Welcome back!
Happy new year to you all!
Year 3 have made a great start to the new year with the children showing mature learning attitudes and an enthusiasm to learn.
This term is set to be a busy one!
This week, we’ve been studying reports, learning about Samba music and dance, investigating place value, started a new class novel, thought about how we deal with difficult situations, enjoyed an afternoon at the pantomime and much more!
So far, I’ve been particularly impressed with Hibba, Enya, Daanyal and Sam for their contributions in the classroom and their great learning – keep it up!
Please feel free to pop in if you have any queries or questions.
BREAKING NEWS: Y5 pupil signs Tykes contract!
Rumours have been surfacing for days but I can now officially confirm that a Year 5 pupil from Moortown Primary School has signed a contract with Barnsley FC Academy! Reportedly, Joe Hart has said that he is already worried about his position as England goalkeeper. MORE TO FOLLOW.
Dance!
This half-term, we’re learning to dance in our PE lessons with Mr Lynch.
We’ll be learning about creative dance, making our own routines which express out personalities.
New SEAL theme – Good to be me
Our new SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme for this half-term, Good to be me, focuses on three main areas of learning:
•Self-awareness – feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
•Managing Feelings – understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself –assertiveness skills, standing up for your views.
•Empathy
This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.
The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:
Building emotional resilience
Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.
Coping with anxiety and worrying
Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.
Calming down
Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.
Assertiveness
The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.
Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour
The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened /under stress.
‘I respond to difficult situations in a positive way’ is the first SEAL statement for the theme of Good to be me.
Be safe on-line
At this time of year, many parents, carers and relatives will have purchased technology (iPads, games consoles, mobiles) for children as gifts for Christmas.
On this basis a series of simple, easy to follow instructions have been produced for parents to set privacy settings on the most popular technological devices and apps. The idea being that the parent can enable the settings prior to the child or young person receiving the gift and therefore helping to keep their child or young person safe when their online. The instructions can be found on the LSCB website.
This is part of Leeds Safeguarding Children Board’s work around the implementation of the Leeds Child Sexual Exploitation action plan. Within this plan is an action to raise awareness of the dangers of online grooming with parents and carers.
Party Time
The party season has now officially started! Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 danced and jigged their way through the afternoon with a few games thrown in. It was a great way to finish off the term – looking forward to non-uniform day tomorrow with lots of fun things planned. Here are a few photos of the fun and games this afternoon.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Happy Christmas!
Hello all! Autumn Term is at an end and we’re off to enjoy our festive holidays. Just a quick note to say well done to the children for this term. They’ve had an excellent attitude to learning meaning that we’ve been able to do all sorts of fun learning. We’ve travelled the globe in our ‘Where in the World’ mini-topic; taken a journey through art in ‘Katie and…’ big topic; and become enquiring scientists through ‘What’s the Matter?’. Rounding off our term was the fabulous production of Baubles which we all hope you enjoyed.
One last round of applause for all of the Year 2s…
THE SHEEP
THE TEACHERS
THE NARRATORS
THE TOWNSPEOPLE, INNKEEPERS, MARY AND JOSEPH
THE ANGEL
THE CHILDREN
and, of course… MR POTTS
Thank you for your support this term, have a lovely holiday and, from all of us…
Peshawar, Pakistan
The Lord Mayor of Leeds will lead a one minute silence tomorrow to show support for those affected by this week’s tragic events in Pakistan. The event will take place in front of Leeds Art Gallery tomorrow at 11.00am and will be attended by elected members, city partners, multi-faith leaders and community representatives.
Members of the public are invited to attend and join the one minute silence, which has been organised to mourn the deaths of more than 140 people, including at least 132 children, at a school in Peshawar on Tuesday.
Lord Mayor of Leeds councillor David Congreve said: “People in Leeds and across the world have been deeply moved by the reports and images we have seen following these appalling events. It is fitting that as a city that promotes diversity, tolerance and peace, we gather to pay our respects to those who have had their lives cut so tragically short and I would invite the public to attend and show their support.”
Equally, as a school which promotes diversity, tolerance and peace, we will also gather to pay our respects at 11.00am tomorrow.
Amazing learning!
At the end of the first term in Year 1, it seems appropriate to say well done to all of the children for the fantastic start to Key Stage 1 they have had. We have been regularly surprised by contributions to learning and have said “wow” several times when we have seen what children are achieving. We could mention everyone separately so would just like to say well done to everyone and wish you and your family best wishes for the approaching holiday.
Here are some brilliant examples of homework from last week which show how much support parents are giving. Thank you – it makes our job easier when we know learning is continuing at home.
Cross country
Recently some pupils from Key Stage 2 took part in the Leeds North East School Sports Partnership KS2 cross-country festival at Cardinal Heenan. Here is a report from the event.
‘On Monday, I was really excited to go to the cross country. It was time for my race. My friend stood next to me. Just then, the whistle blew. I ran as fast as my legs could take me! I slowed down but didn’t stand still. I was near the back but that didn’t stop me. Nothing could get in my way and I caught up with some others. I sprinted to the end and passed a few people as I crossed the finish line. My smile was from ear to ear. I wasn’t near the front but I wasn’t the last. Everyone cheered and patted me on the back. I felt like I was first.’
Well done to all the children who took part.
