Staying Safe
Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, will be taking place from Monday 22 May 2017. The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
Events during the week will include e-safety drama workshops for all classes, NSPCC Speak Out, a stay safe assembly and workshops, Leeds City Council road safety and scooter training, water safety sessions with Canal and River Trust, bike maintenance with Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative and d:side, delivering drug education. Some of the events require parental permission and these letters will be sent out separately. There are also three specific parent sessions during the week.
Tuesday 23 May 2.10-3.10pm O2 and NSPCC online safety workshop (open to all parents)
This hour-long workshop will help parents and carers understand their child’s online world and build confidence to have those important conversations that can help keep children safe online.
Wednesday 24 May 3.15-3.45pm d:side informal information session (open to all parents)
A d:side representative will be available to provide information about your child’s drug education learning during the themed week and answer any other related enquiries.
Thursday 25 May 2.40pm e-safety drama show back (parents of Year 5 and 6)
Following e-safety drama workshops led by One Day Creative, parents are invited to come and watch the children present their learning from the day.
Following the success of the recent Big Pedal promotion and as we will be covering bike, scooter and road safety during the week, we shall be holding a whole school walk/bike/scoot to school initiative. Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way, and if they do, they should complete the slip at the bottom of a letter to be sent home for a chance to win one of five £10 Love2Shop vouchers. We hope you will support this initiative in helping children make a healthy start to their day and also helping towards reducing congestion at our gates. 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.
Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative will be running a Dr Bike event in the playground on Tuesday 23 May. From 8:30am, you will be able to bring along your bike for a free bike safety check.
We will keep you up to date about events during the week through Twitter and the class news pages on our website.
Finally, if your job involves an aspect of safety and you can support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school, please contact the school office or your child’s class teacher directly to arrange this.
3 days to go
Only 3 Big Pedal days to go!
We’ve had a great participation rate across the two weeks so far. Our highest participation was 43% on Day 5 (Friday).
Here’s a peek at the prizes – who will be our winners?
Keep cycling, scooting and we’ll soon find out!
Tag rugby success
Our Year 5/6 Tag Rugby team took part in the Leeds North East tag rugby competition today and topped their group to qualify for the Leeds City Tag Rugby Finals in May.
Well done to all the children involved – a great team effort!
School Saving Club
The next School Saving Club paying in date is 23 March 2017 at 3.15-3.45pm.
If you’re unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be deposited to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Miss Hale.
For your information the paying in dates for the rest of the year are:
18 May 2017 3.15-3.45pm
13 July 2017 3.15-3.45pm
If your child would like to open account, please ask at the office.
Tour de Yorkshire themed menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special Tour de Yorkshire themed menu on Tuesday 25 April.
Please contact the office by Thursday 30th March if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
A great start
We’ve started the Big Pedal today with an impressive 40% participation rate on Day 1. Did you cucle or scoot to school? If not, there are another nine days to go.
Here are today’s totals.
A big thank you to Dom Jacques for supporting the event and organising the bike and scooter donations. These donations have meant that even more children can take part in the event.
Also, thank you to the Year 6 helpers who are coordinating the data gathering on a daily basis.
Marble Run Mayhem
Yesterday, we were finally able to get our hands on the marble runs we made a few weeks back as part of our big Time Travel topic – we’ve been waiting for the glue to set properly!
After a little ‘free play’, and after making a few alterations, we evaluated our finished products against the criteria we decided on during the design process. It was really impressive that each group managed to make marble runs that fulfilled the initial criteria: fun to play, works, correct level of challenge, clear start and end point and structurally sound.
Finally, we thought about what we’d do differently next time. Most groups agreed that they could have planned their marble runs with a little more precision (it’s hard not to get carried away during the design phase).
Help others take part in the Big Pedal
Do you have any bikes or scooters that you no longer use?
If you’d like to donate them, please bring them to school any morning this week and provided they are in a working condition, we’ll offer them to people who don’t have one to use in the upcoming Big Pedal event. Please hand them to Dom Jacques who will be in the playground to take receipt.
Any that aren’t roadworthy or are unwanted will be donated to local recycling charities such as the Yorkshire Bank Bike Library. The nearest Bike Library is at Moor Allerton Library (near Sainsburys) and they offer loan bikes to families for up to 14 days for free.
Three days to go
The Big Pedal starts on Monday 20th March for two weeks and we’re looking forward to seeing as many people as possible take to two wheels for their journey (or final part of their journey) to school. There are two lots of prizes up for grabs:
Big Pedal national prizes for all participating schools
Drawn daily for schools who achieve a minimum 15% participation (roughly 31 children for Moortown Primary) each day.
Details of the national prizes on offer are shown below.
- DAY 1 – BMX World Champ Visit & Show
- DAY 2 – Bespoke Travel Map For School
- DAY 3 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 4 – Superheroes/Moves Sample Pack
- DAY 5 – Alastair Humphreys Visit + Books
- DAY 6 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 7 – £100 Sustrans Voucher
- DAY 8 – Cyclepods Cycle Storage
- DAY 9 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 10 – Extreme Mountain Bike Show Visit
Individual prizes for pupils and supporters (parents/carers) at Moortown Primary
The more days you take part, the more entry tickets you’ll have in the prize draw.
Pupil prizes include two stunt scooters, an action camera, a bike pump, a copy of ‘The Boy who Biked the World’ by Alastair Humphreys and a Gruffalo Easter egg. Supporter prizes include two £5 M&S vouchers, a ‘hot drink and cake for two’ at Filmore & Union and a Lindt chocolate bunny.
Winners will be drawn during assembly on 31 March, the final Big Pedal day and last day of term.
How to win – pupils
Please fill in the tickets on the letter sent home, cut them out and put them in your school bag. Each morning you scoot or cycle, put your ticket in THE BIG PEDAL CONTAINER in your classroom.
How to win – parents/carers/supporters
Wherever possible, please take part and join your children on their rides to school. It’s a bit of fun, helps to reduce congestion and you could even win a prize. Each day you scoot or cycle, simply pick up a ticket from the school playground, write your name on it and pop it into the Big Pedal container. The more days you join in, the more chances you have of winning a prize.
Thank you in advance for your support. Please get in touch if you have any questions. Enjoy the ride!
Share your photos or stories: moortownoffice@spherefederation.org
Reasoning in maths
We’ve been thinking recently about what we can do to explain our maths. Yesterday, we got out some physical resources and had to prove our answers using the resources, images, pictorial representations, words and mathematical strategies.
It can be tricky to understand what a multi-step question is actually asking you do calculate and thinking of the problem like this is one way we can help ourselves. It also helps us to improve our reasoning skills: one of the three key areas in the National Curriculum alongside fluency and problem solving.
