You could earn our school an extra £488!
Did you know for every child registered as entitled to Free School Meals, our school will get extra money from the Government? Claim now to make sure we don’t miss out!
The Government is giving money to schools to help children from lower income families do their very best. This funding is called a ‘Pupil Premium’. For every child registered, Moortown Primary School gets £488 this year. With this money we could, for example…
- give extra tuition after school for certain pupils
- help fund the purchase of extra sports equipment
- support parents at difficult times.
If you are registered for Free School Meals you could also get help with the cost of school trips or music tuition. Please get a claim in before Christmas to make sure your child and others in their class don’t miss out.
How do I claim?
- Check if you’re entitled – you don’t have to be unemployed to qualify. Students and people working less than 16 hours a week can also get Free School Meals. Take a look through the list below.
- You may not need to fill in a full claim form. Everyone in Leeds already getting help with their rent or Council Tax will automatically be considered for Free School Meals. If you’re already getting help and think you might qualify for Free School Meals but haven’t heard, simply ring the Benefits Helpline on 0113 222 4404 and they’ll tell you what you need to do.
- If you haven’t claimed in Leeds before, phone the Benefits Helpline for an application form. Alternatively call in and get one from any Council One Stop Centre. One Stop Centre staff can also help you fill the form in.
- The claim form can also be downloaded from www.direct.gov.uk.
What are the benefits?
- Your child can have a free, healthy meal at lunchtime, saving you more than £350 a year in dinner money or saving you the hassle of preparing a packed lunch everyday.
- Once you’ve been told you qualify for Free School Meals, the Council will also consider you for a School Clothing Grant of up to £37.50 per child, even if you don’t want your child to take the meals.
- Getting Free School Meals will not affect any other benefits you are receiving and you can claim in confidence.
- Most importantly, the school gets an extra £488 to spend for every child that has a Free School Meal award in place, regardless of whether they take it up.
We understand the reasons why some parents may not like to claim. Often people see claiming their entitlement to Free School Meals as “charity” and would prefer to provide sandwiches etc. However, we can only claim the ‘Pupil Premium’ on behalf of pupils who have a Free School Meal award in place.
Please contact Paula O’Malley or Nicky Russell in our School Office or Julie Wilson, our Learning Support Mentor, if you’d like to discuss Free School Meals.
Do I qualify?
- Your child will qualify for Free School Meals if you get any of these benefits:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit, provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190
- Working Tax Credit ‘run-on’ – the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
Leeds Children's Mayor - well done, Bronwen!
Industrial action
You will be aware that the headteachers’ union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), has voted to take industrial action on Wednesday 30 November 2011. This means headteachers now join other public sector workers on strike on this day.
Teachers will also strike. The vote of National Union of Teachers (NUT) members in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in June covers all members in the schools balloted to take action on 30 November. They do not need to ballot again.
The industrial action in June meant Moortown Primary had to close. A similar number of staff members, whether NAHT or NUT members, have decided to strike on 30 November. Therefore, it is definite that Moortown Primary will close.
Bronwen's visit to the Children's Commissioner
You may be aware that one of our Year 6 pupils, Bronwen Grainger, recently took over the role of Children’s Commissioner, Maggie Atkinson, in London. She has prepared this report of her day:
Report of day as Children’s Commissioner
On Friday 11th November 2011 (Take Over Day and Remembrance Day), at about 10:45, we arrived at Trafalgar Square and met some remarkably young soldiers who had just got back from Afghanistan. We also saw people who had got the licence to be able to drive a submarine plus we also found out that Maggie’s (Children’s Commissioner) husband had also had a career as a submarine driving and got his badge that had 2 dolphins to say he has an official licence. Before the 2 minutes silence, we listened to: the soldiers, a young girl who had an amazing voice and a few others.
Then quickly after that, the royal trumpet player played the tune that they play to wake up the soldiers. Then the 2 minutes started. After the silence, everybody who was there was invited to throw some poppy petals into one of the 2 fountains. Pretty much after that we left to have lunch in a nearby Starbucks. We then got in a taxi and got driven to the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich where we presented a nearby school called Fox Field Primary school a certificate saying that they had taken part in Take Over Day. We also got to try on some of the clothes they wear in the army in an assembly 2 soldiers performed.
When we got back to the Children’s Commissioner office we got presented with a certificate for taking part in Take Over day, which ended my day as being a Children’s Commissioner. Thank you to Maggie for letting me shadow her, I had a very interesting and enjoyable day.
Thanks for voting...
We’re very proud that Bronwen, a Year 6 pupil here at Moortown Primary, was selected as one of ten finalists for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition. Year 6 children completed a manifesto of what they would like to change if they could become Mayor for the Day and Bronwen was chosen as our entrant for the competition.
Voting for the finalists closed on Friday 04 November. Sadly, Bronwen did not win. Well done to Joe Smith from Strawberry Fields Primary School who won.
This whole programme is about encouraging children to show an interest in democracy and to get them into the habit of voting on issues that affect them.
We know children at Moortown Primary already make a positive contribution to the school and their community through the School Council, litter-picking, raising money for charity etc. It’s great individuals like Bronwen want to go the extra mile to have their views heard!
