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An excellent learner

Getting a certificate for always demonstrating excellent learning behaviour.

SEAL star

Getting the ‘I can take a safe risk’ certificate for confidently trying new shapes in gymnastics.

18 January 2013

All the spellings this week contain the letter string ough. It’s important to practise reading these words as well as writing them down as there are a variety of sounds that the ough words can make.

Children will be tested on all eight words on Friday 25 January.

18 January 2013

The homework this week is creative and is due in Wednesday 22 January.

I can show what I already know about space.

As you all know, our new topic is Blast Off! To launch this topic we would like you to show us everything you already know about space. You could tell us about the history of space travel, the different planets, the Milky Way or even discuss whether there is life on Mars! As always, you can be as creative as you like, but if you’re struggling why not try:

• an annotated photo collage of different pictures from space
• a PowerPoint presentation
• a comic strip
• a podcast

18 January 2012

This week’s spellings are plurals again. However, this week our spellings require you to add an es to the route word to make it a plural.

What do you notice about the ends of the route words?

The Rs for learning

The 7Rs for learning is an additional theme to our SEAL (social and emotional aspects of learning) coverage across the year.  Throughout this theme children will explore seven key aspects of learning behaviour:

• Responsibility – know that you are in charge of your learning
• Risk – taking – having a go
• Resilience – keep trying, stay positive and persevere
• Resourcefulness – try a different way and find and use resources independently
• Responsive – respond in the right way to peers and adults
• Remembering – apply your learning in other lessons
• Reflection – think about what and how you’ve learnt and learn from your mistakes

Each of these aspects that help us to learn will be explored over this half term.

Characteristics of effective learning

A big part of education is to learn facts and rules (and then to use these in certain situations).  At school, we learnt times tables, spellings and capitals of some countries, for example – these are useful facts that we now use as adults.  But education at its core is not just about being able to learn and remember facts.  It’s about the processes as well as the outcomes.  We want our children to happy and healthy learners for life.  If they have the characteristics of effective learners listed below, which we promote at school and which you can promote at home, they are more likely to be successful, life-long learners.

The characteristics can be broken down into three broad areas:

1. playing and exploring (finding out, using what they know in their play, being willing to ‘have a go’)
2. active learning (being involved and concentrating, keeping on trying, enjoying achieving what they set out to do)
3. creating and thinking critically (having their own ideas, using what they already know to learn new things, choosing ways to do things and finding new ways)

Have a think about these.  When does your child has the opportunity and encouragement to demonstrate and develop these characteristics?

Here are a ‘Top 20’ list of examples of questions which might prompt you to change the way you support your child at home.

• Does your child respond to first hand experiences in an exploratory way?
• How does your child demonstrate natural curiosity?
• Does your child notice patterns, changes, similarities and differences in or outside the home?
• Does your child initiate activities around his / her own interests?
• Does your child seek challenges and take risks in new experiences?
• Does your child learn from mistakes without becoming disheartened?
• To what extent does your child become completely focused in activities and experiences and not easily distracted?
• Does your child pursue a particular line of interest in an activity?
• Does your child demonstrate persistence in the face of difficulty or a challenge?
• Can your child refocus and re-plan to overcome difficulties, setbacks and disappointments?
• Does your child know how to seek appropriate help in terms of materials, tools and other people?
• Does your child become involved in activities and experiences which arise out of personal interest, curiosity and enquiry?
• Does your child demonstrate satisfaction when engaged in and completing activities?
• Does your child generate new ideas during activities?
• Does your child adapt, refine or make changes when previous ideas were unsuccessful or could be developed?
• Is your child inventive in solving problems, using knowledge and skills across areas of learning?
• Does your child talk about or explore the idea of cause and effect through actions?
• Does your child offer ideas of why things happen and how things work or show this in his / her exploratory play?
• Does your child explore ways of solving new problems including trial and error?
• Is your child able to plan and monitor what has been done?

(Much of the content of this article comes from the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, but we believe apply at all stages of a learner’s life.)

Twitter and Facebook

Whether you have a Twitter account or not you can get all our tweets by text. Just send the text message follow moortownprimary to 86444. This works for nearly all mobile phone users.  (You don’t have to, but if you also want to sign up for your own Twitter account, send start to the same number and follow instructions that you receive back.)

Recently, there’s been a big increase in the number of people who follow us on Facebook, which is great – it means more of you are able to keep in touch.  But did you know that to have a Facebook account you should be over 13?  Any child at Moortown Primary School, or any child who has moved to secondary school in the last year or so, should not follow us on Facebook. This is in line with our safeguarding practice which we take very seriously.  Look out for the forthcoming ICT and e-safety workshop which had to be postponed from the Autumn term.

Snow business

So far this year, we’ve had no problems caused by snow – but this week might change that!

You’ll know that more snow is forecast this week. If we do encounter severe snowy weather in the next few weeks, you should make every effort to get your child to attend school. If he / she can’t attend even when we’re open, we record this as an unauthorised absence – this is in-line with government requirements.

Occasionally, we have to make the decision to close school due to snow – it’s not an easy decision and the main reason for doing this will always be for the safety of everyone – pupils, parents, staff. U

Up-to-date information about a school closure can be found by using ParentMail (ask at the office for this free service) and by following us on Twitter.

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Attendance matters

We know there have been quite a few bugs going around and this had had a detrimental effect on attendance. Sadly, the school attendance figure for autumn is at 94.5%, below our target. Here’s the breakdown:

• Reception: 93.0%
• Year 1: 94.8%
• Year 2: 96.7%
• Year 3: 97.5%
• Year 4: 94.4%
• Year 5: 94.6%
• Year 6: 94.2%

The Department for Education monitors attendance of children across England in order to raise attendance nationally.

Studies show good attendance and punctuality lead to better life chances in the future. Children who are often absent make less progress due to the amount of schoolwork being missed, and the absences may also affect their social and emotional development. It’s our policy that parents / carers who have children with particularly low attendance must provide us with a medical certificate or show us the medication and required dosage that their child is receiving.

For most of the year so far, we’ve been above our attendance target – let’s get back up to 96% or more soon!

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