Super Spellings
Just some examples of some really great spelling practice when children are given a list of words to learn.
Check your child’s spelling work before they bring it to school on Thursday and see whether their presentation is the best they’re capable of and that they feel they’ve put enough effort in to their practice.
Cross Country qualifier
Congratulations to Grace in Year 6 who finished 6th in the Year 6 girls Leeds East North East Cross Country race at Cardinal Heenan school last week to qualify for the Leeds final next year.
Well done to all children who represented school in traditional cross country weather. For some of the children, this was the first time they have taken part in a competitive event and spirits were still high despite the weather.
Mathletics stars
Mathletics is a great resource that can support maths learning at home. Children all have login details, to gain access at home, and can complete tasks, based on learning in class. Currently the tasks are money related.
There are a number of children who, on a weekly basis, complete some or all of their tasks. Well done to Aadil, Christina, Hashim, Saahir, Sasha and Vedant.
We realise that not all children will have access to Mathletics at home so please let us know if this is the case so your child can access Mathletics at school where possible.
Finally, if you need us to resend your child’s login details, please let us know.
Homework with a differencce
Following our whole school themed week this week, Who do you think you are?, children were asked to consider the following statement by showing what they have learnt.
I know what community is.
As a guide, children could think about these aspects.
- What is community?
- Where is their community? Children could consider their school community to local community to wider community. Moortown Community Group has lots of information about our local community.
- Who is in their community? Children could consider visits/visitors during our themed week.
- Why is community important? Children could consider the terms ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ discussed during our themed week.
How can we be a good citizen in our community?
We were absolutely delighted with the high standards of homework this week. The children had thought of the most ingenious ways to create their homework. As we moved around in the classroom, celebrating everyone’s efforts, sounds such as, “WOW! Look at this! How did they think of that? This is such a great idea,” could be heard.
A great deal of respect is always shown by the children in Year 4 especially during homework celebrations.
One particular piece of work that stood out to both adults and children alike was a song with a difference. Kirsten had used the famous Christmas song, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, and changed it to ‘The Twelve Days of Moortown Community‘.
It was superb! So much so, we just had to all sing it!
The Twelve Days of Moortown Community
By Kirsten
On the first day of Christmas in my community, we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the second day of Christmas in my community,
Two helpful brownies,
And we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the third day of Christmas in my community,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the fourth day of Christmas in my community,
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the fifth day of Christmas in my community,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the sixth day of Christmas in my community,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the seventh day of Christmas in my community,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the eighth day of Christmas in my community,
Eight St. Gemma’s collectors,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the ninth day of Christmas in my community,
Nine local Councillors,
Eight St. Gemma’s collectors,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the tenth day of Christmas in my community,
Ten librarians lending,
Nine local Councillors,
Eight St. Gemma’s collectors,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the eleventh day of Christmas in my community,
Eleven mince pie servers,
Ten librarians lending,
Nine local Councillors,
Eight St. Gemma’s collectors,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
On the twelfth day of Christmas in my community,
Twelve families rejoicing,
Eleven mince pie servers,
Ten librarians lending,
Nine local Councillors,
Eight St. Gemma’s collectors,
Seven lights switched on,
Six neighbours giving,
Five brilliant teachers!
Four policemen saving,
Three fire fighters,
Two helpful brownies, and we sang Christmas carols by the tree.
An amazing selection of such super homework – I’m sure you’ll agree.
Comments from the children included:
“So much to choose from.”
“Enas, has celebrated her religion.”
“I love the drawing of the school. It’s a great idea!”
“WOW! Our whole class put together as little people in a box.”
“Such detail in Oliver’s work.”
“Celebrating all the local places of worship is really thinking about the community.”
“We were blown away by this week’s homework! Keep up these high standards and be proud of yourselves. WELL DONE!” commented Mrs Freeman, Mrs Charlesworth and Mrs Pearson.
We Are One Cool Class!
After many weeks of earning numerous cool class tokens but narrowly missing out, Year 3 are finally victorious!
We caught up with a few of the amazed pupils as they returned to their classroom to let the news sink in.
“I feel proud!” – Yusayrah
“I’m really happy. We’ve waited quite a while.” – Nryan
“I feel proud because we haven’t won before.” – Jasraj
“I was shocked because we’ve never won in Year 3.” – Safiya-Mishal
“We’ve tried to get lots of class tokens to get the cup.” – Adam
“We tried to be kind to all the teachers and the dinner staff and the cleaners.” – Jemima
Cheesy scones
Today, Year 4 went back to the kitchen. On the menu were cheesy scones.
Listening carefully to given instructions is always important – especially when using sharp knives and hot ovens.
All the children used skills they have been taught before. These included:
- accurate weighing and measuring
- grating
- mixing
- kneading
- rolling and cutting
- and, of course, washing up
The scones smelt and tasted delicious.
We dig fossils!
As part of our What’s the matter? mini topic, we’ve been studying fossilisation! (LO: How are fossils formed?)
We worked in groups to jot down key words and phrases from an informational video.
Next, we were given pictures of the different stages and had to put them in the correct order and write a sentence about each.
There was no need for a fossil fuel boost today- nobody was being a lazy bones! Fossils rock!
Creative Homework
This week’s homework was I know what community is.
As usual we were blown away by the quality and effort put into every piece!
From showing where we belong to where we live…
… to communities we are a part of…
… and information about where we’ve come from …
… to showing who makes up our community… 
… we thoroughly enjoyed discussing them all!
Well done everyone!
Packed lunches
On Monday, Caitlin Kitson, Nutritionist and Healthy Eating Adviser, delivered a whole school healthy eating assembly. The main focus was the importance of healthy packed lunches.
We talked about the different food groups on the Eatwell Guide, why different proportions of each food group are important for our bodies and how to achieve this in a packed lunch.
It was great to hear the children’s excellent knowledge of the Eatwell Guide when answering Caitlin’s questions.
At Moortown Primary, our packed lunch guidance includes:
- information about the different food groups
- how to put together a healthy, balanced packed lunch
- links to recipes and ideas for healthy packed lunches
Following the assembly, all children were given a copy of our packed lunch guidance and the Eatwell guide.
As an alternative to packed lunches, school meals, including a vegetarian option, are prepared daily in our kitchen and children are offered a choice of main courses and desserts. Children select their main meal choice at the start of the day. Catering Leeds provides food which meets national Food Standards criteria. School meals can be combined with packed lunches.
Free school meals are available to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. They are also available to some older children according to family income. It’s important to register for entitlement to free school meals, even if your child has a packed lunch or is in a younger class – this is so we can receive additional funding (called the pupil premium) which we can use to help your child.
What is our new school charity?
Part of our Who do you think you are? themed week was to learn about charities and how we can support them.
Our previous school charities, Leeds Mind and Yorkshire Air Ambulance Money, will benefit from £309.97 and £508.88 respectively as a result of fundraising and donations. Thank you.
It is now time to change our school charity. Each class discussed a range of charities, researched by the children for their homework, and voted on one charity they wanted to put forward for the school councillors to decide on.
Here were the class choices:
- Year 1 Plastic Oceans Foundation
- Year 2 Barnado’s
- Year 3 RSPCA
- Year 4 St Gemma’s Hospice
- Year 5 Make a wish
- Year 6 Diabetes UK
The final decision was a vote by the school council and the winning charity for 2017-2018 was Make A Wish. We will support this charity for one year.
We look forward to welcoming representatives from the charity in January for an assembly where we will hear more about their valuable work.