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Masterchef hummus

Last week, children were told that they would be making hummus and were given a basic hummus recipe. They had to decide what they were going to add to their hummus to make it more exciting or interesting. We went to Marks and Spencers to do a bit of research about what flavours of hummus are popular. Once back, the groups finalised their recipes. On Monday, they made their hummus with the extra ingredients they had brought from home. There were some interesting combinations: raspberry ice-cream, rhubarb and chocolate sprinkles were some of the more unusual ingredients which were added.

As it was a competition, the children had to not only make a tasty hummus but had to think about presentation too. Masterchef judges, Mr Wilks and Isabella Deyes, tasted the hummus and judged the presentation. The winner was a sweet chilli flavoured hummus made by Pavan, Ahmed and Roshan.

Yogabugs

Last week, Yogabugs helped us to exercise our bodies and minds. The session was great and was linked to our food topic. During the session, we even tasted some fruit and thought carefully about how it tasted.

Keeping fit and healthy

Some Year 2 children keeping fit and healthy by taking part in the Roundhay Primary Schools Fun Run.

Attendance update

It’s good to see that our attendance has improved, even if it’s just by a little.  Our average for the year so far is 95.7% – we’re just short of our target of 96.0%.  Year 3 attendance is great – it’s much higher than other classes, and they’ve even managed to increase this further – fantastic!

• Well done to Reception and Year 6, who have all improved their attendance in recent weeks.
• Well done to Year 2, whose attendance (along with Year 3) is considerably higher than the other classes.

Here’s a breakdown of the classes’ attendance, in order:

1. Year 3: 97.3%
2. Year 2: 96.7%
3. Year 4: 95.9%
4. Year 5: 95.7%
5. Year 6: 95.2%
6. Year 1: 94.7%
7. Reception: 94.5%

A couple of points to bear in mind:

All of the children who have made most progress in Year 2 and in Year 6 (the end of Key Stage One and Key Stage Two) have got attendance rates above the school target of 96.0%.  Clearly, the more your child is in school, the more your child will learn.

From September 2013, the Department for Education’s new guidance for schools makes it clear that term-time holidays must never be authorised; as a result, we are changing our policy accordingly (exceptional circumstances such as the death of a close relative with whom your child has had frequent contact will not be treated in the same way, but it is expected that this will be rare).

2013-14 term time dates

We break up for summer on Friday 19 July.  After two training days at the beginning of the year, we return from the summer break on Wednesday 04 September.  In the Autumn term, there will be two further training days.

Here are the dates of the holidays and school training days for 2013 – 2014. We are always required to close for the local elections in May, but the date for this has not yet been set.

Governing body news

Each year, governors like to update you with what’s going on in the governing body of Moortown Primary. This year, the chairs of the three sub-committees give you this overview…

Teaching and learning sub-committee

The governing body’s teaching and learning committee consists of five governors and Mr Roundtree. The purpose of the committee is to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s work around pupil attainment and progress, which means how well children do in tests at the end of key stages and how much improvement they make between key stages. Our role is to look at this for the pupil body as a whole, but also for groups of pupils, such as boys and girls, pupils from different ethnic backgrounds, pupils with a special educational need, etc. We use national comparison data to assess how well pupils at Moortown are doing, compared with similar pupils nationally.

We meet every term to discuss issues such as how much progress children are making in their learning throughout the year, how the needs of children who need a little extra support in their learning are being met, and how the school is making good use of its pupil premium funding. (Pupil premium is a government initiative to provide additional funding for pupils whose families have a lower income; the eligibility for pupil premium is whether a child is or has been entitled to free school meals – even if they have a packed lunch instead.) We don’t look at the data for individual children; we use the school’s own tracking processes to look at progress for each class as a whole, and for some groups of pupils within a class.

Within the committee we have a link governor for literacy, one for maths, and one for the Early Years Foundation Stage (teaching and learning in Reception). The role of the link governors is to meet every term with the corresponding member of school staff and discuss progress in the action plans for each of these areas. In this way we have members of the governing body who become more knowledgeable about each area and are well placed to undertake their role as ‘critical friend.’

Pupil support sub-committee

The Pupil Support Committee meets every term to discuss the matters that affect pupils when they are at school. The committee is made up of four governors, one of whom acts as the chairperson, and the Headteacher. Other teachers or staff members might also come along to meetings depending on what is to be discussed.

There are certain things that we talk about regularly such as attendance, safeguarding (ensuring that children are kept safe when in school) and behaviour in school. We also discuss and approve a wide range of policies including Uniform, Positive Relationships (about behaviour in school) and Equality – these can be found on the school’s website.

One of the first things that we will be discussing at our next committee meeting is the Attendance Policy. We have high expectations with regard this.

Mr Roundtree outlined in a recent letter to parents and carers the regulations on school attendance are changing. From September onwards, term-time absences can only be granted in exceptional circumstances and the school’s Attendance Policy will be changed to reflect this and to clarify what we and other local schools regard as ‘exceptional’. This does not mean simply to go on holiday or visit a distant relative – school holidays are the time to do this.

Resources sub-committee

The Resources Committee meets termly to discuss financial, health and safety and premise matters facing the school. The committee comprises of five governors, one of whom chairs, and Mr Roundtree and Mrs O’Malley.

In addition to the termly meetings, governors participate in monthly budget reviews and provide challenge as to where the school spends its money, as well as the annual budget setting with the local authority. We are pleased to inform you that the budget is healthy and that the school has a strong financial foundation.

This means we can refurbish and develop the existing ICT Suite. The works will be undertaken this summer and will be ready for use when the pupils return in September. We’re creating a multi-purpose room for cooking, circle times, ICT skills – basically, a new learning space!

We also undertake premises inspections with the Resources Manager (Mrs O’Malley) and provide challenge to estate and health and safety issues.

14 June 2013

This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect. Your child will have a calculation worksheet to complete. I have included a 100 square in the back of the homework book, if needed.

It’s due in on Wednesday 19 June 2013.

Next week is Bike Week

Next week is National Bike Week (www.bikeweek.org.uk).

The more times your child comes by bike to school, even for part of the way, the greater the chance of winning a competition running throughout the week.

Each day, we’ll take photos of seven randomly selected bikes in school. Pictures will be put into a hat for a raffle on Friday.

Results from our school survey showed that 34% of children would like to bike to school.

Did you know we have a bike storage facility beside the Year 3 and 4 cloakroom, available to store bikes and scooters?

14 June 2013

This week’s spellings are all words with the suffix ful. The suffix ful means ‘full of’. Notice how when ‘full’ is added on to the end it loses one of its ls. For example, wish and full becomes wishful.

14 June 2013

There will be no usual spelling test next week, and so no new words to learn this week. Instead of the normal test, the national phonics screening test will take place.  There is no date set for which children will be tested on which day; as always, avoid unnecessary absences.

I suggest children spend each night looking through old spelling lists. Get your child to read and sound out the words.

Please see me if you have any questions.