december 2016 celebration booklet

Celebration Booklet

December 2016

Reaching

Even Higher!

Bella, Year 6 14/09/2016 Leap of Faith

Edale Residential Trip

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 C e l e b r a t i o n s – T h e G r e e t l a n d A c a d e m y – p a g e 2

Welcome to our December 2016 Celebration Booklet,

The Celebration Booklet is just one of the many ways the Academy communicates to all of our stakeholders the successes that are achieved through the ongoing efforts, commitments and contributions made by staff, children, parents and governors. This latest instalment focuses on the successes of our tailor-made curriculum, one which is bespoke to the needs of our children and encourages the acquisition of knowledge, skills and understanding through engaging and challenging teaching and learning opportunities. Our academic curriculum is further enriched by the extra-curricular activities linked to sport, music and the arts, as well as learning about the wider world and current global issues.

We hope that you enjoy reading about what we do and how we do it in this Celebration Booklet.

Merry Christmas.

Kind regards,

Paul Dixon, Head of School, on behalf of all the staff and governors at The Greetland Academy

In addition to our Celebration Booklets, do keep a close eye on our website where we post all our communication, diary dates, newsletters, parent letters, updates and other information: www.greetlandacademy.org.uk.

Ongoing celebrations can be found on the Academy Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheGreetlandAcademy, this is also embedded on the website homepage and no account is needed to view posts.

Safeguarding Competition Award! At September’s Key Stage 2 e-Safety assembly the pupils were invited to design a poster for a Calderdale Safeguarding Board competition. The theme was ‘How do you keep yourself safe?’ There were many impressive entries and 5 prizes were awarded within the Key Stage. These posters were then submitted to the Calderdale wide competition.

It was great news to hear back from the Safeguarding Board that Amy, from Year 4, had won the second prize and that her poster would be seen across the borough. Mrs Julia Caldwell, Business and Quality Assurance Manager for the Board, came to one of our Monday Celebration Assemblies to present Amy with her award and prize. Amy’s poster encouraged children to ‘Stop! Think! Act!’ and gave advice about a range of situations including what to do in a fire and how to stay safe online. Well done Amy!

http://www.greetlandacademy.org.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/TheGreetlandAcademy


If you don’t move forward, you’ll end up going backwards A line I remember from a film, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you might just miss it.” This thought struck me the other day when I realised we were coming up to sixteen years since the Millennium. This made me think about how much life has changed in the last five years since we first became an academy; how since then we have continued to go from strength to strength, both inside and outside of the classroom. As an Academy we have become a Teaching School, been designated a National Support School and are currently ushering through our first cohort of teacher trainees as a SCITT.

Within the classroom we have continued to develop our teaching and learning, taking the best of national expectations and blending them with our own high standards to create a bespoke curriculum geared to providing our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to survive and thrive in an ever changing world. If the last year has taught us anything, given the major changes we have seen to the world on both political and social plains, the need to be able to adapt will be essential for our children as they move into adulthood.

Outside of the classroom we continue to push our children to reach even greater heights, building upon our recent successes such as Cross Country whilst introducing a wider range of activities including Boccia, Lego and Art clubs to add to an already established list of pupil and parent favourites.

So it’s forward to the future we head, making sure we build upon our traditions and values whilst looking to be, as the Olympic motto states ‘Faster, Higher and Stronger.’

Richard Shaw, Deputy Principal

Index

Page

4 EYFS

6 English

8 Mathematics

10 Teaching School Successses

11 The Academy’s ‘Teamworks’ SCITT

12 Art

13 Computing

14 Design Technology

15 Geography

16 History

17 MFL

18 Music

19 PE

20 PSHCE

21 RE

22 Science

23 Edale

24 Academy Developments

24 Continued Cross-Country Success


Early Years and Foundation Stage (EYFS) The Early Years Foundation Stage at the Greetland Academy does everything its name says: providing our children with a strong foundation of knowledge, skills and understanding on which to build a highly successful education.

These foundations are constructed from a robust and broad curriculum, planned to match the child’s stage of development. Teaching that is exciting and stimulating; making the most of learning provision both inside and out; with planned opportunities to develop children’s creative and critical thinking. These are all fostered alongside the development of reasoning skills, independence and self-regulation. These factors

combine to make a Reception year which is engaging, motivating and creative.

Playing and Exploring

The children are encouraged to be inquisitive about the world around them. In the autumn, thinking about ‘Ourselves’ they learn about their bodies, senses and the local environment. Children share their interests with their friends and teachers, which then become part of their learning.

The children were fascinated by ‘Space’ and used the role-play and small world areas to develop their own ideas, working under the guidance of teachers to develop their communication and language skills.

The children increase their understanding of the world through exploring different cultures and religions - during the festival of Diwali they made clay diva lamps and asked questions to a parent about her visit to India during the festival.

Creating and Thinking Critically The provision and different areas in the Reception classroom and outdoor area provide opportunities for children to continue their learning independently; developing their understanding further and testing out their own theories and ideas.


