On Our Doorstep
A visit to Tropical World taught us about lots of different animals and their habitats. Even though a tarantula or snake are not local to Leeds, we are fortunate enough to have them on our doorstep!
We also spent a lot of time in Roundhay Park investigating the wonderful green space that is within walking distance of our school. Yes, you’re right! We walked all the way from school to the park (we did cheat on the way back and jumped on the bus!). We had a great day and finished it off with an ice cream treat.
Bike Week
Last week, during Bike Week, over 120 journeys were made to and from school by bike.
All the names of children who cycled to school have now been entered in the Leeds City Council prize draw to be held on Monday 04 July with tickets drawn by the Lord Mayor.
Good luck to all those children.
It’s great to see children continuing to use their bike after bike week has finished as a healthy way to travel to school.
Jabadao
We had a fun PE session today doing Jabadao! Jabadao is a type of dance which uses scarves and ribbons. It can be very lively or very calm. Music is played but the dancer is in control of the movements so it’s varied and unique. Look at these photos; you can see how much fun we had.
Bike Week 20 – 24 June
Next week is Bike Week. Why not use our cycle rack and bike to school during this week?
Throughout the week each time you cycle to school you will be entered into a prize draw from Leeds City Council to win lots of cycling related prizes. Let your class teacher know each time you come to school on your bike.
Year 5 and Year 6 have both recently had their cycling training and what a better way to put these new cycling skills into practice than to bike to school during Bike Week.
For more information about Bike Week visit www.bikeweek.org or www.leeds.gov.uk/bikeweek
For more information about cycling in Leeds visit www.leeds.gov.uk/cyclemaps
Measuring Up!
As part of our Maths learning we tried to use anything we could find to measure length! As you can see we used plastic counting pegs, cubes, dinosaurs and bears. Predictions were made first and then we measured to see if we were accurate. Marvellous measuring – learning about length!
Moortown In Bloom
A piece of land between Stonegate Road and Scothall Road has been prepared to be part of Moortown In Bloom. We were asked to go and help with some of the planting in partnership with the Moortown Group. Off we went on Monday morning; we were given high visual vests (very fetching!), gardening gloves and a spade. Several holes were dug and plants were planted and the results will be evident in a few months when the flowers are blooming. Nine pupils from Year 6 represented Moortown Primary School very well; they worked well as a team and dug holes very well! Abdul and Sanna were demon diggers!! Look out this week in the Yorkshire Evening Post as we may appear along with our plants!
Dancing Together!
During “Community Week” we were very lucky to work with Tracy, a dance teacher. She taught us a dance about the Little Red Hen which was based on the theme of working together. We learnt lots of moves and then put them all together to tell the story. As you can see from the photos, we had lots of fun!
Celebrating our goals!
Well done to all our children for taking part in the sponsored Hot Shots event, raising money to help victims of the earthquake in Japan as part of My Community themed week.
Please return money raised as soon as you can – at the latest the first Friday after half-term.
Thanks.
More success at Moortown!
The Quality Mark is a recognition that some schools choose to work towards to help them monitor what they do for their learners and to celebrate successes within school. Because Ofsted chose not to inspect our school this year due to our continued good provision, we welcome feedback from other external bodies. This year, therefore, we decided to be re-assessed for the Quality Mark.
The re-assessment visit happened on Monday 16 May 2011. I’m delighted to say we’ve yet again been recognised for the great teaching and learning at Moortown. Here are some extracts of the visiting assessor’s report:
“The assessor felt that this was one of the most impressive visits he has ever made in nine years of visiting Quality Mark schools. David, the head, has lots of plans – he needs no points of action or areas to develop suggested from us. It was a privilege to visit.”
“Since the monitoring visit, the school has accomplished an impressive amount of progress.”
“The school has radically reshaped the intervention programme it operates with pupils… It has put into action what many other schools are now realising – that the huge weight of strategies that have been recommended to schools over the past ten years are of limited effectiveness unless they are tailored to exactly what the pupil needs at the time that s/he needs it.”
“Classrooms all show consistency of approach in teaching – learning objectives visible, use of speaking and listening partners, learning walls for each class… Consistency in marking of writing is assured through a detailed and very clear marking policy. The Year 6 pupils who showed the assessor around school were at pains to draw his attention to these features and kept up a running commentary of how pupils learn (including telling the assessor that in the Reception class it’s ‘learning through play, you know!’).”
“Moortown has successfully devised and implemented a curriculum and teaching methodology that involves pupils in their own learning, is rigorous and demanding whilst at the same time makes learning an enjoyable experience for pupils.”
Thanks to the dedication and support of staff, parents / carers and children, I know we do a fantastic job at Moortown. It’s great to know that visitors to school are struck by this great work, too.
I’m grateful to the five parents who spoke with the Quality Mark assessor, and to the two Y6 pupils who provided a tour of the school.
We are amazing authors!
As part of our Literacy learning we have been reading lots of traditional tales. We have been learning about characters, good and bad, and investigating lots of different plots and settings. Last week we did a “Big Write” where we had to have a go at writing our own traditional tales; here are a couple of our stories showing how much learning we have done. Check out our story language and punctuation! Look at how our handwriting has improved.
We are very proud of our story writing. Mrs Weekes and Mrs Maver are amazed at the improvements we have made.
Enjoy reading our traditional tales!