Our weekly message: Friday 14 November 2025

Let’s start this week with an introduction… Have you met our new Admin Assistant, Geiselle Redman, yet?

I’m from Sheffield, a city not too far away! I moved to Leeds in 2014 and live with my husband and daughter. When we’re not out and about, I enjoy getting exercise, listening to jazz music and using my imagination. I love how no two days are the same at Moortown Primary, and look forward to meeting everyone – feel free to say hello!

The rest of this week’s message is about the Autumn 2 topic in Key Stages 1 and 2. Last half-term, it was a Geography topic; this half-term, it’s Art…

This half-term, we’re artists. We’ll be developing our art knowledge and skills. The learning has two aspects to it. In art history and appreciation lessons, children will be learning about some specific artists and their work. In art process lessons, children will practise and develop skills by creating art.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. Follow this link to the Curriculum Guide to find out more.

Years 1 and 2

Children have two featured artists who they’ll be studying across the half-term: Leonardo Da Vinci and Paul Klee. They’ll compare their art, talking about similarities and differences. They’ll discuss what they like and dislike about the art and how it makes them feel. They’ll also learn about the artists’ lives and where in the world they lived.

In practical art lessons, children will be honing their artistic skills and knowledge by sketching objects using pencil, learning about and mixing colour and then they’ll be learning how to print by creating relief prints inspired by the artwork they’ve studied.

Part way through the half-term, they’ll visit the Hepworth Gallery for a printmaking workshop to complement the learning in school.

Years 3 and 4

Children will be learning about the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Martha McDonald Napaltjarri. They’ll compare and contrast the artworks by these artists and also learn about their lives and the places they lived. In particular, children will learn about abstract and figurative art (see the vocabulary for definitions of these words).

In practical art sessions, children will develop observational drawing skills and their understanding of colour by learning about warm, cold and complementary colours. They’ll then apply what they’ve learnt by creating sculptures inspired by the artists they’ve studied.

Years 5 and 6

Children are learning about sculpture in their art lessons and will be focussing on three artists: Thomas J Price, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The children have already been on their school trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where they’ve seen and learned about sculptures by these artists. In Art history and appreciation lessons, they’ll learn about the lives of these artists and how their localities have influenced their art. They’ll learn about classical and modern art in relation to their featured artists and in art movements more generally. They’ll also learn when and why the modern art movement happened.

In practical Art lessons, children will develop their observational skills and will create ‘soap sculptures’ inspired by the work of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. The Class News page of the school website is a good place to find out more about what the children are doing.

Familiarise yourself with the artists and the artwork that your child will be learning about in class. Look in books or on the internet for pieces by the artists and talk about them. Find art by other artists that you like and compare it to the featured artists. If you feel confident, you can go into more depth using the vocabulary. However, if not, leave that to the teachers and just enjoy looking at the pieces and asking general questions:

• What do you like or dislike about the art?
• How does the art make you feel?
• Is it life-like or not?
• What colours can you see?

The Tate Gallery has a good children’s website with games and activities which children can explore.

If you’re in Leeds, the Leeds Art Gallery and Henry Moore Institute are both free to enter.

Finally this week, a big well done to one of our Year 3 pupils who competed in the Yorkshire Junior Chess Association Grand Prix 2025-26 (Event 1) on Saturday 08 November at Bradford Grammar School. The competition saw a total of around 90 children from all over the north of England participating under different categories. Our Year 3 star competed in the ‘Novice’ category and bagged second place!

Living and Learning: Hotshots sponsorship event

To finish off our Me and My Money themed week, all the school took part in a Hotshots event, led by PE Partner, to raise money for our school charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Can I just say how fantastic all the children were in every year group! It was amazing to see them all encouraging each other, no matter their ability.  When the children were up for their turn, who maybe football isn’t their forte, the rest of the children were so supportive with their cheering and encouragement. It was fantastic! You should be very proud of them all!

Living and Learning: Penny trail

It was great to see the generosity and enthusiasm of the children during our Me and My Money themed week to try and fill their class collecting tubes. They were filling up by the end of the week.

On Friday, all the classes ventured into the playground to use their pennies to create a huge ‘Moortown’ penny trail. We had so many 1ps and 2ps that we ended up doubling and tripling up our coins.

