The Biggest Risk is Not Taking Any Risk
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." - Mark Zuckerberg
The ten IB Learner Profile Attributes are a critical aspect of learning here at St Leonards. They are an intrinsic part of our curriculum and they are worked on both overtly and covertly over the course of each and every year. Once a month, we hone in one specific attribute to raise awareness, and to develop it more deeply.
Our month of Risk Taking therefore, was kicked off in style when some of our amazing Year 6 children put themselves forward to assume responsibility of their Island. These coveted posts required the pupils to stand before their peers and parents in order to indicate why they were the best candidate. Watching them up there in St Katharines Hall sharing details about themselves, their aspirations for their Island, their qualifications to be Captain, their ideals and their values, combined with the poise, articulation and wit required to speak publicly in such a forum was, as ever, inspiring. When we give our pupils opportunities they take them, and running for election, as any MSP, MP or the like will tell you, is certainly a risk. They availed themselves so well, that we were grateful, as members of staff, not to be placed in the challenging position of having to vote ourselves. Their peers did this admirably, considering the speeches given and making their own decisions on who would make their ideal Island Captain.
We were able to enjoy each and every presentation and marvel at the wealth of talent before us, talent which only makes up the tiniest fraction of our school. Children are taking risks both large and small every single day; from that new vegetable at lunch, to addressing the school in Assembly. As a community, we celebrate them all. Here’s to a month of being courageous!
The PYP Leadership Team
Island Captains
After an extremely close ballot, we are very excited to announce this year’s Years 1-6 Island Captains! Congratulations to *drumroll please*:
Our Island Captains will hold great responsibility throughout the year, working together with their peers to collect points in the hope of leading their Island to victory!
Spotlight on… Beach Club
We are privileged and delighted to run a wide range of activities at St Leonards. Beach is always popular and come rain or shine our hardy beach club explorers head down to the East Sands every Monday.
Given free range to explore, play, create and investigate, it was terrific to see Rodrigo putting into practice something he had learned in the classroom. Using a tennis ball, he created a marble run. Although on testing, the ball didn’t quite hit the target so the rest of the Beach Club, across the age groups, worked collaboratively to help solve the problem. Amazing teamwork!
Sorting Hat Assembly
In keeping with tradition, the new starters, including all Year 1 children, were sorted in true Harry Potter style this week, during Tuesday's Assembly. The Sorting Hat pondered before announcing the Islands of each child, having thought about their likes and dislikes, hobbies and talents. The children were amazed by the magical hat, and were excited to be in the spotlight as they were sorted into their Islands!
Year 1
Phonics Fanatics
Year 1 have continued to work on their letters and sounds. The pupils have been introduced to ‘I’ for insect, ‘N’ for nest, ‘M’ for moon, 'G' for glasses, 'O' for octopus and 'C' for caterpillars. They have been consolidating their learning through craft - please see below some of their fantastic creations including our favourite, curly caterpillars!
Building Blocks
The children have been learning how bricklayers build houses by watching Pippin and Aunty Mabel go to a brick factory. The pupils were inspired and wanted to try out the techniques for themselves. They took their equipment outside, making the most of the fresh air, and built their own walls, houses and even castles!
Three Little Pigs
They have also enjoyed working on their houses for the three little pigs, brainstorming ideas and planning out their wonderful homes. Most children choose to have bricks, some with chimneys, some with stairs and one even had a lift. In the garden we could find an enormous swing and a beautiful apple tree, the three little pigs were definitely being treated!
Number Crunchers
Year 1 has been working hard learning their numbers, studying number ordering and what comes before and after up to 10. Using Uno cards and Numicon to support their learning, some children even managed to reach up to 20! The pupils really enjoy using Numicon and went on to create playful number stories.
Library Learners
Year 1P thoroughly enjoyed their first trip to the new PYP library. They were super excited by the variety of books available and were quickly engrossed in their chosen book!
Sunlit Stories
Year 1P also enjoyed story time as a class, reading Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. This story celebrates the power of imagination and helped the pupils think creativity and take risks in their learning. The children used the book as inspiration to make a castle, which also linked to the ‘C’ sound they have been learning!
Let's Go Fly a Kite
To consolidate their learning in both their Inquiry topic and phonics, the Year 1 children used different types of materials to create magnificent k-k-k-kites! The children used a variety of paper to make their kites, before testing which material was best on East Sands! The children had a wonderful time flying their kites on the beach, they were pleased that all of their kites managed to get off the ground and fly in the gentle breeze.
