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28 March 2014

This is the fifth (and final) spelling week about verbs. This time, all the verbs have irregular past tense changes. For example,

• I am going to sleep.
• He sleeps.
• I slept.
• I am sleeping / I was sleeping.
  

The past tense version (slept) is irregular as it doesn’t follow the normal pattern of adding ed (we don’t say ‘sleeped’).

Sentences

Explaining to young children what a sentence is can be difficult. Through reading, children quickly learn that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. They are told that a sentence makes sense on its own and is complete; that it makes sense in some way such as consisting of an idea.  Helping children to recognise when they have written a sentence is more difficult.

How you can help at home:

• When reading with your child, point out the sentences and punctuation in the book
• Encourage your child to think of the whole sentence (an idea) and say it aloud before they begin to write
• Get them into the habit of rereading and checking their writing
• Read a sentence aloud and ask your child to count the words
• Model speaking in sentences and give your child lots of opportunity to construct sentences orally

21 March 2014

This week’s homework is creative.  Now the Big Topic is finished, we would like to see what your child has learnt and what they have enjoyed the most.

I can show what I have learnt about heroes.

This can be presented in any way that you like.  Here are some ideas:

• a mindmap
• dress up as a hero – take a photo and write lots of facts
• what does hero mean?
• collage showing lots of different types of heroes

Looking forward to seeing all sorts of interesting homework.  It’s due to be handed in on Thursday 27 March as school will be closed on Wednesday 26 March.

21 March 2014

Here are this week’s spellings.  There will be a spelling test on Friday 28 March.

21 March 2014

This is the fourth spelling week about verbs. This time, all the verbs end in a y. For the present and past tense forms, you need to drop the y for an i and then add es (present tense) or ed (past tense).

As before, the verbs are listed in their infinitive, present tense, past tense and continuous forms (this form could be either past or present tense).

• Infinitive – I cry.
• Present – She cries
• Past – I cried
• Continuous – I was crying or  I am crying.

Playing field – update

Since you received a letter (see below) from Mrs Rush, our Chair of Governors, we have had many questions asking how you can express your views.  If you wish to contact someone to make your views known then our local councillors are:

• Rebecca Charlwood (rebecca.charlwood@leeds.gov.uk)
• Alex Sobel (alex.sobel@leeds.gov.uk)
• Sharon Hamilton (sharon.hamilton@leeds.gov.uk)

You should also contact Leeds City Council Children’s Services – you can email your views from this link.

Alternatively you can wait until the planning application is submitted (expected end of March) and follow the instructions on that to make an objection.

Cllr Sobel has asked via a tweet to note that a meeting with Children’s Services, councillors and representatives from the school has now been arranged.  I’m happy to update you on this matter.  The meeting is provisionally arranged for Tuesday 01 April.

As some of you may be aware the former Yorkshire Bank field behind the school has recently been sold to a developer who has outline planning consent to build a small number of houses on the site.

Throughout the consultation and design process, the governing body of Moortown Primary School has worked with Moortown Community Group, Lime Tree Community Trust, our local ward councillors and the developers. We were led to believe at all stages that some provision for the school would be made in any planning application submitted.

Last autumn, outline planning consent was granted and the above groups all came together to give input to the Stakeholder Workshop held in November 2013. Again, we were led to believe that a portion of the land would be used for housing and the remaining land (around eight acres) would be given to Leeds City Council with some of it becoming a public park and some it being for the school.

Mr Roundtree and I have also met with various members of Leeds City Council Children’s Services (including the Director of Children’s Services, the Chief Officer for Strategy Commissioning and Performance, the Head of Service for Strategic Development and Investment, and the Lead Member for Education) since September 2012 to try to make sure that they are involved in this planning decision and to try to secure some land for the school.

Unfortunately all our hard work and campaigning seems to have been ignored.

At a meeting in February 2014, organised by Moortown Community Group, the developers told us that the plans they were going to submit contained no provision for the school. This decision had been reached working with our local ward councillors, the Parks and Countryside department and the Planning departments of Leeds City Council.

