Kaspar Prince of Cats diaries

We have begun reading Michael Morpurgo's Kaspar, Prince of Cats as it is our author focus. We have also been recapping on what a good diary looks like. Following this we wrote diary entries as Johnny Trott on the day he hears some devastating information about someone close to him. Here are some of our entries:

Marshmallow Igloo challenge

We kicked off our Frozen Kingdom topic by being given the challenge of constructing igloos from marshmallows and cocktail sticks. Here is how we got on!

We kicked off our #FrozenKingdom topic with the Marshmallow Igloo Challenge https://t.co/kJDKQxQGeo @cornerstonesedu @llanharanps

— lps140club (@lps140club) September 6, 2017

Studyladder Homework

Online homework will be set on Fridays. Usernames and passwords will be given to pupils in their reading records.

For ease of access, the following links can be clicked to access your pupils' year groups login page. All pupils will need to do is add their password to their username.

Year 5 homework login page HERE

Year 6 homework login page HERE

Academic Year 2017-18 - Welcome back!

Welcome to a new academic year!

Our topic this term in Year 5/6 is Frozen Kingdom. This is a Geography based topic looking at the planet’s coldest places. Pupils will be learning about the Titanic; Captain Scott; Icebergs; producing Northern Lights art and music pieces and the history of polar travel.


In maths we will be continuing with the mastery approach to mathematics and will be focusing on number.


Our literacy focus is linked into our main topic as we will be studying Michael Morpurgo’s Kaspar, Prince of Cats. This is a story that tracks the adventures of one amazing cat from the Savoy hotel in London to the Titanic.


Our science topic is going to be material changes, focusing on solids, liquids and gases. We will also be looking at dissolving, freezing, evaporating and condensing.


Our PE days be on Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday pupils will require PE kit for outdoors (trainers, tracksuit bottoms and a warm top), as we will be having a focus on striking and fielding activities. On Friday pupils will require PE kit for gymnastic activities (shorts and t-shirt).


Online homework will be given via studyladder on Fridays. Usernames and passwords will be written into pupils reading records for safekeeping.


Reading books are expected to be read with an adult at home everyday and brought into school on a daily basis. Reading journals will be handed out next week with pupils being expected to complete one activity per week.


We will be sharing our learning journey via our Twitter account @lps140club and our blog http://llanharanpsyr456.blogspot.co.uk

Our school's General Election

We held our general election to run alongside the actual taking place in the country. Our class was divided into the five parties that were standing in our Ogmore constituencies, with the make up of each group being randomly chosen.

The groups made campaign posters, party political broadcasts using iPlayer and wrote a speech to be delivered to the voters.We wrote emails to the 5 local candidates and got various responses.

The posters, adverts and responses can be found by clicking on the links for individual party blog posts:
Conservatives
Labour
Liberal Democrats
Plaid Cymru
UKIP

On Thursday the pupils from Years 1-4 sat and watched the party political broadcasts and listened to the speech. They then took their ballot papers, made their choices and voted.

This morning, we separated into counting teams and totaled up the votes.

The results were as follows:

 

As there were 99 votes, we decided that there would have to be be a magic majority number of 50.  No party achieved this number so we were left with a hung parliament. We then offered all the leaders to enter into a coalition discussion. After heated debate, Labour decided to enter into coalition with Plaid Cymru.


We then took our data and put it into graph form and worked out percentages.

Our class's UKIP Election campaign

Here is the email we sent off to our local candidate:

glendamdavies@ukipbridgend.org

Dear Glenda Davies

Hello, our names are Eliza, Regan, Phoebe, Ciaran, Cain and Brandon and we are Year 4/5/6 pupils at Llanharan Primary School. We are writing to you today as in our class we are studying the 2017 General Election.  We are holding our own election this Thursday. Our class has been divided into 5 groups with each group taking one of the five parties who are standing in the Ogmore constituency. We chose our parties at random and we selected UKIP.

