Western Community Primary School

Happy half term to one and all! A huge well done to all of our children and staff for all of their hard work, resilience and kindness in this first half term of the new school year. What a wonderful start to the year it's been! We hope you enjoy reading all about what we've been up to.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to you, our families, for all of your support. We appreciate the time and care that goes into having children up, smart and in school on time every day with everything they need. It was brilliant to see so many of you at parent and carers' evening last week. There was such a busy 'buzz' in the air and it felt great to have families back in classrooms and enjoying seeing children's learning. It was lovely to meet families we know and those who are new to us in person.

We hope you all have the opportunity to spend some family time together over the coming week. We look forward to seeing you all back in school, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on Monday 31st October.

It has been a real pleasure welcoming all of our lovely nursery children over the past couple of weeks. We have had an amazing time settling into nursery life. It has been so much fun meeting our new friends and exploring both indoors and outdoors. We have enjoyed messy play, singing, baking and of course our 'Forest Walk Fridays'. We can't wait to see what adventures await us...

We have been so impressed by how quickly and happily the children have settled into Reception this year. It has been an absolute pleasure to work and learn with them so far.

We have begun the year by getting to know each other: our likes and dislikes; our families; our houses and the places that we remember in our local area. We have had opportunities to represent these in different ways. We have enjoyed reading different stories about different types of families and we used this to discuss what our own families are like.

We have made an incredible start to our Read Write Inc. sessions where we practise reading and writing a new letter sound each day. Mrs Larty and Mrs Rowson are continually impressed by the progress each child has made already and how much the children seem to be enjoying these sessions.

Our PE lessons on Fridays have become increasingly exciting as we are developing the skill of jumping with control. The apparatus that we are using each week is becoming more complex so we have to use our bodies in a controlled way to move across it, jump and land safely.

Year One have settled wonderfully into their new routine! We have been enjoying learning about different subjects and topics as well as shaping our own learning.

In literacy, we have been taking part in the 'Write Dance' programme and moving our whole bodies with rhythm to build our core strength as well as developing our fine motor skills. In class, we have been building up the story of 'The Queen's Hat' by Steve Antony. Each day we have developed a bite-sized chunk of the story and learnt about the things that make a great story, such as similes and onomatopoeia.

In Maths, we have been focusing on numbers to 100. We know them forwards and backwards and are whizzes at finding the missing digit!

Our science has taken us into the forest as we went in search of deciduous and evergreen trees. We have also studied the leaves and plants on our school grounds and classified them.

Hirameki: Draw What You See

In Year 2, we have been hard at work in Art to replicate Hirameki’s style of drawing. In this technique, we had to paint random splodges in our Art books and then use our imaginations to turn them into animals, objects, or people. It was amazing what we came up with!

The Imaginary Friends Adoption Agency

In Literacy, we have been exploring the text ‘Beekle, the Unimaginary Friend’. We were sent a video from the Imaginary Friends Adoption Agency who recruited us in helping them team up the imaginary friends to their children in the real world. Our tasks included writing a letter in reply, telling them we would help, as well as writing our own descriptions of our imaginary friends using adjectives and noun phrases. We really hope all the imaginary friends have been paired up with their children!

The 5 Rs

As part of PSHE, we have been remembering our Five Rs which we use around school - Respect, Reciprocity, Resourcefulness, Resilience, and Reflectiveness. We went into the forest to clear our heads and have a think about how we can use the Five Rs in school. As a team, we are conscious of these at all times and are praised when we show them in our lessons.

Literacy - Writing

We were so excited for you to come in for our Booklook and see just how much we have learned about instructions. We started by making a bird feeder for our school, putting instructions back together before learning about all of the different features. We then used our learning to write our own instructions on 'How to Make a Hedgehog House'.

Great North Air Ambulance

The volunteers from the Great North Air Ambulance kindly came into school to tell us all about their role in our community. The children were very excited to learn about what they do and hear stories about the people they have helped. We even met their mascot and got to give him a high five!

Maths

We have been focusing on speeding up our mental calculations. We did this by finding number bonds to 10 in a calculation. We also learned some specific Maths vocabulary to help us to talk about the Maths we are working on.