The total amount raised for Yorkshire Air Ambulance was a fantastic £123.53 so thank you for your donations.

Who is our new chosen charity?

After a busy day of voting, and much deliberation, our pupils have chosen a new charity to support over the next academic year;  we’ll be supporting Martin House for the next 12 months.

They provide family-led hospice care, free of charge, for children and young people with life-limiting illnesses.

We look forward to supporting them throughout the year. The children were really well informed about the charities – thank you for your support in discussing this at home.

Our weekly message: Friday 07 November 2025

We hope you had a good half-term break. This week in school has been a themed week – Me and My Money. Talk to your child about something new they’ve learnt or considered about money!

Odd socks day

Monday is Odd Socks Day.

The day celebrates that we’re all unique. Children are invited to wear odd socks to school today, marking the fact we’re all different in some way. Part of Anti-Bullying Week, the day sends an important message to pupils that they should be allowed to be themselves, free from bullying. It helps us celebrate anti-bullying day in a fun and positive way.

Help at home: Please make sure your child knows that bullying is wrong and damages children’s social and/or emotional health. Check they know our two STOP messages:

• Definition: What is bullying? Hurting someone Several Times On Purpose
• Solution: How can we stop bullying? Start Telling Other People

Bullying is often group behaviour. For older children, it would also be great if you could talk about the different roles people might play. Watch this short clip together, and link it back to Start Telling Other People.

Children in Need

Next Friday is the annual Children in Need fundraising day. Your child is invited to attend school in non-uniform with a donation to the charity. If you wish to donate at school, please donate in cash only.

Please remember that pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully, even on non-uniform days. More details can be found in our Uniform Policy.

Is my child too ill for school?

As winter approaches, schools face rising illness-related absences. We know some are unavoidable, but please refer to NHS guidance to know if your child is too ill for school.

The Department for Education has asked us to share some key messages:

1. Always ask: Is my child too ill for school? Use the NHS site for guidance – it’s easy to use.
2. Pupils shouldn’t miss school on a precautionary basis and can normally attend with a mild cough or cold, unless they have a fever or diarrhoea or vomiting.
3. Book medical appointments outside of school hours where possible. Where this isn’t possible, they should bring their child to school before, and return after, if they are well enough. Pupils can attend appointments in their school uniform.

Times tables

The government sets out the expectation that children should know their times tables by the end of Year 4. Knowing times tables off by heart makes a huge difference to children’s progress in​ Maths. It helps them:

• ​solve harder problems more easily
• work more confidently and quickly
• ​focus on new concepts without getting stuck on basic facts

Times tables underpin many other areas of ​Maths, such as division, fractions, long multiplication, algebra and ratio. The more fluent your child is, the better prepared they’ll be for future learning.

At Moortown Primary, children in Years 3 and 4 take part in daily Mastering Number lessons to learn their times tables. Older children continue to practise their times tables.

In school, we chant multiplication facts by saying the smallest number first and we don’t say ‘times’ or ‘equals’. For example, for 4×3=12, children would say ‘3, 4, 12’.

Towards the end of Year 4, children do an online Multiplication Tables Check – find out more about this.

Since this national check was introduced, we’re proud that the average score at Moortown Primary has been much higher than national each year. Thank you for continuing to help your child practise their times tables at home.

Finally this week…

Admissions consultation

Leeds City Council is running a public consultation on the 2027/28 admission policy for Leeds community and voluntary controlled schools. You can share your views until 1 December. Find out more.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Half term shenanigans

It’s been a busy day back in school after the half term holiday – it was great to see everyone back.

While school was empty, we had a trim trail installed on ‘The Green’. We didn’t want to use lots of the lovely green space but we also wanted to introduce some equipment that would enhance both play and physical development.

A big thank you to the PTA who have paid for this to happen – all of their fundraising is much appreciated and it’s great when we can pay for things like this.

Our weekly message: Friday 24 October 2025

What a busy week…

Thank you to all the parents/carers who met with teachers this week for the first of two parent-teacher meetings in the year. We’re available for short updates and questions, comments and concerns at other times, but we hope you found the meeting this week helpful.