Let’s Talk!

Personal, social and emotional development are crucial elements to setting the foundations for future successes. During this first term, children learn how to be a good friend and improve their speaking and listening skills through a range of games, songs and activities. They use these skills around the classroom when they are exploring in sand, water, role-play, small world or playing learning games and taking turns. Children may have to compromise to ensure that their games run smoothly and everyone is happy. Let’s Move Our Bodies!

In Reception, children learn how to use their bodies in PE in different ways, and focus on basic skills such as jumping, balancing, running, catching and throwing. They do this on a Friday afternoon with Mr Oldroyd.

Outdoor activities, including riding bikes and scooters, also contribute to the children’s physical development. We also have ‘active breaks’ and develop the ability to respond to music with dance.

Exceptional English

The children are rapidly learning the phase 2 letter sounds and are now beginning to learn the tricky words, the digraphs and trigraphs of the Phase 3 Letters and Sounds! Communication and language is developed using phonic knowledge, skills and understanding to help read and write a variety of words and captions.

Magical Maths through Active Learning Maths is taught in a very practical, hands-on way with an emphasis on problem solving. The children love using the indoor and outdoor maths areas to develop their understating of number, shape, space and measure. The children are now more confident with numbers to 10, and some with numbers to 20 and beyond. They have been ordering them in many exciting practical ways and recording in books.

What’s Next?

Later in the year the children will further develop their skills, learning to read and write sentences, and how to perform addition and subtraction.

Finally, towards the end of Reception, the children will get ready to become Year One pupils. The current Reception children will become role models for the new intake children, for the following year, at the storytime that we hold for our transition to school event.


English As a group of key skills for life, English is a fundamental and integral part of the Academy curriculum. It is taught both as a discrete subject and across the wider curriculum. By providing high quality learning experiences, our children develop skills in speaking and listening, reading and writing. This enables them to express themselves creatively and imaginatively; to communicate more effectively and independently.

Speaking and Listening Being confident and articulate when speaking, and having the ability to listen and properly comprehend enable better learning and enhance everyday communication. We encourage the development of these skills through opportunities to see, hear and take part in a wide range of discussions and performance.

Year 3 have been looking at playscripts and traditional tales. As well as performing and presenting these, they have used them to improve their understanding of the layout and technical features. From this they will apply their skills to write scripts of their own connected to mountains.

Reading We strive to help children to become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama, as well as non-fiction and media texts. Our pupils access a clear and organised programme to enable them to develop as independent and reflective readers.

From their early years, children are introduced to a wide range of literature and given opportunities to explore books, for interest, pleasure and for information.

Our younger children have ‘story time’ sessions at the end of most days and enjoy listening to their teachers modelling how to read with clarity and expression. Alongside this children are introduced to reading comprehension through shared reading in class.

Year 4’s half-term began with a focus on non-fiction, which supported their Science work. The children studied information texts, identifying relevant features of genre. They generated their own questions for research on animals in the local environment. Organising and sorting their notes, the children created interesting paragraphs under relevant subheadings. Opportunities were then given to edit, redraft and improve this work before the children wrote a final independent information text.


Writing The teaching of writing from Early Years through to Key Stage 2 focusses on creating a supportive environment to develop the skills of a good writer, whilst maintaining motivation and enthusiasm. We provide a rich background of writing models in the classroom and around school. Many different writing activities are employed across a range of genres, enabling children to make increasingly independent choices about the type of writing to use for different tasks.

This term Year 1 have looked closely at the teaching of phonics, following the letters and sounds scheme. The children have been taught to read phonemes and apply these to their writing. They have participated in a range of activities and games to embed this knowledge. The children are building secure writing foundations and particularly enjoyed writing about their recent experiences at the York Railway Museum, completing recount writing about the trip.

Year 1 have also retold well known stories (such as the Hungry Caterpillar and the Gingerbread Man) and done some descriptive writing focusing on interesting adjectives.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG!)

Weekly English lessons include discrete phonic and spelling sessions as well as punctuation and grammar lessons. There has been an increased national focus on these areas in recent years and the Academy has accordingly focussed on the teaching of the required skills followed by their purposeful use in everyday writing.

During the Autumn term Year 3 have looked at different prefixes, their meanings and the word families they can create. Year 5 have

learnt about the different forms of parenthesis, practised their use, and then shown an increased use of brackets and dashes in their writing. Year 6 now have a strong understanding of how to write in the active or passive voice.

Good presentation has always been important at Greetland, without it, all aspects of a child’s writing can suffer. To develop good handwriting, children are taught a fully cursive script from EYFS. Handwriting is taught within English lessons and then practised in all writing. When a child’s handwriting reaches the required standard they receive a pen licence.


Mathematics Like English, the lifelong ability to use key skills and understanding in everyday situations makes Maths a key part of the Academy curriculum. The Academy strives to produce enthusiastic and able users of maths through engaging and challenging teaching which seeks to set mathematics in ‘real life’ contexts as often as possible.

