Autumn 1: Week 1: dates for your diary
Welcome to Reception Class.
The staff are very excited to see you all again.
In our classroom there will be:
Miss Lowry (class teacher)
Mrs Boulton (teaching assistant)
Mrs Kaur (teaching assistant)
Mrs Pawlak (teaching assistant)
Our classroom is all set up and ready to go.
We hope you and your child are as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life. We hope you have been provided with all the information you need, but please ask if you are not sure about anything.
The First Week
After your child’s transition days, school will begin at 8.45 and finish at 3.15.
Please wait by the gate to our outdoor area and one of us will come to greet you.
At the end of the day, please wait at the gate of the Reception outdoor area. In order to ensure your child’s safety, we only let the children out as we see the parent /carer who is collecting them at the end of the day. As we are still getting to know you, this may take a little time at the beginning of the term so please bear with us.
If your child is being collected by somebody else, please tell us or phone the office. We will ask whoever is collecting your child for the password you chose.
Key information
I will post on our class news page every Friday to give you an update on what we have been learning about that week.
Please email in photographs of things that you do out of school with your child. This could be woodland walks, finding shells on the beach, baking etc.
Our class email is: moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
PE will be on a Friday. Please ensure that your child comes to school in full school PE kit.
Library will be on a Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school with their library book on this day.
We will assign new reading books on a Thursday. Please make sure your child comes to school with their reading record book on this day.
Dates for your diary
This year we will be offering various opportunities for you to find out more about Early Years at school.
There will be after school meetings with your child’s teacher.
There’ll be stay and learn sessions where you can come into school and be part of a lesson and then find out how you can help at home.
Then, opportunities to pop into school to share your child’s learning journey book with them.
We hope that you can join us for as many of these sessions as possible.
Welcome to Reception
An invitation to this event was emailed to you back in July but here is a reminder.
Come into school to find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception.
17.09.24 – 6pm – 6.30pm
Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Phonics Phase 2 and coffee morning –10.10.24 9-10am
Number 1 – 13.11.24 9-9:30am
Phonics Phase 3 – 14.01.25 9-9:30am
Fine Motor and coffee morning – 03.02.25 9-10am
World Book Day- 06.03.24
Number 2 – 18.03.25 9-9:30am
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Learning Journey Drop in 1 – 03.12.24 and 05.12.24 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Learning Journey drop in 2 – 28.03.25 and 01.04.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Learning Journey drop in 3– 08.07.25 and 10.07.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
School Games Mark Platinum award
We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the School Games Platinum Mark Award for the 2023/24 academic year.
The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust, to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.
As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.
Thank you to all the children who have represented school at different inter school events and competitions, parents for their support and staff for accompanying the children. We look forward to more events this year.
We are very proud of our children for engaging with these physical activities both in and out of school to support our ethos of being a happy and healthy school.
Summer 2: Week 7
This week we have been talking lots about change. We have been looking at the way we change during our lifetime from being:
a baby
a toddler
a child
a teenager
an adult
someone that is elderly
The children were able to act out each stage and discuss the things that you can do during these times.
The children have been talking and drawing about the things that they are looking forward to in year one.
We had a great Sports Day on Wednesday. The children showed real courage taking part in races infront of their peers and parents.
What a wonderful year reception class have had!
It has been a pleasure being able to share the last 9 weeks of their journey in reception. Even in that short time, the children have been a joy to teach and shown great progress.
They are now ready to start their new adventure in year one.
Thank you for all of your wonderful cards and gifts to reception staff.
Have a safe and fun summer.
Summer 2: Week 6 Safety Week
This week has been learning all about safety.
The children have been learning all about staying safe online, people who help us and staying safe around animals.
We have been lucky enough to have lots of visitors this week too.
During the week, we had a visit from two of our local police officers. They we able to help us identify who we need to speak to if an adult asks us for help. They also showed us some of the special equipment they use in order to keep themselves safe.
A person from our local dog’s trust came to talk to us about being safe around dogs. They taught us the five rules to stay safe around them.
We were also lucky enough to be taught some martial arts this week too.
Maths
During maths this week, we have been looking at time. We have been identifying why we need to tell the time and what different things we can use to tell it. The children have enjoyed timing eachother to do different activities.
Reminder
Please can all children bring a bag in on Thursday 18th July so that they can take their school books home.
Staying safe week: road safety
Jake, from the Leeds City Council road safety team, gave a whole school assembly all about staying safe on and around roads including different types of active travel.
