SCHOOL LIFE

Greenmount’s chalk mural sends clean air message

Greenmount Primary School in Beeston Hill teamed up with Cllr Ed Carlisle (Green, Hunslet and Riverside) to create a giant chalk mural on Coupland Street – to mark Clean Air Day on Thursday 16 June.

Clean Air Day is an annual UK-wide event to raise awareness and develop action in communities around air pollution. Greenmount is one of several local schools working with their pupils and families to tackle the issue – with a special focus on trying to reduce the number of people driving to school, but walking or cycling instead.

Ed (who also co-runs the South Leeds Alliance for Clean Air campaign) commented:

“Air pollution is such a blight on our communities, and yet –because it’s pretty much invisible – is often overlooked. But it’s great to see the work Greenmount are doing on it, and we had lots of fun creating the mural together. We can all play our part improving local air quality, and we’ll all benefit –let’s do it”.

Lisa Dixon, Headteacher at Greenmount Primary School, added:

“Some of our Eco councillors and year 3 and 4 pupils were keen to promote Clean Air Day and loved having the opportunity to create an art mural with Ed Carlisle.

“Our Eco Council have been working hard all week to find out which class has made the most changes for walking to school. Pupils are keen to find out which class has won the competition. Our Eco councillors helped me outside school on Thursday morning to carry out a traffic survey and speak to parents about how they travel to school and safe places to park.

“We would really like to see a reduction in the amount of cars on Greenmount Street at school drop off and pick up times. This will not only help the environment but also help to keep our pupils safe.”

According to Public Health England, air pollution is a key contributing factor to between

Cllr Carlisle with Lisa Dixon and pupils from Greenmount Primary School in Beeston

28,000-35,000 premature deaths in the UK every year. For more info on air pollution, and steps we can take, visit: www.actionforcleanair.org.uk.

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Sign up to a South Leeds Life subscription from just £4 per month Go to bit.ly/SLLsubscribe or ring 07894 583966 Windmill Primary pupils awarded Blue Peter’s green badge

by Stewart Walton

Imust start by thanking the music Federation for welcoming me into their schools and congratulate them on the continuous great work especially on the climate and the eco leaders.

I went to Belle Isle to visit Windmill Primary School on Thursday 23 June to congratulate them on their Climate Hero program and being awarded to Blue Peter‘s green badge for completing the climate challenge.

Led by Miss Millie Fraser, teacher and school council lead. Class 3F were invited to save the planet and become a climate hero. They were set a challenge to complete a series of planting pledges.

Once the people pupils receive their badges, they also receive some initiatives and some bonuses of being awarded the badges.

The pupils are encouraged to apply for a card which invites them to take up at least 200 attractions. The school also rewarded the pupils with a disco.

One pupil commented: “I would do this challenge again because planting one tree can make a difference in the world.”

Another said: “We helped the planet by planting flowers to give the Earth more oxygen.

“My favourite part of the Blue Peter challenge was reminding Miss Fraser to turn off the lights.

“We helped the planet by planting new plants to expand the colourful nature around us.”

My favourite of all was from this charming little lady: “I would do this challenge again because it’s kind and nice to help the world by picking up rubbish!”

Miss Fraser said: “It would be great if we were used as an example for other schools to do the same. we aim to link the community together. The pupils are certainly more conscious of the environment and the space around.”

I was very impressed by the environment in the school, the buzz of the children and the commitment to the children by the teachers. We often say that the commitment of any initiative comes from the top and the teachers are definitely setting a good example for their children.

I was intrigued to hear more about the school council and Miss Fraser was keen to tell me about it.

All pupils, years 3 to 6 are involved. Leading up to the school council Miss Fraser sends out questionnaires to all the class teachers who then spend time with the pupils and ask the questions on the questionnaires.

Questions like, what is litter? why do people drop litter? why do we have places to put litter in school? are there any suggestions from your class? how can we keep our school clean and free from litter?

It is very clear that the aim is to get the children involved, after all is it not their environment and we need to be educating our children of today about respecting the environment around them. I was so inspired by the enthusiasm of not just Miss Fraser but of her colleagues.

I bumped into deputy head, Caroline Harvison while I was there, who was also very keen on impressing how proud of Windmill Primary she is and echoed the aim of getting the community involved.

Windmill pupils show off their Climate Heroes certificate

Film Week at Low Road Primary School

by Stewart Walton

Whilst most children enjoyed an ordinary day on Friday 10 June class 5D of Low Road Primary School were visited by Into Film Sky Arts. As well as the team from Sky Arts, Hillary Benn MP joined the session.

It was clear from the reactions of the class that they understood the magnitude of this.

“I feel grateful that someone so busy and important took the time to visit our classroom” Poppy N

The aim of the session was not to introduce them to Hillary Benn, but to make arts more accessible to everyone. Organisers explained to the class, “It was found that teachers felt there was no time in schools to teach arts and often the teachers don’t have much confidence to teach arts.” Consequently, Sky Arts are delivering free sessions for schools visiting Low Road and four other primary schools in Leeds during this promotional week.

