Stanningley Primary School

The children had a fantastic time competing against each other during our School Games Competition (Spirit Alive). The teamwork and encouragement from each child to one another was fantastic. Well done to all!

The children visted Rodley Nature Reserve today and had a fantastic day! We saw so many different animals, insects and birds - the children couldn't believe all that they were seeing! This visit was incredibly beneficial to our recent science learning about life cycles and the children really did show off all that they know!

Class Five had a super time running the Race 4 Life! The children have raised so much money that will go towards some very special charities close to our school's heart. Thank you so much for all of your support from home!

Year 5 and Year 6 enjoyed a fantastic visit to Nell Bank in Ilkley for the summer trip this year. The children worked in mixed teams from both classes and took part in various activities which promoted the importance of teamwork and communication. I was so proud of every single child! You were all AMAZING! Please look in the Year 6 Class Page to see additional photographs of this fantastic day.

This week in science, the children have been learning about how plants reproduce. Using some of the beautiful plants from within the gardens of SPS, the children were able to explore the parts of a plant 'hands on' and locate all of the major parts that are needed for plants to reproduce.

Today, the performance of the Max Reinhardt Literacy Award Project took place at SPS. We welcomed back the poet Helen Mort and musician Samuel Moore who performed the children's collaborative piece of poetry to a packed audience of friends and families of SPS! This was an AMAZING performance and we look forward to visiting the Leeds City Art Gallery in May to watch the performance once again!

Chloe from 'Moore's Fitness' came into school this week to provide various fitness sessions for the children (and adults!). In Y5, we had a fantastic time during our Boxercise session. The children were amazing and loved every second of Chloe's workshop!

As part of Healthy Week, we welcomed back D-SIDE to SPS. In class five, the children learnt about what a solvent is and how to make sure that solvents are used safely.

Today, Class Five welcomed Louisa into Stanningley Primary School. Louisa is a professional Flamenco dancer from Spain and she taught the children a fantastic Flamenco routine. This session is in conjunction with the Max Reinhardt Literacy Project which that class are involved in. It was AMAZING!!!

To celebrate World Book Day, all of the children (and adults!) at SPS had the opportunity to dress up as their favourite character from a book! The children looked INCREDIBLE!

This week, we were incredibly excited (and honoured!) to welcome Samuel Moore to Stanningley Primary School. Samuel is a professional Flamenco guitarist and is renowned world wide for his talent. Samuel is working alongside Helen Mort with the class in conjunction with the Max Reinhardt Literacy Project. He is so incredibly talented and inspiring! The children have even asked to continue learning some of what he taught us with Mr Alex as the term progresses!

To inspire the children in preparation for World Book Day, we welcomed Colin and Julie to SPS once again to bring a well-known text to life through poetry, voice and movement. This year, the children explored the play 'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare. After learning a little about his life, they went on to retell the entire play in just under ten minutes! It was a pleasure to be able to invite adults from home into school to watch their fantastic performance. Thank you for your support!

For the next two weeks, we will be exploring William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. Today, the children were given a scene from the play and had to work in small groups in order to perform the scene. Each group has to decide on the roles each other would play, actions and freeze-frames to show a clear beginning and ending. The performances were fantastic and I am really looking forward to continuing our work next week.

The children in Class 5 began their maths unit on fractions today. To start with, the children explored using rods and other visual approaches in order to build fraction walls and find equivalent fractions. The class are all very prepared for a super term of learning fractions!

Well done to all of the children who performed at the Talent Show this year! I was amazed by the number of acts performing from Class Five!

Class Five had a fantastic time at the Spring Disco! The children (and adults!) danced the night away and enjoyed every minute.

Today, all children at SPS took part in National Internet Safety Day 2017. Children in Class 5 chose to explore the use of social media and focussed in particular on the power of the digital image and how it can never be 'deleted'. Following on from this, in groups the children created presentations for the rest of the class about using social media sites safely. Lots of very important messages came from this day.

This term during Spanish lessons we have been learning how to use a Spanish dictionary. We can now find words in Spanish in order to find the definition of the word in English (and vice versa!). We designed our own dictionary covers for dictionary activities we completed during the term.

Year 5 have performed their class assembly today. We had lots of lovely and exciting things to tell our adults at home.

Class Five welcomed Njal the Viking into Stanningley Primary today! Njal brought a range of amazing Viking artifacts with him and had so many stories about Viking times to tell the children. We all experienced a Viking battle, travelling in a Viking longboat and working during Viking times alongside many other things. During the afternoon session, the class had the opportunity to get creative and design their own Viking broaches, runes and figures out of clay. We are incredibly thankful for all of the support our class governor gave us during the day - especially for your amazing work withe the clay and being a monk!!

