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Paper chain competition

Today, the class have had to work cooperatively in teams to try to produce the longest paper chain. There were lots of enterprise skills on show as children assigned themselves specific roles and divided them into sub-teams.

The winning team were the Snakes who managed to make a paper chain that was five and a half metres in length!

Happy Christmas!

A very busy term is coming to an end.  Thank you for your support with the Christmas performance; the children worked really hard practising lines and songs and without your help this wouldn’t happen.

It has been a long and tiring term but what a successful one.  All of the children have made an excellent start to Year 1 and we have seen changes in them all since September. Here are some examples of fantastic progress:

• Nico, Owen and Oliver have impressed us with their maths skills
• Abi has settled really well and has made lots of new friends
• Zak and Neive have tried really hard to make positive choices and have shown they have a real sense of humour
• Brandon has shown excellent learning behaviour
• Sam is coming into school every day with a smile on his face

The transition from Foundation Stage to Year 1 is a big change but the children have taken it in their stride with very few hiccups and have had a very successful term in Year 1.

We hope you have a relaxing break over Christmas and we will see you in the New Year ready for even more learning!

Happy Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We have reached the end of the children’s first, very busy, exciting term at Moortown Primary School!  All of the children are settled and happy and are making excellent progress in all areas of their learning and development.

These are just some of the ways the children have impressed us this term:

• Isaac, Manpreet, Noorpreet and Sachpreet are blending and reading brilliantly
• Dylan and Isaiah have been keen to learn by always listening and trying
• Kai, Pia, Grace and Gabby have made excellent choices all term and shown they know how to learn
• Filip has impressed us by overcoming his shyness to communicate more confidently with children and adults
• Ishaan, Farai, Josh and Ismail have been constructing amazing buildings and models
• Nicky and Lori have taught us a lot about trucks
• Thomas, Albert and Ethan have shown great imagination in their play and story-telling
• Lewis and Phoebe have shown amazing creativity with their pattern-making and drawings
• Alex and Ripley have wowed us with their maths
• Ben, Martha, Humairah and Mia have been great members of the class by being kind and helpful to adults and other children
• Karam has been polite and caring
• Theo has made us laugh with his great sense of humour.

We hope all the children are back to full strength and ready to enjoy the last week of term and the Christmas party.

Have a great break and see you next year!

14 December 2012

The homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 19 December.

I can show what I have learnt about time.

We’ve been learning to tell the time and find time intervals this week so the children are tasked with showing me what they have learnt!

They could:

• Create a game.
• Make a clock and ask and answer some questions.
• Use a timetable (TV magazine, bus timetable) to ask and answer some questions.
• Match a time in words to a clock showing the same time.

14 December 2012

This week, the final homework of 2012 is practice makes perfect.

As the Key Stage 1 production is approaching, the homework this week is to practise and prepare:

• the words to the songs (these are in your child’s Homework Book)
• individual parts (practise projecting your voice!)

Don’t forget: Monday is dress rehearsal so we need all costumes in school.

Public performances are on Tuesday and Wednesday, 2.15pm – donations to Dogs Trust (one of our school charities).  See you there!

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are contractions: words which use apostrophes to shorten or contract two words into one word. I’ve noticed that children are struggling to read these words and/or write them correctly.

Just noticed that I’ve listed I’ll twice. Sorry!

14 December 2012

Our spellings this week are all homophones. That’s when two or more words sound the same but are spelt differently. All children have the same ones this week.

The individual words aren’t too tricky but the real challenge is being able to use them at the correct time. Year 4 therefore need to practise using the right homophone in sentences, which is how they will be tested.

League tables

The primary league tables have been published.

The Department for Education site publishes the percentage of children at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6) achieving Level 4 or more in both English (reading and writing) and Maths together.  It shows at Moortown Primary, this percentage has gone from 78% in 2009 to consistently over 90%.  In 2012, 94% of children achieved Level 4 or more.

What the league tables don’t show is the stories behind the data.  We’re proud of this figure: 94% continues to place us amongst the highest in the country.  But it’s a little lower than 2010 and 2011.  One child missed out on a Level 4 by a couple of marks in Maths but achieved Level 4 in English – this is shame, especially since Ms Hazell reports that the pupil was working quite securely at Level 4 for much of the year (perhaps SAT nerves or test technique let this pupil down on the day…?).  Another much-loved child has very specific special needs meaning he could not do the tests at all, but is included in our school results – parents and carers are often surprised to hear even pupils with quite extreme special needs are included in the league tables.

The BBC version of the league tables publishes the percentage of pupils reaching Level 5 (the level of a typical 14 year old) or more in both subjects.  Our percentage is 45%.

Again, it’s useful to put that figure in a context.  First of all, it’s very good, although not quite as high as some other high-performing schools.  Our data for this particular class of children shows 61% of pupils achieved Level 5 in English and 52% in Maths.  It can be a lottery of a kind to find out which of those children achieved Level 5 in both.

Additionally, the BBC describes this aspect of the league tables as ‘high-achieving pupils’.

However, we like to think that children who make lots of progress as high-achieving – and many of our children exceeded average progress expectations.

Moreover, in Maths, we have a high percentage of pupils who achieved not just Level 5 but Level 6: 13%.  This is a result of their hard work at home, in class and at supplementary sessions – our Tough Stuff Maths club!  (Very few pupils nationally achieved Level 6 in English – most teachers and headteachers were struck by just how hard the test for this was.)  This year, we continue to challenge and support those with potential to work towards this very significant level.

Well done to all our pupils in the 2011-11 cohort.  You achieved well socially, emotionally and academically.  We’re proud of you all.

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are words starting with ‘wh’.

Your child will be tested on Friday 21 December 2012.

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are tricky words. Your child will be tested on Friday 21 December 2012.

After the holidays, the children will be split into different spelling groups. You will know which group your child is in as it will be written on the inside of their spelling book.

• their (used for a name/person)
• there (used for places and has the word ‘here’ in it)
• people
• asked
• could
• saw
• thought
• friend
• once
• were