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09 March 2012

This week we’re spelling words with the ending ment.

Spellings will be tested on Friday 16 March.

• supplement
• government
• punishment
• development
• management
• employment
• environment
• equipment
• improvement
• argument
• announcement

09 March 2012

Your homework this week is talk time:

Should school uniform be banned?

In class we’ve learnt how to write balanced arguments.  Discuss with your parents, or adults at home, your opinions about school uniform.  Think of and discuss points that you agree with and points that you disagree with.  Also think about a conclusion and the connectives that you would use in your discussion.

Make notes in your homework book to show the things you discussed and what you concluded.

Homework is due in on Wednesday 14 March.

09 March 2012

This week in our spellings we are learning to drop the ‘e’ for ‘ing’. All of the words this week are verbs.

By adding ‘ing‘ on the end of the verb, we have to drop the ‘e’ from the route word. For example, explore with an ing added becomes exploring.

As all the variations to the words are similar, I’ve included more words on the list. Any of the words in the list above could come up on the test on Friday 16 March.

09 March 2012

The homework this week is talk time and also a little bit creative and should be completed by Wednesday 14 March:

I can prepare a one minute presentation on an animal.

This week, we were visited by some very special animals, some that we may never touch or see again. They included a slithery corn snake, the adorable sugar glider (which we saw eat some live bait!) and also a tarantula (sedated thankfully). These were fascinating creatures and we learnt a little bit about each of them. Your objective is to find out as much as you can about these creatures and prepare a one minute oral (that means speaking) presentation on your chosen animal.

There need be nothing in your homework book. All that is required is that you are able to speak for a minute on your chosen animal. Please come and speak to me if you have any questions. Good luck!

09 March 2012

This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect – to complete a worksheet on letter formations.

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

This homework is due on Wednesday 14 March.

09 March 2012

This week’s spellings begin and end with ‘th’. Your child will be tested on Friday 16 March 2012.

The Enormous Crocodile

As part of World Book Day last week, we discovered the world of Roald Dahl’s Enormous Crocodile. We hot-seated the croc, and asked him some challenging questions about his need to eat small children. He didn’t take too well to some of the questions as you can see below.

We also tried to get inside the mind of the crocodile and we expressed his thoughts as he crawled down our conscience alley.

Good behaviour doesn’t happen by accident…

In the last three years, some children at Moortown Primary have responded to some simple questions about school and their feelings and behaviour.  This has been part of the ‘Me and My School project’.  The results for our school, from the provision we have in place to the outcomes for our children, were excellent.  Below is the press release following the publication of the project.  Don’t be put off by the reference to mental health – this can be as simple as weekly SEAL sessions and the occasional chat with Mrs Wilson, our Learning Support Mentor.

School-based mental health support results in positive outcomes for children

A study of more than 18,000 children across England has found that embedding expert mental health work in schools as part of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS)   programme, led to greater improvements in primary school pupils’ reported behavioural problems  than for pupils in schools without TaMHS support. The benefit from a focus on mental health in schools was even more pronounced where schools also provided pupils with self- help leaflets designed to give tips of how children could help themselves if they were feeling stressed or troubled. Random allocation of schools to intervention groups meant these results can be treated as robust.

This three year longitudinal study following children in 25 local authorities across England also found that tools designed to improve communication between health and education professionals (such as the Common Assessment Framework), good links between schools and specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the provision of mental health information to pupils were all associated with reductions in pupil’s difficulties in controlling aggression and anger in secondary school.

These findings come from an independent evaluation of TaMHS, led by UCL (University College London) and involving eight academic institutions and other organisations across the UK (Universities of Manchester, Leicester, Durham, York and Glasgow, The Anna Freud Centre, the Institute of Psychiatry and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research).

Over the course of the project, researchers tracked and analysed the progress of 18,235 children in 526 schools.

The TaMHS programme aimed to help schools deliver targeted support to those with, or at risk of, mental health problems.  Between 2008 and March 2011, £60 million was allocated across all local authorities inEnglandin order for them to develop additional provision of mental health support in selected schools, including individual, group and whole-school interventions.

One in ten children in theUK has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem and the authors of the report recommend intervening early as a key to managing behavioural problems. “It may make sense to prioritise mental health work with primary school pupils in relation to behavioural problems to have maximum impact before problems become too entrenched,” says the report. 

The report also suggests that inter-agency working and improved relationships between secondary schools and specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, as well as provision of materials to help young people find and access support, should be prioritised. 

Dr Miranda Wolpert of the UCL CAMHS Evidence Based Practice Unit led the research. “This report indicates that targeted help in primary schools has helped reduce behavioural problems and should continue,” she says. “It also indicates the need to build on the good work already happening across schools and the health services to ensure joined up services and support for mental health needs, especially for secondary school pupils.”

The full report and briefing note is available at https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-RR177

A quick reminder…

It’s the Year 2 class assembly this Thursday (8 March) at 2.40. We hope to see you there!

Reading and Literacy

We’ve started a story unit based on Willy the Chimp. There will be lots of drama involved as a stimulus for the children’s writing. The children’s reading in Year 2 is coming on brilliantly. Remember to keep checking your child’s understanding of what they are reading. Here are some tips to help you:

• Find the word/phrase that tells me that…
• How is the character feeling on page _? How do you know?
• What is the problem in the story? How do you think it will be solved?
• Why are there words in bold/capitals/italics?
• Think of 3 adjectives to describe your favourite character in the story.
• Was there a meaning/moral to the story?