Building Understanding

We seek to provide the key building blocks by ensuring children are taught the basic rules of number, how to hone these skills and how to use and apply their knowledge in problem solving activities. Children are provided with a wide variety of learning opportunities in line with both Early Years and National Curriculum requirements. At all Key Stages, the daily maths lesson includes a

combination of oral and mental starter activities, the main learning focus (introducing or developing specific knowledge or skills) and a plenary session to reinforce, consolidate or further extend this learning. The structure of the lesson within the Early Years Foundation Stage is cross-curricular and integrated within focussed play activities. Pupils are given opportunities to undertake practical activities to relate mathematical experiences to real life situations and other relevant themes or topics. Computers, calculators and mathematical games are used wherever appropriate to support and stimulate learning.

Year 2 children have been applying their knowledge of division to a range of contexts. They used blocks and pasta to share large numbers into groups and could see the connection that this method had with their pencil and paper methods used in the classroom.

A key element in Year 4 is the understanding and using of formal written methods, as this forms the basis to progress further on to reasoning and problem solving. The autumn term is

used to secure place value of numbers up to 10,000, multiplication tables up to and including the 12 times table and formal written methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Real-life problems have extended and consolidated children’s learning of the four operations.

Real life Maths in Year 4 included work relating to Roald Dahl’s centenary year. The children collected, presented and analysed data on their favourite Roald Dahl books. Dahl wrote 17 children’s fiction books, from ‘The Gremlins’ in 1943 to ‘Esio Trot’in 1990. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had sold 990,711 copies, 615,731 more than Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.


Using and Applying Concept Mastery We encourage children to learn number bonds and multiplication tables once they have understood the underlying concepts. We emphasise the use of a range of mental maths strategies from Early Years onwards. The development of formal methods of recording and performing calculations will follow once this grounding is secure. Weekly Numeracy lessons include times table practice, mental arithmetic and the using and application of number skills.

Year 2 children have developed their understanding of money through the use of role-play and through buying and selling in the classroom ‘shop’. Starting with single item purchases the children progressed to calculating the cost of several items and the change due.

Cross-Curricular Maths Wherever appropriate each year group seeks opportunities to promote mathematical learning within other subjects. Some examples are:

Science – measuring, recording and interpreting data

Geography – map reading, reading scales, co-ordinates and directions

Computing – creating spreadsheets, use of data-handling programmes, designing 3-D products

Year 6, children used maths as part of their ‘Leisure Land’ project where they were required to calculate the area and volume of attractions on their plan. Children then used the four operations of number to calculate the costings of the materials used so that they could ‘bid’ for the required funds to build their project.

Understanding the Value

Children in Year 6 have explored maths in the real world and had the opportunity to interview an auditor who has been working in school. They were interested to learn of the important part that maths plays in this job. They learnt of other career opportunities maths could benefit, and could see value/usage of specific mathematical concepts in real scenarios.

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 C e l e b r a t i o n s – T h e G r e e t l a n d A c a d e m y – p a g e 1 0

Teaching School

Successes . . .

As a teaching school, with Whitehill Academy, Teamworks Teaching School alliance continues to provide support and opportunities for schools within our Teaching School partnership. We support regional and national programmes, plus projects and pilots on behalf of the National College and Department of Education. We have a remit to contribute to the ‘big 3’ national objectives:

1. School to School Support offers, action planning, mentoring and coaching.

2. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) offers with whole-school staffs alongside offers combined with research and development opportunities for improvement.

3. Initial Teacher Training provision to train future teachers and contribute to future sustainable access to high quality trained teachers.

The alliance currently has: 36 SLEs (Specialist Leaders of Education) available for support in schools in a full range of specialist areas, across our strategic partner schools; 3 NLEs (National Leaders of Education); 3 LLEs (Local Leaders of Education); and two pupil premium reviewers. We are running a national pilot for the DfE on coaching middle leaders working in challenging circumstances.

At Greetland we provide expertise for the commissioning of NLEs, 8 SLE staff and a pupil premium reviewer. Our CPD offer has included teaching assistant pedagogy, the effective use of teaching assistants, an outstanding teacher programme, and subject knowledge for English and subject leadership development for ensuring future leadership. Our support for small-scale research with main-scale staff in schools projects has produced positive findings in maths and EYFS practice. Mrs Bennett is commissioned to work for day a week for the Teaching School Council, as part of the DfE supporting Teaching Schools across the Yorkshire and Humber. This is funded back to The Greetland Academy. Please see Dr. Jo Pearson’s article about the success of our SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training).

These opportunities provide: valuable additional funding back into the school budget; opportunities for staff to further sharpen their practice; access to regional and national best practice programmes; and paid networking opportunities. All contribute to ensuring The Greetland Academy remains a nationally top performing academy.