We soon realised that time travel was possible as pupils were shown black-and-white films from as early as 1878. The children were very enthusiastic and were asked to compare the old film to what we have on our streets today –quite an interactive icebreaker! Billy from the class reported:

“I loved looking at all the old archive footage from 1895 the best and comparing it to modern day Leeds. it was fascinating!”

Fascinating lessons are lesson which will be remembered forever.

Hilary Benn MP told the children of the blue plaque situated on Leeds Bridge for Louis Le Prince, 1888. Louis Le Prince is known for his single lens camera which he filmed Leeds Bridge from the waterways building and it is thought to be the first moving image … we left that debate without concluding.

The Sky Arts lead reminded pupils and adults to check out the Britain on film website, www.bfi.org.uk from which 5D, Mr Doherty and Miss Allan were shown images of film. A particular interest was archive film from Boar Lane in Leeds then shown the first timeline created by Edward Bluebridge in 1878 and the first ever moving images created by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. At this stage I don’t know who was more interested myself or the pupils.

Moving onto the desired outcome – a time capsule that will not be opened until 2122! The pupils were given a storyboard and asked to act out three roles of filmmaking the interviewer, interviewee and they were encouraged to think of a question.

Finally the children were asked to create their time capsule recording. They were asked questions like: What is the best film of 2022? What do you like best about your school? (the thought of potential answers did cause some laughter) and, Who is the most famous person in 2022? There was some very interesting answers to say the least and all were noted for the time capsule.

“Mr Benn sat at my table and we shared lots of ideas about our film. He’s kind and friendly.” Kasjan J

Hilary Benn MP commented: “What a great project. we were all captivated by the old film of people, traffic, horses, carts, carriages and electric trams on boar Lane over 100 years ago. I’m sure the pupils will be the filmmakers of the future.”

These happy children were eager to share their thoughts with me:

“I am proud that the local MP chose to come to our magnificent classroom I hope he enjoyed his time in our classroom as much as we enjoyed having him here. I enjoyed planning on filming our time capsule to help people from the future learn about our times.” Alex J

“I felt special that the wonderful people from Into film sky Arts let us be a part of the workshop they taught us lots of new skills. I had a lot of fun.” Ishanika

“I enjoyed working hard on my archive footage and then watching myself on the big screen I had an amazing, fun learning experience.” Freya D

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Low Road Primary School, Music Federation for inviting me into their school and I look forward to working with them closely in the future.

Pupils in Class 5D at Low Road Primary were joined by Hilary Benn MP for a session run by Sky Arts

Cockburn’s class of 2022 celebrate their achievements

Some of the award winners with Head of School Rob Dixon

The last few years have brought many challenges for the Year 11 students at Cockburn School.

They have worked tremendously hard and this was recognised as they played their part in the school securing the Ofsted ‘Outstanding in all areas’ judgement in February 2022.

This year has seen exams going (nearly) back to normal. The Year 11 exam period ran from 16th May through to 23rd June – 5 weeks including six science exams, three maths exams and four English exams. Students attended many afterschool and holiday revision sessions put on by the staff at Cockburn School and now look forward to their results day on 25th August 2022. Aspirations are high – their results should see them moving on to study ALevels/Post 16 qualifications at a range of providers such as Elliott Hudson College, Notre Dame or Leeds City College. For some, their results will lead them into a wide range of apprenticeships and employment.

The last day of their journey of ‘Transformation to Excellence’ at Cockburn School included a Leavers Assembly during which awards were presented for a range of honours. Awards were made to students in recognition of their qualities and success focused on the Values and Expectations of the school such as resilience, respect, responsibility, independence and aspiration. Staff at the school were asked to nominate students who were worthy of these awards. Winners of awards were: Gabriel Routledge-Day, Anna Stefaniak, Jake Roberts, Poppy Martin, Adam Platts, Iona George, Katie Ledgard, Sam Nixon, Grace Short, Asma Hussain, UJ Raza, Darcy Hammill, Ricky Ashton, Sana Aziz, Joel McCourt, Josh Morris, Joshua Wainwright, Millie Bagnall, Caitlin Hughes, Ana Da Silva, Daisy Cunningham, Zaaim Hamid and Byron Dowling.

The school's most prestigious award is named in honour of Kyle Asquith and it was presented to Maria Rocas who has shown great resilience, strength and pride throughout Year 11. Presented by the Kyle Asquith Foundation, in memory of former student Kyle who sadly lost his life in 2013, but whose organs saved the lives of five other people. Kyle’s parents were not able to attend but sent the following message to the winner and to all of the Year 11 students at Cockburn School: “Congratulations! We hope the future is very kind to you. Don’t take anything for granted because we have to work for what we have. Life will throw obstacles but you just need to keep your head up and face them head on. Life is for living – enjoy it. Never give up.”

Head girl, Tian Cai, who has also been elected to the National Youth Parliament, made a triumphant speech that paid tribute to her fellow students and the staff at Cockburn School for their hard work and industry throughout their time at the school. Tian was also awarded the Head of School award from Mr Dixon.

The final celebration, the Year 11 Prom, at the Village Hotel in Tingley will take place later in July 2022.