We are going to have to try to persuade ours Years 1-4 that your party is the one to vote for. To do this we need to give reasons to persuade the other classes that the UKIP party policies are the ones that will suit their families and themselves. Which of your policies affect our schools and our community the best?

We are wondering, if at all possible could you send us any information or resources to help us with our campaign. Also, would you be able to send us a supporting tweet at our class Twitter feed @lps140club or a video message.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Good luck with the General Election.

Yours sincerely

Llanharan Primary Year 4/5/6 UKIP

We received a fantastic pack of election information
.

Our class @UKIP party were thrilled to receive #GeneralElection17 information. All parties in Ogmore were contacted. pic.twitter.com/m3NzncJ2FW

— lps140club (@lps140club) 8 June 2017

Our party election broadcast and speech

Our campaign posters

Our class's Plaid Cymru Election campaign

Here is the email we sent off to our local candidate

post@huwmarshall.com

Dear Huw Marshall

Hello, our names are Lucie, Daisy, Leo, Maisie, Denrard and Jay and we are Year 4/5/6 pupils from Llanharan Primary. We are writing to you because, for our topic we are learning about the General Election 2017 which is going to be held this Thursday. We are holding our own election in school.  We decided to split the class into 5 groups and randomly pick a party each who are standing in the Ogmore constituency. We picked Plaid Cymru.

We have a lot of questions for you to answer if at all possible – so let’s get started.

What are Plaid Cymru going to do to improve schools?

What policies affect us as children?

How will your policies affect our families?

We are wondering, if at all possible could you send us any information or resources to help us with our campaign. Also, would you be able to send us a supporting tweet at our class Twitter feed @lps140club or a video message.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this email.

Yours sincerely

Lucie, Daisy, Leo, Maisie, Denrard and Jay

We had the following response:

Hello Lucie, Daisy, Leo, Maisie, Denrard and Jay

I hope you’re enjoying your election as much as I am the general election. Its great to see you engaging in politics at such a young age.

Here are my answers to your questions.

I have made education a priority during my campaign, I have two daughters aged 4 and 8 who attend the Ysgol Cwm Garw where I am also chair of the governing body.

Our focus is on helping to raise the standard of teaching, we want to reward the best teachers by paying them 10% extra and by giving teachers improved training, giving them the best opportunity to be the best possible teachers. We would fight for money from Westminster so that we can invest in our schools.

We’d also give all 3 and 4 year olds free full time pre school education, ensuring that every Welsh child has the best start possible.

As well as our education policies our economic plan to grow the Welsh economy will have the biggest impact on your lives, ensuring government contarcts are awarded to local companies will ensure all communities benefit economically. A good education leads to better jobs which means more pay which means your parents, carers and you will have a better quality of life. Our environmental policies also mean you’ll grow up in a greener, cleaner world.

As well as the economic and environment policies we want to make local communities stronger and more prosperous. We want families to be able to stay and work in their communities, open, friendly and tolerant communities where everyone feels part of one big family. We’ll put a tax on sugary drinks which will pay for more doctors which will improve our health service.

Many of the jobs you’ll be doing in the future don’t currently exist! In Pencoed and Llanharan we have a thriving digital creative sector, The Sony factory makes the cameras that a lot of the TV you watch is made with. The Raspberry Pi computer is manufactured there, Wales Interactive the leading Welsh computer games company is based there and Dragon Studios is home to many TV and Films that you and your parents watch online. We want to give you the skills that will allow you to work in this exciting area.

You can read more about Plaid Cymru’s campaign in the Ogmore constituency here www.huwmarshall.com

Good luck with your election and I hope you win!!

Diolch

Huw

We received some Tweets:

Great to see young people engaging around politics and the election. Good luck in your election today. https://t.co/5Tc5Y1Ql1S

— Huw Marshall (@Marshallmedia) 8 June 2017

Hope your election goes well. Look forward to hearing the result 👍

— Huw Marshall (@huwmar) 8 June 2017

Our party political broadcast and speech

Our campaign posters