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Industrial action

You will be aware that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of School and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) have voted to hold a regional strike on Tuesday 01 October 2013. This action is being taken as part of a campaign against proposals to make changes to public sector pay, working conditions and pensions provisions going forward.

We have undertaken a risk assessment based on the number of staff that will be participating in the strike on this day. A decision has been made to close the school. I am sure you will appreciate the health, safety and wellbeing of our pupils is paramount. I am sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

Annual survey results

Thanks to all of you who returned a survey before the summer holiday.  We received 70 responses (most from parents of children in younger classes).  Look out for a second news-post with some responses to respondents’ comments, but, in the meantime, here’s a summary of how many agreed with the statements:

• My child is happy to come to school – 96%
• My child learns a lot in lessons – 99%
• The school helps my child to do as well as he/ she can – 93%
• I know how well my child is doing at school – 87%
• Adults in school explain to me how to support my child at home – 91%
• Teaching at this school is good – 97%
• Teaching at this school helps my child to develop skills in communication, reading, writing and mathematics – 100%
• I am happy with my child’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development – 97%
• Behaviour is good at Moortown Primary School – 96%
• Behaviour is good in lessons – 93%
• The school deals with all types of bullying very well – 90%
• My child feels safe at school – 100%
• I am happy that my views will be listened to – 97%
• I am happy with the after-school clubs on offer – 83%

Obviously, we’re delighted that 100% of parents said they are happy with the teaching of key skills and that their child feels safe at school.  One or two statements have a lower number of those who agreed; here is a response to those points.

Communicating how well your child is doing is important to us. At the moment, there are two parents’ evenings and a final report at the end of the year (perhaps it’s low because parents responded to the survey before they received the reports).  In addition, teachers frequently remind you in newsletters that you can drop in to see them.  Whilst the figure who agreed is lower than others, it’s reassuring to read that no one actually disagreed (others stated they were unsure).  Last year, we introduced a third parents’ evening for Reception parents and we have already amended the report format in light of the survey (and your separate feedback regarding the reports); next year’s report will tell you exactly what level your child is working at in reading, writing, maths and science.  Please let us know how you would like us to keep you informed more.

Supporting your child at home is also quite low – in response to this, we have organised more learning workshops.  This term, there are three coming up, and there will also be an open morning where some of you (numbers will be limited for space reasons) will be able to spend time watching literacy and maths being taught.

• YR, Y1 learning workshop: Monday 07 October, 2.30am – 3.15pm
• Literacy workshop: Monday 14 October, 2.30am – 3.15pm
• Maths workshop: Monday 04 November, 2.30am – 3.15pm
• Open morning: Tuesday 05 November, 9.00am – 10.30am

(Apologies – there are no evening workshops planned so far.  This is because we’ve found that day-time workshops are actually more popular.  If you can’t attend during the day, please let me know.)

Numbers who agreed with the statements about bullying and behaviour appear low, but respondents were simply unsure because they’ve never experienced a problem (nobody disagreed).

Regarding after-school clubs, we always try to provide a wide selection. This term, we’ve offered computer, sports, fitness, dance, cookery and French clubs.  If we offered more, the take-up rate for each one would drop, and we’d struggle for space.  This term, nine clubs are on offer, but only five so far look set to go ahead – take-up of others is too low.  We’ll keep trying hard to match interests.

If you have any further feedback on the points set out here, don’t wait until next summer’s survey – contact me or your child’s teacher!

Enjoying our new outdoor area!

The children have been enjoying our new outdoor area.

Did you know that in order to develop perfect coordination of body and brain, children need to do lots of actions in which their muscles encounter resistance such as pushing, pulling, stretching and carrying?

Children like to hang from bars, to dig and rake and to feel tension in their limbs. Activities which allow for this are skipping, climbing, pedalling bicycles and pushing wheelbarrows.  We intend to do lots of these over the year.

Significantly, movement is actually what allows children to sit still!

20 September 2013

This week, we are continuing to look at what happens to words when we add  ‘ing’ to them. Most of the spellings this week end in ‘le’ so you have to drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘ing’. However,  some of the words just require you to add ‘ing’. Can you spot them?

20 September 2013

This week’s homework is talk time.

How do we use our senses?

We will discuss this on Wednesday 25 September so that we are ready to learn more about our senses in our topic learning.

Please remember there does not have to be anything written in books unless the children want to write a few points.

Industrial action

As you will be aware the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of School and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) have voted to hold a regional strike on Tuesday 01 October.  This action is being taken as part of a campaign against proposals to make changes to public sector pay, working conditions and pensions provisions going forwards.

The staff at Moortown Primary who are members of the affected unions will meet on Monday regarding whether they will be participating in this strike action.

I’m sorry I can’t confirm for definite if the school will close or remain open on this day, but I can say that it seems likely that we will at least partially close.  There is a possibility that part of school (eg Key Stage 2) will remain open.

I’ll will inform you of definite plans on Tuesday.

20 September 2013

This week, the spellings are a mixture of the previous two weeks’ ‘ing’ rules and also some words where you just have to add ‘ing’ to the word.

The children will be tested on eight out of the ten words on Friday 27 September.

20 September 2013

The home work this week is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 25 September.

What makes a house a home?

You should explore the important things which make a house a home. Is it material things like the furnishings or the size of the house? Is it the location of the house? Is it the people who live in the house? Is it a combination of all these things?

Below are the guidance notes taken from the school’s Homework Policy for Talk Time homework:

Talk Time

Teachers have noticed that, in some instances, a lot of time has been taken on the presentation of the Talk Time homework. Children are welcome to do this although it is not necessary. The purpose of Talk Time homework is to encourage a conversation around their current learning. Any notes made in their homework book should simply be there to aid them as a prompt when it is discussed in class the following week. For this reason, teachers tend to give verbal feedback during their talk time session in class. We want our children to be expert talkers, using a variety of sentences and expressions, and able to back up their points or disagree with others in a polite way – this is more important than written notes for Talk Time. Simply: it’s hard to be a good writer if you’re not a good speaker, so Talk Times using ambitious words, useful phrases, interesting sentences is the best way to support your child.

20 September 2013

This week is creative homework. Just to remind everyone, this means that the homework can be presented in a variety of different ways – it’s up to you and your child! The only rule is that you can only use one page of the homework book (but you can come up with your own sneaky ways of enlarging the space if you need to!).

Homework needs to be handed in on Wednesday 25th September 2013.

I can explain similarities and differences between humans and animals.

It’s up to you how you do this but if you’re stuck here are some suggestions:

• Choose one or two animals to concentrate on
• Compare images
• Think about skeletons, movement, behaviour or habitat
• Write a descriptive paragraph

Happy homeworking!

20 September 2013

Here are this week’s spellings; please remember to make sure that your child learns the correct spellings.

These spellings will be tested on Friday 27 September.

When you are practising the spellings, try and make it as fun as possible so that the children remember them: eg you can use magnetic letters, write the spellings in shaving foam or flour, ask your child to test you and then let them mark them or write the words on cards and play snap.  If you need any support then please come and ask.