Big Walk and Wheel
We are taking part in the 15th year celebration of Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 11-22 March 2024. It’s free to take part and we would love everyone to be involved.
Last year, in our category of small primary schools, we finished in 24th place out of 514 schools with an average of 91.14% of our journeys to school being active. We achieved the highest national (24th) and Northern England (5th) ranking out of those schools in Leeds taking part.
What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event. Park and stride can also be included if you park at Marks and Spencer or further away from school and walk/scoot or bike the final part.
Why we are taking part
Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a great way to build physical activity in children’s daily routine which is important for their physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school journeys also help to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate. A 2021 YouGov study showed nearly half of UK children worry about air pollution near their school. And that children thought active travel was the best away to bring down these pollution levels.
Plus there are some great prizes to be won every day if we get enough children taking part!
Useful resources
To help you prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide to walking, cycling or scooting to school. It is packed with advice to help you have hassle-free journey to school.
Download your free family guide using this link: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/sign-up-to-receive-your-free-school-run-guide/
For more information about the event go to www.bigwalkandwheel.org.uk . Enjoy the challenge!
Spring 2: Week 1
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful half-term break. Thank you to those who have emailed some pictures. If you’ve not sent any, please do send them to moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org. Sharing photos from home helps to develop your child’s communication and language skills.
This week, we’ve been reading The Train Ride by June Crebbin. We pretended we were looking out the window on a train. We used our imaginations to think about what we might see.
Yesterday, we learnt about the first locomotive. We used this website to find out lots of information about Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. We looked at different train pictures from the past and present. After talking about what’s the same and what’s different, we had a go at putting them in order from the oldest to the newest.
Help at home: Look at the website again with your child at home. Talk to your child about Stephenson’s Rocket.
Tricky word password
This week, we’ve introduced our new tricky word password. When the children come in and out of the classroom, they have to read the tricky word on the door. We will change the tricky word daily to help children remember the tricky words.
Help at home: Continue to practise reading and writing the phase 2 and 3 tricky words.
Maths
This week, we further developed our comparison skills by looking at different sets. We encouraged the children to focus exclusively on the numerosity of sets, without being diverted by colour, shape or size. We reinforced the language of ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ when describing how many objects were in each set. ‘Fewer than’ was used rather than ‘less than’, as the focus was on countable things.
Help at home: Which hand has more pom-poms? Which hand has fewer pom-poms? How do you know?
Poetry Picnic
Click here to watch this week’s poem. We had lots of fun mixing, pouring, frying and tossing pancakes.
We’ve got some exciting events coming up in March!
Monday 04 March – Whole school theatre performance
You should have received a message about this.
Tuesday 05 March – Our first school trip to the National Railway Museum
We are very excited about this!
Thursday 07 March – World Book Day stay and learn session – 9-10am
Come and read a story or two with your child.
Wednesday 13 March – Our class assembly – 2.40pm
Cross country star
Congratulations to our Year 3 runner who represented Leeds today in the West Yorkshire cross country final. Competing against pupils from Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Leeds, he ran a fantastic race at Temple Newsam and should feel very proud of achieving a top 15 finish.
Living and Learning
This week, our Living and Learning statement is I recognise emotions in myself and others. Yesterday, we had fun looking in the mirror and acting out different emotions with our friends. We thought about what happens to our face when we experience different emotions. 
What happens when you do an angry face?
Rowan – Your teeth go sideways.
Rayaan – It looks like a monster.
Jasmine – I know it’s angry because she’s got eyes down and straight lips.
What happens when you do a worried face?
Zara – Your bottom lip comes out.
Teddy – Sometimes your lips can go together.
We also thought about what we can do if we see someone looking sad.
Zara – Ask if they are okay.
Teddy – If someone’s looking upset, you could say sorry.
Bryher – You could ask them to play with you.
Help at home: Talk to your child about their emotions . You could play a game of Guess my emotion by acting them out together.
Spring 1: Week 5
This week, we’ve been learning all about the Lunar New Year. Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. We used our imaginations to think about what we would paint if we were given a magic paintbrush.
Teddy – I would paint a Ferrari.
Gurjeevan – I would paint a Lamborghini.
Bryher – I would paint a princess.
Gurshaan – I would paint rainbow water.
