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Parents’ / carers’ annual survey 3

This, the third and final summary of results from the annual survey, presents just a few of the many positive comments we received.  Unlike the comments noted in the previous posts, I won’t respond to these, except to say, from all staff: thank you.

I am extremely happy with my son’s progress, he loves reading and sports and is positively encouraged by staff at all times. Moortown is a gem of a school and I feel incredibly grateful that my child attends.

Learnt so much this year! A great first year at school! School communication is excellent – the class newsletters are particularly useful, and active Twitter / regularly updated website very good. Advanced calendar dates are very useful.

The school has a strong sense of community. I feel my child’s uniqueness (as all children are) is valued and that teachers build respectful, warm relationships with the pupils, imperative to enable children to feel safe and happy enough to learn.

I think you run a fantastic school – my son is very happy.

Fantastic school in all areas with exceptional leadership.

I am happy with the way my child has progressed this year with Mr Wilks. He has been encouraged in all aspects of his learning and enjoys coming to school.

My child has had a very enjoyable year thanks to the care and understanding of Mrs Weekes and Mrs Maver (and the assistant teachers). Working together has demonstrated the value of teamwork between teachers and parents and what it can achieve.

Strengths – clear values; encouraging good behaviour; awareness of others’ feelings; deals well with bullying; warm approachable head and staff alike; friendly atmosphere; children are always polite and helpful; awareness of importance of health eating and exercise. Forgot to mention brilliant Mrs O’Malley and her team – always helpful.

Please note, we won’t rest on our laurels.  We’re always seeking ways to improve, and you can help.  If you’ve any suggestions, questions, comments or concerns, do let me know.

Welcome to Reception!

We’ve now visited all of the children and are looking forward to them starting next week. We are confident that they will settle well and enjoy the new challenges of ‘big’ school!

There are three members of staff in Reception this year: Mrs Boulton, Mrs Maqbool and me, Mrs Burke. In addition, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Taylor will be taking the class for a short time on Tuesday afternoons. When your child starts school we encourage you to come in each morning and settle them in classroom. This is an ideal opportunity for you to find out what your child is learning, look at your child’s Learning Journey and discuss their learning with us.

We’ll open the doors at 8.50 each morning and take the register. When collecting your child, please wait at the gate. We’ll let your child out at 3.15 when we see the adult who is collecting them. Please make sure to bring and collect your child on time. Children can become very anxious if they arrive or leave late from school.

Our main emphasis this term is the children’s personal, social and emotional development. We’ll be settling the children into school life and familiarizing them with routines and expectations. The children will be forging new friendships, learning to share and care for one another and look after their environment.

Here are some of the ways you can help your child at home over the coming weeks:

Mathematics – Encourage your child to count objects and actions. For example, counting while going up the stairs or how many knives and forks on the table. Look for numbers around the house and in the environment. For example, on the remote control, on the telephone, house numbers, bus numbers and numbers on car registration plates. Look for different shapes within the home and environment, clothing, the walls and windows.

Writing – Provide your child with opportunities to use pencils and pens. Encourage your child to ‘mark make’ and develop good pencil control. Encourage your child to use writing in their play.  If they are playing shops ask them to write a shopping list.  If playing police get them to write an incident report! If your child is writing their name please help us by teaching them that the first letter of their name is a capital letter and the rest are lower case letters. Please use the school’s handwriting style. There is a copy in your ‘Welcome Pack’.

Reading – Share books with your child. While reading encourage your child to talk about the illustrations and predict what may happen next. After reading, talk about what happened in the story and encourage them to re-tell the story. Look for letters and print in the house and environment – encourage your child to look for letters from their name while you are out and about. If your child shows an interest in letter shapes encourage them to use the ‘sounds’ the letters make, for example ‘sssss’ for snake, ‘mmmm’ for Mummy, and ‘zzzz’ for zebra.

As the term progresses, I’ll send you more information about how we teach reading and phonics. Keep checking on-line, too!