In 2016 applications were invited for the inaugural Max Reinhardt Literacy Awards, funded by the Max Reinhardt Charitable Trust. The programme was developed to enable galleries, art museums and visual arts venues to support a dedicated programme of creative writing and literacy work with schools. The Awards are run in partnership by engage, the National Association for Gallery Education and the National Association for Writers in Education (NAWE). Funding from the Awards allowed three venues (including Leeds Art Gallery) to employ a creative writer to work with a local school on a creative writing or literacy project, taking inspiration from the venue’s collections, displays or building. Class Five are incredibly lucky to have been chosen to work on the project! In our first session, the children had the opportunity to meet Amanda from the art gallery and pick the piece of art that they want to use to inspire their writing. It was a fantastic session and left the class very excited for the project ahead!

The children had a super day dressed in their best party clothes! We all enjoyed making cards, eating delicious treats and dancing in the school hall. The highlight, as always, was undoubtedly our visit from Santa! Merry Christmas to all from Class Five!

Congratulations to all of the children who received their 100% attendance certificate and gift for coming to school every day during the Autumn Term!!

In our computing lessons this term, we have been learning all about the different ways people can communicate. In this weeks lesson, the children learnt all about Morse code and how/why it was/is used. In groups, they had to decode a secret message as fast as they could!

To link with our Victorian history topic this term, the children are spending the next few weeks of term experiencing what PE would have been like in Victorian times! The children even had the opportunity to devise their own exercise drills to deliver within small groups. Needless to say, PE was incredibly different during the Victorian era...but we had fun!

Class Five were joined by two members of the White Watch Stanningley Fire Service today in class. The children were given an incredibly engaging talk about fire safety and how to prevent the risk of fire. The Fire Service target all Year Five classes city wide to ensure that this message has as much of an impact as possible.

Wow! What an amazing day Class 5 had at the Armley Mills Schoolroom. The children (in their finest Victorian school clothing!) experienced what it would have been like for a child at school during the Victorian era. Needless to say, the children were shocked at how different things used to be and felt very lucky to be at SPS! A fantastic day with so much incredible learning - well done Class Five!

To help raise money for Children in Need 2016, the whole school were able to come to school 'wearing spots' or in their own choice of clothing for a donation of one pound! During the day, we created Children in Need posters on the computers, enjoyed a 'spotacular' PE session with Gaz and even managed to create Pudsey's face with copper coins donated from homes! Thank you to all that donated!

This week is National Anti-Bullying Week. At Stanningley Primary, we celebrate and call this Peace Week at SPS and we have had a brilliant time raising awareness about the importance of 'peace'. The children created their own superhero based on the slogan 'Power for Good'. From this, they created a story based upon their hero solving a problem! The children's imaginations were AMAZING and the work made me incredibly proud. Well done all!

This week, the children were asked to take part in a range of activities devised by Leeds West Academy Year 12 PE students. After each activity, the children had to give written and verbal feedback for the students. Myself and Mr Anderson were amazed by the maturity of the children and how they were able to give such fabulous constructive feedback!

What a super spooky night at the Halloween Disco this year! The children made so much effort with their outfits - we were all so impressed!

To begin the new half term, we looked at co-operation during group work. The children were split into teams and asked to create a 'building' out of lego. They had to present back to the class what they made and were scored by the adults on how well they worked and co-operated as a group. The results were super and I was so impressed with the level of cooperation. Well done!

After four weeks back at school, the children were ready to show all of their adults from school just what they have been getting up to in Class Five so far. So much learning has taken place already and it was lovely to be able to share this with adults from home. Well done to all of the children who gave their all!

To introduce Y5 and Y6 to their Black History Month topic of 'slavery', Colin and Julie joined both classes to create a performance involving movement, poetry and voice. The influential figure that the workshop was based on was Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. After working with Colin and Julie for the afternoon, both classes welcomed adults from home to school to watch the performance. It was so lovely to see so many adults enjoying the children's work and even joining in!

Using a print of the famous piece of art 'Hand of God' by Michelangolo, the children enjoyed a fascinating P4C session with Mrs Stott-Moore, Miss Soanes and Mrs Abram. This session was led by the children and EVERY CHILD was actively involved in discussion. We based the session on concepts that the children felt could be linked with the art. All of the adults were amazed by the maturity of the entire class. Class 5 are certainly deep thinkers!

This week, the children started to print their African inspired patterns, concentrating on mixing colours and creating textures.

As part of Safety Week, Class 5 had a visit from Anne from the Leeds City Council Road Safety Team. The children had a fantastic time, whilst learning important safety information relaying to the Green Cross Code, pedestrian safety and transport safety. They also had an opportunity to design their own safety piece of merchandise that could be sold in a shop! The inventions were great!

Class Five welcomed a visitor into school to have a sneak preview of steel drum lessons! The children absolutely loved the experience and showed a lot of interest for the future.

This term, Mrs Pritchatt is working in Class 5 to help us create a piece of African inspired art. The children began by exploring African pattern and creating their own interpretations of these. The work was amazing...I can't wait for the final product!

Welcome back to a new school year at Stanningley Primary School. Class Five have settled into their new classroom and routines exceptionally well - well done to all! This week, as part of our induction, we celebrated Brain Awareness Week. The children learnt about the different parts of the brain and what the different sides control. We also learnt all about thinking skills and memory and lots more! A super start to the term.