Ivy – I would paint a unicorn.
On Wednesday, we watched a video about how people prepare and celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Ayah – They clean and decorate their house.
Edie – They cook nice food.
Yesterday, we read The Great Race and learnt about how the Chinese Zodiac started. We had a go at putting the animals in order.
Help at home: Can you remember to order of the Zodiac animals? You could draw a picture or write them in a list.
Here are some of this week’s chilli challenges in action…
Finally, thank you to all who attended the parent-teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to talk about the children’s learning and their fantastic progress.
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to KEEP READING and send me an email of what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 19 February.
Spring 1: Week 4
This week, we’ve been super busy being superheroes! We tried using our super speed, super strength and super writing skills to capture the Evil Pea. We made wanted posters and thought of sentences to describe the Evil Pea.
He has a red cape.
He is round.
He is green.
He has a black mask.
We’ve witnessed many determined superheroes trying to solve crimes and capture the Evil Pea. From finding and writing clues to building traps and recording messages on the iPads in the construction area, we’ve seen some fantastic team work!
Yesterday, we thought about what superpower we would have if we were superheroes.
This morning, two PCSOs visited us. They talked about their role and how they help people in our local community. We had lots of fun trying on police costumes and going in the police car.
Maths
In maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore making 5. We used the ‘5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer’ song to help us remember the pairs of numbers that make 5. On Wednesday, we noticed there wasn’t enough space for 6 aliens on the die frame. Therefore, we used a double dice frame to explore numbers 6 and 7 that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. 
Help at home: Number bonds to 5 game
- Put 5 small things into a bag.
- Ask your adult to take some things out of the bag.
- Then, you take the rest of the things out of the bag.
- How many things does your adult have? How many do you have?
- How many altogether?
Phonics
This week, we learnt our final phase 3 graphemes (air, er) and tricky words (are, pure, sure)
Next half-term, we’ll revisit all of the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We’ll also be reading words with:
– double letters (h-a-mm-er)
– two or more digraphs (ch-a-tt–er)
– ending in –ing (l-oo-k/i-ng)
– s /z/ in the middle (visit sounds like v-i-z-i-t)
– s /s/ /z/ at the end (c-oo-k-s)
– es at the end (t-or-ch-es)
Help at home: Play tricky word SPLAT
- Write a selection of tricky words on paper/sticky notes.
- Place around the room or on the floor.
- Say a tricky word for your child to jump or splat the words.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was an eight-line poem called A Little House.
Reminders
- Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 06 & Thursday 08 February
I look forward to chatting to you all in person next week. - Fiddly Fingers stay & learn session followed by a presentation and coffee morning – Monday 05 February 9am-10am
Living and Learning
Last week, our Living and Learning statement was ‘I know that some drugs can be harmful’. On Friday, Dave from d:side came to talk to us about how we can care for our bodies. The children impressed him with their amazing answers!
Strawberries are healthy.
You should brush your teeth in the morning and before bed.
Yoghurts have milk in. Milk is good for your teeth and bones.
You can have chocolate as a treat.
Guess who?
Last Friday, we had another go at drawing our faces. We looked carefully at our facial features. Can you spot your child’s self-portrait?
Spring term after-school clubs
*UPDATE*
We do have the following availability for clubs should your child wish to sign up.
The after-school clubs for this term are available for booking. We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.
Spring 1: Week 2
Maths
This week, we continued to engage with counting activities. A key focus this week has been the stable order principle – understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. To help us understand the stable order principle, we used cubes, blocks and other resources to make staircase patterns.
When making our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number.
Help at home: Make a staircase pattern at home. What will you use?
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman.
Literacy
This week, we continued to read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. For our writing challenges, we created missing posters and drew pictures of some of the things we would pack if we went on a journey to the South Pole. We also enjoyed watching the live penguin cam at Edinburgh Zoo. 
Help at home: With an adult, use the internet to find out some interesting facts about penguins. If you don’t have access to the internet, you could look at a non-fiction book. Please bring your facts to school!
PE
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our PE session with a Foot-Tech coach. This half-term, we’ll be developing our fundamental movement skills: running, hopping, jumping and skipping.
Here’s a snapshot of some of our winter learning activities this week…
Home-link challenge
