Living and Learning: Penny trail
It was great to see the generosity and enthusiasm of the children during our Me and My Money themed week to try and fill their class collecting tubes. They were filling up by the end of the week.
On Friday, all the classes ventured into the playground to use their pennies to create a huge ‘Moortown’ penny trail. We had so many 1ps and 2ps that we ended up doubling and tripling up our coins.
The total amount raised for Yorkshire Air Ambulance was a fantastic £123.53 so thank you for your donations.
Anti-Bullying Day!
Today, we celebrated Anti-Bullying and Odd Socks Day as part of Anti-Bullying Week.
We all wore odd socks to school to show that it’s okay to be different and to stand up against discrimination and bullying. At Moortown, we always celebrate diversity and wearing odd socks was a fun way to show this today!
In Year 4, we had some important conversations around what bullying is and what to do if we experience it. We like to use the acronym STOP to help us remember.
We discussed where your children could get support regarding bullying:
- A trusted adult
- Someone in your family
- Friends
- Childline (0800 1111)
- Write a worry slip and put it in your Living and Learning box or the whole school worry box (outside the school office)
- Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org
We attended a live online lesson held by CBBC all about this years theme ‘power for good’. This is all about using out power for the right reason to stand against bullying. Year 4 came up with our own pledge to stop bullying.
Help at home: have an open discussion about bullying at home. What is bullying? What should you do if you experience bullying? How can bullying make somebody feel? How can we resolve conflict respectfully?
Me and My Money Week!
This week has been one of our themed weeks all about money! We’ve had a variety of sessions where we’ve learnt a lot about money, spending, charities, prices and saving. We’ve had some visitors to help us with our learning too. Here’s what we’ve got up to:
We began our week with a workshop from HSBC. During this, we learnt about the different ways we can pay for things (using gift cards, cash, debit cards or credit cards). People can sometimes borrow money from the bank but they have to pay it back otherwise there is consequences. We used what we had learnt to give some advice to someone on how they should spend their money.
We had a fun session on budgeting. Year 4 became party planners and were given a £100 budget to organise a birthday party for 30 children. They had to make spending choices, considering their priorities, needs and wants and most importantly, could not go over budget!
Across the week, we’ve been collecting 1ps and 2ps for our school charity Yorkshire Air Ambulance. We collected them all together to do a penny trail spelling out MOORTOWN in the playground.
Help at home: when you next go food shopping, give your child an imaginary budget and see if they can stay in it as they’re walking around selecting items.
Anti-bullying day/Odd socks day Monday 10 November
Do you have a child due to start primary school in 2026?
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Training day – Arty ideas !
We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.
Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.
The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!
Writing: news reports
Today, Year 4 finished their twisted tales news reports. They were writing to report the story of the three little wolves and the big bad pig!
I was wowed by their brilliant writing and creative ideas. The reports were full of adverbs, fronted adverbials and fantastic descriptions of the awful crime.
This afternoon, Year 4 read out their writing as if they were news reporters. We spoke about our oracy skills (speaking and listening) to make sure the reports were clear and well projected. Everybody did a fantastic job – I think we might have some budding journalists in Year 4!
Help at home: watch Newsround and talk about the oracy skills the presenters are using when reporting.
Half term basketball camps
As a partner school of City of Leeds Basketball Club and one of our after-school club providers, we’re pleased to share details of their half term camps held locally at Allerton High School.
Living and Learning: Me and my money themed week
Writing: twisted tales
In writing, Year 4 are looking at news reports.
The purpose of a news report is to tell the reader information about something that has happened.
We’re going to be writing a news report about a twisted tale. We’re doing a spin on the classic three little pigs story. However, ours is going to be the three little wolves and the big bad pig. The big bad pig needs a warm blanket for winter and wolf fur is exactly what he’s looking for!
Today, together we drew a story map (we found the drawing quite tricky as you can see!) of our twisted tale. This is going to help us write our news reports next week.
Help at home: ask your children to tell you the story of the three little wolves and the big bad pig. Can they do it like a news reporter?