LJS Weekly

Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme has been ‘Connect with Nature’. Our assemblies have all been based around this theme this week and Ms Crump gave us all an overview of how everyone at LJS has been connecting with nature during this week alone.

Every child has participated in sporting activities in the great outdoors this week, whether that be in PE or Games lessons, fixtures or after school activities. We were thrilled that our Year 5 children had the honour of competing in our first fixtures against other schools since March 2020 and they did us proud! Monday saw our Under 10 Tennis squad take on Stamford Junior School; they were just pipped at the post but were impressive in their determination and resilience. On Wednesday, we fielded (pun intended) a large squad of Under 10 cricketers, again against Stamford Junior School. The results were mixed with one match being lost by a single run but the children returned with broad smiles on their faces, which was wonderful to see.

Our Year 4 children have become captivated by the Rutland Osprey Project. Staff and children were treated to a brilliant presentation by William from 4M who is an official Osprey Ambassador. We have all been following the webcam with grea interest as there have been three eggs in the nest. The children (and staff) have been guessing when each of the eggs will hatch and there was excitement as eggs 1 and 2 hatched on Saturday and Monday respectively but at the time of writing, chick 3 has yet to make an appearance. If you’d like to take a look, highlights can be viewed via their Twitter account @rutlandospreys or the webcam itself Rutland Ospreys | Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust (lrwt.org.uk).

The Woodland Garden is a wonderful place to connect with nature and children from across the school have been doing just that. Following on from 5M’s Outdoor Learning Day last Friday, 5A have their day today, from playing ‘Shark Attack’ and leadership command tasks to whittling sticks, a good time is guaranteed, no matter what the weather throws at us! Our Reception children have spent lots of time exploring this week. RS have been showing an interest in camping, so they decided to make a shelter on Tuesday afternoon that was nearly big enough for the whole class to fit under. Almost as soon as it was complete, the heavens opened and the most intense storm erupted. They discovered that the shelter was less effective than they had hoped and, having waited for the torrential rain and hail to subside, they returned to the classroom sodden but elated! Reception have also been busy whittling elder to make bug hotels, making smelly, sensory sticks and investigating hedgerows.

Art is a superb way to connect with nature and the Reception children learned about the New Zealand Koru in MFL this week, learning that it is a Maori symbol based on the unfurling sliver fern leaf. They thoroughly enjoyed creating their own Koru-inspired artwork using oil pastels. Year 2’s Origami Club carefully folded paper to create whales, inspired by Benji Davies’ book, ‘The Storm Whale.

Plants and growth are being studied in Science in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5 at the moment, so nature is right in the spotlight and there are plants in many form rooms, as well as in the Science Room itself! Our Reception children have another type of growth and change happening under their noses, in the form of tadpoles and caterpillars. There was tremendous excitement on Monday when the caterpillars appeared to have doubled in size over the course of the weekend. There as great anticipation as the children watched to see when they would change into a chrysalis and even more excitement when it actually happened on Wednesday! Now we have the wait for the butterflies to emerge… We will let you know when it happens!

As you can see, we have connected with nature inside and outside this week in a huge number of ways. How have you connected with nature?