Odd Sock Day was a joyful way to launch Anti-Bullying Week on Monday, reminding us that our differences make us stronger. As we wear our mismatched socks, we celebrate the idea that everyone is unique and valued and each person brings something special to our community. This ties beautifully with our school’s Christian vision that ‘we are one body of many parts‘. By showing kindness, celebrating individuality, and standing together against bullying we can live out this vision in a colourful and meaningful way.

Welcome to India!

This afternoon, we held our ‘Welcome to India’ event to launch our new topic for this half term ‘Kolkata: The City of Joy’. The children took part in three exciting activities: having beautiful henna designs applied by their teacher, colouring vibrant Rangoli patterns, and tasting a variety of delicious Indian foods.

The food tasting was a particular highlight! Everyone enjoyed trying naan bread, poppadoms, curry sauce, and mango chutney with many children discovering some new flavours. It was a wonderful way to begin our journey into Indian culture and traditions.

This half term, 2CN have been busy creating stunning artwork inspired by the spider weaver! We began by using pastels to bring texture and depth to our web designs then added a soft green colour wash as the background for our webs. The children showed fantastic focus and creativity as they practised their sewing skills, weaving colourful threads to form their webs. To finish we added sparkling sequins to make our creations shimmer, just like dew glistening on a spider’s web. The results are absolutely beautiful and we’re so proud of everyone’s hard work!

This week, Year 2 went on a walk around our local area of Alwoodley. We were looking carefully for human and physical features and comparing what we saw to our visit to Leeds city centre earlier in the half term.

In Alwoodley, we noticed lots of physical features like trees, grass, and open fields. It felt more calm and peaceful, and we could hear birds singing! The human features we spotted included houses, shops, roads, and bus stops. Most of the buildings were smaller and there was more space between them.

When we thought about our trip to Leeds city centre, we remembered how busy and noisy it was. There were tall buildings, big shops, offices, and lots of traffic. Leeds had fewer trees and green spaces, but many more people and vehicles.

We found some similarities too — both places have roads, shops, and people who live or work there. But the differenceswere clear: Alwoodley is quieter and greener, while Leeds is busier and has taller buildings.

We really enjoyed exploring both places and learning how each area is special in its own way! 

In Music this week, the children had great fun exploring rhythm through a creative partner activity. Each child was given a set of rhythm cards and tasked with arranging them to create a short rhythm pattern. They then challenged their partner to clap out the rhythm they had created. After a few turns, the pairs swapped roles, giving everyone a chance to compose and perform.

In art this week, we explored a variety of mark making techniques to add texture and detail to our drawings. The children experimented with cross hatching, contouring, stippling, scribbles and zig zags, using pencils, pastels and pens to see how each method created different effects.

As part of our Geography, we recapped some of our year 1 learning. In groups the children were asked to put back together a cut up map of the United Kingdom. The children remembered this information really well and could name the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom. Some could also remember the capital city of each of those countries. We will now be moving on to look at some maps of Leeds and looking at how Leeds has changed over the years too.

Our Year 2 trip into Leeds city centre was a fun-filled day packed with discovery and creativity! We began in City Square and made our way to the Civic Hall, where the children sketched the impressive building and spotted the golden owls perched high above its entrance — a proud symbol of Leeds. As we walked through the city, we took time to compare old and new buildings, noticing the differences in design, materials, and size. The children were fascinated by how modern glass structures stood alongside older stone buildings, showing how the city has changed over time. We stopped to see the gold post box dedicated to local Olympic champion Nicola Adams, before strolling through the busy Trinity shopping centre. Lunchtime was spent at Kirkgate Market, where we soaked up the atmosphere of one of the oldest markets in the country. Afterward, we visited the beautiful Corn Exchange and admired its curved architecture. Our final stop was the Royal Armouries before catching the coach back to school — tired but full of excitement after a brilliant day out. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped on the day!

On Thursday, the children in 2CN had a fantastic Forest School day, full of creativity, exploration, and adventure. The morning was spent willow weaving, where little hands carefully shaped natural materials into beautiful wreaths. Later, the children gathered leaves, flowers, and twigs to create stunning nature picture postcards, proudly showing off their artistic flair using treasures from the woodland floor. To end the day, everyone gathered around the firepit to toast marshmallows—sticky fingers and big smiles all round! It was a wonderful day of learning, laughter, and connecting with nature so a huge thank you to Mrs Whittaker for organising everything.

KS1 had a fantastic time on Tuesday as we welcomed the Circus Sensible Team into school for an unforgettable  experience!

The day kicked off with an electrifying assembly, where  the children were wowed with amazing circus skills, instantly igniting their excitement for the day ahead.

Throughout the day, each class took part in hands on circus workshops, exploring activities like plate spinning, ribbon twirling, balancing and more. Every session was led by a skilled professional, ensuring all children (and teachers!) were supported and engaged as they learned new tricks.

The day ended with a show stopping finale, where children volunteered proudly demonstrated their new talents. It was a joy to see their confidence grow and their faces light up as they performed for their peers.

A big thank you to to all the children and staff who helped make the day so memorable. What a brilliant way to build confidence, coordination and teamwork – all while having fun!

What a wonderful start we’ve had in 2CN! The children have settled in brilliantly and we’ve had a fun-filled, creative and engaging first week together.

We kicked off our learning with the story The Colour Monster, a beautiful tale that helps children understand and talk about their emotions. The class was absolutely hooked! We learnt the model text together, adding our own fun actions to help us remember the story.

Taking it a step further, the children used their imaginations to write their own additions to the story — creating new emotions and linking them to different colours. It was inspiring to see such thoughtful and expressive writing so early in the year!

In art, we continued exploring emotions through creativity. The children loved working collaboratively, using a range of materials to represent each emotion visually. From textured collage to bold brushstrokes, each piece was unique and meaningful.

We’re so proud of how well everyone has started the year — we can’t wait for what’s to come!

Miss Cooke & Miss Noble