Uncategorised

Talented Year 1

This half term our SEAL theme is Good to be me.  For homework, this week, Year 1 have been asked to discuss, Why is it good to be you? What is your talent?

We will be discussing this homework in our SEAL lesson on Wednesday and it would be great if your child could bring in anything to support this homework (for example: a recorder, swimming certificates) on Wednesday as this will feed into our upcoming class assembly on Thursday 22 January.

We’re looking forward to hearing all about these talents.

Topic

Samba is our current mini-topic (mini-topics usually last just two weeks).  It was great to see so many children have such good rhythm and timing whilst learning about Samba music. The children enjoyed making their own music as part of a Samba band, although I think Mrs O’Malley will be pleased when the noise is over!

The whole-school Big Topic starts Monday 19 January: Time Travel.  We’re learning all about medicine through the ages. To kick start our journey through time, we’ll embark on a history workshop followed by a visit to the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds. From early medical breakthroughs to scientific advancements, this topic will have your child exploring the life of a patient in 1861 to present day and beyond. Beware…things could get a little gory!

Encourage your child to talk about and research topic subjects at home. Talk to grandparents and others about what they know. Take a trip to the local library, or research on the internet.

Maths

Some of the areas we will be covering in Maths this half-term are, with an example of how to support for each:

• place value – practise saying a larger number for your child to write using digits
• multiplication – make sure your child has rapid recall of their 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 times tables (this means being able to say the answer straight away, rather than counting up to the answer
• division – and make sure they can recall the corresponding division facts, too
• measurement – do lots of measuring at home when ever an adult is using measures, whether length (compare journey distances in kilometres and miles); mass (weigh everyone in the family in kilograms each week); capacity (look at how much cartons of juice, bottles of milk etc hold)
• money – keep receipts and talk about the prices of things you’ve bought so your child has an idea of the value of things

In Year 3 the children are expected to know their 2, 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Therefore, we will continue to focus on one of these each week.

Don’t forget: your child has a log in to access Mathletics. I frequently monitor their usage and progress whilst also assigning certain tasks. Have a go at some of the activities to ensure your child is getting the best from this with your support!

09 January 2015

Happy New Year!

Here are this week’s spellings.  There will be a spelling test on Friday 16 January.

09 January 2015

This week’s homework is talk time.

Why is it good to be you? What is your talent?

Make sure your child is able to talk about this on Wednesday 14 January.

If you would like to share this talent with more people then sign up for “Moortown’s Got Talent” on Monday. Auditions will be held soon.

Writing

Writing is key to our English lessons. We’ve already written reports about Samba and we’re soon to write promotions linked to our Time Travel topic.

Spellings this term will follow a similar structure to last term: ten spellings will be given but only eight will be tested. The words are set in line with the 2013 National Curriculum with a focus on the spelling patterns and root words.

How can you help?

• Little but often spelling practice is the best way to support your child. Try spelling the words aloud, writing the words, spotting the words in the books you read with your child etc.

Reading

Our new class novel is a classic: The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett and comes recommended as a childhood favourite of Mr Roundtree and Mrs Weekes! The novel tells of the Ruggles family of seven children in the 20th century – it’ll tie in great with our Time Travel topic!

You can read an overview of the book or an interesting review.

How can you help?

• Be sure to ask your child how they’re finding the novel and make comparisons between your family and the Ruggles.
• Guided reading groups will continue to read each day – your child must have their guided reading book with them and have read to the agreed target page.

09 January 2015

The spellings this week are all words which contain the suffix ible.

09 January 2015

The homeworks this week are Creative and Practice Makes Perfect.

The Practice Makes Perfect homework are two Mathletics activites linked to this week’s learning in class on negative numbers.

The Creative homework is I can investigate friction. We’ve been learning about forces in our topic lessons so this homework will build on this learning. Your child has to think of an investigation they can conduct which will compare friction created by surfaces or objects. They should explain what their investigation will test; their predictions; how they can ensure it is a fair test; and should communicate their findings.

We had a chat as a class and came up with a few ideas:

• Build a ramp and test how far a toy car will roll on different surfaces.
• One push skateboard tests on different surfaces.
• Test different types of shoe for friction on different surfaces.
• Make different sized parachutes and see which ones fall slowest (this measures the amount of air resistance).
• Push/blow different shaped toy boats or other floating objects to see which are affected most by water resistance.

A happy and healthy AND EFFECTIVE place to learn!

A recent survey says that parents don’t find performance tables especially helpful: “Fewer than a third of parents check league tables when choosing schools for their children, suggests a UK-wide survey for a teaching union.” (BBC, 09.01.15). However, we find lots of parents and prospective parents are interested to know how we’re doing and do check out the league tables which the Department for Education publish each Autumn term.

They are very detailed, covering such aspects of performance as pupil progress and attainment, attendance, three year averages and how disadvantaged pupils (those in receipt of pupil premium) perform – they even cover finance and workforce characteristics. We find it’s best to start by looking at just primary schools and Leeds.

Here’s an overview of learning in 2013-14 for Moortown Primary compared to the 62 other primary schools (or those which include primary pupils) in a three mile radius, based on 2014 Key Stage 2 results.

• the proportion of pupils reaching Level 4 or more in reading, writing and maths combined is 93% – joint 4th of schools in a three mile radius and 14 percentage points higher than nationally (79%)
• the proportion reaching Level 4B (a mid Level 4, which the current government describes as a level indicating a pupil is ‘secondary ready’) or more in reading, writing and maths combined is 93% – joint 2nd and significantly higher than national (67%)
• 100% made expected progress in reading, writing and maths – one of only seven schools in a three mile radius to achieve this and about 10 percentage points higher than for England as a whole
• the average level for our pupils was a 5C, which matches quite a few schools in Leeds, but only two schools had a higher level (5B)
• 57% of pupils attained a Level 5 in reading, writing and maths combined – 3rd in a three mile radius and 4th highest across all 255 primaries Leeds

Well done to the 2013-14 Year 6 class (and their parents), to Mr Owen, Mrs Raseta and to all the previous teachers who have supported the class.

Looking at results for just one year group is only a snapshot. The league tables also allow you to look at three year averages:

• the proportion reaching Level 4 or more in reading, writing and maths combined is 93% – with just ten schools across the local authority’s 255 primary ahead of us (the average in England is 76%)
• for disadvantaged pupils (those in receipt of pupil premium funding), our performance is even better: proportion reaching Level 4 or more in reading, writing and maths combined is 94% – this is 5th in the local authority (average in England is 64%)
• this shows the difference between disadvantaged pupils and others is just 1% – nationally, the ‘gap’ is 17% and in the local authority it’s 20% – indicating that we invest pupil premium money very effectively

If you’d like to know more about how we’re doing, please ask… and equally, please ask if you want more information about how your child is performing.