Well done, Jeevan

You may remember a short while ago we shared with you that one of our Year 5 pupils had reached the dizzying heights of attempting to go for a black belt grading in Taekwondo!

You’ll be pleased to know that Jeevan found out, only last week, that he was successful in achieving 1st Dan black belt.

Congratulations, Jeevan.  We know how hard you’ve worked and how many competitions you’ve entered.  Your hard work has paid off.  We’re incredibly proud of you.

Our weekly message (Friday 26 April 2024)

This week’s message comes from Mr Wilks, who leads on Science and Topic…

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term we’re geographers. The topic is Explorers.

In this geography-driven topic, we’re comparing a place in the United Kingdom with a place in another country. Year 1,2 children are heading to Kenya in Africa, whilst Year 3,4 children are having a mini-break in Venice. Finally, Year 5,6 children are trekking through the Amazon Rainforest in South America.

Across the year groups, children will develop their understanding of some key geographical concepts:

• Location is a position (eg a country, a city), often described in a clear, precise way (ie using a latitude and longitude). It is separate from people’s perceptions and experiences.
• Place = location + meaning. This will include the physical and human geography that make a place unique. Importantly, place is not rigid. It is changing and can be perceived in different ways.
• Scale is defined by the relative sizes of places. This could be differences in area, population or distances. Scale can also be defined by our view of the world. For example, we may consider an aspect of geography on a local, national and international scale.
• Interdependence is the idea that the world is connected and that countries or individuals do not act in isolation. Our actions here affect people in different countries around the world, for example, food, energy, holidays, climate. 

Check out our Topic Curriculum Guide for more information about key concepts (page 15) and age-related expectations and vocabulary (page 18 and 19).

Year 1,2

Children have begun the topic by learning about the different continents and oceans in the world. They’ll learn about the equator and how it splits the Earth into two hemispheres. They’ll then focus on a specific continent, Africa, and a specific country within that continent, Kenya. They’ll then compare a city in Kenya, Nairobi, to Leeds with a focus on the physical and human geography of these two places. They’ll then take a visit into the countryside and compare features of the Yorkshire Dales with a National Park just outside Nairobi.

Year 3,4

Children will develop learning about the equator and hemispheres by learning about the tropics and climate zones. A focus on European and world cities and countries will follow and will link to climate zone learning. They’ll then focus in on Venice in Italy and its physical and human geography which they’ll compare with York. They’ll learn about the positives and negatives that tourism brings, putting themselves in the shoes of both tourists visiting the places and locals who live there. Finally, they’ll learn about the problems posed by flooding in both localities and the solutions introduced to limit the consequences of flooding.

Year 5,6

Children will learn about the different types of biomes found on Earth and how these are linked to climate. They’ll then focus on the biomes found in Brazil and the UK. They’ll then focus on Brazil more generally, building their understanding of it as a place. Next, they’ll focus on the Amazon Rainforest and its importance to Brazil in terms of the economy as well as its importance ecologically. They’ll learn about the threats to the rainforest and the impact that deforestation is having. Finally, children will learn about what Brazil needs to do to slow deforestation and what we can do to slow deforestation.

How can you help?

Regardless of the year group your child is in, Google Earth is a brilliant tool to help develop children’s understanding of space, place, scale and interdependence. Zoom right in on your home and then zoom out to reveal the area of Leeds that you live in. Zoom further out to see what city you live in. Zoom further for the county. A little further and you might start to spot some national parks. Further still and you can see the country that we live in. Keep zooming and you’ll see the continent we live in (though this isn’t labelled). Before you know it, you’re floating in space and circling the Earth!

Google Maps is another great tool for comparing places. Try the street view option and you can walk along a street in Nairobi and a street in London. Take a drive through the lush Yorkshire Dales and compare this to the Kenyan countryside. You could wander down the Shambles in York and compare this to the streets in Venice. You can also compare images of the same street from different points in time.

