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School Council Elections

Next week, we’ll be holding elections in school for new school councillors. Two children are elected from each class, including Reception. In the past, the school councillors have played an important role in major decision-making such as choosing our school charities, selecting playground equipment and choosing the colour of our uniform. Please talk to your child about the elections and encourage them to stand. They will need to be confident in speaking with older children and adults. If your child would like to stand, they need to tell us by Friday and be able to talk about what they would like to do for the school and its pupils if they were elected. They will deliver this speech early next week and the elections will be held on Thursday.

A class poem

Year Six had a very successful afternoon on Tuesday when they wrote  a class poem based on a randomly chosen theme: the family.

The input from the children was excellent and we worked very hard to keep the rhyming and pace of the poem consistent, as well as the humour and fun.

We hope you like it!

The Family

Brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,

Grandpa Joe in his baggy pants,

Cousin Jim and Grandma Ann,

Mum and Dad and baby Dan.

Live together in a great big house,

Nephew Max and his small pet mouse,

Rabbits, fish, cats galore,

Sleeping curled up on the floor.

Children’s toys lay here and there,

People tripping everywhere,

Bang! Crash! There they go,

Grandpa yells, “That hurt my toe!”

Baby Dan in his high chair,

Smearing food in his own hair,

“Oh no!” cried Mum, “Not again!

Get back into your play pen.”

It’s bath time now in our family home,

Bubbles, soap and lots of foam,

Dry yourself and off to bed,

“Peace and quiet!” the parents said.

Children gone to the land of dreams,

Adults have tea and a custard cream,

The day is over, the day is done,

A family day jam-packed with fun.

Achieving Level 3 of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard…

Most of you will know by now that we have achieved Level 3 (the highest level) of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard.  The assessment visit took place earlier on this term, led by members of Leeds City Council’s Equalities and Entitlement Team.  Here are some extracts from the final report:

• The inclusive curriculum is a major strength of the portfolio and shows that the school is working hard to provide a curriculum which positively reflects the religious, linguistic and cultural diversity of society, promotes race equality, prepares pupils to become responsible citizens and increases empathy for global equality and fair trade.  Teachers identify opportunities for developing multiculturalism in medium and short term plans and these are monitored and evaluated for overall coverage.
• The school makes very good efforts to engage all parents in the life of the school e.g. newsletters, Relax and Read in Reception, PTA, School Council, parents’ evenings, curriculum workshops etc.  It also makes good efforts to engage the wider community and to develop the pupils’ sense of community through, for example, “Who do we think we are?” Themed Week, disaster appeals and links with other schools.
• Since achieving Level 2 of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard in 2006, the school has been very active in promoting diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism and has received various chartermarks including: Inclusion, International Schools Award, Basic Skills and Healthy Schools.
• The school’s self-evaluation, development plans and action plans actively promote the process of embedding race equality throughout the school.
• The school ethos and learning environment makes a good contribution to harmonious learning communities.
• It has an excellent policy to promote positive behaviour with roles and responsibilities clearly outlined as well as positive and negative consequences.

Of course, we always want to keep getting better and better.  We welcome the action points which are noted in the report.  These were:

1. to incorporate some role-play scenarios for older pupils around racism, so they are prepared for the possibility of such incidents after Moortown Primary where they may encounter no real incidents at all
2. to continue efforts to recruit staff and governors who fully represent the school community, although there was an understanding that we must always recruit the best people for our children
3. to prepare to publish equality objectives which will become statutory for all public bodies later this year
4. to support other schools in achieving the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard

Friday 27 January 2012

This week’s homework is creative. It is due in on Wednesday 01 February 2012.

I know what a hero is.

