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Talk Time!

At Moortown, we believe a fundamental aspect of learning and living is speaking and listening.  It’s sometimes neglected in other schools, but it’s at the heart of what we do at Moortown and should be at the heart of home life, too.  That’s the reason our children often have Talk Time homework.

We’re not alone in placing such importance on talk.

In a recent BBC article, England’s communication champion Jean Gross notes that the level of communication skills required to succeed in the workplace was increasing.  “Today’s workplaces require people who can get a point across, listen well to others, and work in teams,” he said. “Worryingly, 47% of UK employers say they can’t find recruits with these speech and language skills.”

A recent survey of eight- to 16-year-olds in the UK, carried out by the Communication Trust and National Literacy Trust, has found that more boys than girls feel confident expressing their views in class and social situations.

Of 6,000 children surveyed, 69% of boys said they were “very confident” or “confident” speaking in front of classmates, compared with 57% of girls.  More boys than girls also said they felt confident “saying no to friends” (70% to 62%), “talking to new people” (67% to 62%), “explaining your point of view” (78% to 74%), “asking when you don’t understand something” (75% to 69%) and “talking with teachers (81% to 78%).

The only areas where more girls felt more confident were (perhaps rather worryingly) “talking to people online” (85% to 82%) and (perhaps unsurprisingly) “listening to other people’s opinions” (93% to 89%).

At home, you can help your child, whether it’s for Talk Time homework or simple, daily conversation:

• Don’t talk on behalf of your child – they need to be ready to respond, even if it’s a quiet murmur to begin with.
• Encourage them to expand on what they say – can they explain, give examples and add some extra information so their conversation is interesting, convincing or lively?
• Be a good role-model – show your child you’re listening by asking questions, adding your comments and reflecting on what they’ve said.
• Ensure that everyone at home shares time for discussion (at meal times, for example) and have one-to-one chats (just before sleep is an ideal time!).

Training Day

We’re closed tomorrow, Thursday 05 May.

I realise there have been many disrupted weeks, with too many odd days off for our children. This is far from ideal, especially in the week just before Year 6 SATs.

However, Moortown Primary is used as a polling station. This means that we are not able to change the date of this day. Other local schools, such as Talbot Primary, have had the same days of closure in recent weeks.

As we always do, we’ll use the day as a training day for our teachers. They will be in school on Thursday and we will be writing the 2011-12 School Development Plan and Action Plans so that we keep getting better and better.

Apart from the half-term holiday (week beginning 30 May), there are no other planned school closure days this year, the last day of the summer term being Friday 22 July.

SEAL statement 03 May 2011

Continuing the Relationships SEAL theme, ‘I can tell the truth and say sorry if I have hurt someone‘ is our statement for this week.

Reception celebrated the Royal Wedding

We designed Kate’s dress!

28 April 2011

L.O. To spell words that are spelt with ‘a-e’

These will be tested on Friday 06 May.

28 April 2011

The homework this week is Talk Time and is due in Wednesday 04 May.

I know about the Royal Wedding.

You and your child could discuss:

• Different aspects of the wedding, such as all the outfits, the trees in Westminster, the balcony
• Whether you enjoyed watching it or not

28 April 2011

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

Apples have words that all have the sound ea in the middle.

They will be tested on Friday 06 May.

28 April 2011

The spellings this week are all high frequency words. Nouns and verbs should practise numbers 1-8. Adjectives and adverbs practise 1-10.

1. across

2. almost

3. could

4. next

5. should

6. where

7. thought

8. although

9. important

10. through

The spellings will be tested on Friday 06 May.

28 April 2011

The homework this week is a talk time homework and is due in on Wednesday 4 May.

If you had just married a prince or princess what would you do with your time?

Would you:

• Get a new job
• Keep your old job
• Do something useful
• Do nothing at all!

I’ll look forward to hearing about your views on Wednesday.

A big well done!

Some of the children competed in a tennis competition yesterday and I am happy to say that the Year Four children came second in their group and the Year Five children came second out of a staggering five groups! The children played with great skill and were gracious runners-up to Talbot Primary. They are going through to another round where they will compete against more schools – fingers crossed for another excellent result!

Well done to Sami, Connor, Iona and Rishitha in Year Four.

Well done to Adam, Jatinder, Kiran and Cydnee in Year Five.