Don’t forget, as part of our staying safe themed week, we are running our active travel safety competition this week.
For a chance to win one of three £10 Love2Shop vouchers, we’d love to see your active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing a bike helmet (send photos to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org). Photos should be sent by 4pm on Thursday 11 July and winners will be announced on Friday 12 July.
Help at home: Jake reminded us of the green cross code. Talk to your child about what we need to remember when crossing the road.
Staying safe: online safety
Louise from West Yorkshire Police gave a whole school assembly all about staying safe online.
There were lots of clear online safety messages around content, contact and conduct.
At the end of the assembly, the children reflected on what they were going to do after hearing Louise’s messages.
I am going to check my younger sisters’ Roblox settings.
I am not going to accept friend requests from people I don’t know.
I am not going to play games that have a age rating older than me.
Help at home: ask your child how content, conduct and contact are linked to online safety.
Staying safe week: water safety
Claire, a volunteer from Canal & River Trust, came to visit Reception and Key Stage 1 to teach us about staying safe near water.
SAFE stands for stay away from the edge.
If you do fall in water, you should float on your back like a starfish trying to keep your head above the water.
There were lots of hazards to spot.
Life jackets and buoyancy aids can help to keep you safe on boats.
Help at home: have a look at these water safety games with your child.
Summer2: Week5
It has been a fun filled week for reception this week.
The children enjoyed going to see their new teacher on Wednesday. They asked lots of great questions and were excited to talk about their new classroom when they came back.
During the trip on Thursday, the children were fantastic. They enjoyed adventures in the woods, learning more about recycling, hunting for minibeasts and exploring with water.
The children were able to use our word of the week (humungous) to describe the play area.
Maths
The children have been looking at fair and unfair sharing. They are now able to identify when something has been shared fairly. We looked at sharing different amounts of objects between 2,3 and 4 people.
Help at home: by sharing objects out fairly and unfairly.
Staying Safe themed week
Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, will be taking place next week. The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations – at home, at school, online and in the environment.
A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education including road safety (Leeds City Council); water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI); fire safety (West Yorkshire Fire Service); staying safe around dogs (Dogs Trust); first aid (Leeds Beckett and Red Cross); safety in our community (PCSOs) and e-safety (d:side).
Here are some events taking place.
Monday 08 July 3pm – 3:30pm d:side e-safety drop in information session
A representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be available to discuss e-safety issues and details of your child’s e-safety learning in the themed week.
Thursday 11 July from 8:30am West Yorkshire Police bike register event
Pupils are invited to bring along their bikes to be registered at this bike security marking event at school. Registering your bike helps police and retailers identify and verify the legitimate owner of bikes that have been stolen or are being resold. This is a first come first served event.
Friday 12 July 2:35-3:15pm Leeds Beckett University Carnegie Great Outdoors basic first aid session for parents/carers – there are limited places available so please confirm your place via school gateway.
The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active and safe ways to travel to school. Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way.
For a chance to win one of three £10 Love2Shop vouchers, we’d love to see their active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing their bike helmet (send photos to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org). Photos should be sent by 4pm on Thursday 11 July and winners will be announced on Friday 12 July.
Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, this year, we are requesting a voluntary contribution of £1 per pupil to go towards paying for visitors. This can be made on school gateway. Thank you for your support with this.
Finally, can you help? Does your job involve an aspect of safety? If you are able to support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school to speak to the children, please contact me via the office or your child’s class teacher.
We will keep you up to date about events during the week on the class news pages on our website.
Thank you for your support to keep Moortown a happy, healthy and safe school.
Summer 2: week4
PE
We have been practising our races for sports day again this week. The children are really enjoying using the different equipment and developing new skills!
English
This week’s book is called Clean Up. It is about a girl called Rocket who cleans up the beach whilst on holiday. It has inspired the children to clean up our school. They have been proud litter pickers picking up any rubbish that they find and using it to make creations in the classroom. They have been using the word of the week (pollution) whilst discussing what they have been doing and why.
Help at home: by using our word of the week with your child.
Maths
This week we have been discovering bonds to 5. The children have been making these and using the sentence stem:
5 is made from …. and …..
…. and …. combine to make 5
We have also been singing lots of songs including five little speckled frogs to consolidate this learning.
Reminders
Next week is a busy week. We have sports day, meet the teacher, our school trip and the summer fair.