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Holiday time!

We’re now two thirds of the way through the year!

It’s been a fabulous term and the Lion King has been a perfect ending to it. I was so proud of the class for their brilliant performances on Tuesday and Wednesday but especially for the enthusiasm they brought to every rehearsal and singing practice. The whole Animal Kingdom topic has been fantastic and there have been so many other highlights: the cute chicks; meeting and holding all the exotic animals; the mini-beast hunt (I’ve never seen so many woodlice!); and the great modroc animal sculptures.

The literacy and maths learning has been great this term as well. Ben has made super progress with his reading. Isabelle, Owen and Riya have produced some fantastic writing. In maths, Kieron has really impressed me with his calculating skills and Jorja is also showing she is a very confident mathematician.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!

It’s the Easter holidays…

…so we have no set homework or spellings, in line with our Homework Policy.

That doesn’t mean we expect your child not to be developing their skills in reading, writing and maths!

Your child should be reading daily – this could be fiction, factual books, a comic or newspaper, and could include being read to at bedtime, too.

It would be good to practise basic skills in writing by writing a letter or email to a relative, perhaps recounting a day-trip or reviewing a film your child watched.

We’re finding quite a few children are ‘squashing their sentences’ such as I went to Leeds City Museum it was really interesting which is wrong.  It would be much better with punctuation to separate or a word to join:

• I went to Leeds City Museum. It was really interesting. (A comma isn’t strong enough to separate two sentences.)
• I went to Leeds City Museum – it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum; it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum and it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum which was really interesting.

Finally, to improve calculation skills, please keep practising mental number facts which your child must know:

• number bonds (two numbers which add up to 10, 20 and 100 eg 3+7, 13+7, 30+70) – these facts should be known by children in Y1 – Y2
• times tables (up to 12×12) and the division facts with your child – children in Y2 should have rapid recall of x2, x 5 and x 10 at least

We know we mention these ‘basics’ a lot, but that’s because they involve practice, practice and more practice – we practise a lot at school, but your child will need to practise at home, too, if they are to truly succeed.

Learn more about current expectations for reading, writing and maths.  However, do be aware that a new National Curriculum comes into effect from September, meaning these expectations have been raised and so many aspects of learning now feature in younger age groups.

Fantastic FREE Easter Holiday Events at Leeds Central Library

Thinking about what to do in the holiday?  Need a rainy day contingency plan?  There’s a lot happening this Easter at Leeds Central Library…

8th April, Children’s Library: The Worried Walrus Shadow Puppet Workshop

• 12:00-2:00pm

‘It’s Time for the Annual Animal Beauty Contest and first-time competitor Wendy the Walrus is so excited!’

Meet the star of The Worried Walrus and make your very own shadow puppets with The Carriageworks Theatre and Odd Doll productions. Wendy and her friends will help you build your own unique shadow puppet and give you a special stage to perform on. Bring it with you to The Carriageworks Theatre on Thursday 10 April to see Wendy the Walrus wow the beauty pageant judges when she re-thinks what real beauty is.

Go to www.leeds.gov.uk/carriageworks for theatre tickets and information

8th April, Art Library Reading Room: Who Goes There? Making Your Robot Room Guard

• 10:00am-3:30pm

Is your brother or sister always sneaking into your room when you’re not there? Wish you could have someone to keep an eye on things and warn you when they do?

That sounds like a job for the Guard-a-tron 3000. Come along to this workshop and you can build your own robot to stand guard over your room and sound the alarm if anyone tries to sneak in.

You don’t need to know anything about robots or computers to attend, but we’ll spend the day assembling a small computer and programming it to detect movement. If you can bring a laptop with you that would be handy, but isn’t essential.

*This event is supported by Child Friendly Leeds and therefore free, but the kit costs roughly £10 each. Please bring some cash along if you’d like to take your robot sentry home with you.

We’re delighted this event is facilitated by Adrian McEwen (creator of Bubblino) and Kirsty Sparrow

It is recommended for children aged 9+ accompanied by parent/carer. To book your place visit; www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/who-goes-there-making-your-robot-room-guard-tickets-10965972519

9th April, Children’s Library: Free Creative Writing Workshops – Fairytales & Fables

• 11:30am-12:30 – ages 5-7
• 1:00pm-2:00pm – ages 8-10
• 2:30pm-3:30pm – ages 11+

This workshop is designed to support children with this year’s National Young Writers theme Fairytales and Fables. In this workshop children will learn how to write a story inspired by a moral or lesson, learning about character and story structure to create their own story!

