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Our Summer Fair

The Moortown Primary Summer Fair is on Friday 01 July 2011, 3pm – 5pm.  A big thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help out so far.  Without your support, events like the Summer Fair can’t happen – we really appreciate it.

We need donations for our Tombola stall, so we will be having a non-uniform day on Friday 24 June. Instead of each child paying money, we’re asking children to bring in an item for the tombola. We’ll welcome donations such as wine, unwanted gifts, toiletries, old jewellery, books…

The Cake Stall has got competitive this year!  There’ll be two competitions:

• most donations per class
• best home baking voted for on the day

Parents of children in Reception and Years 1, 2 and 3 are invited to bake biscuits and buns.  Parents of children in Years 4, 5 and 6 are encouraged to bake cakes and tray bakes.  Please bring donations to the school office on Thursday 30 June and Friday 01 July.

Each class has been allocated a class stall varying from decorating doughnuts to selling hotdogs. If you feel you can assist in helping (by volunteering to help on the day or supply a raffle prize, bake a cake etc) please contact your child’s class teacher or Mrs Maver, who will point you in the right direction.

We’re also offering advertising opportunities in the Summer Fair Programme for any parent and carers who have their own business and would like to promote it to the rest of the school. For information, Mrs O’Malley in the office will be able to help.

Please support this fantastic fundraising opportunity. Money raised goes direct to school. It makes school trips affordable, it pays for sports day medals and prizes and one-off purchases.

How’s my child doing at school?

We’re still waiting on the Key Stage Two SAT results for Y6, but (just like last year) I’m confident that the children performed extremely well. More importantly, their attitudes and behaviour have been excellent throughout the year – a really great year so far.

Children from Y2 to Y5 have also had some end of year assessments recently. These tests help teachers to decide on a final level to give to each child for reading, writing and maths. They only help teachers decide; for example, if a child performed quite poorly in a test but have excelled throughout the year, teachers would quite possibly ignore a test result. In Reception and Y1, teachers base their final assessment entirely on the children’s day to day actions and abilities.

Soon, you’ll be receiving the end-of-year annual report about your child’s attainment, progress and attitude in school. On the report (except the Reception report), teachers use ticks to indicate how your child is doing.  If you’d like to know their actual level, we’re happy to give you this – just ask me or your child’s teacher near the end of the year.

Pupils in Y2 and Y6 are at the end of a key stage. Because of this, parents of these children will receive a letter alongside their reports with the teacher assessment level on it. Parents / carers of Y6 children will also be told the results of the SAT tests.

Here’s a table to show general, national expectations for the end of each year. Letters are used to indicate a higher or lower level eg 2A is a higher level of attainment than 2C, but a lower level of attainment that 3C.

From this, you can see that any child reaching Level 5 at the end of the year is working at a level above national expectations. Well done to Yutaro and Rosie for attaining a Level 6 in Maths this year – about the level of an able 14 year old!

Reception children are not given a level. Instead, they are assessed against criteria and typically reach 6 points in each strand, such as reading or numbers for counting and labels. A point is given when adults observe a child securely showing a particular skill or activity.

SEAL statement 20 June

‘I can change my behaviour for the better’ is our ‘Changes’ SEAL statement for this week. 

As stated in our Positive Relationships policy:

It is the responsibility of pupils to make good choices at all times and with all adults and pupils in school. This will lead to pupils behaving well and building up and maintaining good relationships. Pupils should follow three simple rules to avoid bad choices:

• follow instructions
• use positive language (including body language)
• keep hands, feet and objects to themselves

Therefore a change in behaviour can be made by making positive choices rather than negative choices.  

Working together for good behaviour in schools is a helpful document for parents.

This week’s ‘Tricky Words’

This week’s tricky words to learn to spell are:

• he
• me
• we
• be
• she

17 June 2011

This week the children only have two spellings to learn!

it’s = it is

its = belongs to

At home, the children are expected to put the two different words into ten sentences.

For example:

It’s a lovely day today.

The cat licked its fur.

Bike Week 20 – 24 June

Next week is Bike Week.  Why not use our cycle rack and bike to school during this week?

Throughout the week each time you cycle to school you will be entered into a prize draw from Leeds City Council to win lots of cycling related prizes.  Let your class teacher know each time you come to school on your bike.

Year 5 and Year 6 have both recently had their cycling training and what a better way to put these new cycling skills into practice than to bike to school during Bike Week.

For more information about Bike Week visit www.bikeweek.org or www.leeds.gov.uk/bikeweek

For more information about cycling in Leeds visit www.leeds.gov.uk/cyclemaps

2011-2012 classes

Last year, I told you about four new teachers starting. The teachers we recruited went through a very rigorous process and I’m delighted to say that the four – Mr Redfearn, Mr Wilks, Mr Owen and Miss Hazell – have all had a fantastic year at Moortown Primary School.

There will be only a few small changes to teaching staff next year:

• I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to hear the news that Mrs Taylor is expecting her second child. She will be leaving us, probably around Autumn half-term, but will return, hopefully for September 2012 (and some visits sooner, we hope!). Mrs Taylor’s role in school, as Health Leader, will not be replaced in her absence by a new teacher.
• Mr Redfearn and Miss Hewson swap year groups – having taught Year 4 for three years, Miss Hewson wants to widen her experience; it’s good for the school to move teachers, too, so that they bring fresh ideas to the new age groups.

Here is a list of who’s teaching which year group for 2011-12:

Later this term, your child will spend some time getting to know his or her new teacher, teaching assistants and classroom. In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, comments or concerns, as always please contact me.

Fantastic feedback

We regularly receive feedback from visitors into school – it’s always great to read what others think about our community.  For example, Gareth from Total Sports Coaching, recently complimented the school as one he always looks forward to visiting because all our pupils listen and behave so well.

Here’s feedback from Richard, a member of Leeds Healthy Schools and Wellbeing Service, following a recent visit:

Just a quick email – as you know I met with some children this afternoon to help plan their workshop at the Pupil Voice Showcase Event.  The planning meeting went really well and – as always – your pupils excelled themselves and amazed me with their creativity and general approach to the task at hand.

After the meeting the three of them gave me a little tour of the school which was great as I’ve never visited before – just wanted to say what I’m sure you knew already: ‘Wow! What a great school!’

17 June 2011

This week’s homework is Talk Time (with some recording) and is due in by Wednesday 22 June.

I can discuss health issues at my school.

I have worked with members of our Health Group (made up of our School Councillors) to create the homework for this week – a health questionnaire.

As part of the next level of our Healthy Schools status we are working on a number of targets relating to obesity and emotional health.

Your views and responses to the health questionnaire will help us to be an even happier and healthier school.

Please discuss the issues raised in the questionnaire at home and record your views on the questionnaire provided.  Return your completed forms to your class teacher.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and thoughts.

17 June 2011

This week’s spellings for Bananas and Oranges are words that end with s or es.

Apple’s words all have the sound aw. They will be tested on Friday 24 June.