Burton Leonard Church of England Primary School

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Half Term Round-up: 2023/24 Term 1

Welcome to our very first 'Half-term Round-Up'!  A new addition to our school website, which rounds up all the fabulous learning from the half-term. Take a peek into the wonderful world of Burton Leonard Primary School, how our children shine and really make a difference!

As a school...

Making a Difference!

Marin and Xander raised a fabulous amount of money for St Leonards Church.  They sold homemade blackcurrant jam, gooseberry jam and honey from their own Burton Leonard bees!  After advertising their fundraising on the village Facebook page and creating signs to catch passing trade they did a tremendous job to raise money for our wonderful church.  Well done Marin and Xander, you are really making a difference!

Children's Collective Worship Committee

Our amazing committee have been so busy this half term.  They have been working hard on developing our school vision and contributed to this greatly.  Thinking about our worship in school, they have been working hard to create a special atmosphere and how this can be the most important part of our school day.  The result of their creative thinking and hard work has been incredible - here are just a few things our children have to say about worship in school...
I like it when...
"I like the quiet time in the hall." - Rafferty (Reception)
"We go into the hall and the children are there and all the teachers and we can all think about God together." - Zara, (Y1) 
"I enjoy the calm feeling coming into Collective Worship and being able to join with conversations around me in discussion time." - Mrs Thomas
"I like how when you walk in it is very calm and the music is playing so you can zone out and reflect. I also like how it really helps start your day off." - Ola, Yr 6
"In Collective Worship, the colours and candles make me feel very calm and neutral to set the tone for the day." Harry H, Yr 5
"I really like every thing about it: the candles, seating plan, altar cloth, pebble prayers, Psalm Worship, groovy songs and the new roles for CCWC. I look forward to it each day and find it very calming." - Mrs Whild
"It is really special when you walk in and everyone's there and you have that good feeling about yourself for the rest of your lovely day." - Holly, Yr 6
"We love when Mrs Wolfe rings the chimes to give us our time to reflect on the worship" - Maddie, Ben and Will, Yr 2
"We like getting to find the links to our worship to our story of the Good Samaritan." - Merlin Class
"I like the liturgical cloth (altar cloth) because it feels special to put all of the parts for Collective Worship on it." - Thomas, Yr 2

World Mental Health Day 

Pupils spent time reflecting on the importance of mental health and the importance of being both physically and mentally healthy. It was fantastic to hear their learning around this important subject.  From calm sticks, mindfulness colouring to outdoor fun - our children took away lots of ideas and strategies to support their mental health and think about the 'love yourself' element of our school vision. Below, you can see some work we did in Merlins about how change can affect our mental health.

Bishop Anna visits Burton Leonard

We enjoyed a wonderful visit from Bishop Anna this week.  Bishop Anna spent time with the children sharing lots of interesting information about what a Bishop is and what a Bishop does.  The children asked some amazing questions and we found out so much about her calling to be a Bishop and the wonderful support she will be giving to the community.  Following a presentation of our beautiful altar cloth, especially prepared by the children for her forthcoming visit to St Leonards' Church o the 5th November, Bishop Anna went on to offer some wonderful advice to our CCWC members on what it means to provide service and how listening to others is the best piece of advice that she has been given during her ministry. 

Pumpkin Carving Competition

Wow!  What amazing entries for the FOBLs pumpkin competition.  We had an array of creativity and some very well-deserved winners.  A big thank you to Rev Robb and Granny Lesley for judging the competition - not an easy task, by any means!  Well done to all who entered - all money raised from this will continue to support more wonderful enrichment opportunities for our children. 

Harvest Festival

Harvest was a very special event this year; the abundance of donations that were brought into Church from our children and their families really did show testament to how at Burton Leonard we 'love our neighbour'.  The children shared some wonderful songs and their learning about 'Harvest Around the World'.  They also focused on raising awareness of Water Aid; a charity that we will be supporting through our Make a Difference' Campaign this year.  The School Council are already busy making plans for this. 
 
Our vision is in action here - with our children making a difference in the world!

Harvest Community Lunch

A tradition at Burton Leonard is that the food collected at Harvest is used to cook a Harvest Lunch for the local community.  Our wonderful Y6 pupils supported this by serving at this event.  They really did us proud and it was lovely to see the different generations spending time together.

Space Week & Space Hair Day 

The children enjoyed a fabulous week of all things space!  Some fantastic activities were had by all as you can see in our class pictures.  We also enjoyed an array of space-themed 'hair-dos' to round the week off - another fabulous fundraiser from FOBLs!

From FoBLS

FoBLS have been doing wonderful work at our school from Quiz Nights for the adults all the way to Pumpkin Carving Competitions for the children. Please head to the FoBLS page on the website to learn a little more about their events that have happened!

