Whitehouse Common Primary -

Newsletter 19th July

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Reflections on language learning

Señora Stevens asked the 2019 Language Leaders team for their thoughts on language learning. To help them, she posed some questions. Below are their thoughts:

Why did you volunteer to be a Language Leader?

I volunteered to be a Language Leader because I love learning languages; when I go on holiday I like showing off how I know how to speak the language. (RM)

I wanted to find out more about languages as they’re fun. (PS)

I volunteered as a Language Leader because I like learning how other people communicate. (AT)

I wanted to represent the school. (IH)

I thought it would be fun! (JS/SLG)

I volunteered because languages make me happy. (RS)

I wanted to explore the different languages and how to speak them (JJ)

I volunteered because I like to learn languages (AK)

I volunteered because I wanted to try something new (LD)

What do you like about languages?

I like speaking languages – it makes me feel proud! (GG)

It makes countries different (LD)

I like how other people talk and I don’t understand them. (AT)

I like that if you learn a language, you can communicate and understand people that speak other languages. (LE)

I like the sounds you make and how you spell words in other languages (JJ)

I like that different countries have different ways of communicating. (RM)

When I speak languages it makes me feel….. (RS)

It’s fun to learn! (IH/NH)

I like that everyone’s language is unique (PS)

I find them interesting, (JS/SLG)

When you go on holiday you can speak that language. (AK)

What do you find hard? What do you do when it’s hard?

When it’s hard, I practice what to say and find someone who already speaks that language to help. (JJ)

When it’s hard I just practice! (IH)

I find remembering the language hard. (LE)

Phonics and pronunciation can be tricky! (LD)

I sometimes find pronouncing words hard but I don’t give up as I have an open mindset. (GG)

When I find it hard I do some chants to help me remember (PS)

Sometimes I find writing hard so I ask for help. (SLG)

As a Language Leader I find it hard to choose the award winners! (AK)

I found writing my application letter for Language Leader hard! (NH)

Do you know any languages other than English? How did you learn them?

I know Arabic, Urdu Spanish and a bit of French! (IH)

I know Punjabi and Spanish – Punjabi from home and Spanish from school. (GG)

I know Hindi as my family speak it at home but I sometimes feel embarrassed speaking it in front of my friends. (RM)

I know how to introduce myself in French. (AT)

I know some Italian as we go on holiday there (LD)

My parents speak Tamil and I listen to them (JJ)

I know Urdu because I speak it at home (RS)

I know some Italian as my grandma was born in Italy (AK)

Do you enjoy learning Spanish?

A resounding yes!

I love Spanish – especially with Señora Stevens! I like that it has masculine and feminine! (RM)

I enjoy Spanish because my family go on holiday to Spain some years. (AT)

I like Spanish; I like how you have masculine and feminine and can explore how to decide which gender nouns have. (JJ)

I find learning Spanish with the great Señora Stevens really fun and interesting. (PS)

What would make language learning even better for you?

I could practice harder! (IH)

I’d like to learn some useful questions for the future; for example, how to ask for a cupcake in Italian. (AT)

I’d like to learn another language! (JS)

To do more mindmaps and diagrams to help me remember words (SLG)

I’d like to learn more languages and the differences between them. (LE)

Comparing more languages – for example hello is Vanakam in Tamil and Hola in Spanish (JJ)

I’d like to learn some gymnastics words as I love gymnastics (AK)

I think visiting the country would be a great idea! (LD)

If once a week we could read a story in a different language in assembly (PS)

Thank you to all the Language Leaders for your thoughts and ideas!

Newsletter 5th July 2019

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Look at our super t-shirts for the Y6 show!

Healthy Lifestyles Week Food Art Competition

Well done to all who entered the 'Food Art Competition'. We had so many wonderful and creative entries. Mrs Hannon, Manager of the kitchen, has enjoyed looking at all the beautiful healthy creations and although it was very difficult has chosen one winner from each Key Stage. Winners will be announced in assembly next week. Please enjoy looking at a small selection of photos.

Healthy Lifestyles Week

Whitehouse Common has been enjoying Healthy activities and experiences this week. We have enjoyed a range of activities learning about how to keep our bodies and minds healthy. A variety of health proffessional visitors have visited different classes over the week too. A special thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers.

Please enjoy a few photos from across the school including healthy hygiene with a vist from a Nurse Hines and Mr Horne, oral health with a vist from the Dentist and story book yoga in Year 6. Ask your children what Health Week activities they have been enjoying this week.

New Schools Join the Learning Trust for Excellence

As you are aware, our school is part of the Learning Trust for Excellence (LTE), a collaboration of 7 local schools who work together, share good practice and develop opportunities for our staff and children. Following the success of the Trust and the significant impact it has had on improving teaching and learning in our schools, it will be expanding to work with more schools in our community. The LTE is delighted to announce that the following local schools will be joining the Trust this summer:

• Court Farm Primary
• The Deanery Church of England Primary
• Maney Hill Primary
• Wylde Green Primary

The schools will engage in all the collaborative opportunities and activities for a year in the first instance. All the schools have worked together previously as part of the wider group of Sutton Coldfield primaries so we are very much looking forward to the exciting opportunities this expansion will bring, welcoming new colleagues and learning from each other.

Green Kids - eTwinning project

As we approach the end of the school year, our eTwinning projects are drawing to a close too, particularly as many schools across Europe have already broken up for the summer!

At Christmas we reported that we had created and exchanged Christmas cards with schools involved in the Green Kids project (as well as others as part of a Christmas card project) However, the main thrust of the project was around safeguarding our environment so we really should report on what we're been doing in collaboration with schools in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, France and Greece. 

The project:

Green Kid´s a super hero who tries to save the Earth. He´ll teach children how to be Green Kids. 

The aims of the project are:
1. To create awareness about environmental issues and actions that can be taken for its protection.
2. To improve digital and communicative skills.
3. To promote creativity.

During the project schools firstly designed and voted on a Green Kid logo. then they considered an aspect of the environment each month, creating a collaborative storybook on each topic including trees, endangered species, pollution and the problem of plastic. Each school wrote their own story and they were all collated in one online storybook via Storyjumper. Alongside this, pupils from each school found out about the topics and shared their ideas on the Twinspace. You can see it here. We also thought about our role in the future of our world and predicted what would happen if we take care of it.

All the work that we've done at Whitehouse Common on each of the themes (and others!) has been uploaded to the Padlet you can view by clicking here, or by reading the QR code below with a mobile device. I'm sure you'll agree that the children of WCPS know plenty about their role in our world and that the future is safe in their hands!