Author: Mr Roundtree

Parents / carers of Reception 2011 children:

Thank you to those parents and carers who attended one of our two Open Mornings. If you didn’t attend and would like to visit, you’re very welcome to arrange a one-to-one visit – we’re always happy to show people around our happy and healthy learning community.  The Headteacher, Mr Roundtree, or another member of staff will make sure all your questions are answered.  Contact us to make an appointment.

In addition, the Admissions Team are running drop-in sessions for parents / carers applying for their Reception place.  You can go along with questions and ask for advice.  No appointment is necessary – call 0113 2475560 for details.

Parents / carers of children currently in Year 6, starting at secondary school in 2011:

By now, you will have visited secondary schools and made your choice about where your child goes after their time at Moortown Primary.  The deadline for application is 31 October 2010.

When applying for a place at primary or secondary, there are a few important points to remember:

• Applying online is the quickest, easiest and safest way to apply – use the Education Leeds website to support you.  You can apply online for primary schools between 1 November 2010 and 15 January 2011. (If your child is currently at Moortown Primary and you’re applying for secondary schools, the same procress applies but the deadline is 31 October 2010.)
• It’s important to apply on time for your preferences to be considered.
• Even with older brothers or sisters at the school of your choice, you must still apply.
• You should put the school you most want as your first choice.
• You should consider putting down your nearest school, even if it is your third preference.  If you don’t, you may be allocated a school out of your area.
• You must use your home address; any offers made will be withdrawn if it’s later shown that a false address was used.

Please get in touch if there’s anything you’d like to ask us about our school and what we can offer you and your child.

On Tuesday, 06 July, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) released 2010 Key Stage 2 National Curriculum test results. We will shortly send home the results for our current Year 6 class – at the moment, it appears our children have done extremely well. This is thanks to their great efforts, and also the exemplary teaching and support we offer at Moortown Primary.

Regarding the results, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said:

I am delighted that all National Curriculum test results were made available to schools today.

Almost three quarters of schools administered the tests this year, showing that the vast majority of headteachers did not support industrial action. It’s unfortunate parents and pupils in the schools that boycotted the tests will not benefit from the information that can be taken from test results.

Rigorous external assessment provides the public and professionals with valuable objective data and plays a vital role in the accountability system.

The best school systems generate rich quantities of information which enable us all to make meaningful comparisons, learn from the best and identify techniques which work.

I do accept there are flaws with the current testing system so I am committed to reviewing National Curriculum tests to ensure they are as rigorous as possible and in the best interests of schools, children, parents and the public.

We want to consider what we can learn from other countries, to compare our tests with standards set elsewhere, and to look at how we can make the tests more useful.

I believe headteachers and teachers will agree the solution to strengthening the tests is to work together and agree on how they can be reformed.

While we work to improve and strengthen the tests, it is crucial that there is no gap in information provided to parents, pupils and teachers next year.

I can therefore confirm that tests in 2011 will take place in the week commencing May 9.

The week of the SAT tests is already noted in our calendar; as are school holidays and training days for next year. More important dates will be added soon.

More information about the 2010 SAT tests, including a list of schools which did not carry out the tests, can be found on the Department for Education website.

At Moortown, people often compliment our happy and healthy school.  It was great to recently receive this message from a parent interested in sending her son to our school in September 2011:

I just wanted to email you to pass on my thanks for showing both my son and I around your school on Friday.  We really appreciated you taking the time to speak to us.

Both my son and I left with very positive feelings about the school and we would both be happy if he was allocated a place at Moortown.

Thank you to everyone at Moortown Primary for all the kindness and attention they showed us.  Everyone we met was extremely kind and friendly, which gave an impression of a welcoming and positive culture.  I was very impressed by how well-behaved the children were and how eloquently they expressed themselves and I am still amazed how quickly they answered the maths questions!  All the children seemed engaged and interested in what they were doing and they were credit to the school, the staff and themselves.

