Children in Need - Thank You!

On Friday, we all went topsy-turvey at Rise Park Primary in an effort to raise lots of money for Children in Need! Mr. Shadbolt and Mrs. Bell forgot to get dressed and both turned up to school in their pyjamas, and every child in 4S made a real effort to dress-up for the occasion - whether it was coming to school in a snorkel or shaving off half of their hair! We did some topsy-turvey writing, learnt about number palindromes and raised lots of money by buying Pudsey Bear biscuits. We learnt about an eight year old boy called Harrison whose life had been changed by the money that we raised last year.

An extra special mention should go to the group of year four children who made their own bookmarks and jewellery to sell at break times to raise even more money for Children in Need! With no help from any staff at all, these children were able to make and sell enough home-made bits and bobs to raise £37 for the charity! Well done, all of you! :)

Thanks once again to all the parents, carers and children who helped raise money this year. It really will change someone's life for the better!

Anti-Bullying Week - Staying Safe Online

Last week was National Anti-bullying Week, and the themes for this year were "Stop and think: words can hurt!", covered by Key Stage 1, and "Cyber bullying" covered in Key Stage 2. In year four, we talked about Facebook and other websites which are used to share personal information over the internet. Six children in 4S used Facebook themselves, and eighteen children said that there were photo's of them posted on the website!

We created our own paper copies of an online profile that showed ALL of our personal information. We then worked through an online activity together [click here to go to the virtual Cyber Cafe we visited] that showed us why it wasn't a good idea to put much of our personal information online! Once we had finished the online activity together, we each wrote out a second 'online profile' that was much safer!

IF you are asked to fill out personal information online, please think carefully:

• Use a nickname instead of your real name.
• Remember that it is better to put your real age, and if you are a boy or a girl, than it is to lie.
• Never put your full address - instead, just say which city you live in.
• DO NOT put your phone number or e-mail address online - someone could phone you, text you, or send you nasty pictures that you do not want to see.
• If you have to put a photo up, never use one that reveals personal information about yourself.
• Always check that your privacy settings are set to PRIVATE and not to PUBLIC.

Science - Using Electricity Safely!

We started our new Science topic about electricity, 'Circuits & Conductors', last week in 4S.

Mr. Shadbolt and the children talked about the difference between appliances powered by batteries [things that we need to be portable or that do not require a lot of energy], and those appliances we have at home powered by mains electricity [things that stay in one place and that require a lot of energy!]. The children were able to identify whether certain appliances were powered by batteries or mains electricity, and suggested some rather unusual examples of each from their own homes!

We also talked a lot about how to use electricity safely, played a safety game on the EDF Energy website, and designed leaflets to help other people learn some very important electrical safety tips! If you'd like to see how many electrical hazards you can spot [we found all 22!], please click here to go and play EDF Energy's 'Spot The Hazard' game.

Autumn Term - Take Two!

Well, it's been a week now since 4S started back after the October half-term, and we've already got a busy second Autumn half-term ahead. It's been good to see everyone back at school in this last week, and the children have worked really hard as we started some of our new topics; Explanation Texts in Literacy, 3D shapes in Maths; Circuits & Conductors in Science... :) Things to look forward to this half-term include:

• School dinner w/ parents and carers
• Design and Technology week: Making a Lighthouse
• Children in Need
• KS2 Christmas Performance
• Christmas Dinner
• Carol Service

As we move towards Christmas, we will probably miss a few time-tabled lessons as we start to rehearse for our parts in the Key Stage 2 performance. Details of this will be released soon... just as soon as the staff have decided exactly what it is we're going to do!