Please visit our website, www.teamworkstsa.org for more details on any of the above.

http://www.teamworkstsa.org/


The Academy’s ‘Teamworks’ SCITT The Greetland Academy is very proud of its SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) status. We are working hard to train the next generation of teachers who will be working at Greetland and other schools across Calderdale. The Greetland Academy is the only SCITT in Calderdale, this means we have the same status as a University for teacher training.

Our primary programme currently has 27 trainees and our secondary programme has 10. We are very proud of how they are all developing across, what is, a very intensive course. So far each student has been in two school placements, have learned how to make geography amazing, their phonics polished (thank you Mr Harris), their programming fabulous (and you Mr Pascall) and their maths momentous from our amazing practising teachers across the Teamworks Partnership.

Some thoughts from students currently placed at the Academy:

Miss C. Barstow, “I have really enjoyed my time teaching at the Greetland Academy so far. I have received a great deal of support from the staff, in particular my mentor, Mrs Sykes. I have also felt a real welcome from all of the staff and the children. The Greetland Academy is a lovely school to work at.”

Miss J. Darby, “I'm loving my time at Greetland. I've had lots of support from everyone at both Key Stages, and the children have been absolutely brilliant to work with. I only have a few weeks left before moving on and I will miss it terribly. It has been an amazing start to the rest of my teaching career.”

Mrs K. Ure, “I'm currently working in Miss Bailes' class, 2A and I am really enjoying my teacher training experience at the Greetland Academy. The staff are a great support; answering all of my questions and giving me lots of ideas and tips to help me improve my teaching practice. There's always lots going on in school to get involved in and I'd recommend the course to anyone interested in becoming a primary school teacher.”

Miss Austwick writes, “As the Initial Teacher Training coordinator in school, it has been a pleasure meeting and supporting our fantastic students from Teamworks. They have inspired both the pupils and our experienced staff members with their fresh ideas and approaches to teaching.”

We are already recruiting for 2017 and had our first interviews this term. It is a pleasure and privilege to work with people who are committing to a career dedicated to improving children's life chances and we look forward to the next 12 months!


Art The Academy’s Art curriculum is planned and delivered to engage, inspire and challenge our pupils. We aim to equip our children with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. This starts in Early Years where children are encouraged to express themselves with a range of media.

As our pupils progress through school, they will develop critical thinking skills to enhance their work, giving it greater depth and understand how art and design shape our history, culture and creativity.

Within Key Stage 1, teaching is based on the three skill areas of drawing, painting and sculpture, with an age appropriate focus on colour, pattern, texture, shape and line. Our Year 2 children develop their painting skills by beginning to mix secondary colours and exploring subtle colour variations.

“I enjoyed mixing the paint and doing the smoke to make my Great Fire of London picture.” Noah 2G

“My favourite subject is Art and I really liked painting using the watercolours. I also enjoyed going to Art club.” Sienna, 2G

In Key Stage 2 painting, drawing and sculpture will be further developed using a variety of different media, including pencil, charcoal, ink, clay and watercolours. Our year 6 children have been researching local artist Kate Lycett. They have used the tricky medium of ink to create a landscape picture in her style.

“I enjoyed developing my range of techniques with watercolours.” Cydney, 6G

“The methods we used were really interesting, especially working with the quills. At first these blotted a lot but it was worth persevering to get effects like Kate’s.” Eliza, 6G

“This art was fun and inspiring because Kate turns what you see everyday into something special, and because she’s local it made me feel I could do it too.” Eli, 6A

Over the year our children will have the opportunity to study local and national artists and architects. We are very fortunate to have Dean Clough, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Artworks in the local community. These places are well worth a visit.


Computing

The Academy revised its ICT curriculum in the summer of 2014 in readiness for the new national Computing programmes of study required to be taught from September 2014. Programming and the understanding of how information technology underpins the modern world was introduced with appropriate progression across all year groups. Computing also requires that our pupils become ‘digitally literate’ – able to use, and express themselves through digital technologies confidently and safely.

Starting with sequencing events on tablets and using remote control (direct response) toys in EYFS, children’s programming skills are developed using Beebots in Year 1 and Beebot simulation software in Year 2. During Year 2 the children are also introduced to Scratch, an internationally recognised educational programming language. Over Key Stage 2 pupils learn new skills with Scratch, building upon what they have done before, and will probably continue to use for computing in Key Stage 3.

This half-term Year 3 have been learning about networks. How do our laptops communicate with each other and connect to the internet?

The children have followed the network from 3G’s wireless access point (WAP), to a switch box, to the server, to the router and then out to the wider worldwide network of the internet.

e-Safety remains a crucial part of the Computing curriculum, routinely taught to all children throughout the year, with special assemblies and classwork at the beginning and end of the year, plus

around Safer Internet Day each February. No school’s pupils are immune from the risks and dangers the online world can present; we can be pleased though that where potential incidents have occurred our children have been sensible, not placing themselves at risk and always telling a ‘trusted adult’.