Today, we’ve had a training day. Teachers from across Sphere Federation have had four professional development sessions:

• Art
• Maths
• Special Educational Needs
• Assessments

Applying for a place in Reception or secondary school?

The deadline for applications for Year 7 places falls in half-term: 31 October 2025. If you need help with an application, please contact startingsecondary@leeds.gov.uk.

If you’re applying for a Reception place, you might want to check out Leeds City Council’s You Tube video about applying for a school place.

Staying safe online

We’ve recently updated our Online Safety page on our website. If you’ve not spoken with your child about the importance of staying safe online for a while, it would be worth having a look at the clips and checking out the NSPCC link over the half-term break.

Watch us while we work

If you visited us for our recent Watch Us While We Work session, thank you. An even bigger thank you if you left us some feedback:

• What went well? ‘The way the teacher interacted with the class, how the subject was taught, the command and rapport the teacher has with a the class.’
• ‘Can not believe how quick my daughter is at her working out on arithmetic.’

One comment was around varying the subjects we feature. We’ll act on this next time.

Coming up in the first week after half-term break…

Me and My Money themed week

Our next whole school themed week, Me and My Money, is based around money and financial education. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this aspect of our Living and Learning curriculum. Learning throughout the week will include:

• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• How do we spend money?
• How do we manage money?

There will be two fundraising events, as chosen by our Junior Leadership Team, to raise money for our current school charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Firstly, we’ll be having a penny trail where children are encouraged to bring in any 1ps and 2ps to their class during the week and a trail will be created using all the money brought in at the end of the week.

To conclude our Me and My Money themed week, on 07 November, we’ll be holding a Hotshots fundraising event led by PE Partner. This involves each child having three chances to score a goal and their fastest speed recorded. All children will receive a certificate with their fastest shot speed and medals will be awarded for the fastest boy and girl in each class. Your child will be bringing home a sponsorship form for this event and money raised should be added to School Gateway by Friday 14 November.

If your job involves an aspect of finance and/or money and you can support our themed week by coming into school, please contact us.

We’ll select the new school charity as part of the themed week. The shortlist is:

• Zarach, whose mission is to end child bed poverty, giving children the opportunity to engage at school and break the cycle of poverty.
• Martin House provides family-led hospice care free of charge for children and young people with life-shortening conditions.
• Emmaus (pronounced em-may-us) helps people move away from homelessness by providing a home, training and work opportunities as part of a package of long-term support.
• National Deaf Children’s Society, who support deaf children with any level of hearing loss.
• Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, whose vision is a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature.

Have a happy and healthy half-term break.

Our weekly message: Friday 17 October 2025

Let’s start this week with a thank you…

A few weeks ago, we asked for donations to support our Cooking curriculum. To make sure that we can continue to offer this, asked for a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. So far, we’ve received £232 which will really help to pay for the ingredients we need. Thank you for your support.

For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year A this year.)

Being geographers

On Monday morning, Year 2 pupils conducted fieldwork in Moortown Park. They were answering the question ‘Which trees grow in the park?’ They observed the trees closely, collected leaves and took photographs. Back in class, they used a key to identify the trees.

I saw oak trees, a fir tree, a willow tree and an apple tree with apples on it.

Diary update

We’ve a diary change… It might seem like way off but just in case you need to know, the school photographer has had to change the date for the next visit to Moortown Primary. This means the date for the class pic at the end of the year is now Thursday 18 June 2026.

Arbor

We have recently moved our Management Information System (MIS) to Arbor. Arbor will allow us to communicate with you more efficiently and will eventually bring all core school data into one system.

Yesterday, you should have received an email letting you know how to login to the parent portal/app for your child. If you’ve not received this, please let the office know.

You can familiarise yourself with Arbor using this link: Getting started – Log into the Parent Portal and the Parent App

Arbor also offers access to other training resources, which can be found here.

Before the half term break, we hope to have finalised the payments area in Arbor, so you’ll be able to pay for school meals on the portal or app. We’ll let you know when this is live.

If you’ve any questions, please contact the school office.

