Guided Reading Information
Year 5 have been given their guided reading books.
The class have been divided into groups and each group has been given a book to read at home. This will last for this half term.
During our Book Club sessions each Friday, each group will discuss what they have read so far and share their reading record activities related to their book. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore characters and storylines more than they might do normally!
Every Friday during Book Club, each group will be given a new page to read to for the next Friday. This information will be posted every week on our class news.
What to remember:
- Your child has a book that they need to read every week (up to a chosen point marked with a post-it note).
- The reading record activity needs to be completed using their new book.
- A comment from a grown up needs to be written in their reading record.
- Group reading books and reading records need to be brought in every Friday.
Help at home: listen to your child read their new book and ask questions about the book to help prepare them for class discussions.
I look forward to hearing the children’s discussions next week!
North East Youth Summit 2025
Today, the Year 5 and 6 junior leaders visited the Leeds Civic Hall to attend the North East Youth Summit. It was a great day where the children had the opportunity to meet and hear from councillors, ask questions and give their say when thinking about things we would like to change and improve about our local area.
We suggested our ideas for activities that we would love to see in our locality. Here were our choices.
We were in a room with lots of other junior leaders from around our locality so it was great to meet them as well!
We discussed climate change in the official chambers where the MPs and Leeds’ Mayor meet to discuss their plans.
Maths: Division
In Maths this week, we have been looking at short division. We have been using the bus stop method to do this.
To start off we learnt how to divide with no exchanges.
We then moved on to learn how to divide 3-digit numbers by a 1-digit number which contained exchanges.
The next step was 4-digit numbers with exchanges.
And the final one was 4-digit numbers divided by a 1-digit number, that not only had exchanges but also a remainder.
Help at home: Have a discussion with your child about the problem below.
PE: Rugby
This half term, our PE unit is rugby. We will be practising lots of different skills: catching, passing/throwing, evading a defender, tackling an attacker and kicking.
We learnt in our first lesson this week how to pass with accuracy. You need to see the target, pass and then point. The pointing helps to direct the ball towards the target more easily.
Help at home: What do you already know about rugby? Is there any specific words to help us with our learning?
Leeds Beckett tennis
This week, Nic and Sky, tennis coaches from Beckett Sport Juniors, came to deliver a tennis themed assembly.
Here are the details of a special offer they are offering for Moortown pupils.
Writing: Co-ordinating and sub-ordinating conjunctions.
Year 5 have recapped their knowledge of co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
They ran and jumped across the playground. (2 verbs)
He is a blue and purple monster. (2 adjectives)
She was very scary and incredibly effective. (2 phrases)
We need to take action on climate change but we are still burning too many fossil fuels. (2 main clauses)
We can use the acronym ‘FANBOYS’ to help use remember the most common co-ordinating conjunctions.
Subordinating conjunctions connect a main clause (a complete thought) with a subordinate clause (an idea that needs more information to make sense).
The Earth is getting warmer because of human activities.
We must act now if we want to avoid further damage.
We can use the acronym ‘ISAWAWABUB’ to help use remember the most common co-ordinating conjunctions.
Year 5 had a treasure hunt to help consolidate this knowledge. There was grammar style questions hidden around the room for the children to find and answer.
Help at home: Can your child name all the subordinating conjunctions using ‘ISAWAWABUB’?
Maths: Column multiplication
In Maths, we have recently been looking at column multiplication. Year 5 started off by recapping Year 4 learning with 3-digit numbers times by 1-digit numbers. We know have learnt how to multiply 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers!
In this lesson, the children used their knowledge to play a game of connect 4.
Help at home: Practise multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers. Why not create your numbers by rolling a dice or using a random number generator? Ask your child to talk your through each step.
Cross Country Leeds Final
*** UPDATE*** Congratulations to our Year 3 girls team and one of our Year 4 runners who have qualified for the West Yorkshire Cross Country Final.
We were very proud of our eight Key Stage 2 children who took part in the Leeds Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam this week.
In muddy, slippy, wet conditions they all put in 100% effort in their races and were a great support for each other. The children should feel proud of competing against the best runners from across Leeds.
We’ll wait to hear if we have any qualifiers for the next round, the West Yorkshire Final.
Thank you to parents who helped with transport and supported at the event.
Internet Safety Day
Yesterday was Internet Safety Day! The theme for this year’s national Safer Internet Day is ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online.’
Our first lesson was about misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes. The children were given 3 news articles to analyse and summarise. They then had to share this information with their friends over message. What they didn’t know is that these articles were hoaxes (false information made to deceive people). I shared this information with them on purpose (disinformation) and they had then shared it by accident (misinformation).
Year 5 discussed how we must be critical users of the internet to make sure false information is not spread to affect others. Ibby said, ‘I would check other websites to make sure the information was correct’. Nate said, ‘I would look at the URL to make sure it is a safe and reliable website’.
It’s really important to always speak to a trusted adult if you’re unsure about something you read online.
We joined a great BBC live lesson for Safer Internet Day all about scamming and phishing. Phishing involves tricking someone into giving out personal information online by pretending to be someone else. We learnt how to spot a phishing scam using a helpful acronym.
We then learnt about why it’s important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online. Personal information that websites/apps/games collect could be anything from name and address to birthday, hobbies and even bank details. We need to keep this information safe whilst online and not give it to just anyone!
Help at home: Can you think of at least 4 pieces of personal information that we should keep private? How can you be critical users of the internet?
New school meal menu
After February half term, we start our new menu which runs to the end of the year. It can be viewed here. Please review this with your child to help with their selection at the start of the day. We continue to offer meat free Mondays.
The cost of a school meal is £2.75, which should be paid in advance on the School Gateway app. We’re happy to accept payment for the week, month, half term or term. We prefer two weeks’ notice to change lunch arrangements.
All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive free school meals. If your child is in Year 3 to Year 6, and you are on benefits or a low income, your child may be eligible for free school meals.
Some people like to choose a mix of school dinners and packed lunch for their child – that’s absolutely fine, as long as it’s a the same pattern of school dinners and packed lunches every week. Just let office staff know which days you’d like to opt in for a school meal in the week, and which days you’d prefer to provide your child with a packed lunch.
We continue to gather feedback from children on our school meals. Shortly, we will be reviewing our vegetable choices to help to eliminate waste.
If you have any feedback. please do get in touch.