Cop26

 Hello all!On the first week back after half term, between Mon 1 Nov and Friday 5 Nov, we will be carrying out a themed week centred around COP26 – this is the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference which is hosted this year by the UK. We will be having a special Monday assembly at 11:00am for classes to launch the theme week and the Friday assembly will replace Hymn practice, offering an opportunity for classes to share what they have been up to and produced!Each class, from EYFS to Y6, will be set a theme based around Eco topics from our Eco Council’s review. This will ensure a great coverage across the school and hopefully, very little overlap (see below).ThemesEYFS = Healthy Living                                 Y4 = Renewable EnergyY1 = Litter & Waste                                    Y5 = Marine LifeY2 = Biodiversity                                         Y6 = Global CitizenshipY3 = TransportWe are asking all teachers to plan their lessons, with the exception of English and Maths, around this theme and to get creative with your project ideas. It may be worth discussing your theme with the children this week, to get some ideas from them and inform planning. If you wanted to tweak your English so that you are covering the same objectives, however with a different, eco-themed stimuli then go for it! Once you have an idea of the route your are taking, we ask that you populate this  COP26 Spreadsheet.xlsx so we can ensure a good variety of ideas and styles. Specialist teachers, will you please have a think about how you can fold your teaching into these themes as well.To help you with this planning, we are putting together a large bank of ideas and resources, placed in  COP 26 Resources. Go and have a look and it may help get the creative juices flowing and if you find anything yourselves, please add it to the folder! A particularly good document is  Green Day Resources Document.pdf where they have lesson ideas broken down by subject!If you are aware of any families or people outside SJS who work in this field, will you please let us know. We would love to arrange some guest speakers to visit the children or speak to them via video calling. We are currently talking to a few of the big ones with mixed success. If you have any ideas that you think would make this week even more worthwhile, please them share with us!Finally, we are hoping to communicate our efforts with relevant people outside the organisation (MPs, Westminster, organisations pertinent to the topic) in a bid to stir up some dialogue on these issues. If you do any writing on the subject, such as persuasive letters, this would particularly support that aim.I hope this sounds exciting and a real opportunity to inspire the children and ourselves to do more for our local areas and the world. If you have any questions, please do let myself or Vicki know.Many thanks,Vicki & Oli