Literacy

This half term, Year 4 have enjoyed exploring the texts Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan. We have created our own 'Dahl-licious' characters, taking inspiration from Roald Dahl himself and we are now on a journey towards creating our very own narrative based on our current class text. We have worked hard to develop our vocabulary to ensure our writing is creative and imaginative and captures the reader's imagination.

Science

In Science, we have been busy classifying living things. We thoroughly enjoyed our minibeast hunt where we discovered plenty of invertebrates in our school forest area! We have enjoyed learning about the different groups of animals and how scientists use a classification key to group and identify living things. We even had a go at creating our very own!

Computing

Year 4 have been really enthusiastic about their learning in Computing this half term. We have been exploring Keynote and have been learning how to use it as a presentational tool. We have especially enjoyed learning to utilise the Instant Alpha tool - take a look at some of our fabulous examples below!

As part of our exciting new Literacy topic, Year 5 have been reading and watching a short animated movie called "The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore". In the story the main character has a deep love of all books and takes it upon himself to completely restore an entire library of books after a cyclone devastates his town and destroys everything. As part of our learning we took all of the Year 5 children on a group visit to Wallsend library. We all had a fantastic morning in the library, looking at the huge range of books, sharing stories and generally just enjoying this setting. Just as we break up for half term, this may come as a timely reminder to families that we are very lucky to have such a wonderful library in the centre of Wallsend. Maybe you could take your children along to the library during the half term holiday for some free fun and get to enjoy our community library together?

Buddies and Responsibilities

This year, Year 6 are very excited to have the opportunity and responsibility to do extra roles within school. They are role models for the younger children in assemblies and have leading roles within the School Council, Well-being Team, Values Ambassadors and Eco-council. As well as this, each Year 6 child has been carefully paired with a child in Reception and regularly go and work with the children to support them with their learning and school life.

Ghost

Year 6 have been reading the story of Ghost and have produced their own endings, beyond where the novel ends, to decide who wins the race. We have been working on expanded noun phrases and relative clauses to improve descriptive writing and immerse the reader in the event being described. The children have also been working hard to improve the presentation and handwriting in all of their work and some Handwriting Heroes have already been identified!

Visitors

We were very pleased to be able to welcome Brother Khadim, from Newcastle Central Mosque, into school recently to share with us his experiences of being a Muslim in Newcastle. This was a fantastic experience as part of our RE learning about the religion of Islam. The children asked so many excellent questions and showed some brilliant knowledge too.

Creative Classification

In Science, we have been exploring how to group and classify animals and plants in different ways. We learnt about Carl Linneaus, one of the first taxonomists and also about other roles within the scientific field of Classification. We had to apply our learning to a more creative group - sweets! We created our own classification keys in groups to sort the sweets so that someone else could identify what they were.

World Mental Health Day 10th October 2022

The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year.mThe theme of 2022's World Mental Health Day, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, is 'Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority'.

Here at Western, we are marking World Mental Health Day in two ways. Throughout the week of 10th October 2022, the CGS team will be delivering a mental health and wellbeing awareness assembly to all of our children during phase assembly time.

This years wellbeing ambassadors have also created ‘ wellbeing pledge’ posters for each of the classrooms in school. Each ambassador has chosen a positive affirmation to add to the poster alongside colourful and thoughtful decorations. On World Mental Health Day- the ambassadors will be supported to present their pledge posters to their class whereby every member of the class will sign the wellbeing pledge to encourage collective wellbeing throughout our school.

Please see our November newsletter for photos and further information about the class wellbeing pledges!

If you would like any further information about mental health and mental health support you can check out the following websites below:

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us

https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/world-mental-health-day/

https://www.thecalmzone.net/

What is the Family Learning Festival?

Family Learning Festival is a national celebration which marks and inspires a love of learning in family life. It takes place in October every year.

Learning as a family can help us to become confident, lifelong learners with all the benefits that brings - from better health to being happier. Family learning supports children to achieve at school. It can be transformative, helping us to find new passions and interests, and realise our aspirations through further learning.

Organisations of all types and sizes from schools and children centres, through libraries to museums and galleries put on brilliant and creative events. they also showcase ideas and learning opportunities that families can do afterwards. Some Festival events are organised across local areas.

