Word Wheel Whizz
First News isn’t just about reading amazing stories about the world we live in – it’s also great for getting your brain whirring with their puzzles!
Check out this “useless” 8-letter anagram (and superb celebration pose)!
Living and Learning: Staying Safe week day 1
Today, we’ve launched straight into our Staying Safe themed week with a busy day of visitors and in class learning.
Our scooter training was enjoyed by all and it was great to see so many of the class travelling to school on their scooters. We hope they have learnt plenty of safety tips for their next journey to school.
‘I learnt how to go in and out of the cones and how to stop in the box.’
‘I learnt how to use the brake so you can stop.’
‘When you hold your scooter, you need to put your foot next to the scooter.’
Our second visitor of the day was Richard from One Day Creative. Our workshop was based all around Captain Digi. We set sail with Captain Digi on his ship Safety, and sailed through the story seas of the Internet, dodged the tentacles of cyber bullies, the phishing mermaids and kept our pirate identities secret.
Here are some of the messages from our drama. Ask your child to tell you more. It’s Safer Internet Day tomorrow so we look forward to learning even more about this important aspect of staying safe.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe information
A variety of safety related information will be sent home during this themed week. Have a look through the information with your child to support and reinforce this learning at home.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe week begins
Our Staying Safe themed week started today with a launch assembly by Leeds City Council’s road safety team. This included some key active travel and safety messages.
The trainers worked with a number of classes throughout the day.
- Year 3 pedestrian training
- Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 scooter training
- Year 6 Speed Indication Device – checking vehicle speeds in the 20mph zone on Shadwell Lane
Another visitor, Richard from One Day Creative, has worked with three classes today to deliver e-safety themed drama workshops. Other classes will take part in this learning tomorrow.
Ask your child what they have learnt so far based on our four main objectives for the week:
- Staying safe online
- Staying safe at home
- Staying safe at school
- Staying safe in the environment
Thank you to those parents and carers who attended the e-safety session at the end of the day. We hope you found it useful to learn more about your child’s e-safety learning. To help with practical support with devices at home, O2 in partnership with NSPCC offer a free service over the phone, 0808 800 5002, or in one of their stores.
Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day so there will be lots of in class learning on this subject. Have a look at our e-safety end of year expectations for your child’s year group.
An awesome author in Year 6
We’ve got some great writers at Moortown Primary. It’s brilliant to read about one of them, Thomas in Y6, being recognised for this. The writing below was done at home. Thomas was inspired by listening to an audio book of a Sherlock Holmes story read by Stephen Fry – and what great results just from listening to the story and soaking up the language!
The writing was shared on Twitter and a top literacy advisor, Pie Corbett, was impressed.
In some tweets to Thomas’s mum, Pie Corbett comments that it’s a good example of how children imitate their reading: ‘It’s a marvellous example of a child capturing the right tone through listening carefully to the book being read.’ It just shows that audio books – not just written books – can inspire impressive vocabulary and description! Pie Corbett goes on: ‘It’s interesting that he ‘heard’ it which also makes the point about the value of being read to…’
Well done, Thomas – we’re all very proud of you!
Follow Pie Corbett on Twitter.
Living and Learning – I stay safe at school.
This afternoon, Year 5 have been thinking of lots of different ways that we stay safe (physically and emotionally) in school.
We used this information to make some self portrait artwork that shows how each of us makes safe choices in school.
Consent was a key term that we discussed. Giving consent means that you give the ok or approval for something to happen. Year 5 were asked if it was ok for their photo to be taken and printed out for them to trace (the picture on the left) with the key words, phrases and sentences (the picture on the right). Year 5 said either yes or no and either gave their consent to have their picture taken or they did not. Simples! If they got right up to their photo being taken and then changed their mind, that was fine too. Your consent can be withdrawn at any time! It’s all part of staying safe.
Here are some ideas for how we stay safe in school:
“We follow instructions for anything. Like if there’s a fire we follow instructions like go through the fire exit and go outside and listen to the register.” – Nayaab
“If there’s a problem, if you ask the teacher, they will help you.” – Zidaan
“I enjoyed this because we’ve never done this art before and I’d like to do some more in the future.” – Gurnoor
“The most challenging part was doing the outline because you couldn’t see it through the paper well so some of it was by memory but we put them up against the window which helped a lot.” – Evie
Leonardo Da Vinci: A life in drawing
We are very excited this exhibition of some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s art work, at Leeds Art Gallery, is taking place during our current art based big topic, Katie and…
A visit is planned to the art gallery, as part of our topic learning, so the children will get chance to see these famous pieces of art. More details about the trip will follow.
Leeds Gymfest performer
Congratulations to Betsy for performing at the Leeds Arena for the Leeds Gymfest this weekend.
This was a great achievement to perform with her club, Leeds Gymnastics, in front of an audience of 4,000!
Scooter training reminder
To start our Staying Safe themed week this week, don’t forget your scooters and helmets on Monday for the scooter training.
The trainers will bring spare scooters and helmets so don’t worry if your child can’t bring one to school.
To make sure we can access the scooters for each class, please park your scooters outside your child’s classroom when you arrive in the morning.
Finally, any remaining permissions must be given for your child to take part in this activity.
Natural Disasters – Flooding
On Thursday, Year 4 had a visit from Mr Pearson who leads a flood risk management team across the UK, protecting communities from this natural disaster. This visit fits in well with our current topic. During this workshop, the children asked some great questions and learnt lots of new facts.
Mr Pearson spoke to the children about his role and how this links to STEM.
STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating children in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Noah stated: “I really want to be an engineer.”
Year 4 learnt that computer models are used to identify areas that are at risk of flooding. When an area has been predicted to flood, there is only a two day window in which to put measures in place. The children studied graphs and diagrams showing water levels at different times of a day. What are the consequences of flooding?
“People could die,” commented Sami.
“Houses collapse,” said Jemima.
“People can get trapped in cars,” mentioned Musa.
Mr Pearson spoke about the places most at risk of flooding. Places such as Hull are very flat and prone to floods. We discussed the need for effective teamwork in these disastrous situations.
“How long does it take for flood water to go down?” asked Daisy.
“How does a flash flood happen?” questioned Kashif.
What is being done to prevent flooding in high risk areas?
Year 4 found out about different types of flood defences being used to minimise devastation. The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to restore the river’s flow towards the sea. 
Ask your child if they can remember the meaning of the word ‘recede.‘
There was some super learning during this session.
Well done Year 4 and thank you Mr Pearson!