Levens School

Being Active in the Outdoors

 in PE / Whole School by

Since the start of the autumn term, we have been enhancing our outdoor spaces with new equipment and developing new ways of playing together to improve social times for all our pupils.

This has included:

  • investing funds into opening up our limited playground space to promote active play;
  • purchasing a range of new equipment that promotes problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and imagination; collaboration and open-ended play;
  • increasing our lunchtime supervision so that we can make use of the playing fields areas;
  • training a group of year six children to be playleaders who will be able to lead younger children in playing a range of new games;
  • making use of our trikes and bikes for our children in early years to promote physical development;

We are also:

  • continuing to offer a range of after-school clubs to promote good health and fitness – gymnastics, football and running club;
  • engaging in local schools competitions at Dallam School.

 

Already we have had extremely positive feedback from our pupils via our School Council survey.  Some of the comments that we have had are….

‘The buggies and space hoppers are great.’  Class 2 pupil

‘Playing out is better because we have different equipment.’  Class 2 pupil

‘Lunchtimes are better because we have more space and more to do.’ Class 4 pupil

‘The new equipment is more flexible for us to use.’  Class 4 pupil

‘I like it because we get to play more football and there is more space to play.’ Class 3 pupil

‘I enjoy playing with my friends.’ Class 3 pupil

‘I like playing on the skateboards’ Class 1 pupil.

 

Of course we have more to do and our pupils also shared their ideas on ‘Even better if……’

  1. We find a way of sharing the equipment
  2. We get to play with our Reception buddies
  3. We could have a small slide
  4. Playleaders are in charge of the equipment
  5. We do different things on different days
  6. Have signs up about playing with the equipment
  7. We have more space hoppers.

Please keep an eye on our blog and newsletters for more news on further developments to promote health, fitness and enjoyable outdoor physical activity.

Basketball at Dallam

 in Class Four / PE by

Class 4 showed determination, stamina and skill this morning at the Dallam Basketball Primary Schools Competition; and they were all incredible ambassadors for Levens School.

Our class were divided into 5 teams, each with a captain who led their teams in several different matches across four indoor courts.  The practice during some PE sessions in the first few weeks of term was really very valuable and during the morning each team were very focused on developing tactics, improving with every game, supporting one another and doing their absolute best! Each game was thrilling to watch!

 

Well done everyone!  Levens is extremely proud of your effort, your ambition and your sporting conduct!

 

The United Kingdom

 in Class Two / Geography / RE by

To begin our seasons and weather topic we looked at where we live in the world and used the atlases to name the countries of the UK. The children were challenged to add the capital cities. We also used maps and atlases in RE. We looked at a variety of food labels and identified which country they had come from.

 

Lots of practical learning in Class 2

 in Class Two / English / Maths by

We have been learning all about less than and greater than in maths and comparing numbers. The children are becoming very confident using this vocabulary to compare numbers. In English we are looking at the story of ‘Percy the Park Keeper After the Storm.’ We looked closely at a variety of books and identified the author, illustrator, blurb and illustrations, explaining what each of these are and why they are important.

Super senses!

 in Class Two / Science by

We had a fantastic science lesson learning all about our senses. We used mystery feely bags to explore our sense of touch and use adjectives to describe the objects. We carried out a blind smelling test to see if we could identify the different smells. For taste, we tried different foods and discovered sweet, salty and sour tastes. We looked around and used our sense of sight to describe what we could see and sat very still to see what we could hear.

A great start to the school year in Class 2.

 in Class Two by

The children have settled in really well and have been working hard. They love exploring the areas of provision inside and outside and completing the challenges and have demonstrated their problem solving and resilience skills. Here are some of our photographs so far.

Genes for Genes Week: Investigating DNA

 in Class Four / Science by

This week, as part of Genes for Genes Week, Class 4 have been learning about genetic conditions that affect people through our whole-school worship. We explored the important role of DNA, which can be thought of as the set of instructions used to build all living things.

To help us understand this idea, we used a LEGO model analogy. Just as a small change in a set of building instructions can result in a very different final model, small differences in DNA can lead to significant changes in how living things develop and function.

Although DNA is far too small to be seen with the naked eye, it is present in every cell of our bodies. make this more real, we aimed to extract DNA from strawberry cells. Wearing appropriate eye protection, we carefully used a range of simple chemicals to break down the cells. As DNA is such a long molecule, it then clumps together into small white lumps so that we could see and extract it for ourselves. It was exciting to observe something that is normally invisible!

Alongside our scientific learning, we focused on developing our measuring skills. We practised using a variety of scientific measuring equipment accurately, including syringes, pipettes, measuring cups and flasks. We quickly discovered that precision is vital in science: the more carefully we measured each ingredient, the more successful our DNA extraction was.

Take a look at our gallery below. It’s not easy to see in a photograph, but the small white lines in the picture of the cup are lumps of pure strawberry DNA!!

County Show Display

 in Whole School by

This year’s county show display is looking fabulous and can be seen in the Learning for Life tent!  Celebrating all the work we did in the summer term about caring for our environment!  It includes some incredible writing from our current year 4 and 5 pupils; some wonderful art work from across school including portraits of Sir David Attenboro; and our Environmental Pledge coordinated by our committed Eco-Team that everyone in school has agreed to follow!

Well done everyone and thank you for your contributions!

Did you notice the two very helpful volunteers who are helping in the Learning for LIfe tent over the next two days!

Bastille Day

 in Class Four / Class Three / Languages - French by

Key Stage Two had a fantastic day celebrating Bastille Day.

Class 3 recapped on why Bastille Day is significant before moving on to look at famous French landmarks.  They were then challenged to make their own models of these. In the afternoon, they looked at the work of Claude Monet and the impressionist movement. We then took our learning outside and did our own impressionist paintings.

 

Class 4 spent the morning learning about the 1886 ‘Exposition Universelle’ in France, where inventors, engineers and artists from across the world gathered in France to show off their latest creations. The event was marked by the building of a very famous building by Gustave Eiffel – a temporary tower to mark the grand entrance to the exhibition. That temporary structure still stands today as the Eiffel tower!

In the afternoon, we spent some time trying to build an Eiffel tower of our own from spaghetti and marshmallows, learning about the material properties of compression and tension along the way!

Levens Park river visit

 in Class Three / Geography by

The children have loved learning about rivers so on Friday we went on a fieldtrip to Levens Park to apply our knowledge. The sun was shining as we walked down to the park and we enjoyed seeing a variety of wildlife on our walk. The children quickly identified meanders, erosion, deposition, tributaries, a confluence and the river channel. They also produced some great field sketches. Well done Class Three, it was fantastic to see how much you have learnt. Thank you to our volunteers who accompanied us.