Please remember that we want you to be very much involved in your child’s learning so please ask if you need more information or have any questions or concerns.

For more information about the Foundation Stage and how children learn in Reception go to www.foundationyears.org.uk

14 September 2012

This week we’re once again looking at words we use every day.

These words will be tested on Friday 21 September.

14 September 2012

This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect – to complete a number formation worksheet.

You’ll find the worksheet in your child’s homework book.

This homework is due on Wednesday 19 September 2012.

14 September 2012

The homework this week is Creative and is due in Wednesday 19 September.

I can present the water cycle in a creative way.

This week, we’ve been investigating the water cycle. We have tested some of the changes of state that water goes through. We want you to come up with a creative way of showing this cycle. It’s completely up to you how you want to do this, but here’s a few ideas if you’re struggling:

• a photo collage of all the different stages of the water cycle
• a PowerPoint presentation
• a comic strip
• a podcast

Good luck!

14 September 2012

This week’s homework is another creative one; we have had an interesting scientific week looking at materials and their properties. We know that the children have enjoyed the learning and would like to know what they have remembered and learnt.

I can show what I know about solids, liquids and gases.

Remember, your learning can be shown in many different ways:

• a poster
• a model
• an investigation
• a diagram
• a mindmap

These are just a few examples – let your creative juices flow!

This homework is to be handed in by Wednesday 19 September; no excuses this week.

14 September 2012

This week’s spellings are following the rule of:

when a verb ends in “e” then drop the “e” for “ing”

These will be tested on Friday 21 September.

14 September 2012

This week’s homework is Practice makes Perfect. Your child has either a place value or partitioning maths sheet to complete. It is due in on Wednesday 19 September 2012.

14 September 2012

This week’s spellings are words containing ‘ea’. Your child will be tested on Friday 21 September 2012.

• speak
• steal
• cream
• dream
• team
• mean
• please
• ear
• near
• easy

Parents’ / carers’ annual survey 2

If you’ve read the first article about the annual survey, you’ll know that we’ve received very positive feedback about the series of statements – we’re especially happy that once more, 100% of parents / carers who responded agreed with the statement My child is happy to come to school.

This second article looks at the comments some of you made.  Here are some of the constructive ideas and ‘even better if’ comments you noted:

“Stop avoiding using the words ‘Christmas’, ‘Halloween’ etc.  Political correctness gone mad!  More apt communication eg lots comes out about general things but nothing came out to say my daughter was leaving school to go visit the bank.”  We don’t avoid using the term ‘Christmas’ and in fact in recent years have developed more Christmas activities such as Christmas Carol singing in the community; we choose not to celebrate ‘Hallowe’en’ because we view it as a fairly minor event in the year which might distract from learning in school.  If you’ve reason to believe a member of staff is being overly politically correct at the expense of reference to key aspects of our culture and identity, please speak with me.  Regarding the visit to the bank, this is a local visit and so we don’t ask permission; we’re sorry you weren’t aware of this – I’ve encouraged teachers to post news articles on the class news, especially in busy weeks such as themed weeks, when the bank visit happened.

“Would like to hear more about the transition to Year 1, and the expectations.  Anecdotally I hear it is a big jump and can be a shock to the youngsters.  However, I suspect more information about this will come towards the end of this term and start of next term.”  Thank you for your patience regarding transition to Year 1 – since you returned your survey, there was indeed a meeting to discuss this – and look out for the forthcoming Learning Workshop this half-term.  Please contact Mrs Maver, the Year 1 teacher, if you want more guidance.

