Author: Mr Roundtree

A letter from Paul Brennan, Deputy Director of Learning Skills and Universal Services for Leeds Children’s Services:

Dear parent/carer,

I would like to advise you about important changes to legislation announced by the Department for Education (DfE) with regard to holidays in term time.

From 1 September 2013, schools are no longer allowed to authorise any requests for children to be taken out of school for a holiday during term time.

Requests for leave can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and a holiday would not be considered exceptional. Requests for leave must also be made to the school in advance, as the DfE have told schools that they cannot authorise any absences after they have been taken.

Parents may receive a penalty notice if their child is absent from school without permission. From September 2013 the cost of these notices will be £60 per child per parent if paid within 21 days, and £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days.

We appreciate the challenges that some parents face when booking holidays, particularly during the school holidays. However, regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.

Nationally, five million school days were missed in the academic year 2011/ 2012 because of family holidays in term time, which is 10.1 per cent of overall absence in schools. This high level of absence has led the government to make this important change to legislation.

We anticipate that all schools in Leeds will introduce firm policies, and we will work closely with them to ensure that this change to the law has a positive impact on rates of attendance in the city.

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the council and your child’s school to thank you for your full support in this matter.

Further information can be found at http://www.education.gov.uk/.

Yours sincerely

Paul Brennan

So that we can feel confident about what we do, we quite often invite feedback.  Thank you to those of you who have returned annual surveys (once again, your feedback is really positive, but with some useful suggestions, too).

Recently, a headteacher from another Leeds school was so impressed by our school’s learning environment, he asked if he could return with the school’s leadership team to get some ideas.  Here are some of the things he said:

Moortown Primary is a school where the learning environment has clearly been carefully considered and a high priority for all members of staff. The compact learning spaces and transitional areas are characterised by creativity, order and clarity.

The organisation and structure of all areas gives a strong indication that pupils are encouraged and able to self-select resources to move learning on independently. There is also an impression that all members of the school community put a high value on maintaining this high quality learning environment.

The use of space was exemplary. This was most strongly shown in the Reception classroom. Areas of provision were well defined, well organised and very engaging for the pupils. The creativity behind many displays/backdrops was admirable. The lack of space did not restrict the broadness of what was offered. Parents/carers had easy and immediate access to pupils’ learning journey folders.

The headteacher went on to praise particular strengths, including classroom displays, classroom management and resources.

Another visitor recently has been a Leeds Primary School Improvement Service consultant.  In her reports, she comments on the Reception classroom and the children there:

The indoor especially is bright, stimulating and offers challenge in all areas to ensure children are making progress. I spent the entire morning in the Reception class. All children were constantly on task due to the engaging provision areas.

When I visited again a week later, there were new challenges to inspire children’s learning at the right level.  All the children were on-task and involved in their own learning due to the challenges and stimulating environment offered to children. The children’s behaviour is impeccable because children are busy and on-task within the learning environment, even in the absence of the children’s usual teacher.

…Once again showing Moortown Primary is a happy, healthy and effective place to learn!

This week, we have another themed week at Moortown Primary.  Community Week is the second themed week of the year, following the popular Brain Week in the Autumn term.

Community Week will run along three themes:

Learning about communities

Your child will think about community along four broad objectives:

To know what community is: your child will think about what ‘community’ means, how it feels to belong to a community, and the various ‘scales’ of community, such as local, national and global.

To know what family is and know that families are different: we all know families are made up in different ways, from mum, dad and two children to single parent families and extended families; amongst other things, your child will think about reasons for families being different and how it might feel to belong to a different family.

To know who contributes to communities and how: we’ll think about who contributes to communities and how, referring back to the different ‘scales’ of commmunity, from local to global.

To be aware of who might feel vulnerable in a community and that we all might feel vulnerable at some point: your child will think about different individuals and groups in society who might not feel fully as if they belong, or who might not feel properly safe; individuals or groups which your child will consider will vary depending on age, but might include elderly, those with mental health issues and minority ethnic groups; issues such as sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia might be covered.

Learning about countries

One of the most popular aspects of our themed weeks is when classes mix up, so Reception children learn alongside Year 6 children and everyone in between.  This is obviously especially important in Community Week – highlighting Moortown Primary as a learning community.  Over the course of the week, groups will visit each teacher, from Mrs Burke to Mrs Hazell, learning about a specific country:

• Germany
• Peru
• Ethiopia
• New Zealand
• Canada
• Antartica
• Thailand

Children will be issued a ‘passport’ to complete as they visit each country, learning about language, climate, currency and other facts.

Special events and visitors

Alongside all the learning, we’re looking forward to some visits! Representatives from our current charities, Dogs’ Trust and Water Aid, will visit, as will a group called KidzAware (who promote equality ) and Carla Cantrell from Leeds United Ladies Football Club.

The climax of Community Week is on Friday afternoon.  PTA – a big part of the school community – invite you to our Community Fair.  We all hope to see you there!

It’s good to see that our attendance has improved, even if it’s just by a little.  Our average for the year so far is 95.7% – we’re just short of our target of 96.0%.  Year 3 attendance is great – it’s much higher than other classes, and they’ve even managed to increase this further – fantastic!

• Well done to Reception and Year 6, who have all improved their attendance in recent weeks.
• Well done to Year 2, whose attendance (along with Year 3) is considerably higher than the other classes.

Here’s a breakdown of the classes’ attendance, in order:

1. Year 3: 97.3%
2. Year 2: 96.7%
3. Year 4: 95.9%
4. Year 5: 95.7%
5. Year 6: 95.2%
6. Year 1: 94.7%
7. Reception: 94.5%

A couple of points to bear in mind:

All of the children who have made most progress in Year 2 and in Year 6 (the end of Key Stage One and Key Stage Two) have got attendance rates above the school target of 96.0%.  Clearly, the more your child is in school, the more your child will learn.

From September 2013, the Department for Education’s new guidance for schools makes it clear that term-time holidays must never be authorised; as a result, we are changing our policy accordingly (exceptional circumstances such as the death of a close relative with whom your child has had frequent contact will not be treated in the same way, but it is expected that this will be rare).