Mrs Taylor, Author at Moortown Primary School, Leeds

Make a noise about bullying

What does STOP stand for in our school?

Next week it is national anti-bullying week.

Our school definition has recently been reviewed by the School Council and remains unchanged.

‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’

This year the theme of the week is Make a noise about bullying and our children are familiar with another STOP message to address this, start telling other people.

Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team will once again deliver Show Racism the Red Card workshops across school and in class children will discuss these aspects of bullying:

Our definition of bullying (above)
Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
What to do if children experience bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)

Bullying resources can be found at…

Children tell us what they would do if they were bullied: ‘I would tell an adult, teacher or someone I trust.’

All classes have access to their class SEAL box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.

What is a right angle?

Year 2 have been spotting right angles but what is a right angle?

An angle is where two lines join together. A right angle measures 90°, like the corner of a square, and it’s also known as a quarter turn.

Right angles are all around us. Can you find any at home, on the way to school or at the shops? How do you know it’s a right angle?

Then we attempted a right angle challenge. Why not try this again at home?

Track and field stars

Second in the first round of the Leeds North East sports hall athletics – a great achievement.

Well done to our athletics team who came second in the first round of the North East Leeds Sports hall athletics at Allerton Grange – a great achievement. It was a new event for the school and, despite a few nerves, everyone performed to the best of their ability in every event. Well done to all the children involved and to parents for their support. Look out for details of the next round.

If you’d like to continue athletics, there is also a local athletics club that runs at Scott Hall Leisure Centre.

Basketball Come and Try, Thursday 19 November

We have a few spare places to come to the basketball come and try event at Roundhay School on Thursday 19 November.

What? Basketball session led by Leeds Force basketball club
Where? Roundhay School
When? Thursday 19 November, 3.30pm-5.30pm
Who? Open to all KS2 classes

Please contact the office if you are able to come to this event. Children will be supervised at the session but need to be dropped off and collected from Roundhay School.

Top vegetable choices

Pupils vote for their favourite vegetables to be featured more often on our school dinner menu.

If your child chooses school dinners, they are served two portions of vegetables or vegetables and a portion of salad with each meal. As we are all aware of the importance of eating vegetables, all children have been consulted on their favourite vegetables based on the vegetables that currently feature on the school dinner menu. The most popular choices will now feature more regularly on the menu.

We would also like your views on school dinners. Look out for the school dinner survey due to be sent out next week.

Changing direction

Clockwise, anti-clockwise, quarter turn and half turn are all vocabulary Year 2 have been using when giving instructions to move in different directions. Using clocks as a reminder for clockwise and anti-clockwise, the children had to move across the world map to the different continents and oceans. This is one way our maths learning can be linked to our Big Topic about holidays.

Gold!

Look what we achieved for the School Games Mark.

The School Games Mark is a Government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Schools in England are able to assess themselves across bronze, silver and gold levels of the mark.

Following our assessment we are proud to reveal our gold award. Having achieved silver last year, this is a great achievement demonstrating our increased participation in competitions, extra-curricular sporting activities, sports leadership and local club links.

We know from Parent Surveys that more competitive sport was something that was important for many of you – and we’ve listened.

An active half term

We’ve started the year with plenty of physical activities. Here are some of the highlights.

Rugby World Cup

In September, the Rugby World Cup came to Leeds and we were lucky enough to win tickets to watch Italy play Canada at Elland Road. There was a great response to our prize draw for tickets and our three lucky winners enjoyed the World Cup experience.

Active Schools

This year as part of our investment of the Primary PE and sport premium government funding for schools we have joined the Leeds Active Schools programme. Their mission is to promote and develop, through collaboration and partnership, a sustainable system for physical activity, PE and sport that enriches the lives of all children and young people. Already this year, as part of this programme, we’ve had the opportunity to take part in some great events.

Big sing Big dance

A group of our Year 3 pupils were part of over one thousand children from across Leeds who took part in the Rugby World Cup Big dance Big sing event in Millenium Square.

Singing and dancing to the Rugby World Cup theme tune ‘World in Union’, the event was to celebrate the rugby matches in Leeds.

