It has been heart-warming to welcome all our pupils back to school for the Autumn Term. With a skip in their step and a smile on their faces we’ve begun our exciting journey once again. We’d like to share with you some of the excellent work and experiences all off our children have been part of.
Religious Education
This last term we’ve focused on belonging. I had the pleasure of spending the day in EYFS talking to the children about their drawings and floor book which showed their understanding. It was really nice to see the children showing me photographs of their families displayed on the wall. In year 1, they have been to visit the Church and learnt about Baptism. Year 2 have been looking at artefacts in religious buildings and comparing artists representations. Year 3 have looked at the meanings behind signs and symbols within different religions. Year 4 started a new topic exploring identity between religious groups, with a specific focus on initiation ceremonies. We’ve really developed our moral understanding and questioned religious and non-religious views this half term.
I really liked these quotes from the year 4 children when we were finishing our topic on Expressions of identity, linking to our work in Black History month.
“Religious identity is not determined by what someone always looks like or does, it can be part of what someone believes in or what someone’s actions are.”
“Your identity is yours and for nobody to steal.” Flora.
” A religious identity isn’t just what they look like, it’s their actions or what they believe in.” Yau Yau.
“No matter what religion you are, you are always equal.” Isaac.
“People should not be ashamed of the colour of their skin, people should be focusing on your kindness.” Toby.
” It is okay to have no religion and it is also okay to not wear religious clothing.” Albert
“Kindness is important to everyone’s identity.”
Mrs Nisbet
PSHE
Throughout the Autumn term the whole school focus in the PSHE curriculum is relationships. Within this theme the children have been learning about families and friendship, safe relationships and respecting ourselves and others. Each topic begins with a question which the children revisit at the end of the term to showcase all they have learned . Some examples are:
Nursery What makes me smile?
Reception What makes me happy?
Year 1 Who looks after me?
Year 2 What makes a good friend?
Year 3 What makes a family?
Year 4 How can I be a good friend to others ?
The children have taken part in wide variety of engaging activities which encourage them to reflect on themselves and how they can feel happy and secure . As a school we use the Zones of Regulation Programme which encourages children to become more confident in expressing their emotions and asking for help when they need it. Helping our pupils develop positive mental health and resilience is a key part of our ethos as a school.
Mrs Marshall
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural
Assemblies this half term have had a big focus on our impact as individuals, as a community and globally by covering what it means to be a No Outsiders school, democracy, respect, determination, resilience, courage, Black History Month and World Mental Health Day. All of the key messages delivered through these topics are encouraging our children to embody Archibald’s four C’s. An Archibald leaver will be Curious, Creative, Caring and Courageous. We had an assembly to give out our termly postcards for the children. It was also a pleasure to award Mrs Graham, the creative award, the children have all enjoyed a creative poetry week, inspired by the book ‘Where my wellies will take me…’ by Clare and Michael Morpurgo.
Practise makes progress is also part of our Archibald ethos and it’s been fantastic to see this in all the children’s courageous ‘have a go’ and ‘keep trying’ attitudes this half term, whether that’s in or out of the classroom. There’s a real buzz about the place! Thank you to Mrs Turner for introducing this to us in assembly.
Each class has now elected their Planet Protectors who have already got to work tackling their first issue. Litter picking throughout our school grounds and further afield in the Gosforth community. It’s wonderful to see the next generation so eager to make a difference. Watch this space to find out what they do next…
Mrs Miles
Sanctuary Award, EAL, Harvest Festival and The School Council
We were extremely proud be awarded the School of Sanctuary Award. Mrs McGurk, Mrs Turner and three Year 3 children went to the discovery museum to receive the award. Next month, Mrs McGurk is hosting a network meeting to share our experiences of Schools of Sanctuary with other schools. After half term, we will be launching Language of the month. We have decided to learn a language every month, rather than every week this year so that the children get plenty of time to learn and practise some words from each language. Each language chosen will be a home language for one or more of our families.
The newly elected school council have been very busy already. We were amazed at the generosity of families with the amount of donations we received for our Harvest collection. The School Council have helped collect it all together and will be loading up the van for the People’s Kitchen later this week. We know that it will all be gratefully received.
Mrs McGurk
We look forward to updating you on further activities of our wonderful pupils at Archibald. Have a well enjoyed October half term holiday.
Tags: PSHE, RE