Big Pedal
Get set… we’re taking part in The Big Pedal 2017, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school. The challenge runs from 20th to 31st March. It’s free to enter and we would love everyone to be involved.
Why we’re taking part and prizes available
Active travel to school is proven to improve the health of children by preventing obesity, reducing congestion and carbon emissions around schools and increasing concentration in the classroom.
By taking part, the school will compete for a national Big Pedal 2017 Trophy and will be in with a chance to win some fantastic national prizes including world champion BMX and mountain bike stunt shows, a visit from world famous explorer Alastair Humphreys, 9 brand new Islabikes and much more!
We also have prizes just for pupils (and parents and carers) at Moortown Primary School including two new stunt scooters, a scooter action camera, a track pump (donated by Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative), M&S and Filmore & Union vouchers (both donated).
How you can help to increase our chances of winning?
On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Each day that at least 15% of pupils at Moortown Primary register a bike or scooter journey, the school will go into a daily draw for fantastic national prizes. Our best 5 days (based on % participation) will determine our final position in the challenge and if we clock up the most bike and scooter journeys nationally we’ll win a Big Pedal 2017 Trophy! Moortown Primary School prizes will be drawn separately by the school.
What’s next?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle or scoot to school every day during the event, and join them on their way – parent/carer and sibling journeys are counted too and you might even win a prize!
Some children tell us they can’t take part in these events because they live too far away from school and have to come by car. We encourage these families to park further away and complete the final part of the journey by scooter or bike. These journeys can be included in our school total.
Bikes and scooters should be stored as safely as possible in our storage area beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Finally, if you have any Big Pedal success stories or photos to share, please send them to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org so we can use them to encourage others.
Some great Maths learning!
Each week, Year 6 do Guided Maths which gives us an opportunity to work in small groups and revise learning from earlier this year and even Year 5. It means we’re always revisiting our learning either on our own or with adult support.
Last week, we revised angles and the group on our Maths Challenge Table produced some brilliant independent work.
Rollercoasters
On Thursday 09 March, Year 6 had a wonderful time with visitors from Leeds University as part of both national STEM week and our Time Travel – Entertainment topic. Our visitors talked to us about how rollercoasters work, discussing the gravitational and kinetic energy involved and how they conserve energy. (This means the amount of energy stays the same but it is transferred into different types.)
Once we understood the science, we were tasked with creating our own rollercoasters using half foam tubes as the track and a marble as the carriage. We got more points if we could create loop the loops, corkscrews or jumps and even more if we could land the marble in a cup at the end!
Take a look at some of our incredible rollercoasters and some fab teamwork.
The winning team got a whopping 70 points: three loops, one corkscrew, a jump and a cup landing!
To be or not to be…
As part of our Time Travel – Entertainment topic, we’ve explored how people were entertained in Elizabethan times. Theatres were the main form of entertainment and this, obviously, led us directly to the great work of Shakespeare. We began the week by picking apart Shakespearean language to see whether we could understand it – which we could!
The children were really interested in what it would have been like to go to the theatre in the 1600s and had lots of questions. They then showed off some fantastic acting skills by taking on a snippet of Shakespeare in small groups – very entertaining.
World Book Day
As part of our World Book Day celebrations tomorrow, we’ll be holding a table sale of books written by a family member of two pupils in school.
Finlay and Evie’s auntie, Clare Luther, is the author of a great series of a SEAL related books and they will be available to buy after school tomorrow in the playground (weather permitting).
Have you tried the Be Food Smart quiz?
As part of the Be Food Smart Change4life campaign, have you tried the quiz to find out how much you know about what’s really inside your food and drink!
UTC Digital visit
On Monday, we had a visitor from UTC Digital to talk to us about the opportunities we have in the future if we want to go into the digital world for our careers or just learn some very valuable skills in digital technology which can be applied across a number of professions.
They explained that, to use, computers themselves are not smart; it’s the people who control them who need to be clever as computers need very specific instructions in order to work. He made us realise just how specific these instructions had to be by asking us to instruct him in making a jam sandwich. Simple right? No. Turns out it’s not. We had bread everywhere, his hands were covered in butter and he kept doing it wrong …all because our instructions were not specific enough.
It was an interesting and enjoyable session for the children and our visitors have emailed us since to tell us how impressed they were with the children’s enthusiasm and behaviour – well done.
Our new SEAL theme – Getting On
For this half term, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme Getting On covers four main aspects:
- developing the social skills of friendship
- working well together in a group
- managing anger
- resolving conflict
A key resource for children to refer to during this theme, and at other times, is Peaceful Problem Solving. This encourages children to sort out their own problems. You may wish to talk through this with your child(ren).
When group work takes place in school, some questions for children to consider are:
- Did everyone take turns?
- Did everyone listen to what other people thought?
- Did each person have chance to tell the group what they thought?
- If people had different ideas could the group reach a compromise?
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, managing feelings and social skills.
We start our weekly SEAL statements with a focus on manners, I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or with my hand).
Meet our new School Council
Congratulations to our new school councillors who were elected by their class in our whole school elections. Their first meeting will be held after half term.
School Council election
In an assembly this week, our current school councillors told us what characteristics are needed to be an effective school councillor. These included being responsive, fair, confident, resilient, a good listener, have good suggestions and accept the views of others.
Following in-class election speeches this week, our School Council elections will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 09 February. All children have the opportunity to vote at our polling station using the following instructions.
Before voting, please read the following:
- Vote once for one person.
- Place one X only on this ballot paper beside the name of the candidate you have chosen.
- Do not write or mark anything else on the ballot paper; if you do, your paper will be invalid and your vote will not be counted.
- When you have marked the ballot paper, fold the paper and place it in the box provided.
Votes will be counted tomorrow and our new School Council will be announced at the end of the day. This will be made up of two children from each class with the highest number of votes.
Good luck to all our candidates.