept well, enjoyed a very large breakfast, and set out for a full day of activities (with food in-between!). They had completed canoeing, crate challenge, 'Dunegon of Doom' before lunch! Numerous activities to follow!

The children in Waterfall Group, have been AMAZING today! They have given their all and showed amazing resilience. Already, the children have taken part in climbing, Nightline, archery and the trapeze (with more activities to come!). Once signal has improved, staff will send more photographs to school so they they can be uploaded. The children in Waterfall Group (with Mr Harington) are JM, KGK, AS, FP, TM, MB, JC, RMi and SS.

The children in Rapids have had a super day! Miss Di has been amazed by their sheer determination and bravery to complete all of the actvities! They have enjoyed caving, the zip wire, the 'Dungeon of Doom', and Piranha Pool already (and the day isn't over yet!). More photographs will be added once staff have better signal to send to school. nThe children in Rapids are PC, RMe, AM, LJ, MDG, MLM, JT, FL and DT.

What an action-packed day the children have had so far! It is only 7PM, and they have already completed four activities. The children in Spring Group (with Mrs Stott-Moore) have enjoyed the Climbing Wall, Archery, Nightline - to name but a few activities! rnSpring Group children = PR, CW, LB, JS, EB HH, ZG, MP, LC and OB.

This week, the children explored some of the ways in which animals can adapt in order to survive and then continue to breed and pass on characteristics to their offspring. By placing white and newspaper print squares on both a white and a newspaper background, the children were tasked with being a ‘predator’ one at a time (within groups). They then had a pair of tweezers which they had to use to pick up as many pieces of paper as they could in fifteen seconds from each background! We found that more children picked up newspaper print squares from the white background and on the newspaper background, more children collected white squares. Having discussed results and discrepancies (difficult to pick up the newspaper!), we then linked this to camouflage and how animals do this in order to survive! Our eyes were drawn to the colour that we could see the most! As most offspring look like their parents, this is why the squares that ‘survived’ on the same colour background, look the same/similar (if they were an animal!).

This term, Class 6 have been working in small groups with Miss Di and Miss Hudson during Cooking in the Curriculum lessons. They have been learning all about food hygiene and preparation in order to progress to making a stir fry! The smalls from the Community Room kitchen have been AMAZING!

To end our week of Bikeability, Group 3 enjoyed cycling in the beautiful sunshine! Once again, the children were fantastic and all achieved their Level 1 and 2! Well done to all the children involved in this super week!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the children in Group 2 took part in their Bikeability sessions. All of the children achieved their Level 1 Certificate, and some children even progressed to Level 2! Well done Group 2!

This week, the children took part in Level 1 and Level 2 Bikeability. Level 1 aims to have children confidently and safely cycling on within the school playground (even teaching non-riders to begin cycling), whilst Level 2 teaches children how to grow more confident with each turn of the pedal on our local roads. Expert instructors will lead the children onto quiet roads, to experience “real” cycling - they absolutely LOVE this! All children did incredibly well during the first two days. They became a lot more confident, and learnt to understand the importance of safety whenever cycling.

This week, the children prepared the school council speeches in preparation for the election next week. We explored writing persuasively using a range of persuasive devices (including modal verbs), in order to convince their peers to vote for them! Well done to all of the children who were incredibly brave when reading their speeches out!