Living and Learning: New school charity
Every year, we vote for a new school charity to support.
Our new charity will replace our current school charity The Children’s Heart Fund. Thank you for all the donations and support given to this great, local cause, including £180 for our recent Rob Burrow Connect Challenge.
As part of our Me and my community themed week, children will be considering the following shortlist of charities. Children should start thinking about these charities and be ready to share their views.
Action Against Hunger aim to save the lives of vulnerable people affected by hunger. Action Against Hunger fights hunger and malnutrition around the world, because no child should ever suffer or die from it. Stop hunger today.
No child should live in poverty. All children should have their basic needs met so that they can achieve their full potential in life. Give every head a bed.
Each class will vote for one charity which will be brought to the Junior Leadership Team who will have the final vote on Thursday 07 November.
Leeds School Sports Association cross country race 1
On Saturday, some of our key stage 2 children took part in the first of the Leeds Schools Sports Association Saturday morning cross country races. Over 100 children, from Leeds primary schools, compete in each of the Year 3-Year 6 girls and boys races.
A special mention to Ewan (Year 4) who finished in 5th place and Isla (Year 3) who finished in 13th place.
Thank you to the parents who supported and took their children to this event.
There are three more races coming up this year (see below) and details will be sent out for each race nearer the time if your child would like to get involved.
It’s nearly time to elect our new junior leaders
We have recently launched this year’s Junior Leadership Team election process. Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Here are some of the qualities our junior leaders think are needed to be an effective JLT member.
- use the 8Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
This weeks’ whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections on Thursday 24 October. For children who want to stand in the election, they will have the chance to share their speeches in class on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Well done to all our current junior leaders who have represented their class so well this year. Remember, you can stand again in the election.
Science: States of Matter
This week, Year 4 have started our chemistry topic of states of matter. We’ve looked at the three states of matter and discussed their properties.
- solid – fixed shape and fixed volume
- liquid – non-fixed shape and fixed volume
- gas – non-fixed shape and non-fixed volume
After that, we explored how temperature can change states of matter.
Help at home: ask your children what temperatures change our states of matter (eg below 0°c = freezing).
After-school clubs
Our autumn term clubs continue after half term and there is an opportunity to join the below after school clubs which currently have available places:
Monday
Hama Bead Club – Y4, Y5, Y6
Mindfulness & Yoga – Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6
Tuesday
Skipping – Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6
Sewing & weaving – Y4, Y5, Y6
Wednesday
Skipping – Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4
Girls Football – Y4, Y5, Y6
Thursday
Dazl Dance – Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4
Basketball – KS1
Basketball – KS2
Clubs run straight after school and finish at 4.15pm.
All clubs will run until w/c 9 December, which would give your child 6 sessions if they’d like to join.
If your child is interested in joining any of the above clubs, please reply to the email sent and an individual payment request will be set up.
Rugby ticket offer
Headingley Stadium has the honour of hosting the England men’s and women’s national team against Samoa and Wales respectively on Saturday 02 November 2024.
As a partner school of the Rhinos, we are pleased to offer children and families 20% off tickets. These are purchased directly from the Rugby Football League using the discount code shown below.
Living and Learning: Democracy
This week in L&L, we’ve been focusing on one of our British Values – democracy. Democracy means that power is in the hands of the people.
Our topic this half-term has been Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks founded democracy so the children already had a great understanding of what this meant.
The word democracy comes from Greek:
- dêmos – people
- krátos – power/rule
We’ve learnt about democracy in our country and how this works. The children were really interested in learning about the central and local government and the roles of political parties. We also discussed how we’re involved in democratic decisions at school:
We get to vote for how we use our reward time.
We get to vote for our JLT in school.
At the start of the year we got to vote for the name of our class reward points.
Next week, we’ll have our own democratic vote to elect our new JLT members for this year.
Help at home: create your speech for becoming a JLT candidate.
- What good qualities do you have to be a good leader?
“I would be a great leader because I listen to, and respect, other’s views.”
- How can you help your class?
“I would help Year 4 by listening to your opinions and ideas and sharing these with Mr Wilks and Mrs Weekes.”
School Trip to Lotherton Hall!
Yesterday, Year 3 and 4 visited Lotherton Hall on a school trip! This trip linked to this our science topic: grouping and classifying living things.
We began the day by exploring the Wildlife World and we saw some incredible animals! Some of your children’s particular favourites included the capybara, tapir, emus, Humboldt penguins and flamingos! It was amazing to be able to get so close and admire these fantastic animals.
Later, we were lucky enough to attend a workshop all about classifying animals. I was so impressed with all your children’s science knowledge! They explored the five groups of vertebrates:
- mammals
- reptiles
- amphibians
- fish
- birds
At the end of the workshop, each table got a replica skull to study. They looked at the teeth to decipher whether it was a herbivore or carnivore and the eye sockets to determine whether it was a predator or prey. It was fascinating!
It was a brilliant day filled with exciting and interactive learning – we’d love to go back!
Help at home: ask your children to name the different animals they saw at Wildlife World and classify them into their vertebrate group.
Maths: column addition
This week, we’ve loved doing column addition!
We began the week with column addition without exchanging and once your children were confident with this, we moved onto column addition with exchanging.
You can exchange 10 ones for 1 ten.
You can exchange 10 tens for 1 hundred.
You can exchange 10 hundreds for 1 thousand.
I’ve been wowed by your children’s column addition this week! They’ve demonstrated some fantastic knowledge of how and why we use column addition.
Help at home by asking your children to complete the following calculations using column addition:
2910 + 5839 =
1092 + 7233 =
2649 + 7221 =
8323 + 1284 =
Me and My Community week
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 4th November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year. In our ‘Me and My Community’ week, children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of our Living and Learning education.
Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion and disability and children will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.
Active travel in the community
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school, with prizes available as part of the themed week. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will by keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Email us (moortownoffice@spherefederation.org) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of five vouchers. Entries to be submitted by noon on Friday 8th November.
New school charity
At the end of the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist and the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they would like our school to support, replacing our current charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
Identity day
Friday 8th November will be a non-uniform Identity Day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. There is no donation or contribution required for this day.
SAVE THE DATE PTA coffee morning Friday 8 November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome all parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 9:50am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this or you would like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website continues to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard.