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Class assembly

Thank you for coming to our bear-themed class assembly.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I was delighted to see the re-telling of We’re going on a bear hunt – it’s good to re-tell stories over and over again.  This develops a real awareness of story structure and language can be reinforced through repetition.  Plus: children love it!

Here are a few comments:

• ‘Really enjoyed the performance, especially the dancing.’
• ‘Fabulous!  Our first assembly.  Our the children were brilliant.’
• ‘Very well rehearsed.  Really enjoyed it.’
• ‘Great effort as ever.  Really well done.’

Thank you very much for your continued support.

Superhero yoga moves…and some relaxation

As part of our big topic, Heroes, Year 1 took part in a hero-themed yoga session.  After thinking about what is a hero, what makes a hero and who are heroes we became superheroes by using our bodies to do a variety of yoga postures.

Half-way through the school year…

With three half-terms already over, we’re now over half-way through the school year.

In the last year or so, much has changed in the education system nationally… The government has changed content of the National Curriculum, for example, which means that from September 2014, schools (except academies and free-schools) must follow a new curriculum. New attendance guidelines were introduced at the start of this year, as was performance-related pay for teachers. There are changes to assessment in Early Years and in the end of Key Stage 2 SAT tests. These are just four of many changes which take a great deal of time and effort to ‘iron out’ in order for governors to agree a school policy.

Locally, the landscape of education is also changing. There continues to be a significant demand on school places – in this area, that demand is high. Talk of school expansions in the Roundhay – Moortown area is commonplace. Pertinent to Moortown Primary, the field at the rear of the school has been sold to developers for housing and some land for community use. Mrs Rush, our Chair of Governors, has worked hard to try to secure land for us for a dedicated field for sports. Sadly, the needs of our children do not appear to be high on planners’ list of priorities – very frustrating in what is supposed to be a child-friendly city.

On a more positive note, the changes within our school have been great. Our three new teachers are doing a fantastic job. Thank you to all parents who take the trouble to comment favourably about Miss Rushbrooke, Miss Valentine and Miss Curry. The continued improvements to Reception have paid off, with local authority consultants judging teaching and learning to be outstanding. Again, thank you if you have provided us with feedback, in this case in the mid-year Reception survey. We’ll be acting on some of your suggestions, too. Another obvious change is the refurbishment of the ICT suite into the much more flexible ‘Space’ – and once again, thank you, this time for your support of PTA who have helped to fund all the kitchen equipment.

I’m confident the rest of this school year will be just as good.

28 February 2014

Here are this week’s spellings.  There will be a spelling test on Friday 07 March.

• Is there a  word in the green list that might not be a compound word? 
• Can you think of a synonym which is a compound word?
  

28 February 2014

This week’s homework is practice makes perfect.

In maths this week, there have been lots of addition and thinking about mental strategies.  The children have been encouraged to look for patterns and number bonds to help solve different calculations.  This week’s homework is consolidating this learning.

28 February 2014

For the next few weeks we will learn about verbs. The verbs are listed in their infinitive, present tense, past tense and continuous (this could be either past or present tense) form.

• Infinitive – I like to cook.
• Present – She cooks very well.
• Past – She cooked a lovely meal.
• Continuous – She was cooking.  She is cooking.

Children will be tested on eight of the words on Friday o7 March.

Growing up in Leeds

Our School Council (2014-15) have been thinking about what it’s like to grow up in Leeds.  Their comments might feature in an article in the Yorkshire Evening Press around the Child-Friendly Leeds campaign.  In the meantime, here’s a sneak preview of what’s been said…

“First, let’s talk about me: Hi, my name is Linda. I am 8 years old and I am in Year 4 in an outstanding primary school in Leeds called Moortown Primary. I was born in the LGI where I first saw my Mum and Dad.

Now let’s talk about my family. I have two brothers, one at Allerton High School and the other one in my school. I have got awesome parents. My Mum is called Patricia and my Dad is called Habib. My Mum is French and my Dad is Algerian.

I am going to tell you the story of how I grew up in Leeds. I grew up with a lovely family, great friends and epic teachers. Also, the great place I grew up in was surrounded by great caring people. Furthermore, I believe that Leeds is an awesome city to be in and to have fun in.

Now let’s talk about the environment. I really enjoy all the activities in Leeds for the kids, such as libraries, cinemas, outdoor and indoor fun, parks and museums, restaurants and many more. I really enjoy the fact that children and young people can travel around the city and make safe journeys. As well as that, Leeds is a multicultural city therefore, I have been able to fit in well to the lovely community. With my French and Algerian origin and my Muslim background, I feel at home in Leeds.