Finally this week…

Junior Leaders

After another busy day at the polls, we have a newly elected Junior Leadership Team:

• Reception: Satin and Rory
• Year 1: Jesse and Zuri
• Year 2: Xara-Mae and Lydia-May
• Year 3: Lily and Shaurya
• Year 4: Hadeed and Riya
• Year 5: Jayan and Abhijeet
• Year 6: Grace and Haleema

Congratulations to our winning children but a massive well done to everybody who had a go.

We’re looking forward to meeting with the new team very soon.

Our weekly message: Friday 10 October 2025

This week’s Living and Learning theme has been about the nine protected characteristics – characteristics protected in law. Nine is a lot to learn about, and some are more suitable for older people to consider. More important than simply remembering all of them is to encourage your child to be aware of fairness and equality.

You said, we’ve done…

Just before the Summer holiday each year, we ask you to complete a short survey. We take your views really seriously. School leaders have met and reviewed thee suggestions you made. Some might be useful across all Sphere Federation schools and others relate more specifically to Moortown Primary. We’ll look to action quite a few points. For example, some parents suggested we include more assemblies about special educational needs and Black history.

Don’t wait until the annual survey! One parent recently raised some really useful suggestions about how the Junior Leadership Team is elected in order to make it fairer – they were great suggestions and we’ve planned a few small changes (such as no prepared PowerPoint presentations) that might just make a big difference.

Flu vaccinations

From September 2025, the School Aged Immunisation Service (SAIS) began delivering flu vaccinations to primary and secondary school-aged children across Leeds. The vaccine offers vital protection against flu, helping safeguard both individuals and those around them. Read more about these immunisations.

The Spy books series

We want to make you aware of a recent issue affecting some popular children’s books by Andrew Cope, including the Spy Dogs, Spy Cats, and Spy Pups series.

Some editions of these books include a printed web address at the back. This link used to go to the author’s website, but the domain is no longer under his control. It has since been taken over by another party and now leads to inappropriate adult content.

The publisher, Puffin, has stressed that the website has no connection to the author or publisher.

What this means for you:

• If your child has any Spy Dog, Spy Cat or Spy Pups books at home, please check the back for website links and make sure they do not try to visit the site.
• It’s safe for children to continue reading the stories themselves — the concern is only with the outdated link.
• We recommend talking with your child about the importance of not following web addresses in books without checking with an adult first.

Reception Stay and Learn session

Thank you very much if you managed to attend our recent Stay and Learn in Reception. And thanks for the feedback we’ve received:

Mrs Wood was so good engaging with the kids and the parents. It was a pleasure to see the kids so happy and eager to learn.

If you’ve time, please let us know your feedback.

Finally this week, as the half-term holiday approaches, you might be looking for a holiday club. Check out PE Partner.

As always, have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 03 October 2025

We’ll start this week’s message with a letter from the Safer Leeds Partnership. You should be aware, although it’s probably more relevant if you’ve older children.

The rest of this week’s message includes a couple of ways to support your child…

Top trips

Class trips are a wonderful enrichment to the learning going on at Moortown Primary, especially in Topic and Science. We’ve recently reviewed the trips, taking on board the views of pupils and teachers, and your comments from the annual survey in the Summer term.

The visits are mapped out across Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to ensure progression and continuity (subject to change eg if a venue is temporarily closed). The 2025-26 school year is in Cycle A.

Read more about our curriculum, including the Topic and Science long term plans.

12 ways to help your child make friends

Some people might think of school as being all about learning. It’s not. Making relationships with other children is one of the prime purposes. The social aspect of schools is vital to the socialisation of children at important points of their lives. Properly socialised children make for properly socialised adults, who in turn make excellent citizens in later life.

For some children it may be easier said than done. Navigating the topsy-turvy of these nascent relationships is not for the faint hearted, yet it must be done. ACAMH Learn has produced a webinar (it’s short – only 15 minutes) to explore some of the ways this can be helped: watch the webinar here.

Year 5: Bikeability

Bikeability takes place in the Spring term for children in Year 5. This year, it will take place from Monday 02 to Friday 06 March 2026.

The training has two core elements: basic skills and road safety. If your child is unable to ride a bike, they may be unable to take part in the road safety aspect as they will not be able to cycle outside of school. We’re giving plenty of notice, in case your child would like to practise before March.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.