Due to our power being off all morning, we are unable to provide a hot school meal today for the children – so instead they will be having a packed lunch, which we are all going to eat in a 4 bubble whole school picnic on the field.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

I hope you had a good weekend – and at the time of writing this I have no idea what the outcome of the Euros Final is – so I don’t know whether we are celebrating a win, as well as celebrating the exceptional team-spirit, commitment and pride that the England football team have demonstrated throughout the tournament.  Whatever happened I am sure that the team will be just as dignified whether they win or lose!

Last week in our live assembly we talked about HOPE – and of course we were all being very hopeful that there would be a win in the football – but we also had lots of other hopes.  Some of us hoped that we could improve our handwriting, some hoped for more time to play with friends, and I am definitely very hopeful that in September the Brown Clee Team can be fully back together again – with assemblies in the hall, welcoming parents to join us for Well Done assembles, a normal school meals menu that we can eat in the hall together, and playtimes where all classes can mix and play together!

We discussed that HOPE is where we feel positive about the future – where we have dreams and wishes and believe that things will work out right!  Let’s see if things work out right for a little paper boat…have a watch of this video about a little paper boat with big ambitions and dreams of sailing around the world like a giant cruise ship…..

That little paper boat had so many challenges along his journey – he was all on his own at the beginning in a world that he didn’t understand, and then there was the scary rat, the rain, the wind, traffic and the drains  – so many scary experiences!  But along the way, he was always hopeful – and he made friends (the dog!) and at the end  – his adventures had only just begun!

It made me think about our Year 6 pupils – who are coming to the end of their time at Brown Clee – but who, just like the paper boat, their adventures have really only just begun!  As we go through this week – let’s reflect more on the value of HOPE, and how important it is – particularly for our Year 6 pupils as they are about to leave the Brown Clee Team and step out into secondary education.  I am very hopeful that they will take the Brown Clee spirit of ‘being the best that they can be’ with them and am sure that they will have many exciting adventures ahead of them!

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
When things go wrong, help us to keep hoping.
When we are sad, help us to remember that happiness will come.
When we are lonely, help us to remember that people care for us.
When we are worried, help us to trust that you will never leave us.
Please help us to live in hope.
Amen.

Thank you to parents for spreading the message about no school meals – every child has a packed lunch today which is brilliant!  We will let you know later today what the situation is for tomorrow – so please keep an eye out on the website, the school’s social media and your emails.

Also, if you have a preferred email, ie work rather than personal, please let us know, as it is impossible to ring everyone and the above communication channels are how we share information/news/stop press items.

I am really sorry, but we are unable to provide a school meal tomorrow, so all children will need to bring a packed lunch from home.  I am really sorry for the inconvenience, and for the short notice.  Can you please let friends and family know. I will keep you updated regards meals on Friday.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

Today I’d like to continue with our theme focused on feelings, and how important it is that we can both show empathy when other people are feeling sad or upset, but also that we can manage our own feelings.  Yesterday we learnt about anger and how we can regulate our angry feelings so that we can return to feeling calm.

Today I have a Pace Trust assembly focused on the feeling of fear; of feeling scared and how we can manage these feelings in a responsible way.

Have a think about a time when maybe you’ve been scared?  How did you feel?  What signs of fear did you show?  When I’m scared my heart beats faster, I breathe faster, I might feel hot and sweaty, I might even tremble.  It’s not a nice feeling and I don’t like that feeling – do you? I have learnt that if I am starting to feel scared that I can help myself by doing a few things:-

• I make myself breathe slowly and deeply
• I try to think about the reason I am scared – is it rational or not?  Do I really need to be scared of a spider?  Look how small they are – they can’t hurt me!
• I tell someone so that they can reassure me – sometimes I might be feeling scared of something that isn’t that big a problem and by telling someone it makes the problem go away.

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Thank you that you are always with us, watching over us, right by our side,
No matter what may be happening in our lives.
Thank you that we can always trust you.
Thank you that there are always people we can talk to.
Thank you that you always listen.
Amen.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to dodge the showers!

Today I want to continue with our theme of Compassion and Empathy – as now that we have had lots of discussion and experiencing identifying emotions it is important that we understand why showing empathy is important – as once we have seen someone feeling sad, for example, we need to know how to respond compassionately.

I am going to show you quite a grown up video about a fox, a bear and an antelope with a narrator describing empathy.  In the video it says that empathy has 4 stages:

1. Taking the perspective of other people (eg putting yourself in their shoes!)
2. Staying out of judgement (eg not criticising or judging)
3. Recognising emotions in other people (noticing how people are feeling – and you showed last week that you are all very good at this one!)
4. Communicating emotion (this is the tricky bit – knowing how to respond in a helpful way).

Have a watch and listen and see what you think – Which animal is sad?  Which animal shows empathy?  and why?  Which animal doesn’t show empathy?  and why?