The best thing about growing up in Leeds is having everyone by your side and feeling safe and secure.”

Linda, Year 4

Below is a wish-list of five things to change about Leeds to make it more child-friendly, according to our School Council:

1. Racism: One thing we would like to change is racism because everyone is equal and they deserve their own rights!
2. Bullying: We would like to make sure help is available to anyone who suffers the effects of bullying. Without help, people may get scared when people around them physically or emotionally bully them.
3. Safety on-line: More awareness for children of the dangers they may face on-line to make using the internet safer.
4. Litter: Have you ever been to the park where there is loads of dog poo? Awful, isn’t it! We want a cleaner Leeds for us to play safely.
5. Graffiti: Although some graffiti can be artistic, we feel there is too much graffiti which makes Leeds look messy.

What would our school councillors change about Leeds?

“I would want to help the poor people become richer, and I would want to see more police on the streets because people throw rubbish on the floor. Sometimes I see dog poo on the floor and it makes me sad. I think that dogs should have a playground.”

Stanley, Year 2

“If I was chosen to be a leader for the day, I would like people who do jobs such as firemen, nurses and doctors to be paid more money. Also, I would want to see more police out and about on the streets because there is a lot of crime.”

Dominic, Year 3

“If I was boss for one day, I would give food for all the poor children so that no one is starving and make sure that poor families don’t have to pay any money for things they can’t afford. I would make lots of houses so poor people can live there and get their food delivered free.”

Naran, Year 3

…And what do our councillors think of Moortown Primary?

“Over the last year, quite a lot has happened in our school. Firstly, we had our old ICT suite transformed into a fabulous kitchen / computer room. Pupils were involved in deciding what equipment to have through our School Council and a lot of thought and design went into this project. Money was spent on thirty brand new laptops and a charging trolley. We named our new room ‘The Space’. It is brilliant for cookery lessons because we didn’t have a proper room to work in before, and it is great for IT lessons, too. Now we can enjoy far more fun cookery sessions in a safe environment. It has been a great addition to our school.

Also, we had an Enterprise week where we had to think of a business idea and promote it. Here are some of the ideas we came up with: face painting, Lego models, house robots, Fruity Tooty drinks. People from a local business came into school to listen to our ideas (almost like ‘Dragon’s Den’) and voted on the best one. This was great because we had to work out costs and who to sell our product to.”

Ayesha, Year 6

Settling In surveys

To those of you who have completed and returned the Settling In surveys, thank you very much.

We’ve had 15 responses, all of which were positive overall, and some of which suggested a few areas to develop.  These include:

• More homework – this is going to be reviewed at a whole-school level, based on the feedback here and on ParentView
• More information about how much progress your child is making – this we will also look at because quite a few of you have mentioned this, but in the meantime, do please contact Reception staff or me – we’d be happy to talk through your child’s learning with you.  By now, you will have attended two parents’ evening appointments; last year, we introduced a third parents’ evening appointment at the very end of the year when the final Early Years Profile has been completed and when most children will have reached Early Learning Goals and a Good Level of Development.

If you have any questions, comments of complaints, please do come and see me.  In the meantime, thank you again for completing the short survey (look out for the Parents’ Annual Survey towards the end of the year!) and also for your support – I know Mrs Burke and her team appreciate this a lot.

Our SEAL theme this half-term is…

‘Good to be me’.

This theme focuses specifically on feelings. It 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. It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy. The theme focuses on:

• understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious;
• self-awareness – feeling good about myself, taking risks;
• managing my feelings – relaxing, coping with anxiety;
• standing up for myself – assertiveness, standing up for my views

We think this theme is one of the most important and useful SEAL themes of the year, with outcomes that can contribute to positive health and well-being in years to come.  For example, somebody who is assertive and able to stand up for themselves is far less likely to run into problems at high school (think of the pressure people might face with regard issues such as smoking and e-safety).

Developing leadership skills

Recently four Year 5 children took part in Bronze Ambassador sports leaders training at Roundhay School.  After the training, feedback was really positive.

‘I really enjoyed the day and it was a great opportunity to learn how to become a leader… I am going to try to become more confident and get people at school to join in with more sport and other activities.’

These children are now part of a wider group who, alongside Mr Catherall, will be leading sports activity sessions twice a week at lunchtime.  They will be joined by students from Leeds Metropolitan University who will also be delivering physical activity sessions at lunchtime.

Our local sports partnership with Roundhay School has recently been set up and is one of the ways we are investing our PE and sport government funding.