Year 5 did an outstanding job leading our whole-school Endangered Animal Day in support of orangutan conservation. They delivered an engaging presentation to raise awareness then confidently ran a variety of activity stations including riddles, games and true-or-false challenges. Pupils across the school enjoyed taking part and Year 5 proudly showcased the projects they have been working on this term.  Parents were invited in at the end of the day to see the wonderful work on display and it was clear how much effort and enthusiasm the children had put in. We are incredibly proud of Year 5 for their teamwork, dedication and passion for protecting endangered animals

The children were treated to a live performance of the Beauty and the Beast panto in school.  The children quickly got into the spirit of this great British tradition and had a fantastic time.  There was lots of participation from the children and some members of staff had to get up and dance!  The children enjoyed singing along with some of the songs and there was plenty of laughter!  It was a wonderful show.

Thank you to all our families who came to the Farsley Lights parade with the school last Wednesday night; it was really great to see so many of our families there enjoying the evening together. I said this last year but this year was definitely the biggest turn out I've ever seen!  We had over 180 children joining the school to walk in the parade, which was fantastic.   I must say a big thank you to Mrs Weelands, who took the lead in organising the making of the headdresses in school.  The lantern parade was, yet again, amazing.  The hungry caterpillar linked all three schools together and some of the other lanterns were really impressive.  A massive thank you to the small group of volunteers that organise and coordinate this event for our community.  I hope you all enjoyed the evening! 

Our School Council had the wonderful opportunity to visit Pudsey Community Project, where they learned more about how the organisation supports local families. The children enjoyed a guided tour of the centre before getting stuck into helping with the Christmas clothes sorting. They worked together to organise, fold and sort a huge range of donated children’s clothing. As a special treat, each pupil was even able to choose an item to take home. The purpose of the visit was to promote the idea of reducing and reusing children’s clothes, encouraging pupils to think about sustainability and the benefits of giving items a new life rather than buying new. We were incredibly proud of the children throughout the afternoon. They were exceptionally well behaved, enthusiastic and excellent ambassadors for our school. The volunteers at the project were full of praise for their positive attitude and teamwork. A big well done to all of our School Council members for representing us so brilliantly!

Year 3 visited the United Hebrew Congregation in Shadwell for their RE unit on Judaism. The children learnt about the torah scrolls, Bar and Bat mitzvah’s, the Shabbat which takes place on a Saturday and heard some stories in the Old Testament. We were so impressed with how engaged and respectful all the children were. They were a credit to our school.  The children asked some really well-thought, insightful questions and came away with lots of new knowledge.  It is so important that children learn about different faiths so they have that knowledge and understanding to be respectful of similarities and differences. 

Year 1 and Year 2 forest school sessions have been focusing on the seasonal changes we can observe outside including how our adopted trees have changed or not as Autumn progresses (Year 1 adopted a silver birch tree, apple tree and holly and Year 2 adopted an oak, hazel and sycamore tree).  The children have taken part in a scavenger hunt to find different native animals and worked on building up our knowledge of their names, classification, habitat and also their diet which links well with their science animal topics. 

Last term we saw Year 1 learning all about plants and in particular they concentrated on learning all about seeds, with a focus on our tree seeds.  This term it seems to be all about leaves. The children had lots of fun creating Autumn Crowns and then got to work raking all the leaves up and putting them in our special compost bins!  Along the way they learnt about why our deciduous trees lose their leaves and why they change colour. They also learnt that leaves are a valuable resource for gardeners as we make a special type of compost from them called leafmould.   Lots of hard work, but lots of fun too!

Year 3 are learning how to look after our environment. 

They are learning about the importance of planting trees and creating habitats for wildlife. We started on a tree planting project which will continue over this term. First of all, we had to check the planting area for litter and remove any long grass and brambles which were competing with the young trees planted last year.  The next job will be to plant our young trees which will continue along the length of the fencing to continue our "wildlife corridor".  The saplings were provided by the Woodland Trust, all native wildlife friendly species such as hawthorn, crab-apples, wild cherry and rowan and we have been running this tree planting project for at least 5 years.  It was great to see the children getting stuck in to some physical work and working as a team.

This term, Year 5 have embraced a range of hands-on outdoor learning experiences. In Week 1, the children explored fire safety, learned how to create small flames using flint and steel, and used natural materials to design their own firework-themed artwork. In Week 2, they marked Remembrance Day by crafting poppies from wood and wool, developing both creativity and fine-motor skills. In Week 3, the focus shifted to teamwork and accuracy as the children experimented with archery and built their own mini catapults using sticks and spoons.  

School Council did a fantastic job organising our Children in Need day in school.  All the classes enjoyed taking part in an assault course in the hall, a scavenger hunt in the rain and making spots with all the loose change that was brought into school.   During the KS2 celebration assembly at the end of the day we managed to see Sara Cox running up towards Calverley at the end of her epic challenge.   We raised an incredible £941 so a massive thank you to everyone.