‘I loved it and I tried my best.’
‘It was exciting when we did the dance.’
‘I enjoyed using the rugby balls for the dance and singing the song, too.’

Rugby World Cup fanzone

As part of the celebrations for the Rugby World Cup, a number of children had the opportunity to be involved in the fanzone in Millenium Square. There was a carousel of activities including rugby activities and inflatables, a practical Tagtiv8 session and a visit to Leeds Library to meet author Tom Palmer. Tom writes sports novels for children, including the Rugby Academy series.

‘I really enjoyed the event. It was fun, especially the bit with Tom Palmer.’
‘I loved it! I especially enjoyed when I won the rugby ball. It was so good I want to do it again.’
‘I enjoyed playing pass with my friends and learning how rugby started.’

Brownlee Triathlon

Harewood House recently hosted the Brownlee Triathlon. Following this, a number of our children took part in the children’s Brownlee Triathlon held at the John Charles Centre.

The event involved a 30m swim, 1km cycle and a 400m run and was attended by Jonny Brownlee.

‘It was the best sporting event that I’ve ever done.’
‘It was great and was very challenging but in a good way.’
‘I have never done a triathlon. It was amazing, especially the fact that I met the Brownlee brothers.’

Football

This year we continue to be part of the Leeds School Football Association leagues for Year 4, 5 and 6, led by Mr Lawton and Mr Catherall. Here is a summary of their season so far.

The ‘Moortown Dragons’ (Year 4 football team) are learning quickly what it means to be part of a team: sticking together, working for each other, and keeping smiles on everyone’s faces. In our most recent game, they showed off some sharp passing as a team, gritty goalkeeping displays, and capped it off with a couple of stylish goals. ‘Make friends, make friends, never, never break friends!’

In the short time we’ve had, the Year 5 footballers have impressed with their passion for the game. They’ve started to show their desire to work for each other, and we’re looking forward to a good run of matches after half term. If they can show half the skills that they demonstrate daily in the playground, and keep looking out for each other, they’ll go far indeed.

The Year 6 football team have grown in confidence throughout each of their fixtures so far this year. With an emphasis on teamwork, enjoyment and working hard (on and off the ball), each team member has improved significantly. Their continued development as a team was, perhaps, most evident in the recent game against local rivals Gledhow. Well done to all! Keep it up and you’ll soon be rewarded for your efforts.

Events to look forward to next half term include more football matches, Leeds North East sports hall athletics competition, a Come and Try basketball session at Roundhay, cross country and a health-themed week, too.

Thank you to all parents who support with transport and accompanying children to these events.

Well done to all our competitors and participants who have represented the school.

What’s on the menu in Brazil?

As part of the whole school Holidays topic, Year 5 and 6 have been ‘visiting’ Brazil. Following some research about popular foods in this South American country, we’ve recreated our own Brazilian dish. This was taken from a recipe book donated by the Brazilian restaurant chain Cabana. There is even a branch in Leeds if you’d like to try some more traditional Brazilian dishes. Our dish was a vegetarian version of moqueca (fish stew).

Take a look at our food preparation and tasting. Ask your child what skills, equipment and ingredients we used. Maybe you’ll get chance to try this at home as it was a very popular dish.

Some of the words to describe the dish were: outstanding, delicious, mouth watering, healthy, impeccable and fantastic!

Leeds Children’s Mayor update

Unfortunately Ahmed, our entry for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition, wasn’t successful in reaching the final twelve. With a record number of entries this year, thirty six, all entrants were congratulated on their efforts. Well done, Ahmed.

‘We really appreciate you taking the time to enable your Year 6 children to take part and that having your Year 6 think “big” about changing the city and their local community was an interesting citizenship activity for them.’

The Leeds Children’s Mayor project provides pupils with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding about democratic processes and being an active citizen, promoting this aspect of ‘British Values’. All pupils are encouraged to take part in the election itself by reading the manifestos of the final twelve and casting a vote for their choice of the next Leeds Children’s Mayor.

Please note that voting goes live at 12pm on Tuesday 13 October and closes at 12pm on Thursday 05 November. The winner of the election will be announced on 9th November by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Judith Chapman.