Quizzing your children about some locational knowledge will help them to remember important information. I’ve listed some examples below. Use the age-related expectations to find the right pitch for your child.

• Which continent do we live in?
• Which country do we live in?
• In which hemisphere is our country located?
• Which county do we live in?
• Which city do we live in?
• Which part of Leeds do we live in?
• Which four countries make up the United Kingdom?

If you can, go to the library and get some geography-related books, especially an atlas. You could compare maps of the same place to see what type of information they show. For example, you find lots of maps of the United Kingdom. One might show the countries and capital cities. Another might show the mountains, rivers and national parks. Another might give information about the climate.

For children in Key Stage 2, there are lots of different games and activities on Ordnance Survey Mapzone. I especially like the jigsaws in the Map Puzzles section of the Games.

Also for KS2 children, there’s a lot of information and some tasks and quizzes on BBC Bitesize.

Scholes in Bloom flower bed competition winner

Larraine came in to our assembly in school on Monday this week. She announced the winner of the competition. It was chosen because of the eye-catching design featuring lovely bright coloured stripes and a love heart. The winning design will be made using flowers in the bed outside the school on Morwick Grove.

Well done to the runners up too.

Scholes Reading Champion

In January, Leeds School Library Services set a competition to search for KS2 Reading Champions.  They were looking for children who advocate for reading within their school and those that encourage others to develop a love of reading.  Schools were invited to nominate one person and we nominated Olivia from Year 5.  Olivia is not only one of our school librarians but she also supports younger children in developing their reading skills.  She also has a real passion for reading for pleasure.

Whilst Olivia was not the winner on this occasion, the library service emailed school to say just how impressed they were with Olivia’s entry.

“Olivia’s love of reading shines through and the judges were very impressed with all the work that she puts into ensuring that the library is a welcoming space for other children. It is also fantastic that Olivia supports KS1 children with their reading, hoping to instill in them the same passion for books that she has…she certainly is a star!”

Olivia, we’re very proud of you.  Well done – you are definitely a Scholes Reading Champion.

Our weekly message (Friday 19 April 2024)

We hope your Easter break was a good one. As usual in our first message of the term, we kick off with an attendance update…

Amazing attendance

For the full Autumn and Spring terms (04 September 2023 to 28 March 2024), our whole school attendance figure is 95.8%. This continues to be above the national figure – thank you.

All the classes are doing well – they’re all above the national attendance figure for primary schools (94.6%), so well done to everyone.

• Sunshine (Miss Parling): 94.7%
• Rainbow (Mrs Allen-Kelly and Mrs Flynn): 95.2%
• 1A (Mrs Brown and Mrs Wilkins): 95.5%
• 1/2B (Mrs Latham): 96.1%
• 2C (Miss Young): 95.8%
• 3/4A (Mrs Paterson): 96%
• 3/4B (Miss Iveson): 96.4%
• 3/4C (Mrs Wadsworth): 96.2%
• 5/6A (Mr Wain): 95.9%
• 5/6B (Mrs Hogarth): 95.4%
• 5/6C (Mr Lindsay): 95.3%

Contact details

Finally, a quick reminder: if there are any new contact details for you or other people on our records, please remember to let us know. We need up-to-date details for the people on our lists in case of emergencies. (The people on our lists are the ones you gave us when your child started school – in most cases, this will be three different people.)

Special needs support

Leeds SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service) have some drop-in sessions coming up if you’d like to receive information and advice about SEND services in Leeds. They’re also running a series of specific events.

Finally, when one of us stands at the school gate at the start and end of the day, we love to hear a friendly ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. It’s something we’ve been working on across the year – not only is it a polite thing to do, but it helps to develop children’s confidence and positive relationships. We’re really pleased to see that more and more often, children are doing this naturally. Thank you for helping us with this, too! 

School Journalists

Hello there!

Today, we will be informing you on the latest news around school.

On the last Tuesday before the holidays, we watched the Y3,4 production. It had a Roman bake-off theme, was funny and was very exciting. There lots of standout performers, including: Lorien, Lani, Theo and Joseph. But, everyone played a very big part and it took a lot of time to master the brilliant play.

