Year 4 Class News

Basketball Come and Try, Thursday 19 November

We have a few spare places to come to the basketball come and try event at Roundhay School on Thursday 19 November.

• What? Basketball session led by Leeds Force basketball club
• Where? Roundhay School
• When? Thursday 19 November, 3.30pm-5.30pm
• Who? Open to all KS2 classes

Please contact the office if you are able to come to this event.  Children will be supervised at the session but need to be dropped off and collected from Roundhay School.

Top vegetable choices

If your child chooses school dinners, they are served two portions of vegetables or vegetables and a portion of salad with each meal.  As we are all aware of the importance of eating vegetables, all children have been consulted on their favourite vegetables based on the vegetables that currently feature on the school dinner menu.  The most popular choices will now feature more regularly on the menu.

We would also like your views on school dinners.  Look out for the school dinner survey due to be sent out next week.

An active half term

We’ve started the year with plenty of physical activities.  Here are some of the highlights.

Rugby World Cup

In September, the Rugby World Cup came to Leeds and we were lucky enough to win tickets to watch Italy play Canada at Elland Road.  There was a great response to our prize draw for tickets and our three lucky winners enjoyed the World Cup experience.

Active Schools

This year as part of our investment of the Primary PE and sport premium government funding for schools we have joined the Leeds Active Schools programme.  Their mission is to promote and develop, through collaboration and partnership, a sustainable system for physical activity, PE and sport that enriches the lives of all children and young people.  Already this year, as part of this programme, we’ve had the opportunity to take part in some great events.

Big sing Big dance

A group of our Year 3 pupils were part of over one thousand children from across Leeds who took part in the Rugby World Cup Big dance Big sing event in Millenium Square.

Singing and dancing to the Rugby World Cup theme tune ‘World in Union’, the event was to celebrate the rugby matches in Leeds.

• ‘I loved it and I tried my best.’
• ‘It was exciting when we did the dance.’
• ‘I enjoyed using the rugby balls for the dance and singing the song, too.’

Rugby World Cup fanzone

As part of the celebrations for the Rugby World Cup, a number of children had the opportunity to be involved in the fanzone in Millenium Square.  There was a carousel of activities including rugby activities and inflatables, a practical Tagtiv8 session and a visit to Leeds Library to meet author Tom Palmer.  Tom writes sports novels for children, including the Rugby Academy series.

• ‘I really enjoyed the event. It was fun, especially the bit with Tom Palmer.’
• ‘I loved it! I especially enjoyed when I won the rugby ball. It was so good I want to do it again.’
• ‘I enjoyed playing pass with my friends and learning how rugby started.’

Brownlee Triathlon

Harewood House recently hosted the Brownlee Triathlon.  Following this, a number of our children took part in the children’s Brownlee Triathlon held at the John Charles Centre.

The event involved a 30m swim, 1km cycle and a 400m run and was attended by Jonny Brownlee.

• ‘It was the best sporting event that I’ve ever done.’
• ‘It was great and was very challenging but in a good way.’
• ‘I have never done a triathlon.  It was amazing, especially the fact that I met the Brownlee brothers.’

Football

This year we continue to be part of the Leeds School Football Association leagues for Year 4, 5 and 6, led by Mr Lawton and Mr Catherall.  Here is a summary of their season so far.

The ‘Moortown Dragons’ (Year 4 football team) are learning quickly what it means to be part of a team: sticking together, working for each other, and keeping smiles on everyone’s faces. In our most recent game, they showed off some sharp passing as a team, gritty goalkeeping displays, and capped it off with a couple of stylish goals. ‘Make friends, make friends, never, never break friends!’

In the short time we’ve had, the Year 5 footballers have impressed with their passion for the game. They’ve started to show their desire to work for each other, and we’re looking forward to a good run of matches after half term. If they can show half the skills that they demonstrate daily in the playground, and keep looking out for each other, they’ll go far indeed.

The Year 6 football team have grown in confidence throughout each of their fixtures so far this year. With an emphasis on teamwork, enjoyment and working hard (on and off the ball), each team member has improved significantly. Their continued development as a team was, perhaps, most evident in the recent game against local rivals Gledhow. Well done to all! Keep it up and you’ll soon be rewarded for your efforts.

Events to look forward to next half term include more football matches, Leeds North East sports hall athletics competition, a Come and Try basketball session at Roundhay, cross country and a health-themed week, too.

Thank you to all parents who support with transport and accompanying children to these events.

Well done to all our competitors and participants who have represented the school.

Newsletters

This term’s newsletters have been emailed and paper copies will be sent home later this week.

This year, we’ll publish the newsletters on the website, too. Here are the first half-term’s…

• Year 1 and Year 2 newsletter
• Year 3 and Year 4 newsletter
• Year 5 and Year 6 newsletter
• The whole school newsletter

Reception provide their own newsletters and lots of photos, top tips and news on their class news page.

Rugby world cup activities

As the Rugby World Cup approaches, Roundhegians are organising activities for both children and adults at their local facilities.

SEAL New beginnings

As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New Beginnings.

We have three new members of staff making a new beginning at Moortown, Mrs Wells, Mr McKeon and Mr Lawton, alongside new children joining our school and our new Reception class.

‘I make someone feel welcome‘ is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme.

New beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.

During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.

Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.

New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.

Reading

Just as the summer started, the papers were full of articles about ideal holiday reading for adults and children alike. (I think ideal holiday reading is any reading you want to, whether it’s in the holidays or not!)