On finding this out, we have tried to arrange further meetings with Children’s Services, the Parks and Countryside department, the planning department and our local ward councillors to:

• find out why the school has been overlooked and will not be allocated any dedicated space
• see if we can change this before plans are submitted at the end of March

A meeting was initially arranged but Mr Roundtree and I were then asked not to attend (at the request of our local councillors) and I have now discovered that our local councillors then cancelled the meeting.

The park is planned to be an informal grassland area. As such, it is unlikely that our school will be able to make use of it for activities such as sports day or organised sports as we do now.

The governing body feel that the current proposals will be detrimental to our pupils. We ask you to join us in raising objections to the plans when they are submitted on the grounds that the school has lost access to private green space and our sports provision will be adversely impacted.

We are not asking for all the land. We fully support the provision of a public park. However, there is enough land available for the school to have some dedicated space and for there to be a park for the whole community to enjoy.

Playing field

Some thoughts about the field at the rear of our school from our Chair of Governors:

As some of you may be aware the former Yorkshire Bank field behind the school has recently been sold to a developer who has outline planning consent to build a small number of houses on the site.

Throughout the consultation and design process, the governing body of Moortown Primary School has worked with Moortown Community Group, Lime Tree Community Trust, our local ward councillors and the developers. We were led to believe at all stages that some provision for the school would be made in any planning application submitted.

Last autumn, outline planning consent was granted and the above groups all came together to give input to the Stakeholder Workshop held in November 2013. Again, we were led to believe that a portion of the land would be used for housing and the remaining land (around eight acres) would be given to Leeds City Council with some of it becoming a public park and some it being for the school.

Mr Roundtree and I have also met with various members of Leeds City Council Children’s Services (including the Director of Children’s Services, the Chief Officer for Strategy Commissioning and Performance, the Head of Service for Strategic Development and Investment, and the Lead Member for Education) since September 2012 to try to make sure that they are involved in this planning decision and to try to secure some land for the school.

Unfortunately all our hard work and campaigning seems to have been ignored.

At a meeting in February 2014, organised by Moortown Community Group, the developers told us that the plans they were going to submit contained no provision for the school. This decision had been reached working with our local ward councillors, the Parks and Countryside department and the Planning departments of Leeds City Council.

On finding this out, we have tried to arrange further meetings with Children’s Services, the Parks and Countryside department, the planning department and our local ward councillors to:

• find out why the school has been overlooked and will not be allocated any dedicated space
• see if we can change this before plans are submitted at the end of March

A meeting was initially arranged but Mr Roundtree and I were then asked not to attend (at the request of our local councillors) and I have now discovered that our local councillors then cancelled the meeting.

The park is planned to be an informal grassland area. As such, it is unlikely that our school will be able to make use of it for activities such as sports day or organised sports as we do now.

The governing body feel that the current proposals will be detrimental to our pupils. We ask you to join us in raising objections to the plans when they are submitted on the grounds that the school has lost access to private green space and our sports provision will be adversely impacted.

We are not asking for all the land. We fully support the provision of a public park. However, there is enough land available for the school to have some dedicated space and for there to be a park for the whole community to enjoy.

Solving problems in maths

When I returned from Finland, it was clear that Mr Wilks had taught us well in multiplication. I set the children a challenge using grid method. I gave them all of the numbers but not yet placed in their section of the grid. In groups, they had to figure out what went where and then tell me what my calculation was.

Everybody rose to the challenge, working very effectively in teams. Well done!

Sporting heroes

So far in our heroes topic, we have explored superheroes, heroes from the past and community heroes. This week, our focus has been on heroes in sport. We were lucky enough to be visited by Keith Senior, a retired Leeds Rhinos player. Lots of us had some very interesting questions.

How long have you been playing rugby? 20 years.
Why did you retire? I got a knee injury.
Have you ever got cuts and bruises? Yes lots!