Places are free but limited, to reserve your space call 01132476016 or email enquiry express enquiry.express@leeds.gov.uk

12th April, Children’s Library: Saturday Family Drop-in – Spring Seed Sowing Workshop

• 1:00pm-3:00pm

This Easter Holiday come join us as we will be making recycled paper plant pots for you to sow sunflower seeds in and grow them on at home. Also enjoy stories, games and the usual Saturday fun.

16th April, Children’s Library: Create Your Own Adventure Story

• 2:30pm-4:00pm

Join author and theatre producer Daniel Ingram-Brown for a workshop using ideas from his new book, Rise of the Shadow Stealers. Create your own scrap-map island, populate it with characters and challenge them with death defying quests.

For more information call 01132476016 or email enquiry.express@leeds.gov.uk

Have you always wanted to be a superhero?

Have you always wanted to be a superhero?

Do you know what your super power would be?

Go to Moor Allerton Library on Tuesday 27 May from 2.30 – 3.30 pm and meet an author, Jason Beresford.  Discover the adventures of the Fabulous Fish Finger gang.

This is a free event, no booking required.

Playing field – council statement

Below is a statement from Leeds City Council regarding the playing field at the rear of our school:

Moortown Primary has got limited outdoor space, currently consisting of a small ‘hard’ outdoor play area. Because of this, the school has made use of an adjacent playing field which was owned by the former Yorkshire Bank. The bank has sold this land to a private developer who has subsequently submitted an outline planning application for part of its redevelopment for up to 29 houses. By working with the developer Leeds City Council has been able to secure 2/3rds of the land to be used as Public Open Greenspace, effectively a public park.

The laying out of the open space, its use and the handing over of the land to the City Council are all part of the planning approval and legal agreement but the details of how the site will be laid out and used will be the subject of discussions with the local community, the school and members of the Council. These conversations will include determining the best way to provide public open space for community use as well as safe, designated space for use during school hours.

(This statement was received on 26 March, but required amendment to avoid confusion; the delay in publishing is as a result of this.)

Playing field – update 2

Last week, Janice Rush, our Chair of Governors, and I attended a meeting about the playing field at the rear of school.  Also present at the meeting were representatives from Children’s Services and Planning departments, plus Councillors Sharon Hamilton and Alex Sobel.  Cllr Judith Blake, Labour councillor for Middleton Park ward, Deputy Leader of Leeds City Council, Executive Member for Children’s Services, also attended for the first part of the meeting.

It was agreed to explore some possible solutions and meet again in two weeks’ time on 11 April 2014.  The content of these can’t at this moment be made public.

The meeting was positive and constructive.  Since the meeting, Cllr Sobel continues to work towards a solution which it is hoped will satisfy the needs of all stakeholders – this is encouraging.  Another development is that Cllr Blake will visit Moortown Primary next week, on Tuesday morning from 08.30.

Thank you to councillors and other representatives for responding and engaging in the challenge to meet the needs and rights of our pupils: to learn, to play, to grow, to compete, to engage and ultimately to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle.

28 March 2014

This week’s homework is creative.

I can show that I am working towards my maths target.

All of the children have written their new maths target in their homework book this week. In as creative a way as they can think of, they need to show that they have started to work towards that target in this week’s homework. We discussed this together and lots of brilliant ideas were suggested for a range of targets:

• Making a shop at home to become more confident with money.
• Designing a picture with lines of given lengths to practise using a ruler accurately.
• Gathering data and creating a graph.
• Doing some baking to practise using scales.

These were just some of the ideas – I wonder what else the children will come up with…

Looking forward to seeing what you do, especially after the high quality of homework last week.

28 March 2014

Here are this week’s spellings.  There will be a spelling test on Friday 04 April 2014.

28 March 2014

This week’s homework is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 02 April 2014.

I can recognise my own talents.

The SEAL theme at the moment is “Good To Be Me”.   We all have different talents and it is important that we recognise this.  Talk to your child about things you are good at and ask them to think about their own talents.  Do you have the same talents or are they different?

28 March 2014

The homework this week is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 02 April.

I can talk about my talents.

The SEAL theme at the moment is Good to be me. Everyone has different talents and things that they are good at. Talk to your child about the different talents that you have in your family. Do you share any of the same talents? Are they totally different?