Community

A community is a group of people living or working together in the same area. People in communities might go to the same schools, shop in the same stores and do the same things. They also help each other and solve problems together. 

We began the lesson by ripping a piece of paper in half - 1 piece of paper ripped easily. We then tried ripping a pile of sheets of paper, this was much more difficult! The pieces of paper worked together to create one strong thing, much like people in a community work together and support each other to be stronger.

We discussed what communities we are a part of...

..And we considered our roles and responsibilities within our local community.

We then designed our very own dream communities, drawing a map of all the parts of the community which are important to us. We thought about many elements including what jobs there are in our community, what entertainment there is (what people of all generations would enjoy), keeping our community safe.

Here are some examples of what the children came up with...

We began this lesson by finding out about The International Human Rights Law...

https://youtu.be/5KQGz-toMnk


We discussed how a right is a choice to make your own opinion and entitlement to things such as education, religion and freedom of speech. Responsibilities are duties or something an individual should do such as following the law and rules.
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In groups we came up with suggestions of Rules and Responsibilities in school and shared them as a class.

Bullying, Racism and Discrimination

Today we acted out some role play scenarios in which individuals are bullied. These involved cyber bullying, racism, religious discrimination, sexism and discrimination based on academic ability.

Each group acted out their scenario and then shared how they would react and respond to the situation and who they would go to for help.

The video below shows the group who agreed that if they were a victim of cyber bullying they would tell their friends who should encourage them to tell a grown up. The parent who they told advised the child to block the person sending them abusive messages and report them to the social media sight. The parent then reported the crime. This was a great response to the scenario in question, showing no bystander behaviour!

​Today we discussed Bullying and Discrimination.

We discussed how bullying can be defined as the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group.

We decided that discrimination is when someone treats you differently or unfairly because of your age, being disabled, your gender, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or having a child, your religion or beliefs, your race, skin colour or where you were born.

In pairs we completed a 'writing on the wall' activity where the children wrote down examples of bullying and discrimination that they might hear or come across. We talked about how the words and actions they thought of might make someone feel. 

We talked about what a bystander is; people who see bullying happening, but do nothing to try and stop it. It is important to remember that these people are not usually unkind. In fact we've all been a bystander at some point. 

As a class we agreed that if we saw bullying or discrimination happening we would:

Tell a grown up
Be a friend
Stand up for the person being bullied
Never join in
Stop the rumours

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In our Mantle of the Expert drama work we have become a team of archaeologists who discover an ancient Viking burial tomb - through careful archaeological investigation we will piece together the story of the invading warrior who was buried there. The team will be commissioned by the BBC to write a TV documentary describing impact of the arrival of the  of the Viking invasion and settlement in England  .

We represented the figures we discovered in the Viking boat burial and used our archaeological skills to piece together the story of the people who were laid to rest there.  

The Lindisfarne Monks are busy praying and writing their sacred texts. The go to the beach to great the newcomers arriving boat. 

The Viking Longboats arrive on the shores of Lindisfarne. The Norsemen attack the monastery. They pillage the treasures and murder the monks. 

Before Easter, as part of our Design Technology curriculum, Andes worked extremely hard designing and making an Egyptian Display for a museum. This display included a backdrop, an artefact and an electrical alarm system (including a buzzer) which would be activated if anybody tried to steal the artefact from their display. 

All of the children worked sensibly with the electrical components, creating series circuits including a buzzer and designing and making their own switches using materials such as cardboard, silver foil, wire, split pins and paper clips.

In pairs they designed, made, tested and evaluated their museum exhibition (backdrop, artefact) and alarm system as well as writing descriptions of their artefacts in Literacy.

The children developed their DT skills of designing a product matched to a success criteria, labelling diagrams, selecting appropriate materials and tools, constructing designs, using electrical systems in their designs and evaluating their design and product.

I was so impressed with the effort, enthusiasm and skills shown by all of the children in Andes class, it was amazing to hear the buzz of excitement filling the classroom as they unleashed their creativity! There was some great team work displayed!

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