How many books has your child read this holiday? More importantly, what sort of discussions have you had with your child about what books you’ve been reading, and of course what they’ve been reading. (I’ve already had chats with Mrs Weekes and Miss Valentine about my summer reading. including a great children’s book, ‘Grace‘ by one of my favourite authors, Morris Gleitzman.)

As we approach the end of the holidays, it’s an ideal time to reflect on what we’ve read – and start the new school year off taking a positive, encouraging approach to your child’s reading.

Encourage your child to read anything and everything: a story, leaflet, brochure, comic, flyer, advert… It could be for pure entertainment, or with a different purpose: to use a recipe, make a shopping list, read street signs, or any kind of text!  The more varied reading your child does, the less likely they are to be put off reading a text.  Don’t be too pushy either – texts which are too difficult can put children off (harder books might be best left to bedtime reading); all children should be able to read their reading book 90-95% accurately and fluently in order to enjoy and gradually progress in their reading.

• Build reading accuracy – as your child reads aloud, point out words they miss and help them sound out and read them correctly.
• Build reading comprehension – talk with your child about what they’re reading, asking about new words and what new information they’ve learned.
• Read together every day – don’t forget reading aloud to your child at bedtime reading can count, too!
• Don’t overlook non-fiction texts – spend time talking about pictures and diagrams.
• Visit the library regularly – did your child take part in the local libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge (see News article on 13 July 2015)?
• Use the Internet – find out more about the books your child has read or would like to read next, and just enjoy surfing the internet for facts and figures about whatever interests your child.

Enjoyable, regular and short practice is the best way for your child to progress and learn through reading.  Make sure your child spends 10-15 minutes reading each day and use the guidance below to ensure (s)he is getting the most from every book they read.  The questions will need to be varied according to the book and your child.  The book may lend will to developing knowledge, phonic, punctuation, writing or comprehension skills.

Don’t attempt to try to cover all the bullet points! It might be a good idea to focus on just one of these areas every few days or so, or just choose a question from two or three sections.

Comprehension

• Did you enjoy the story – why?
• What happened at the start / in the middle / at the end?
• Was there a problem?  How was it resolved?
• How would you have resolved the problem?  Can you think of another way?
• What would you do if …
• What was the main idea of the story?
• Can you summarise the story in a couple of sentenced?
• Try to predict what will happen before the story ends.
• Write about a memory or experience of your own that is similar to something you’ve read in your book.
• Write a letter to someone telling them about the book and your opinion of the book.
• Construct a time line to fit the story.  Include all the main events

Characters

• Who are the characters?
• What do they look like?
• What kind of clothes do they wear?
• How did the character feel when …?
• What kind of mood was the character in?
• What kind of personality do they have? Kind, caring, nasty, bully, liar, friendly, quiet, noisy …?
• What does it say in the text that makes you think this?
• What do other characters think or say about this character?  Why do they feel this way?
• How does your character treat other people in the book?  How does the character change throughout the story?  Explain and give support for your answers.
• Can you re-write the story and include your own character?
• Write a description of the main character – their looks, the way they dress, the way they talk and their personality.
• Draw and label a character or a setting from a description in the book.

Story setting

• Where is the story set?
• Imagine you are in the story …
• What can you see?  What can you hear?  What can you small?  What can you feel?
• Can you write a description of the story setting using adjectives?  eg I found myself standing in the middle of …
• What is the weather like?

Non-Fiction

• Research the subject further using the internet or local library.
• Write down in your own sentences some facts you have learnt from the book.
• Can you think of anywhere we might be able to find additional information about this?
• What do the pictures or diagrams in this piece of information add to the text?
• How are these different to the pictures you might find in a story?
• Can you point out: a heading, sub-heading, caption, diagram, introduction, contents page etc?
• Why has the author organised the information in this way? (You could refer to sections and sub-sections, bullet points etc)
• How do you feel about …?  Can you explain why?

Summer Reading Challenge 2015

This year, the Summer Reading Challenge returns with the challenge of breaking records!

It’s really simple to join in and complete the challenge. All you have to do is

1. Join any Leeds library (including mobile libraries).
2. Borrow three books and read them. (You could write a short book review on them too.)
3. You can borrow any book: stories, joke books, information books or even audio books.
4. Return these (to any Leeds library) and borrow another three books.
5. That means you need only borrow six books altogether – or more, of course!
6. Once you’ve returned your second lot of three books, your challenge is complete!

We’re hoping to get lots more children taking on the challenge this year and enjoying their reading over the summer. Try not to borrow thick books that you’re never going to finish and make sure you pick books you’re going to be interested in, or, try something new. For any more information, take a look at the leaflet below.

 

Healthy Schools award

Following our School Health check earlier this year, to maintain our Healthy Schools status, we were proud to attend the Healthy Schools celebration event to receive our award.  Held in the debating chamber at Leeds Civic Hall, we enjoyed presentations from councillors and other schools around the 4 areas of Healthy Schools – physical activity, PSHE (personal, social and health education), healthy eating and emotional health.

Two of our sports leaders were invited to lead a practical session in the break for other pupils who were attending.  They did this with great confidence and encouragement.

As part of the event we also had the opportunity to use the voting system in the debating chamber to vote on key areas across health and wellbeing for councillors to consider on a city-wide strategic level.  Based on data from the 2014 My Health My School survey, our current Year 5 and 6 classes will be completing this survey for 2015.  The top priorities identified were levels of physical activity and eating 5 a day.

Summer sports and arts camp (Edward Lynch)

Edward Lynch, a local dance coach who has worked with children during our curriculum and extra-curricular dance sessions, is helping to run a local sport and arts camp called IMPACT in the summer holidays.