Ideas:

Spider diagram

Poster

Collage

Photographs

Our homework policy

Our Homework Policy was written to support and engage as many learners as we can, and to provide opportunities for others – family, friends – to support in a positive, constructive way.  It’s great to see more and more children are putting more and more effort into their homework.  Recently, a few parents have asked about expectations.  I hope the following will clarify what we can expect and what you can expect:

Talk Time

Teachers have noticed that, in some instances, a lot of time has been taken on the presentation of the Talk Time homework.  Children are welcome to do this although it is not necessary.  The purpose of Talk Time homework is to encourage a conversation around their current learning. Any notes made in their homework book should simply be there to aid them as a prompt when it is discussed in class the following week.  For this reason, teachers tend to give verbal feedback during their talk time session in class.  We want our children to be expert talkers, using a variety of sentences and expressions, and able to back up their points or disagree with others in a polite way – this is more important than written notes for Talk Time.  Simply: it’s hard to be a good writer if you’re not a good speaker, so Talk Times using ambitious words, useful phrases, interesting sentences is the best way to support your child.

Creative

This is where your child’s creative juices can flow!  Creative homework is an opportunity for your child to choose whatever they want to demonstrate some learning.  For example, the Y3 and Y4 homework this week is Creative: I can show what I know about food chains.  Your child could present all their learning in so many different ways, from a diagram with notes to a story or comic strip.  Parents’ and carers’ role is to support, encourage, help but (obviously) never to take over and do the homework!  Teachers always look forward to seeing how creative children can be.  If you notice the work has not been marked, please don’t worry.  Teachers will have looked at and celebrated the homework in another way – the work might have been viewed by the whole class using a visualiser which allows the work to be projected to the whole class and a discussion of ‘stars and steps’ will happen.  Peer assessment is also effective – children are very able to share what’s good and what needs improving!  These sorts of verbal feedback strategies are often more effective than a written comment because it’s more instant and it makes sure the child understands (and their work is praised publicly!).

Practice makes Perfect

This is similar to what you might consider traditional homework: it may be a worksheet or a writing task (such as Y5’s current homework: I can write instructions).  Practice Makes Perfect is useful homework when something has been taught in school but needs consolidation.  The work should be fairly straightforward for the child as there should be no need for new learning, so just some encouragement from you is needed.  However, it would be a great time to get your child to teach you – they should be able to explain the key points or processes!  We use this type of homework less often because usually the best practice is where a teacher can keep feeding back and presenting new challenges when they see it as appropriate.  Teachers mark these activities in line with our marking policy.

As always, please ask if you’ve any questions or concerns.

27 January 2011

This week’s homework is Creative and is due in on Wednesday 01 February.

I can show what I know about food chains.

The children this week have been learning about food chains. This is their chance to explain  the food chain process. They can do this any way they want, but here are a few ideas if you’re struggling:

• a comic strip
• a diagram
• a recorded interview with a food chain expert
• a diary entry written by an animal at the top of the food chain

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, so feel free to add your own ideas into the mix. A really good resource (which we’ve used this week) to help with your child’s understanding of the food chain, can be found on the BBC Bitesize website.

27 January 2012

Spellings this week are to tie in with our Arctic Habitat learning, which is part of the Snowbound Big Topic. Choose ten words from the list to learn and be tested on next week.  Spellings will be tested Friday 03 February.

• omnivore
• herbivore
• carnivore
• predator
• consumer
• producer
• organism
• mammal
• amphibian
• reptile
• environment
• habitat
• Arctic
• Antarctic

27 January 2012

Your homework this week is Creative and is due in on Wednesday 01 February.

I can design a brand new animal that would suit living in the Arctic. 

Think of all the work we have done in class about how animals have adapted to living in the polar regions.

Think of the following:

• habitat map
• position in food chain
• shelter/safety
• food the creature eats and how it gets it
• predator or prey?
• camouflage and colour
• teeth
• feet and eyes
• any other special features

You can include writing and labelled drawings to show your learning.

27 January 2012

This week, the spellings are words where the e has to be dropped when adding ing.

Children will be tested on the words in the ing column. They will be tested on eight out of the ten words on Friday 3 February.

27 January 2011

This week’s spellings are all verbs in the past tense that end with ‘ed’.

The suffix ‘ed’ features in a lot of past tense verbs which will help your child with their narrative writing at the moment.