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15 May 2015

Here are this week’s spellings.  There will be a test on Friday 22 May.

Please note that all of Year 1 have got the same spellings to learn this week.

15 May 2015

Who do you think you are?

Next week, we embark on five days of learning about identity, diversity and community. Your child is required to think about themselves and what makes them who they are.

Can they talk about:

• important people in their life?
• a special event in their life?
• what qualities they think they have?

For homework this week, could your child draw a picture of themselves and their family.

Well done, Mrs Weekes

Following months of hard work, I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Weekes has successfully completed her National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL). The NPQSL is overseen by the National College for Teaching and Leadership is a significant milestone in the professional development of school leaders. This is a significant achievement and I’m sure you would like to join me in offering congratulations to Mrs Weekes.

Here are some extracts from the feedback Mrs Weekes has received:

You have a key strength in the seeking of information, using not only numerical data but your knowledge of the school and individual pupils to inform your decisions. Your analytical thinking led to the creation of a complex plan involving the upskilling of teachers and teaching assistants, workshops for parents, material on the school website and working with local nurseries. All of this was underpinned by a strong learning focus, using theory and pedagogy to enhance the experience of all learners.

You are a highly effective teacher and leader of teachers and other professionals supporting their work. Your success in structuring support for pupil premium children has been nationally recognised in praise for the school and you have secured practice which is ensuring sustainable continuous improvement. As a teacher you model excellence in the way you embrace and meet challenges in the classroom and your competence has rightly played a key part in ensuring that you have had wide impact on the way in which other professionals work with children and engage with their families.

You have significant personal drive and display total professional integrity in the way you consider educational research to develop your self-awareness as a leader and by the way in which challenge yourself and others to improve. Your robust and secure evaluation of the work of the school including through forensic analysis of data informs intelligent prioritisation and planning.

15 May 2015

This week’s homework is Creative and is due on Wednesday 20th May 2015.

‘Who do you think you are?’

This week, we want to know all about  you and who you think you are. We’re going to be asking this question all week (beginning 22.05.15), thinking about our individuality, how we are different to those around us and how we belong to different communities.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing…

• life journey
• family tree
• self image
• art work/poetry/report
• quiz

Walk to School Week

Walk to School Week will run alongside our themed week where children are encouraged to take a walk in the community on their way to school, maybe even picking up a piece of litter on the way.

Two walk to school competitions will run over the week – firstly, the return of our Where’s Wally challenge (using our walk to school website video) and also a reward for the class who make the most journeys to school on foot during the week.

Each day your child walks to school they should put a counter in their class’ totaliser jar.  Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot.  By Friday, the class with the most journeys to school on foot will win a martial arts session with John Weatherall, White Rose martial arts.

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.

Parent/carers coffee morning

During our themed week next week, there will be the chance to come along to an informal coffee morning and meet other members of our school community –  representatives from our governing body and PTA.  This will take place in the Space on Wednesday 20 May 9-10am.

A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 10am in the main playground.

Everyone is welcome.

Who do you think you are?

Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place next week, from Monday 18 May 2015.

A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.

Events during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and body image, diversity of people around us – this might include race, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender. There will be various visitors to support this. Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations such as our local charity, St Gemma’s Hospice; local care homes; Moortown Community Group; and taking pride in the local community by litter-picking.

Identity day

Following a suggestion from one of our school councillors, Friday 22 May will be a non-uniform identity day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend; a team they are part of or support; or traditional dress to represent their heritage. We invite a £1 voluntary donation and proceeds will be shared between St Gemma’s Hospice and the Nepal earthquake appeal.

Who do you think we are?

Do you think you’d recognise some of our staff in their early years? This photo competition will run throughout the week with details to follow separately. Again, proceeds will be shared between St Gemma’s Hospice and the Nepal earthquake appeal.

We’ll keep you up to date about events during the week through Twitter and the class news pages on our website. It’s going to be a busy week!

Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events. Upcoming events include the Roundhay Park Fun Run on 20 June and the PTA Summer Fair on 04 July. We hope you can support these.

11 May 2015

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING!

Boxes, kitchen rolls, packaging and other junk material is urgently needed! 

We are making robots on Thursday 14 May and urgently need materials for their body parts.  Please send any suitable junk material in before and on Thursday.

Thank you.

Hedgehog habitats

On Friday, we looked at what would make a good habitat for a hedgehog. We decided it would need to be warm, dry and sturdy so, with the materials we could find, we worked in teams to make our own.

We were pretty proud of our final hedgehog houses and Mossy the hedgehog seemed to like them, too!

Mrs Burke was so impressed that she’s put them in Reception’s nature garden to see if any hedgehogs decide to move in. It also gives Year 2 the chance to be the teacher, passing on all of their knowledge about nocturnal animals to Reception. Stay tuned to see if we have any visitors.

08 May 2015

This week’s homework is talk time. 

Why do we need instructions?

Please make sure your child is ready to talk about this on Wednesday 13 May.