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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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Try this tasty dip

Year 6 have been developing their food technology skills by making hummus:

Have a try at making hummus!  It is a great source of protein and fibre and makes a healthy alternative to meat if you’re a vegetarian.  To make this tasty dip even more delicious, spread it in pitta bread for a light lunch or dip veg into it for a scrumptious snack.  Try it in your lunchbox – you won’t be disappointed!

Here’s the recipe:

• 410g can of chickpeas
• juice of one lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Whizz the chickpeas, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor or using a hand blender until just smooth.

Loosen with a little warm water if needed.

Phonics phase 3

Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words, both tricky and decodable, is the ultimate goal!  We’ve begun Phase 3 of our phonics programme.  The purpose of this phase is to:

• teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat and float
• practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC (consonant – vowel – consonant) words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
• learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
• read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
• read and write words in phrases and sentences.

The following phonemes will be taught during Phase 3.

1. v, w
2. x, y, z, zz, qu
3. sh, ch, th, ng
4. ai, ee, igh, oa
5. oo, oo, or, ar
6. er, oi, ir, ur
7. air, ear, ure

Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.

The number of tricky words is growing.  This term we will learn: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all.

How you can help at home

• Sing an alphabet song together.
• Play ‘I spy’, using letter names as well as sounds.
• Continue to play with magnetic letters, using some of the two grapheme (letter) combinations:

r-ai-n = rain blending for reading | rain = r-ai-n – segmenting for spelling

b-oa-t = boat blending for reading | boat = b-oa-t – segmenting for spelling

h-ur-t = hurt blending for reading | hurt = h-ur-t – segmenting for spelling

• Praise your child for trying out words.
• Set a timer; call out one word at a time and get your child to spell it on a magic board or a small whiteboard, against the timer – remember, they can use magnetic letters.
• Play ‘Pairs’, turning over two words at a time trying to find a matching pair – this is especially helpful with the tricky words: the the, to to no no, go go.  Don’t worry if they get some wrong! These are hard to remember – they need plenty of practice.

11 January 2013

This week, we’re learning to spell words with the ‘ful’ suffix.
Children have been given the following words to investigate and find those that would have the ‘ful’ suffix and learn their spellings. Remember- not all of the words on the list work with the ‘ful’ suffix.

• proud
• like
• sick
• quiet
• mind
• glad
• hope
• kind
• arm
• room
• thought
• cold
• nice
• child
• friend
• doubt
• sure
• tune
• home
• care
• fruit
• life
• lone
• cheer
• mist
• time
• hurt
• rich
• pain
• shame
• thirst
• king
• near
• free
• use

Spellings will be tested on Friday 18 January.

11 January 2013

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to learn more about plurals.  This week, all our spellings simply require s at the end of the route word to make it a plural.

Can you spot what other rule is being used in some of the spellings as well?

Making complete circuits

11 January 2013

All the spellings this week contain a long i sound which is spelt igh. Children could also think of other words which contain igh or make other words from one of the spellings. For example: fright, frightening, frightened, frightful.

Children will be tested on all eight words on Friday 18 January.