We interviewed Lewis in Y3 (a very good joke teller) on this.

How did you feel performing?

I wasn’t too nervous as we did a lot of rehearsing. I felt comfortable telling the jokes on stage as I’ve already performed on the piano.

How did the play go?

Really well. Everyone was part of the play and it went smoothly. Everyone delivered their lines well.

Did you enjoy it?

I love being on stage and it felt even better being one of the main characters and the audience really enjoyed it.

We also interviewed Lani in Y4.

Was the play enjoyable?

Yes, it was really fun and a great experience.

What was your favourite song?

Bake. It was a really catchy tune.

What was it like being on stage?

I enjoyed it a lot but I did feel nervous as well because I had to deliver a lot of important lines.

In other news, starting this week, martial arts classes will be happening every Thursday. We had an assembly last week where some special visitors who are martial arts instructors from British Military Martial Arts came and told us about the new club.

If you’ve read our previous articles, you will already know that we have quite a lot of talent in martial arts around school.

Thank you for reading!

School Journalists: a special interview

Hello there!

Today, we will be talking about Jeevan in Year 5 and his very special talent: Taekwondo.

He is currently the British champion and 3rd in the world for his age. He became the world number 3 in late 2023 and invests a lot of time into it. In the Easter holidays, he will be taking his black belt assessment. This is a very young age to become a black belt. He has also had to write an essay to show why he wants to achieve it and why he is worthy of it (check out the Y5,6 class news post from Mr Lindsay on Friday 22 March to have a read).

We asked him some questions…

Are you nervous about your black belt assessment?

Yes, because there are five grand-masters taking my grading and there is a lot of pressure.

You must spend a lot of time practising your Taekwondo. How long do you spend every week doing it?

I train for two hours with a club  but I do an extra 30 minutes at home each day.

How did you feel and react when you found out you had come 3rd in the world for your age?

Surprised! I never thought I would go that far in the competition.

What is your favourite Taekwondo move?

A 360 back kick. You take your stance, jump and, whilst in the air, you do a 360 and then try to kick to the head!

Do you have your hopes set on a career in Taekwondo?

Yes – I will train a lot and hopefully one day get to the Olympics.

Wow! Thanks, Jeevan.

And, thanks to the readers, too. Have a nice break and we’ll be back after the holidays.

Our weekly message (Thursday 28 March 2024)

This week’s message comes a day earlier than normal…

Policies and other points

We’ve a few policy updates that you might want to be aware of.

Our Food in School policy sets out key points for parents/carers and staff. For parents/carers, this includes guidance around special occasions, birthdays, rewards and the importance of alerting us if your child has a food allergy. We’ve also updated our Packed Lunch Guidance. (Talking of food, you might want to check out the NHS Eatwell Guide for advice around eating healthily.)

Another update is our Smoking and Vaping policy. The message here remains the same: smoking and vaping are not permitted in any part of the school’s grounds.

Finally, please be aware of our Home-School Positive Relationships Policy, which supports the Governors’ Statement of Behavioural Principles.

School meal prices

Earlier this week, we received notification from Catering Leeds, the company who supplies our school lunches, that they have to significantly increase the prices for school meals from September.

Unfortunately, this means that we’re going to have to increase what we charge you:

• Nursery: the cost of a school lunch will increase to £2.60 per day
• Key Stage 2 children: the cost will be £2.75 per day
• Reception and Key Stage 1 children: Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) will continue, meaning that your child will still be able to get a school lunch provided free of charge.

We appreciate the price rises are a big increase. We’ve been assured that Leeds City Council school meal prices are still relatively low. In 2023/24, Gateshead Council schools charge £3.00 for their school meals, North Yorkshire County Council charges £3.24 and Derbyshire Council charges £3.25.