Design Technology

How do we teach Design Technology at The Greetland Academy? Design Technology is split into 2 areas: Design Technology and Food Technology. We follow 5 processes in each area:

1. Research: exploring and discovering existing products and working out how they are made.

2. Exploring techniques: what techniques can be used to make products.

3. Using learned knowledge and skills to design: the children decide why and who they are making the product for, and what it will be used for. They use this information and the knowledge and skills already discovered to help them to create a design, and annotate it with ideas about the materials/ingredients that they will use for each stage or how they will make each aspect of their product.

4. Making: now comes the fun part, making the product. What if something goes wrong or it doesn’t work? That’s ok! Let’s think what we can change to meet our given goal. We learn from the things that go wrong.

5. Evaluation: finally the children test and evaluate their work. They have to decide on what they would do or use differently next time in order to improve the product. Was it fit for the function and for the people it was designed for?

The children in Year 1 worked in teams to design and make their own balloon powered cars for our ‘Great Balloon Car Race’. Once they had made and tested their designs they discussed ways in which they could improve them and make them go even further.

“I enjoyed planning, making and racing our car.” Ellis, Year 1

Year 4 made their own bird feeders this term. This was a great 'design and make' project linking to their British wildlife work. The children first looked at the component parts of a bird feeder; what are the key features? They then designed their own and listed materials they could recycle to create their designs. These were then sourced and brought in from home. Having made their feeders, the children then evaluated them.

Year 5 designed and made bridges this half-term; Year 6 did the same with healthy spring rolls. Whilst the bridges were tested to destruction the spring rolls were devoured; a positive review!


Geography

At The Greetland Academy, we aim to provide pupils with opportunities to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world through a wide knowledge of diverse places and peoples. Starting in EYFS, children develop their understanding of the world as a part of their Early Learning Goals. This then builds, as they progress through school, focussing on key aspects of geographical study such as the correct terminology and geographical skills, including the use of atlases, the eight points of a compass and fieldwork, where they will create and annotate maps and plans.

To learn about the local area, Year 2 went on a walk around Greetland. During the walk children used locational and directional language to explain the route that they followed. They also used this opportunity to find physical

features such as hills, woods and valleys, and human features such as houses, shops and offices. It was great to hear the children debating on whether the features that they found during the walk were physical (naturally-created) or human (man-made). Once children returned to school they devised their own map of the local area, including a key that highlighted some of the physical features that they had found.

Year 3 children have used atlases to locate countries and their capital cities for six of the seven continents and picked out the key features of Antarctica. They used the contents page to find each of the continents. Having identified each of the highest mountains for the different continents, the children used their maths skills to rank them and work out the difference between the highest and the smallest mountains.

To give the children a greater experience of local geography, and extend their learning from Year 2, the pupils in Year 3 went on a minibus tour of the local area. This gave them a chance to more fully experience features such as valleys and hills whilst recognising the difference between physical and human features. In addition to this, the children were able to appreciate the impact of the weather on the landscape, as a visit to a local reservoir and moorland gave them an experience of mist, fog and wind on exposed ground.

Our Year 5 pupils have been investigating rivers. They discovered that some rivers begin hundreds of miles from where they later enter the sea. Learning the correct technical language, such as ‘estuary’, is a key aspect of the Geography curriculum, as is locating physical features, including rivers, on maps. Comparing the rivers of South America with those of the Britain promotes a consideration of climate and terrain. Year 5 have particularly enjoyed learning the “Weather Cycle Song” this half-term.


History At The Greetland Academy our children are provided with opportunities to develop their historical skills through the teaching of different concepts. Between EYFS and Year 6 the children will develop their understanding of chronology, historical terminology, enquiry and interpretation. These concepts will then be applied to key areas of study where children will look at a specific time (eg. Ancient Greeks) or an event (such as the Great Fire of London) and then consider the impact of these. This could be by looking at how things have continued or changed; they could identify similarities and differences between cultures and time periods or seek to recognise the overall significance of individuals, groups of people or periods of time.

Year 1 have been learning about Robert Stephenson and steam trains, thinking carefully about historical people, events and life at that time. To inspire the children and bring their historical learning to life, the children went on a trip to York Railway Museum. They had the chance to imagine travelling to the seaside, dressing up in costumes and going on an old carriage - even having their own

entertainment, a ‘Punch and Judy’ puppet show!

Year 2 have developed their historical enquiry skills, piecing together sources of evidence to discover exactly what happened during The Great Fire of London. Once they had discovered how, when and why the fire started they had the chance to role-play putting the fire out using buckets of water (they were shocked to hear that there were no fire engines in 1666!) The children were so inspired by their learning about The Great Fire of London, that their enthusiasm continued at home: they created fabulous models of houses from 1666 to show to their friends at school.

