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!
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.
Champions!
Well done to Rishitha, Iona, Sami, Connor, Jatinder, Adam, Cydnee and Kiran for a super performance at the tennis competition last week. Both the Year Four and Year Five teams came in first place! Once again, the children showed great empathy for the other teams. These children should feel very proud for representing our school so well.
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.
A big well done!
Some of the children competed in a tennis competition yesterday and I am happy to say that the Year Four children came second in their group and the Year Five children came second out of a staggering five groups! The children played with great skill and were gracious runners-up to Talbot Primary. They are going through to another round where they will compete against more schools – fingers crossed for another excellent result!
Well done to Sami, Connor, Iona and Rishitha in Year Four.
Well done to Adam, Jatinder, Kiran and Cydnee in Year Five.
Tag rugby
For the next half term, Year 5 will be taking part in five weeks of tag rugby coaching on Monday afternoons. The programme has been set up by Leeds Carnegie and we are one of a small number of local schools selected to take part.
Please ensure children have their outdoor PE kit at school for these sessions.
Golf opportunities
Today Year 5 have taken part in a tri-golf session hosted by golf professional Paul O’Donnell.
The class were very enthusiastic and skillful and as a result Paul has invited all of Year 5 to take part in a free morning of golf at Cookridge Hall golf club 9am – 11am Tuesday 5 April in the Easter holidays.
A letter with more information will be sent out after the half term.
Every Child Matters Survey Preparation
This week, Year 5 have their pupil diary to complete prior to taking part in the ECM survey next Monday. By completing this diary, the more accurate the data will be in the survey.
The anonymous ECM survey gives our school information of how we can support the health and well-being of our pupils and will be used by other health professionals to bring about positive change in all areas of health.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the diary.
If you have any questions or concerns about the survey please come and see me.
Swimming videos
Even though the Year 5 swimming sessions have finished for this term, there are some great video clips on this website (http://www.swimming.org/swimfit/) to help with developing and/or improving technique for the different swimming strokes.
Take a look and try them out if you go swimming during the holiday.