Mud Kitchen
Our pupils in Year 1P have been enjoying the fresh air and exploring the outdoor space which surrounds their classroom. They uncovered all sorts of delights; insects, leaves, sticks and best of all a mint plant and bramble bush. The children collected the juicy fruit and tender mint leaves to be used in their mud kitchen, cooking up a storm and making some wonderful creations. Well done Year 1!
Year 2
Spread Kindness
Year 2 have been exploring their Transdisciplinary Theme ‘How we organise ourselves’ this week, by taking a walk around the school to discover the different jobs within our school community. The children were keen to learn about the skills and knowledge required to do a job successfully. On their travels, they met with the Junior School Secretary, Mrs Abubaker, with Ms McIntee (one of our Classroom Assistants) and with drama teacher, Miss Walker. They learned all about their jobs and what they do as daily tasks.
The children also spoke with Irene and Jade, our wonderful cleaners, and were eager to try out some of the skills required by these jobs. Irene kindly offered to lend some of her cleaning equipment, and the pupils got to work sweeping floors and cleaning windows!
Through discovery learning, our children now have a greater understanding and appreciation for the work these brilliant people do in our school community. Year 2 shared how grateful they were by delivering messages of thanks to staff around the school.
Waterfront Walk
The children also took a fantastic trip around the harbour to inquire the local community about their roles. The pupils spoke with Pat, who runs the Harbour Café, discovering that her job involves cooking, waitressing, buying from local fishermen and managing the cafe, whilst also opening and closing the harbour gates when the harbour master is not available.
John Lambert, the Harbour Master, was also working at the harbour when they visited. John invited the pupils back the following morning to help him release the water held behind the harbour gate. The force of the released water washes silt out of the rest of the harbour, a practice that has taken place in St Andrews harbour for at least 300 years.
Fascinating Fruit
Mrs Steven, Year 2’s classroom assistant, gave a fascinating talk about the skills and knowledge that she needed in her previous role as a dietician. The children learned about healthy eating and the impact this has on our wellbeing. We know that it is important to ‘eat a rainbow’ of colours when choosing fruit and vegetables, and they put their learning into practice by making delicious and nutritious fruit kebabs.
Special Visitor
Year 2 had a special visit from Cece Boddice this week (aka Imogen’s Mum) to hear about her PR and Marketing job at Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust. Cece described her role to the pupils explaining how the Trust looks after the countryside, building paths for people to run, walk, scoot and cycle through the Perthshire countryside, accessing beautiful lakes, forests and hills. Cece’s job is to specifically reach out to schools and the public to promote awareness of the outdoors.
Much to the children’s excitement, Cece came armed with fun activities for everyone to take part in. Before long, they found themselves outside on a treasure hunt for natural finds, of autumnal leaves, sticks and bark to make their own giant class leafosaurus!
Cece asked the children if they liked the outdoors… Reuben replied, “I was born for it!”, Flossy told us how she loved nature and she loved to gather sticks, leaves and flowers, Patrick M said how much he loved cycling in the countryside and Hudson told us how he loved to run free.
Thank you Cece, for a fun packed afternoon!
Year 3
Lively Letters
Year 3 has been doing a superb job getting to grips with alphabetical order. This week, the children have been matching upper and lower case letters and identifying their names and phonemes. The pupils have enjoyed working together to place letters into alphabetical order, laying the foundations for dictionary skills in the coming weeks.
All their hard work on alphabetical ordering has fired up the children’s imagination! Miss Boissiere caught the children building the alphabet with lolly sticks during their break time. A brilliant initiative demonstrating the power of independent learning.
Lionhearted Literature
As this month’s Learner Profile is Risk-taker, the children are becoming experts in identifying where risks are being made. Mrs Sneddon is currently reading The Minpins by Roald Dahl to the class and the children are actively identifying risks made by the main character:
Julia: “Little Billy's mother told him not to go in the forest, but he was a risk-taker by deciding to do it anyway.”
Elhanoof: “Little Billy is a risk-taker because he went into the forest by himself.”
Rory: “Little Billy is a risk-taker because he could have been killed by the Gruncher.”
They have also enjoyed continued reading Izzy Gizmo in their English lessons and noticed the following about Izzy:
Aliya: “Izzy is a risk-taker when she wants to give up but keeps trying new things for the bird.”
Roddy: “Izzy is a risk-taker as she steals things without asking to create wings for the bird.”
Isobel: “Izzy is a brave risk-taker by taking the bird to the vet.”
Interesting Inventions
Year 3 have continued their investigation on inventions this week. The children have been having good discussions with their classmates as to how inventions have changed the world and what would happen if we didn’t have certain items.
Harbour Discovery
The pupils went for a walk in the fresh air to the harbour to see what inventions they could find. It was brilliant to see what the inventions were being used for and how they make our lives easier. When the students got back, they were enthused to write a report about their discoveries!
Year 4
Memorable Measurement
Year 4 took the opportunity to make the most of the sunny weather and refine their measuring skills in Maths. Armed with chalk, a metre rule stick and a ruler, they drew around the outline of their partner, estimated their length and width, before accurately measuring in centimetres and metres and converting between the two. They then went as far as using string to measure the circumference of each other’s heads. Who knew there could be such a difference between their estimates and the precise measurement!
Coastal Creativity
Year 4 also enjoyed an inquiry lesson outside the classroom, this time on the beach! Their current unit explores the use of man-made systems and how these work. Since learning about current man-made systems, the children were set the task to create a brand new man-made system and explain how they work. It was wonderful to see their creativity and imagination flow as they created some excellent inventions!
Year 5
The Goat who Sailed the World
Year 5 became totally engrossed in their new class novel this week, The Goat who Sailed the World. The yurt provided them with a quiet and calm ambiance and the children were totally absorbed. The main character is a true risk-taker which sparked lots of great discussion!
Real Risk-takers
Martha proved to be a real Risk-taker by attending the annual ‘Howling’ with the Cubs. This involved an adventurous weekend camp out at Fordell Firs, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Well done Martha!
Wellbeing Hub
The Year 5 pupils also took a beneficial trip to the St Leonards Wellbeing Hub to meet with Annie, one of our two Wellbeing Assistants. She had very kindly organised a range of activities for the children and everyone left feeling very relaxed and refreshed.
Year 6
Island Captain Runners
We are very proud of the Year 6 pupils who presented during the Junior School Assembly in a bid to become this year's Island Captains. All students expressed great responsibility and professionalism as they manifested why they should become Island Captain. The runners were all well-spoken and confidently expressed their thoughts and ideas to the large audience. It was a pleasure to watch and an inspiring performance for our younger years.
Triumphant Tennis
Huge congratulations to Findlay in Year 6 who managed to win not one, not two, but three St Andrews Tennis Club Singles Championships! Findlay was awarded with a plethora of medals and trophies for winning the U10, U12 and U14 competitions.
Findlay then went onto play with his mixed doubles partner Cara, also in Year 6, and managed to win the U12 Doubles Championship too! Many congratulations to both Cara and Findlay for their outstanding effort, demonstrating the strength in St Leonards' tennis players.
Investigation Station
As part of their Unit, Year 6 have been carrying out investigations into the properties of materials. They have tested the hardness of rocks by doing a scratch test before the students were able to choose their own investigations. These included investigating which materials were best for stopping ice cubes melting, how the slope of a ramp affects the distance a toy car will travel, testing the strengths of different bridges, and looking at how quickly different types of sugar melted. Throughout the process the students have been learning about fair testing and variables as well as how to write a science experiment report. They have also been learning about the properties and uses of different materials.
Other News
Craft Club
Craft Club has been busy making some wonderful creations. This week, the children headed outside to collect leaves to be used to make gorgeous prints using autumn colours.
Last week, as the rain poured, Craft Club members discussed how we can protect ourselves from the rain. Some decided to make a 3D card of an umbrella and drew themselves holding it, whilst others chose to use bubble wrap as a stamp to create raindrops that fell all around them, but not under their umbrella. Look at the beautiful artwork they’ve produced!
Nature Club
The Year 4-6 Nature Club began harvesting produce from our school garden. They gathered and washed marrows, chard and beetroot and then, as the skies opened and the rain descended, the pupils wheelbarrowed it to the kitchens. Darren, our Catering Manager, and his team from Thomas Franks will use the fresh vegetables to make soup and salads for the school lunches.
Playtime
Children from across the year groups played together in the Mud Kitchen at breaktime. They showed kindness, friendship and teamwork as they baked a culinary delight.
Enzo M, Victor M, Abigail W, Theodore L and Rodrigo H, we hope you all had a wonderful day! Maya Z, have a brilliant day when it comes!
Birthday Parties at St Leonards
Did you know, St Katharines Hall in the Junior School at St Leonards is available to hire for birthday parties and events? Catering can also be provided by our on-site team. For any booking enquiries, please contact commercial@stleonards-fife.org