Author: Mr Roundtree

Sound

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been focussing on sound as a part of our big topic. Last week, we focussed on changing sounds. The children got to experiment making lots of different sounds at different volumes, using different instruments. We discovered that the harder you hit, blow, shake and pluck an instrument, the louder the sound.

Spotting Patterns

Then, we found out what happens to a sound as we move away from it. During the test, we kept the sound the same volume and moved back one metre each time until we stopped hearing it. The children recognised that the further we moved away from the sound, the quieter it gets. We all stopped hearing the sound at 12 metres.

22 March 2019

This week, our spellings are from the Year 1 common exception word list. These are that do not follow the common phonetic spelling rules of the language, or where the usual rules act in an unusual way.

today
of
said
says
are
some

Thinking of a holiday in term time?

If so, please: think again.

Amongst the continued talk about Brexit (or not to Brexit!), you might have missed this news story from yesterday: The number of fines issued to parents in England for taking children on term time holidays has almost doubled in a year, statistics show.

Penalty notices rose by 93% to almost 223,000 in 2017-18. In Leeds, there were 2620 fines for term-time absence caused by holidays – that’s 25 pupils in every 1,000, which averages out to about five pupils at Moortown Primary.

“Unauthorised family holiday absence” was the most common reason for attendance fines, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

In our school, governors have agreed an attendance policy that’s clear: we can’t authorise a holiday in term time – we value learning too much to authorise a disruption in children’s education. If you do anticipate your child may have to have a day or more off school (to attend a funeral or a parent’s graduation, for example), please do speak with the Head of School and also ask at the office for a form to complete.

Moortown’s Got Talent!

The final of Moortown’s Got Talent was a great success last night with all of our finalists doing a fantastic doing (despite a few technical hitches).

Well done to everybody who took part and to all of those who auditioned.  We are very pleased to announce our two runners up: Juho and Kian. Juho showed us some fantastic martial arts and Kian identified the flags of 100 different countries!

And, the one you’ve all been waiting for, our winner! A huge congratulations to Isla, Bridget and Eleanor. They treated us to singing que sera sera along with some dancing. Well done!

15 March 2019

This week, our spellings are from the Year 1 common exception word list. These are that do not follow the common phonetic spelling rules of the language, or where the usual rules act in an unusual way.

me
my
his
her
they
your

Living and Learning: I can say something good about myself.

Recently, in one of our Living and Learning sessions, we discussed the importance of having a positive self imagine. The children loved this! It gave them a chance to write about the things they liked about themselves and the things that they are good at.

Take a look at a few examples of Year One saying something good about themselves and have the same discussion with your child.

n

Living and Learning: Hate Crime

Year 6 were a very respectful, reflective group during our visit from ‘Real Friends’ today who performed some interactive drama all about Hate Crime. The group was made up of adults who had experienced hate crime themselves at some point in life. A hate crime is when a person commits a crime that is motivated by prejudice.

We heard Olivia’s story and suggested ways that issues around what she’d experienced in her life could be dealt with if we saw something similar. Olivia has autism and she’d been bullied throughout her school career and into her adult life.

After the drama, we worked with the group to create freeze frames which displayed our emotions clearly. Can you guess what situations the different groups were asked to re-create.

All of Year 6 really enjoyed the workshop and had some brilliant comments about what they’d learnt, the message it was sending and how powerful an experience it had been.

Painting in Maths

I had a class of very puzzled children when they walked into their Maths lesson on Wednesday to find paints and paintbrushes out.

I tasked the children with creating orange which they all did confidently until I then said I wanted us all to create the same orange. This led to a lengthy debate on how we could do this and, without them even realising it, the whole class were using the sort of language we use when we work with ratios.

By the end of the lesson, we were all creating different colours, noting down the ratio of paint colours used in order to ensure somebody else could create the same colour as us. Linking this to how a company like Dulux can create the same colour paint over and over again in all sorts of different volumes, helped us understand how ratios are used in real life contexts.

Positive pupils

Our governors play an active role in our school – find out more about the governing body and what they do. One of our governors is responsible for collecting the views of pupils – an important role because we value the views of pupils so much. As well as staff in school, it’s useful for a governor to do this because children sometimes prefer to talk to an ‘outsider’.

Here’s what our governor found following a recent visit where she spoke with a group of pupils:

All of the children were keen to talk about how much they enjoyed school.

  • Y1: ‘It’s fun to learn new things.’
  • Y4: ‘I enjoy school because I get to make new friends.’

All children strongly believed all of the teachers helped them to do their best.

  • Y6: ‘If you get stuck, teachers don’t just give you the answer but they help you to find the answer.’

All children said that their learning is challenging.

  • Y2: ‘I know my learning is challenging when I can’t do it and then when I think a bit more, I can do it.’
  • Y3: ‘My learning is challenging when I get a step in my book.’
  • Y6: ‘My teacher gives me tricky learning when I’m confident. When I’m confident with my learning there is always another harder challenge waiting!’

Children enjoy learning.

  • Y1: ‘I like learning phonics.’
  • Y4: ‘My learning is fun in my book like when we crack codes in our lessons.’
  • Y6: ‘I really enjoy learning about science’

All of the children were adamant that their teacher listens carefully to what they have to say, particularly in reading lessons.

  • Y6: ‘Mostly in reading because people all have different answers.’
  • Y3: ‘My teacher listens to everyone’s opinion.’

All children knew to speak to an adult if something was worrying them, or share their worry in other ways.

  • Y2: ‘I would tell adults in school.’
  • Y4: ‘I’d tell someone I trust.’
  • Y6: ‘We can use the Living and Learning box in our classrooms to share a worry.’

Regarding behaviour, all children were aware of the school’s definition of bullying and knew that bullying at school is zero tolerance. Regarding staying safe, all the children said they felt very safe at school. The children were able to talk about lots of ways we promote health, whether physical activity or emotional health.

Finally, all of the children were certain they would recommend the school to someone else.

  • Y6: ‘Moortown Primary always thinks about your feelings and helps you to get involved with loads of things. Moortown Primary would always be there for you.’