On Thursday 12th June some of our Year 5 children had the opportunity to visit the John Charles centre of Sport for the Queen’s Baton Relay event. There were lots of other primary schools at the event as well as lots of media; we were very lucky to have our picture taken with the baton. Alongside having lots of pictures taken we were able to take part in three different activities being led by some international representatives. These were tennis, badminton and squash. The children had a fantastic time; we were very lucky to be invited to such a prestigious event.

The Springbank Rugby team have had a busy couple of weeks with the season beginning to draw to an end. Our mixed team of Year 5 and 6 boys and girls travelled to the John Charles Centre for Sport to take part in the Leeds finals of 'tag' rugby. As winners of the West Leeds tournament they were taking part against all the other winners from around the region. A solid defence saw them win enough group games to get through to the semi-finals but they were ultimately beaten at that stage to finish fourth overall. It was still a hugely impressive finish, however, for a school that has only really been playing rugby for the last two or three years and all the players involved could hold their heads high. As a result of their fourth-place finish they now have the honour of representing Leeds in a final competition at Leeds Metropolitan University on July 8th.  

Leading on from the success of the 'tag' team we also took part in our first ever full contact rugby tournament, The Culley Sevens, at Stanningley Rugby Club. The transition from tag to contact is huge and it was certainly a massive learning curve for our players. Facing teams from Hunslet who play contact week-in-week-out was a daunting prospect but our team held their heads high. They were beaten in their first two games, but only by one or two tries, and crucially they were scoring and tackling their hearts out. One try masterminded by Jack Hennigan and Charlie Bennett even drew a round of applause from the watching schools with one coach commenting that it was the 'try of the day.' Our third game in the knock-out stages ended with our first win where Luke Woodend provided a domineering display of power and fierce tackling. We were finally undone in the next game against a very well organised side to finish our competition but we are very proud to have recorded Springbank's first ever contact team in recent memory. Well done lads!

The whole school has taken part in our annual Health Week this week.  Miss Jenkins led ‘Wake up Shake up’ in the playground first thing to get our heart rates up, leaving everyone raring to go!  Health week is not just about physical health and activity but also covers keeping ourselves safe and healthy, emotional and mentally.  The days have been packed with lots of super activities that cover all different aspects of health.

We welcomed D: Side for two days, who delivered a drugs education lesson to each class. The main focus was about developing strategies to avoid and deal with peer pressure and this ran through the different topics each year group covered; Year 3 looked at smoking, Year 4 alcohol, Year 5 solvents and Year 6 substance abuse. All our children learn about drugs education through our PSHE curriculum but it is always interesting when visitors come with their specialist knowledge to teach the children even more and help the children develop further strategies to keep themselves safe.

We have looked at healthy eating and nutrition and the children have played top trumps using nutritional information.  Year 3 have also designed a healthy packed lunch and work around the different food groups.

The children have taken part in acitvities around emotional well-being using emotion cards; this lead to constructive discussions about feelings when considering different senarios. 

Year 5 and 6 have revised learning from earlier in the year around sex and relationship education.

We always aim to be really active at Springbank but this week we have been more active than usual with all children having the opportunity to play games of table tennis. Active bingo was extremely energetic and brilliant fun. The whole school took part in a multi-activity afternoon where they had the chance to work in teams that were mixed across the year groups. We also held an intra-school cricket tournament where very year group competed in the house teams...we are awaiting the results!

So all in all, it has been an action packed three days; have a look at some of the photographs showing all the fun we have has this week!

The whole school took part in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day on Friday 16th May as part of a world record attempt to have the most people ever involved in a 24 hour cooking lesson.  Over 200,000 children took part across 121 countries, making Rainbow Salad Wraps and Springbank's 238 children were part of the record attempt!

The whole school watched Jamie's live cooking lesson and then every class prepared by washing their hands before beginnig.  The children worked in groups of 5 or 6 to make their own salad wraps which contained grated cabbage, beetroot, carrot and pear which was then dressed with a homemade dressing made from olive oil, natural yogurt and mustard.  Over half the children thought the wraps were delicious and whilst not all agreed, I am proud to say that every child at least tried it!  

The children worked really well together in their teams and the afternoon was a great success. Here are a few photos of our Springbank chefs in action!