The Festival is co-ordinated by the Campaign for Learning, the organisation that aims to build a culture of learning everywhere.

All of the following events are online :

Howard the Average Gecko

The Chemistry of Colours (Ages 3-7)

19 October, 10am

The Gingerbread Man

The Chemistry of Cooking (Ages 3-7)

25 October, 10am

To book your free place for these exciting and inspiring FREE online events - please visit:

https://www.familylearningfestival.com/online-events

The Open University - OPEN LEARN

Did you know that adults can access free open learning courses with the Open University!

There are nearly 1000 courses on OpenLearn, all of which are currently free to study.

OpenLearn courses cover a wide range of subjects taught across the OU curriculum. Many are based on Open University course materials while others are written specifically for OpenLearn.

All courses enable you to earn a Statement of participation and some also allow you to earn a free digital badge. You can use your badge or statement of participation to share your achievement with others although they do not carry any formal credit towards a qualification.

Find out more and explore free courses here:

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses/full-catalogue

ONLINE SAFETY- Dangers of online chatrooms - OMEGLE- Safeguarding warning to all parent/carers

What is Omegle?

Omegle is a free anonymous online chatroom where users are randomly paired with strangers to chat via video call or instant messaging. It is popular, despite no longer having its own app, and is primarily accessed on a web browser. Videos showcasing Omegle chats have popped up on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which have added to its popularity with children and young people.

Omegle is considered to be a highly dangerous platform because:

No account sign up required – users can join a chat immediately and are automatically paired with a complete stranger.

No age verification – it says users must be 13+ with ‘parental permission and supervision’ but does not check this at any point.

No effective moderation – it claims to use ‘AI and human moderators’, but there is little to no evidence or clarity that this is implemented.

No reporting or blocking features – users are unable to report inappropriate behaviour, and offending users can continue to use Omegle freely.

Further advice to keep your child safe online :

Go over online safety. Talk to the young person in your care about staying safe online and how to protect themselves.

Discuss responses and action plans. Ask them what they would do if someone made them uncomfortable or worried, and talk through any cracks in the plan.

Don’t mention the platform when discussing. Rather than mentioning Omegle, talk about online chat platforms and ask what their friends are using. Remind them of the dangers of talking to strangers. By ensuring they recognise how dangerous they are, you help them make more informed online decisions. Use online safety filters to prevent access. Web browsers, internet providers, and more have parent filters available that can restrict access to specific websites. Stay calm if a problem arises. If a child or young person in your care has fallen victim to an online danger, remain calm and reassure them.

Information sourced from : https://ineqe.com

The Bread and Butter Thing @ Howdon Hub (Family Gateway)

Have you heard of The Bread and Butter Thing? (TBBT)

TBBT has forged close links with supermarkets, factories, and farms to redistribute surplus food - food that often ends up going to waste just because it’s wrongly labelled or there’s too much of it.

For just £7.50, TBBT members’ shopping bags are filled with an average of £35 worth of items made up of quality nutritious food. Each week members access three bags of produce including fresh fruit and veg, chilled goods for the fridge, as well as cupboard staples such as pasta and cereal.

Families can use their NHS Healthy Start vouchers and low-cost period products are also available.

North Tyneside Council has funded the initiative through its Poverty Intervention Fund.

This fund aims to help reduce the impacts of poverty on families and individuals and address the many ways living in poverty can affect people - from a financial, social and health perspective.

Joining is simple. There are no joining criteria. People interested in using TBBT’s affordable food service need to register as members and should contact TBBT by email at hello@breadandbutterthing.org or text 07860 063304. There is also a sign up form and more information at www.breadandbutterthing.org/contact. Once registered, members receive a weekly text offering the food service which they can then collect at 1.30pm every Friday. The first week is free.

Our nearest TBBT is based at the Family Gateway Howdon Hub, please check out their website and facebook page for further information:

https://familygateway.co.uk/howdon-community-hub-and-the-bread-and-butter-thing-5000-bags-of-affordable-shopping-packed-for-our-local-community/

https://www.facebook.com/familygatewayuk/