At KS2, the teaching and learning of the key historical skills continues through the themes of The Stone Age, The Romans, Anglo-Saxons, The Viking Invasion, Ancient Greeks, The First Railways, Ancient Egypt and Early Islamic Civilisation. This term Year 3 have been learning about The Stone Age. They have expanded their knowledge of chronology to produce a timeline of events during the Stone Age through to the Iron Age. The children were taken out onto the field to imagine what life would have been like without houses and other modern human features. They had to think about where and how they would have got their food, clothes, and a place to live as well as how they would have communicated with one another.

Year 3 also looked at Stonehenge. The children had to think about how it was built, how the Stone Age people managed to get the stones there and what they thought it was used for. They researched about this

and found out that some of the stones weigh more than 5 elephants! There has also been a homework challenge to creatively represent the Stone Age. Mr Shaw and Mrs Emmerson were amazed by what the children produced. The school hall was filled with fantastic responses: models and fact files, as well as

computer presentations, songs and video interviews – thank you parents for all your support.


Modern Foreign Languages At the Greetland Academy, MFL teaching begins in Year 3 under the lead of a specialist languages teacher. French is introduced, developed and extended throughout Key stage 2 in order to fully prepare Year 6 pupils for a smooth transition of language learning at Secondary School level.

Since 2014, at Key Stage 2, it has been compulsory to deliver a Modern Foreign Language, and the Academy has recognised the importance of ensuring this is delivered consistently and to a high quality. Culturally, learning a language offers a child a greater perspective and appreciation of other cultures which they may not otherwise experience first-hand. Languages also provide a competitive edge within the eventual work environment.

During the Autumn term, Years 3-6 have been learning and revising self-introduction in French: 'Je me présente'.

For many in Year 3, this is their first introduction to learning the French language. They have enjoyed introducing themselves with, 'Bonjour, je m'appelle...' and beginning to use the French phonetic alphabet. In conjunction with their topic learning on the 'Stone Age', we have rehearsed and performed a French Finger Rhyme called 'Pierre de la grotte' (Peter of the Cave).

Years 4 and 5 have been learning, revising and extending their knowledge on self-introduction in French: their name, age, where they live, the numbers 1-31 and the months of the year. The year 5 pupils have, also, read and translated an email from a French pupil and wrote back to her in French.

Year 6 have enjoyed using bilingual dictionaries to show greater independence in their learning. They are starting to look more critically at key grammar points such as agreements of gender and plurality. They are moving from description in the first person, ‘Je’ (‘I’) to speaking using the third person pronoun ‘il’/’elle’ (‘he’/’she’). They are also becoming more confident in creating deeper meaning using adjectives and conjunctions. Year 6 have recently created their own identity profiles, starting to use the present and future tenses of the verb vouloir (to want to) to describe themselves and their academic and personal aspirations.

“I enjoy French because we do lots of independent work, and the lessons are fun but challenging.” Harleen, 6G

“I like learning a new language and being able to express myself with it.” Jed, 6G

“I can’t wait to do 3 hours of French each week at High School.” Cydney, 6G

Oui, c'est cool et

intéressant. Et toi, Eray?

Tu aimes le français, Jed?

Professeur? Célébre?

A l'avenir, je voudrais être... Devinez les filles?

Peut-être, mais plutôt, vétérinaire.


Music Music can make a powerful contribution to the education and development of children, improving their confidence and social skills as well as having strong links with mathematics.

At Greetland the music curriculum is organised into three strands; singing, composing and listening. The emphasis throughout these three strands is placed upon the children as ‘musicians’, able to create, perform, analyse and discuss music.

Singing

Building from Early Years where children will first experience music in school as a part of ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ pupils are introduced to the processes of singing. These include the use of clear diction, expression and ultimately performing in harmony. At Key Stage 2 children are given the opportunity for their understanding and learning of music to develop with the assistance of a specialist music teacher. In addition performance skills are practised both inside the classroom and as a part of wider opportunities in the form of choirs.

Composing In this strand the children learn to combine sounds for effect, they develop knowledge of musical notation and learn different ways to record their compositions. They work in groups to create scores for a wide range of different purposes; including for films and books. Year 1 pupils worked with a range of instruments to compose and perform their own pieces of music, each then commenting on how they could improve them.

Listening and Performing Throughout their time at the Academy children will listen to a range of music from different periods in history, countries and cultures. They learn to discuss, describe and review what they have heard from both recorded and live sources. Running through these three strands is the language of music. The children are taught the correct terminology to describe their work and

the work of others.

During their time at the Academy, all children are taught to play musical instruments; in recent years this has included the guitar (Year 5) and ukulele (Year 4). During these lessons the children learn to read musical notation and the valuable whole class ensemble skill of team work. The Academy has strong links with Calderdale Music Trust. Many pupils take lessons on a wide range of instruments from piano and keyboard, to cornet and saxophone.


Physical Education (PE) PE provides our children with opportunities to develop skills both individually and as a part of a group or team. Equally as important is building character, by experiencing both winning and losing, and learning to cope with both. Through physical activity children develop an understanding of how their body works, and can refine control over their movement. As they progress throughout school children are increasingly able to reflect upon their own performance and that of others. This begins with simple recognition, such as ‘I am pleased with my…’ and ‘I need to improve my…’ through to Year 6 where the use of video feedback enables detailed performance analysis. Our curriculum provides a range of activities including dance, gymnastics and outdoor/adventurous activities; plus net, wall, strike, field and invasion games, these often then leading to our intra/inter school competitive events.