Owls

Exploring our learning

In Owls, our Reception children have been getting used to being in school for the first time. They have had many opportunities to explore their learning making use of all the wonderful spaces we have in Owl Class. We have been exploring art on the iPads, playdough and paint, creative play with blocks, writing our names, making marks in Art and using our awesome outdoor space!

Computing

In computing, we have been studying and getting comfortable with the process of logging into the iPads and getting comfortable typing on the iPads and using PurpleMash. We have used PurpleMash as a part of our visit from Bishop Anna to create our art for the Firework Altar cloth. Mrs Leader was so proud of the art made by EYFS and Year 1 showing how far they've come already. We talked about e-safety this term when studying the idea of passwords and avatars in ClassDojo and why they are so important.

Space Week & Autumn Walks

We have loved being scientists in “Space Week” this half term. Making fizzy stars was so exciting! We also learned about the solar system and the first moon landing. We have been observing changes in the seasons and Reception children collected signs of autumn on an autumn walk.  

Merlins

Forest School

As a part of our learning this term, Merlins have got to go out and experience all the joys of an English autumn in their forest school sessions. We have gone out in pouring rain, in lovely shine, in anoraks to our eyeballs and in funky hair from Space Week. We have been able to explore our space by building dens (for both ourselves and our forest friends), making fires, eating fire-cooked goodies, playing games and learning with Madeleine.

Chicks

Merlin Class were lucky enough to look after some fertilised eggs in a special incubator in our classroom. We waiting patiently for 21 days and enjoyed watching the incubator turn the eggs. We learnt that the incubator does this to ensure the eggs are kept warm on all sides and so the growing chick doesn't stick to the inside of the egg. Finally our chicks started to hatch! It was so egg-citing! We welcomed Galaxy, Draco, Cosmo, Rocket and Comet into the world. It was fascinating seeing them hatch and come out looking  very weak and sleepy to only a few hours later starting to fluff up and become more interested in their surroundings. They worked hard to help each other hatch - what a wonderful experience it was for us all. Thank you once again to Mr and Mrs Hammond, Maddie and Claudia for giving us this incredible opportunity. 

Space Week

During Space Week, Merlin Class learnt about the solar system and the stars and constellations we can see in the night sky. We made our own sensory galaxy jars using cotton wool, water, paint and glitter. They looked incredible and so calming. We also studied the phases of the moon. We had a go at making our own moon phases using Oreo biscuits  and we drew made some moon phase pictures too! We learnt so many new words including waxing, waning and gibbous!   

Kites

It’s been an incredible first half- term and the pupils have given such tremendous effort in class. We have covered lots of exciting topics and have learnt some amazing things already! I've spoken to the pupils about some of their highlights of the term and this is what they've enjoyed the most!

Science

We had a great time looking at animals including humans in more detail. Our standout practical had us making our own poo! We used real food and took it on a journey. Scissors were used to mimic our incisors and our hands and a potato mashed were used to replicate our molars to grind the food down. The food was then stuffed into a bag (oesophagus) and squeezed down until it dropped into our stomach. A squirt of stomach acid and enzymes helped us break the food down further. We took the food all the way through the intestines, looking at what each part did and then it finished in our designated toilet bucket! We got extremely messy, but everyone got involved no matter how keen or unimpressed they were at the idea of it!

Swimming

Swimming has been the highlight of my week since starting in September. Every pupil puts everything into their lessons and shows so much enthusiasm. There are so many success stories and pupils pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to do it. 

English

Our writing this term is going to extremely tough to beat this year! All pupils have put in a lot of time and dedication to their own work. Pupils have learnt a lot of new skills and have been relishing the opportunity to add them into their work! We have lots of new examples of this on display in our cloakroom - so please come and have a look when you are next in for parents evening. 

Kestrels

Science

In Science, we have been learning about keeping healthy.  We measured our pulse before, during and after exercise.  We had to use our middle and index fingers to feel for our pulses because they don’t have a pulse in them.  We learnt that your heart beats faster when you are exercising because it needs to work harder to pump blood around the body.  We learnt about which drugs are good for us and which are bad.

Religious Education

In Religious Education we have been learning about Science v’s Creation: Conflicting or Complimentary.  We invited Reverend Robb in for a questions and answer session.  He explained that Genesis was a story and that the Big Bang Theory was the factual explanation about creation.  We have discussed this in Kestrels Class and feel that Creation is the heart of the story and The Big Bang is the brains of the story.

Music 

In music, we have started by studying the history of music notation by looking at the Ancient Egyptians. We studied how we would choose to make our own notations using hieroglyphics and studying the song "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles. In more recent weeks, we have already (sorry!) pivoted to practise our Christmas carols in preparation for the Harrogate Christmas Concert we are a part of at the very beginning of December. Our favourites so far are the songs we are all learning from The Polar Express!

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