School trips – need more than 2 weeks notice – it causes childcare issues otherwise.  Lost property – if an item has a name on it – why is it put into LOST property???  Photoboard – re members of staff and identifying them – HASN’T appeared – they don’t wear ID badges and don’t introduce themselves: so who are they?  Toilets – near the hall: the large disabled one has no lid: when you flush it germs spread everywhere, including over the hand basin – very unhygienic!!  PTA – until recently – as additions on newsletter, we aren’t informed what the PTA spend their money on.  We constantly have non-uniform days, stalls etc to raise money but it would be good to know the PTA’s plans for the money: could they do a bulletin/newsletter maybe twice a year to inform us of their plans how they’ll spend the (our) money.  It’s difficult to get communications right for everyone but I agree – lots of notice about trips would be good and I’ve asked office staff to try to communicate trips etc earlier (difficult, since the electronic diary system we use allows for an alert only two weeks in advance!) – please let me know if you feel things haven’t improved.  I agree that clothes with a name should not be put in the lost property box; we suspect this is due to children who spot clothes around school and choose not to ignore them but instead put them somewhere safe.  We’ve arranged for a weekly check of the lost property box.  Regarding knowing who staff are, I must apologise that a photoboard  of staff has not appeared.  To remedy the situation, one will appear very soon and the photos will also appear in the Class News section of the website; I’ve also reminded staff to introduce themselves!  I’m not a big fan of ID badges as we’re a small community and sometimes wonder if – from a security point of view – they encourage complacency.  The easy-access toilet doesn’t have – and has never had – a lid; I wonder if this is due to accessibility issues, which I’m investigating (can anybody offer advice?).  Finally, The PTA is still re-establishing itself so communication could be better, I agree – I’ll pass you comments on to Mrs Maver, who currently coordinates this.  The PTA needs a Chair to manage such issues – I don’t want to decide how we spend money without PTA agreement.  Any volunteers to be Chair?

Not enough school trips – if any!  Especially for older ones.  There also seems to be more warnings than praise.  This parent was in Year 6 – we really want all Year 6 pupils to go on the annual residential, and so try to keep other trips to a minimum to make the residential more affordable.  I understand it might seem there are more warnings than praise – this, I’m sure, is due to warnings being taken seriously (and note-worthy) by our conscientious pupils.  Year 6 pupils tell me when I lead Year 6 leavers’ interviews each year that they like warnings because it helps pupils to learn, and they always say praise and warnings are fair.

I would like to see a better variety of sports taking place in school time.  Healthy competition between schools in various sports would be great.  Especially with the Olympics coming up! (athletics, tennis, rugby, rounders or baseball among many).  This comes from a parent of younger children.  I’ve passed your comment to our Health Leader, Mrs Taylor.  The variety of physical activity our children do widens as the children get older because they are more able to walk to Allerton Grange and benefit from activities there, and many local tournaments are open to older children only.  I’m trying to establish with local schools a football league.  Please also look out for various after-school clubs – we have a weekly football club on Fridays and there are many other sports clubs in the area – contact us for details. 

My child is currently on pack lunches because from what she told me when wasn’t eating much veg and fruit in school dinners.  Yet on pack lunch it seems she is not allowed to sit with friends and not very happy at all.  So I am feeling somewhat pressured to return her to school dinners.  Please look at packed lunch seating arrangements, and also veg choices and encouragement in school dinners.  We introduced set tables for those who have a packed lunch so older children could act as role models and support and encourage younger children.  A mix of children on each table promotes social skills and develops the community atmosphere.  Children I’ve asked have told me they like this and understand why it’s useful.  However, your daughter can mention this (perhaps using the Worry Box near the office or the SEAL boxes in each class), or you can tell Mrs Wilson or the class teacher – we want everyone to have a happy and healthy lunchtime, whoever they sit with, so will endeavour to rearrange some seating for individual children if we know about it.

If your view is not expressed here, it’s because (I hope) I’ve addressed it in response to someone else’s comment.  Again, please contact me, or the Chair of Governors if you prefer, if you’re concerned about something at school.

Thanks for your comments.  I welcome all your suggestions, questions and concerns.  Of course, it’s good to have the occasional pat on the back, too – look out for the third news post where I list some of your praise!