Everyone is obviously striving to create a nuturing and rewarding evironment for the pupils and it is clearly paying dividends.  We will certainly recommend Moortown Primary to others!

That’s great feedback – thanks!

Some of the Year 3 and 4 pupils recently visited Harvester restaurant at Colton, Leeds.  This was part of our drive to make packed lunches at Moortown Primary even healthier.

The session involved tasting different fruit and vegetables and learning all about how important it is to have these in our diets.

The children came away with a selection of vegetables and lots of knowledge about healthy eating.  They were very keen to encourage their family to eat well, too!

We’ve already noticed quite a few with extra portions of fruit and vegetables in their packed lunch.  Children tell us they want to try healthier foods – why not try something new and nutritious each week?

With only one class assembly left in the year, you might like to read some of the comments parents and carers have made this year so far…

‘We really enjoyed learning lots about how to stay safe.’

‘Fantastic counting in French – it was clear and the accent perfect.  I really enjoyed the assembly, as usual.’

‘Entertaining and factual… Very educational.’

‘Fantastic interpretation of Shakespeare into bite size three minutes definitely got all the children switched on and engaged with Shakespeare.’

‘Great assembly, especially when the pupils speak so loudly and clearly.’

Well done to Theo Raseta in Year 1, who won a prize in the Education Leeds Give it 100% competition.  He wins a pair of sledging vouchers for SnoZone in Castleford. In total, 121 pupils from Moortown Primary School achieved 100% attendance rate during March 2010 – that’s fantastic and these people have really helped make a difference to our attendance as well as being happy and healthy learners.  All of these pupils earned a certificate. In the authority, there were 27,000 entries from 139 schools.

Also, well done to all our talented tennis players! At a recent tournament between local primary schools, Moortown won due to the great skills and talents of many of our pupils.  We already knew Kiran in Y4 is a great tennis player, but Mrs Maver was very impressed with many of the others who took part.  Well done to all, and thanks to Mrs Maver for organising this.

Next half-term, we have more competitions and events to look forward to. A sneaky peak at the Year 6 routine suggests we’re in with a good chance of winning the local schools’ competition for best Wake Up Shake Up performance!

As you know, Miss Beatson leaves us at the end of the year to take up a leadership role in London. Sadly, the time has come for two other teachers to also be moving on.

In July, Miss Kieran leaves us for a sabbatical year. She is moving to Stockholm, Sweden to work in a school there. Miss Kieran has delivered wonderfully creative lessons and adds sparkle and fun to whatever her classes do. She has led the way with the development of our more creative curriculum and also led on initiatives such as Moortown’s Got Talent and My Money week. We hope that she will return to Moortown after her year away.

Mr O’Leary also leaves us at the end of the year, but to go to a school much closer to home! He will be part of the leadership team in another Leeds school, continuing his responsibility for ICT throughout the school, a role which he has successfully developed here at Moortown. He has ensured that the children in his classes have achieved very well each year, and has contributed a good deal in his extra role as Subject Leader for ICT. He also took up the management of the football team and set up many matches with our local schools.

Miss Kieran and Mr O’Leary both started at the same time as Mrs Weekes and me – the four of us joined in September 2007. We shall miss them both. They started here as newly qualified teachers and have contributed an enormous amount to the school.

We have recruited four new teachers to join us in September. The children met three of the new teachers, Mr Owen, Mr Redfearn and Mr Wilks on Friday 28 May. The fourth teacher, Ms Hazell, is currently teaching in a London school.

You may be aware that there is considerable controversy and divided opinion about the Key Stage 2 tests, popularly known as SATs. I have decided that pupils at Moortown Primary School will sit the tests this year. It has been a difficult decision to make; this is how I’ve made it.

Arguments against SATs

This year, it’s estimated that up to 50% of headteachers in Leeds plan to boycott the SATs as part of their union’s campaign to have them abolished.