And finally…

The children were really engaged and all looked like they were enjoying their computing topic. The children had clearly picked up what they had learnt and were able to demonstrate this with their game. The children on [my daughter’s] table were all polite and friendly – they all worked well together.

That’s one of many positive comments following our recent Topic Review session. A big thanks to all who came to the session, and an even bigger thanks to those of you who left some feedback. We’ll read and consider all the comments.

Have a great Easter holiday. See you again on Monday 15 April.

School Journalists

Hi all it’s Jimmy, Louie and Zara here with another news report.

First, it’s Jimmy.

On Saturday, I went to see the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra perform Peter and the Wolf. It is a magical piece of music and can often inspire children to to try playing music. When I was three, I heard this piece and was then trying to play the part of the wolf on the French horn. Five years later, I started my French horn lessons here at Scholes (Elmet) Primary. This school offers lots in terms of music, with lessons on many instruments available including piano, drums and guitar. Music is very important and often brings out creativity and imagination in people. The City of Leeds Youth Orchestra is a music group in Artforms. Artforms is a music and arts service which belongs to Leeds City Council. It helps children achieve their musical goals as well as having fun with their friends.

Next, it’s Louie and Zara.

This week, we’re interviewing Archie in in Y5. We will be interviewing him about a recent trip the Y5s went on. We went to watch Beauty and the Beast at John Smeaton Academy last Monday.

Why did you enjoy the play?

I enjoyed the play because I loved to see the play come to life and it was done by the students in the school.

Who was your favourite character?

The Beast – he did very well to remember his lines.

What was your favourite song?

My favourite was ‘Be our Guest!’

All of year 5 enjoyed the performance. We all thought it was very impressive as it was done by the students. Overall, it was a great experience with smiles everywhere.

I guess that’s all from us.

See you next week!

Our weekly message (Friday 22 March 2024)

Look out for your child’s latest Learning Update which will be sent home next week.

This week’s message comes from Mr Catherall…

Words, words, words

We try to regularly give tips for you can help at home across various subjects. To help with reading, we encourage you to read with your child every day. To help with maths, we encourage the use of Numbots or Times Table Rockstars. To help with writing, we ask you to regularly practise the spellings that are sent home. But, there’s another way you can really help your child with their writing. Before the big reveal, a quick note on spelling…

Why spelling?

Spelling is a really important part of becoming a fluent writer. Our aim is for children to get to the point where spelling becomes automatic for them. When this happens, loads of ‘brain space’ is freed up to concentrate on the content of what you’re writing. If children are having to really focus on how to spell lots of words, they’re unable to write effectively because their brain is working in overdrive just to get the words down on the page (or device).

So, what’s the other way I can help?

Talk.

That’s it – talk to your child. All the time. About anything– it doesn’t really matter.

Being able to speak to others and communicate effectively is a crucial life skill. But, it’s one we need to practise. The more words you know, the better able you are to communicate with others. So, talk to your child as much as you possibly can. Don’t simplify your language, either. Children are sponges for learning new words so the more we can expose them to, the more they’ll have ‘in the bank’ to use.

If children can speak fluently, they can probably write fluently. The more words they know, the more varied and interesting their writing will be.

It’s not just us that think this. There’s a growing bank of research which proves how important vocabulary and language development is.

‘A child’s vocabulary is a big predictor of their future success,’ says Alice Penfold, Project Manager of the Words for Work programme at the National Literacy Trust. ‘It not only affects their chances of performing well in exams, but also their life chances.

‘For example, children who have a poor vocabulary at the age of five are four times more likely to struggle with reading as adults, and three times more prone to mental health issues.’

With this in mind, it’s well worth making an effort to build your child’s vocabulary.

One way we encourage you talk together at home is through our weekly Talk Time homework. This can be done over dinner, in the car, on the way to the park or swimming or football or gymnastics or wherever you need to be. It doesn’t need to be a serious chat but the prompt we give is one we think should stimulate some discussion.

If you need any help, or further ideas about how to support your child with their writing, please contact your child’s class teacher.