A very grown up video – but could you work out which animal was sad? – The Fox.  Which animal was showing empathy – the bear!  The bear didn’t try and fix the sadness of the fox – the bear listened and made a connection; the bear understood the feeling but didn’t simply try and ‘look on the bright side’ or reply by saying “At least….”

What about the antelope?  Was the antelope really bothered about the fox feeling sad?  I think the antelope didn’t like seeing fox sad, and tried to make things better by saying nice things – but the antelope didn’t show empathy – he didn’t show that he knew how the fox was feeling – he didn’t connect with the fox.

Who would you be – the bear or the antelope?

I want you to imagine that you are really, really sad….you’ve lost something that’s very special to you – and then think how you would want your friends to behave towards you.  For example, if I had lost my dog I would definitely be feeling very sad.  Do you think I would be happy if my friend just said “At least you had a dog” or if they said “Don’t worry, you can always get another one!”.  I don’t think this would make me feel better – as that person isn’t showing that they understand why I am so sad – they just want to make me feel better.  But if I had lost my dog I think it would take a bit of time before I felt better – and I think it would be ok to feel sad.  I think what I would need would be someone to show me that they care about me feeling sad as they know what feeling sad is like…so they might listen to me or lend a friendly shoulder to cry on or offer a hug.  Does that make sense?

Empathy is complicated and tricky – if you can try and put yourself in your friends shoes when they are feeling sad then that’s the first big step!  We all need to be that person that friends can lean on in times of trouble.

Prayer of the Day

Dear God

We thank you for our friends and for the happy times we share with them.

Help us to be a good friend to them.

Teach us how to play fairly and to share.

Help us to recognise sadness in others and show friendliness towards them.

We know that you are our friend and will be with us always.

Amen.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

This week we have been continuing on our journey thinking about our feelings – we have discussed how many different feelings there are, we have considered why we need to control our feelings and regulate them, we have practised identifying different feelings in other people and reviewed what we mean by empathy.

We know empathy is important – that if we can’t identify and understand what feelings our friends have – that we can’t help support them and we can’t show compassion. Yesterday, we had another lovely assembly outside altogether where we had some enthusiastic children miming different feelings whilst everyone else guessed what those feelings were!  We also realised that different people express feelings differently – for example when George is excited – he runs around in circles waving his arms around, whilst Rosie squeezes her arms close and grips her hands tightly whilst beaning a massive smile!

Today I would like you to watch and listen to the story of “The Invisible Boy”. He is called Brian – and I want you to put yourself in his shoes throughout the story – how do you think he feels in each page….also don’t forget to notice the beautiful illustrations!!!

Did you enjoy the story?  How did you feel as Brian before Justin arrived at school?  How did you feel as Brian when Justin praises your drawing? And what about when Justin invited Brian to join in with the activity with Emilio?  What other feelings did Brian experience, do you think?

Who showed empathy throughout the story?  …..Justin definitely did – what about Brian though – did he?  How do you know?

One last question – did you notice the illustration of Brian – what changed throughout the story?…………..did you spot that to start off with his picture is without colour – Brian is just black and white at the start – why does he change do you think?

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Please help us to value the people around us,
our family, our friends,
the people we meet every day of our lives.
Help us to realise that we are all special,
that we all have feelings
and can feel hurt both outside and inside.
Amen.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

This week we are continuing to think about Compassion and Empathy – and we have learnt that to show empathy we need to be able to identify and understand feelings that we all have – and to actually realise how many there are – loads!

Today I want us to think about something that Megan said in last week’s live assembly – that we need to learn to take responsibility for our own feelings too – we need to learn to manage them when our feelings get too BIG – this is known as self-regulation – and it is something that we need to learn!  Have a watch of this video which gives you suggestions what to do if you’re feeling angry, low or sad…

So one important thing you can do if you’re feeling angry, sad or frustrated is tell someone – don’t just expect people to understand (empathy takes time to learn!).

A really BIG thing we all need to do is learn how to self-regulate our feelings – Self–regulation is the ability to manage disruptive emotions and impulses, and to think before you react – and it takes conscious effort to do it – but we all can!

Ask yourself  – have you ever got really angry with something or someone and shouted or stormed off?  Have you ever cried, really cried and wailed, when something went wrong or didn’t go your way?  These are examples of NOT self-regulating.

SO how can we help ourselves to self-regulate?

Remember learning about the Zones of Regulation? – they are there to help you manage your emotions….

So why not try some self-regulation today – if you feel your emotions going into the Red, Yellow or Green Zone – can you identify what emotion it is you are feeling – and can you do something to get back into the green zone?

Here’s the Cookie Monster – who has learnt how to self-regulate –

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
You have made me with a will and the power to make choices,
and you have given me the responsibility to choose how I will live.
Please make my will strong so that the choices I make in my life are good and wholesome.
Amen.