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Phonics

We are busy learning to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.

The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

We are also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.

This is all oral (spoken). Your child will not be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Ways you can support your child at home:

Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.

11 October 2013

This week’s homework is talk time.

There has been lots of learning going on in art this week.  There are so many artists who have drawn and painted faces.  Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted faces using images of fruit.  Here is one of them:

           How does it make you feel?

           Do you like it?  Why?

            What does it make you think of?

These are just some questions to help you talk about the painting.

We are looking forward to hearing your views when we discuss this on Wednesday 16 October.

11 October 2013

Here are this week’s spellings.  As usual, there will be a spelling test on Friday 18 October.

Let’s all go shopping!

Today, Year 2 were all rich and went on a big sweet shop in our maths lesson. We had to find out how much the items on our shopping list were and then find the correct coins we needed to be able to pay for them. We really enjoyed using the coins (but were very disappointed when we realised they were only plastic).

After talking as a class, we decided it would be really good practice to try our new skills out with real money when going to the shops. Why not ask us to find out how much something is and let us see if we can pick out the coins we need to pay for it?

Outdoor learning!

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum emphasises the importance of the outdoor environment. As you know, we have enhanced our outdoor area to improve the quality of learning experiences for the children:

• Being outdoors has a positive impact on children’s sense of well-being and helps all aspects of children’s development.
• Being outdoors offers opportunities for doing things in different ways and on different scales than when indoors.
• It gives children first-hand contact with weather, seasons and the natural world.
• Outdoor environments give children freedom to explore, use their senses and be physically active and exuberant.

Misleading headlines on attendance

If you’ve seen the headlines in the Yorkshire Evening Press today (04.10.13), please don’t be misled.  First, it’s important to know that nothing has changed since previous communications on the subject, despite this front page news story suggesting otherwise.

Here’s my response to a few of the misleading points:

• ‘You can take holidays in school time’ – This headline reads like parents / carers have got the green light to go on holiday in term-time – this is not true and has never (in my time in education) been true.  Parents / carers might have chosen to do so in the past (we can’t physically stop families at passport control!), but schools and local authorities have never happily authorised this.  Some schools in the area have not authorised holidays for many, many years.  Moortown Primary has been playing catch-up with these schools because our attendance figures have been lower than other schools – they’re better now, and that’s down to stronger policies and your cooperation.  Thank you.
• ‘Parents faced with fines for taking children on holiday in school term time have been thrown a lifeline…’ – I wonder who has thrown this ‘lifeline’.  Nothing new has happened to warrant this story: there is no backing down on policy, there is no relaxing of rules.  One of our parents this afternoon commented on the use of the term ‘lifeline’ to me: ‘it’s hardly a matter of life and death’.
• ‘The Department for Education…said that local authorities could interpret the rules as they saw fit’ – That’s certainly true, but the DfE rules are clear: headteachers should not authorise unnecessary term-time absence.  This is backed up by Ofsted, who routinely use attendance figures in their inspections of schools.  Moortown policy matches Leeds policy.  Leeds policy is not in any way in conflict with national policy.  Here’s an extract from School Attendance: statutory guidance and departmental advice (Department of Education, 2013):

Can a parent take their child on holiday during term time?  Head teachers should only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances… Leave is unlikely, however, to be granted for the purposes of a family holiday as a norm.

Can a school fine a parent for taking their child on holiday during term time?  Yes. Parents have a legal duty to make sure that their child aged 5-16, if registered at a school, attends that school regularly. If taking an unauthorised term time holiday is grounds for issuing a penalty notice according to the local authority’s code, and if the leave of absence for holiday was not authorised by the school, either the school or the local authority may issue a penalty notice.

The Deputy Director of Learning, skills & universal services for Leeds City Council comments on the article:

The headlines are extremely misleading and encourage people to believe at first sight that not only is Leeds giving permission for heads to authorise parents to take their children out of school for holidays in term time, but also that the Local Authority are in direct conflict with the DfE. Neither of these are true. We are making plain to the YEP through formal channels our concerns about their reporting of this issue. Moreover the DfE are aware of the article and the misrepresentation.

The main body of the article is largely a reasonable discussion of the issues around the new legislation and clearly states that ‘the DfE has said today that the decision by Leeds City Council is not illegal and is in keeping with the legislation’.

To reiterate the Leeds stance: in line with new government legislation headteachers are no longer allowed to authorise any requests for holidays in term time. Only leave requested in exceptional circumstances can be authorised.

Thank you for your support and cooperation around improving our attendance in recent years, and for your continued cooperation to make sure your child’s attendance, and therefore his / her learning, continues to improve.

Doctor Doctor

A real doctor came to visit us at school today.  She spoke to us about her job as a doctor and she told us how we can keep ourselves healthy.  We were able to use her stethoscope – did you know that if you listen to your tummy with a stethoscope you can still hear your heartbeat as well?  We discovered that our tummies make very strange noises!  A few of us had our pulses checked, fortunately we were all very healthy!

04 October 2013

This week’s homework is practice makes perfect.

Handwriting is very important and the sooner we get it right the better!

This week’s homework is practising round and back to form letters like a and c.   If you are not sure about the handwriting scheme, please take a look at the website so that you are able to support your child – there is a very useful guide which goes through the basic rules that we follow.

04 October 2013

Here are this week’s spellings.  They will be tested on Friday 11 October.

04 October 2013

This week our homework is practice makes perfect.

I can use a number line for addition.

We have been learning how to solve addition calculations on a number line this week. All of the children have completed similar calculations in lesson but a bit of extra practise will make sure we’re ready to take on a challenge next week. There are three calculations to complete, if you would like to do more that is great. Even better, why not try out the challenge and see how you do?

This homework is due on Wednesday 9th October.

Have fun you marvellous mathematicians!