Living and Learning: Relationships
To start, we defined a relationship as “the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected” and then talked about the different relationships we have in our lives. Then, we discussed healthy and unhealthy relationships and thought about how we could support and improve them. Here are a few ideas:
- being kind, considerate and respectful
- being honest
- listening to each other
- respecting personal space, boundaries and privacy
- accepting others’ differences
We then talked about similarities and differences between our families and focused in our why our families are important to us. Here are a few responses. Families provide:
- love
- care
- support
- food
- shelter
- safety
Help at home: Talk with your child about the different relationships they have.
City of Leeds basketball girls opportunity
RE: Drop Down Morning
This year, Year 5 have already had 2 RE Drop Down Mornings. These are designed to recap learning over the course of a whole morning so that children can better remember key information. In Autumn term, we learnt about Christianity and then we learnt about Islam in Spring. This morning, it was the turn of Judaism.
We learnt about the history of Judaism and where Jewish people live today. We also learnt about what Jewish people believe and what is important to them. Finally, we summarised our learning across all three drop down mornings by sorting statements into a three way Venn diagram.
I have been very impressed with the children’s knowledge and understanding in this subject.
Help at home by asking your child to name the Abrahamic religions. What do they have in common?
Production: The Amazing Adventures of Superstan!
This week, we have been practising our brilliant production. The children have been acting, singing and will soon be dancing!
Please make sure you bring your costumes and props outlined – in this week’s letter – to school no later than Wednesday 24th June, in a named plastic bag. If you don’t have any of the items listed for your role, please let an adult in Year 5 or Year 6 know before the 24th.
Keep practising your lines at home and get into the character you are portraying!
Thanks everyone!
Living and Learning: Staying Safe Week
This week we have had a themed week all about staying safe. We have has plenty of visitors into school to talk to us about different ways we can stay safe.
On Monday, we learnt about road safety and Dave from D:Side taught us all about the dangers of vapes and cigarettes.
On Tuesday, the Health and Wellbeing team from Leeds City Council taught all about how to keep ourselves protected from infection and how best to treat different illnesses.
On Wednesday, British Military Martial Arts helped us energise ourselves and the fire service spoke to us about fire safety.
To finish off the week, we had an assembly all about water safety run by the Canal and River Trust.
We have also learnt in class about level crossings, peer pressure, respecting boundaries and recognising harmful relationships.
The children have all been very respectful to all the visitors and spoken maturely about all the issues raised.
Help at home by discussing this week’s learning and considering how the children can stay safe at home.
Forest School!
Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed their second stint in Forest School this half term – particularly as the weather has got (a bit) warmer! They have been exploring the whole of the Green and having lots of fun. They have been making dens, lighting fires, cooking food and sawing wood!
The children are learning key skills around cooperation, assessing risks, resilience and healthy living. They are always so full of enthusiasm when they come back after a morning in the Forest School.
Just a reminder that the children still have one more Forest School session left on the first Friday back after half term (5th June) due to the INSET day next Friday.
Help at home by discussing the children’s favourite part of Forest School.
Guided Reading Week 3
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 8th May.
Ghost Hunter– up to page 160
Kensuke’s Kingdom – up to page 117
Two weeks with the Queen – up to page 95
How to train your dragon – up to page 159
Spy fox– up to page 127
Considine Curse – up to page 137
Science – reversible changes
This week in Science, we have been looking at reversible changes. We mixed sand with water to create a mixture. Then, we separated the mixture using filter paper which captures the sand and let the water pass through.
Next, we dissolved some salt in some water. This made a solution so we couldn’t just filter the salt out. We decided that we wanted to test if we could use evaporation to separate the salt and water. We poured our solution into a petri dish and left it on the window sill to see what happened.
We observed the changes over the next few days, making sure we recorded our findings in our books. We were very excited to see the salt reappear.
Help at home by talking to your child about their experiment. Is there any other time they have seen evapoartion?
Living and Learning: Being Safe
We took part in the NSPCC Speak out Stay Safe online assembly.
During the assembly, it highlighted children’s rights and gave the clear message of ‘Speak out, Stay safe’. The children were confident at identifying who their own trusted adults are and felt comfortable that they could ask for help.
We also heard about Childline – ask your child to show you the way to remember the number.
To follow up this learning, we welcomed staff from NSPCC to deliver a ‘Speak Out Stay Safe’ workshop. They were very impressed with the children’s learning and understanding.
Help at home: Discuss who your child would speak to if they needed help and/or visit the Childline website, which has age-appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools.
Living and Learning: Staying safe themed week 18 May
Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, will be taking place from Monday 18 May 2026. The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations – at home, at school, online and in the environment.
A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education including road safety (Leeds City Council); water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI); fire safety (West Yorkshire Fire Service); first aid; safety in our community (PCSOs), martial arts (BMMA) and drug education (d:side). Some of the events require parental permission and these letters have been sent out separately.
There are also some opportunities for parents and carers, from all year groups, to get involved in the week.
Thursday 14 May from 8:30am West Yorkshire Police bike register event
Pupils are invited to bring along their bikes to be registered at this bike security marking event at school. Registering your bike helps police and retailers identify and verify the legitimate owner of bikes that have been stolen or are being resold.
Tuesday 19 May 3pm – 3:30pm d:side drug education drop in information session (playground)
A representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be available to discuss details of your child’s drug education learning in the themed week.
The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active and safe ways to travel to school. Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way.
For a chance to win one of three £10 vouchers, we’d love to see their active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing their bike helmet (send photos to [email protected]). Photos should be sent by 10am on Thursday 21 May and winners will be announced on the same day.
Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, this year, we are requesting a voluntary contribution of £2 per pupil to go towards paying for visitors. This can be made on Arbor. Thank you for your support with this.
Finally, can you help? Does your job involve an aspect of safety? If you are able to support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school to speak to the children, please contact me via the office or your child’s class teacher.
We will keep you up to date about events during the week on the class news pages on our website.
Thank you for your support to keep Moortown a happy, healthy and safe school.