During the Autumn term, Year 6 pupils braved some wild weather and took to the back field to learn how to Orienteer. To begin with, the children had to become familiar with a compass. So, linking to their Maths work, the children applied their knowledge of angles and reading scales to calculate the degrees between different positions on the compass. Each week, the children were set a different challenge which gave them the tools to compete against each other during the final lesson.

Progression in gymnastics across the Academy

Starting from Physical Development in Early Years children will work to develop their ability to carry out gymnastic movements that include balance, counter-balance and stability. Working independently, in pairs or as small groups, children seek to enhance their performance by using a range of gymnastic features including travel, height and support. As their skills progress children will be introduced to more complex movements such as vaults and springs.

Towards the end of November, the Year 6 Sportshall Athletics team competed in the Calderdale finals at The Brooksbank Sports College. The children competed across a variety of different track and field events, from javelin to standing triple jump, and from multi-lap relay to the 6 lap paarlauf!

It was the closest contest in recent years, coming down to the very last race; the 4x1 relay. The Academy team was able to perform to its best and managed to finish in second place, earning each athlete a silver medal, a certificate and a place in the Academy’s sporting history!


Personal Social Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) PSHCE forms a key element of the learning at the Greetland Academy, and whilst existing as a stand-alone subject in its own right, it is also firmly embedded across the curriculum being woven into other subject areas. In English lessons children may discuss the self-esteem of a book character whilst in History the rights and wrongs of a specific event may be analysed. Over the years children’s conceptual understanding is developed in the areas of self-awareness and self-valuing, managing feelings, motivation and learning behaviours, empathy and social skills. Upper KS2 children also experience more mature discussion and learning linked to drug awareness, health and SRE.

PSHCE teaching is taught half-termly through the following units from EYFS to Year 6:

• New beginnings

• Getting on and falling out

• Say no to bullying

• Going for goals

• Good to be me

• Relationships

• Changes

As part of the ‘New Beginnings’ unit children in Year 2 created a friendship web to develop their awareness of others within the class. This allowed pupils to consider who is a good friend and why. Albert said, “I think a good friend is being nice. My good friend is Freja.”

Also focussing on the unit ‘New Beginnings’, Year 4 agreed their own classroom rules through a democratic process of discussion, debate and voting. As part of this, they modelled good playtime practice, planning and producing short videos, each exploring right and wrong choices in the playground environment. The children also created positive play posters which included questions and suggestions.

Throughout the year specific themed weeks are held in order to help develop the children’s understanding of key areas, such as ‘Anti-Bullying Week’. Within classes children worked to express their feelings and opinions in a variety of ways. This was then brought together at special assemblies where children showed what they had learnt through a range of activities including acting, posters and performance poetry.


Religious Education (RE) In RE we aim to provide opportunities for pupils to develop a knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and other world views; to express their own ideas around the questions of belief and meaning; and to respond to important questions for individuals and the wider community. The academy uses the Calderdale and Kirklees agreed syllabus for Religious Education as a basis for the children’s learning. Throughout the year children across all age phases will learn about and investigate a range of religions and religious festivals. Children in EYFS gained an understanding of the wider world and other cultures when they welcomed a visitor to talk to them about the festival of Diwali. Wherever possible children will have the opportunity to visit local places of worship, we often take advantage of our close links with St. Thomas’ Church to enhance the children’s understanding of key aspects of the Christian faith.

Key Stage 1 builds upon prior EYFS learning with teaching and learning focused around Christianity and Islam, alongside understanding of non-religious approaches to life. The children start to think a little more about questions of right and wrong and will begin to express their own views in response to questions. Recently the Year 2 children were learning about how different people pray then they wrote their own prayers to say what they were thankful for.

At Key Stage 2, children will build on their learning about Christianity, Islam and a non-religious approach and extend this to Sikhism and Judaism. They will gain a greater insight into these different religions. Children are encouraged to be curious and think about more challenging questions about beliefs, meaning and identity. They will think about the wider world and what part religions play in that.

During Autumn 1 the pupils in Year 3 looked at the ‘Power of Imagery’ connected to religion. They identified and examined a series of images of creation and then wrote about which they felt was the best representation. From this point they looked at works of art such as ‘Onement’ and discussed how art could depict religious beliefs. For their final challenge they examined ‘The Scream’ by Munch and discussed if the painting had a religious theme what could it be showing; they then created an alternative version to depict a specific emotional response by choosing their own colour scheme and physical pose.

This half-term Year 4 have studied Sikhism using a range of sources of information including the internet and information texts. They learnt about the Gurdwara and the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh’s special scripture.

The children discussed the key beliefs of Sikhs and used their learning from English, linked to information retrieval, drafting and editing to produce factsheets to share their findings. Working in pairs the children then evaluated each other’s work and gave feedback.


Science Science at the Greetland Academy aims to introduce the children into the three primary areas of science – Chemistry, Physics and Biology via the teaching of key units such as ‘the uses of everyday materials’, ‘sound’ and ‘plants’. Throughout all of their teaching the children are taught the key principles of scientific study such as investigation, observation, evidence recording and prediction; working scientifically. Building upon the Early Years teaching of knowledge and understanding of the world children are encouraged to question what they see and experience and consider why things happen.

Pupils in Year 1 investigated a range of materials by seeing if they stretch, twist or tear. They made predictions about other materials based upon their appearance and what they had discovered.

Some of the key units are taught within each year group and build upon the previous knowledge. An example of this would be ‘Animals including Humans’: this begins with Year 1 pupils naming species and animal groups, through to Year 6, where pupils study the human circulatory system and the heart whilst building upon

their knowledge of diet and exercise to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Over the course of the years we assess the children to ensure they are working and being challenged at an appropriate level.

In Year 4 the focus in Science for Autumn was local wildlife. First the children learnt the seven characteristics of all living things and had to

apply their knowledge to plants and animals. The children became minibeast detectives and had to investigate different habitats and use classification keys to identify and name specific creatures. Following on from this the children studied how food chains can be affected by environmental change.


Year 6 Residential Trip, Edale 2016

The Academy has been taking Year 6 pupils to Edale for over 20 years now; 4 days and 3 nights which have given well over 1000 children memories which will last a lifetime. This trip, originally planned and lead by the near-legendary Mr Thompson, meets many curricular objectives: recounts and letter-writing in English; experiencing a different area in Geography; multimedia presentations in Computing; and adventurous activities in PE. Perhaps most importantly, following on from Year 4’s one night residential trip to Whitby, it develops independence, confidence and teamwork, all important aspects of PSHCE.

This year’s trip (September 12-16th) upheld Edale’s reputation as a great experience, with happy children responding to all challenges with great enthusiasm, ability and success. Our staff leaders were very proud of the Year 6 pupils’ behaviour and maturity which was exemplary and as always very positively commented on by the activity leaders at the Youth Hostel. One particularly memorable moment was when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the second night. The children’s response was fantastic, in each room some pupils (including one girl who was new to school) ensured that everyone had woken up so they could all leave together. Everyone lined up outside in the cold for 5 minutes; all counted out, all counted in. No one moaned or complained. Outstanding care, good sense and maturity, one and all.

Four full days: canoeing, raft-building, weaselling, the night hike, archery, the ‘leap of faith’, bushcraft skills, crate stacking, problem solving, climbing, abseiling, ice cream tasting and the last-night disco!

Academy Developments

It was a very busy summer at the Academy. Key Stage 1 saw the completion of the perimeter fence as well as the installation of the new boiler. The Victorian part of school at Key Stage 2 is now fully re-pointed and we now hope for a leak-free winter. In addition the KS1 hall has benefited from re-decoration, a new suspended ceiling and heaters. Further decoration will be carried out during school holiday periods.

A new round of bidding opportunities opened in December. Our Governors and Senior Leaders are currently finalising their submissions. Successful academies will be informed of further additional funding in April 2017.

As usual, we had overwhelming support from families for our, sponsored walk, raising over £2000! Thank you for all your amazing efforts. New video cameras for all classes at KS2 are now being utilised and we will now be able to arrange for phase one of our early years outdoor project to commence. Additional support for this project is being given by the Co-Op Local Community Fund.

Our charitable status has meant we could make a successful bid for a grant from The Royal Horticultural Society for £500 to enhance our gardening club. We have been able to purchase two raised vegetable beds and a plant display unit.

Last, but by no means least, the new 1 km track in the lower KS2 playground has proved a great hit. During its first week a total of 1411km was completed by the children!

Continued Cross-Country Success! When last year, our Year 5 girls team were crowned West Yorkshire Champions we thought where do we go from here? How do we compete with this? Surely it would be impossible to reach the great heights of our previous successes. However this half-term’s performance at Brooksbank’s cross-country competition has led us to rethink and recognise we could be heading (fingers crossed) for even greater success.

43 of our best runners took to the sports field on a gorgeous – if slightly chilly – autumn afternoon to run their hearts out for self, team and school. The performances were once again magnificent with grit, resilience and determination on show; a testament to the self-belief our children clearly have. Teamwork shone through as the children reacted to injury and misfortune with a refusal to accept defeat.

As the dust settled on the afternoon, we could look back with great pride, on 2 individual winners, 1 silver and 1 bronze (alongside four teams through to the area finals). Every child seemed proud to be in the Academy team.

Thank you once again to all our pupils for their efforts and to their parents and grandparents who braved the cold to cheer the runners home.

See you in February at the next round.

december 2016 celebration booklet

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