Those against SATs argue that the tests:

• are poorly marked and therefore an inadequate measure;
• measure a child’s performance as a ‘snapshot’ on one particular day and therefore fail to take into account the child’s wider performance;
• skew the primary curriculum so that the child’s final year at school is taken over with SATs preparation;
• the data from SATs is presented to the public in league tables which hide a school’s real effectiveness (for example, a school in a deprived area might be very successful in teaching children in that the children make great progress, whereas a school in a well-off area might have a children who start school already above national expectation and make little progress, and that progress may be as much due to private tuition than effective teaching).

The NAHT union favour some sample testing of schools (which, from this year, will happen in Science assessment) – a sample selection of schools would be chosen to provide some form of performance measure of schools nationally.

My view

In my experience, it’s true that the tests are often poorly marked. I know this because when the tests are returned to school, I thoroughly re-mark them. Last year, two children’s levels were successfully upgraded as a result of errors I found in the marking. Poor marking is an issue which needs to be addressed, but in the meantime, by re-marking in school, the levels which children at Moortown eventually receive are accurate.

The tests do indeed measure just a snapshot. We must all be very clear about this. However, the alternative can be vague. If we don’t have externally marked tests, we rely on teacher assessment. Whilst this is good, it can vary considerably from school to school and teacher to teacher. I believe we need both. I also believe the teacher assessment should have a greater importance – perhaps being combined with the SATs score to give a balanced overall level for a child’s attainment.

In many schools, SATs preparation takes over the curriculum. This does not happen at Moortown. This year, Miss Kieran and the Year 6 class have enjoyed two engaging, creative topics (Meet the Greeks and Snowbound) – you only have to read their views in the Year 6 Forum to know that the children have been enthusiastic and positive. In addition, there have been drama projects, food-tasting, sporting events – the rich and varied curriculum that is what makes Moortown a happy and healthy place to learn.

I believe it is the league tables that should be abolished, not the SATs outright. SATs have contributed to raising standards in the past. I am happy for SAT data to go to the local authority, the government and to Ofsted so that a school’s performance can be measured. However, the data should be considered along with many other important, contextual factors. League tables are poorly understood and do not help parents / carers to make informed decisions. Parents / carers tell me that they base their decisions as to which school their child should attend on many criteria – very few mention league tables. At Moortown Primary School, most people are attracted by its size, its atmosphere and its reputation which goes from strength to strength.

As always, please contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns. In the meantime, good luck to all our Year 6 children – they must be congratulated for their excellent year so far.

As part of the World Class Primary Plan, the Secretary of State, Ed Balls, asked all local authorities to submit a plan to him.  Amongst the key components of the plan were to outline an approach to school improvement for all schools and a specific focus on schools performing below targets or rated less than satisfactory by Ofsted.  

The authority was required to ‘segment’ schools according to very specific data.  Based on this criteria, Moortown Primary has been judged a good school.

Good schools are defined as schools which are graded by Ofsted as good for overall effectiveness and at least good for achievement and standards and leadership.  These schools are at or above national attainment and in top two quartiles for progression.

Moortown Children’s Centre is now open. 

This is a Sure Start Children’s Centre to support families with children in the following areas:

• childcare,
• early education,
• health, and
• family support services. 

It is the cornerstone of the government’s drive to work with parents-to-be, parents, carers and children and to promote the physical, intellectual and social development of babies and young children so that they can flourish at home and when they get to school.

Moortown Children’s Centre brings together service providers from sectors like health, social services and early education as well as private, voluntary and community organisations and parents themselves to provide integrated services for young children and their families based on what local children need and parents want.

It’s based in the grounds of Moor Allerton Hall Primary school on Lidgett Lane but links with all local primary schools within the area, including Moortown Primary School.  If you would like more information regarding services already up and running from Moortown Children’s Centre please contact Lindsay Blackburn or Kirsty Murray on 07854 989281.