Perhaps Bronwen has her sights on bigger, national levels of leadership. Friday 11 November was Takeover Day, where schools are encouraged to allow children to take over any aspect of school or work life. Moortown Primary had children take over in the office, the kitchen and in assembly. Children in lessons took over some teaching and took over writing some of the newsletters. Missing from the day was Bronwen – she was in London, where she had taken over the role of Children’s Commissioner for the day!
Even easier ways to vote for Bronwen!
Following a previous item urging people with a Leeds Learning email account to support Bronwen (a Y6 pupil) in her bid to be Leeds Mayor for the Day, they’ve made it even easier for everyone with email to vote.
Voting opened on Leeds Learning Network (LLN) on Monday 17 October and since then over 1,700 votes have been cast. In addition to this, following feedback from schools and in the interests of a fair democracy, organisers at Leeds Children’s Services have now enabled individuals without LLN accounts to vote via the city’s ‘Breeze’ website.
So, to summarise:
- if you’ve a Leeds Learning account, please use this to vote for Bronwen;
- if you don’t, please use the Breeze site and then send a quick email with your vote.
Voting closes at midday on Friday 04 November. If you haven’t yet voted please take three minutes to do so – as a smaller school than other candidates, it’s really important that as many as possible vote. The results have been so close in previous years that every last vote can make a difference!
Our new SEAL theme
Our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme for the second half of the autumn term is Getting On. This theme covers four main aspects:
- developing the social skills of friendship
- working well together in a group
- managing anger
- resolving conflict
Group work takes place across all lessons and even at lunchtime and playtimes. Some questions for children to consider are:
- Did everyone take turns?
- Did everyone listen to what other people thought?
- Did each person have chance to tell the group what they thought?
- If people had different ideas could the group reach a compromise?
Vote Bronwen for Leeds Mayor!
We’re very proud that Bronwen, a Year 6 pupil here at Moortown Primary, has been selected as one of ten finalists for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition. All the Year 6 children completed a manifesto of what they would like to change if they could become Mayor for the day and Bronwen was chosen as our entrant for the competition. Her manifesto is brilliant, meeting all the criteria set (see below).
Vote for Bronwen! Voting has now opened for the finalists and anyone with a Leeds Learning account can vote. If you know of anyone who has one, please encourage them to vote.
Voting will remain open until midday on Friday 04 November.
Representatives of Leeds Children’s Services and Leeds Council undertook the difficult task of short listing the twenty Children’s Mayor entries they received down to a final ten. In order to make the short listing a fair and transparent process, they used score cards and scored the manifestos individually against four criteria:
- How clear and focused the manifesto idea was
- How practical, achievable and affordable the manifesto idea was
- The number of children and young people who would benefit from the manifesto idea
- The extent to which children would work alongside adults to make the idea a reality
As well as Moortown Primary, the schools whose entrants made the final this year are Allerton Bywater Primary School, Bramley St Peters Primary School, Calverley C of E Primary School, Hill Top Primary School, Kippax North Junior & Infant School, Queensway Primary School, Shire Oak Primary School, Strawberry Fields Primary School and Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary School
This whole programme is about encouraging children to show an interest in democracy and to get them into the habit of voting on issues that affect them.
We know children at Moortown Primary already make a positive contribution to the school and their community through the School Council, litter-picking, raising money for charity etc. It’s great individuals like Bronwen want to go the extra mile to have their views heard!
'Packed lunches lack fruit and veg' - not at Moortown
Research published earlier this month suggest that ‘children’s packed lunches lack fruit and vegetables’.
At Moortown, a packed lunch survey carried out last week showed a massive 86% of our packed lunches had at least one portion of fruit or vegetable with 43% having two or more portions. One of our Year 6’s packed lunch even contained her five-a-day of fruit and vegetables! Children excitedly and proudly showed their fruit and vegetable choices.
It has been one year since we introduced our packed lunch guidance which includes advice and ideas for healthy packed lunches. As part of the guidance, we encourage children to bring at least one portion of fruit and / or vegetables. Our guidance was introduced, for parents / carers and children, as packed lunches do not follow the same nutritional guidelines introduced for school dinners. Data collected prior to producing the guidance has been used as a comparison to assess the impact of our work on improving packed lunches.
Results from the latest survey have shown some positive results:
- 86% of packed lunches now contain at least one portion of fruit or vegetables (compared to 80% in 2010).
- There is a greater variety of carbohydrate items within packed lunches eg pasta salads.
- The number of children bringing snack items has reduced slightly with children commenting they don’t bring these items in every day, but as a treat.
- The major impact we have seen in the results has been the reduction in the number of children bringing sweetened drinks eg Fruit Shoots (65% 2010 to 25% in 2011) and now choosing water which we provide on the tables at lunchtime or their own water bottles. Did you know that over a year these parent / carers will be saving approximately £48 by not providing a daily fruit shoot drink?
- We have also seen an increase in the number of children choosing to take a school dinner (flexible packed lunch / school dinner combinations are also available).
Sadly, one or two children don’t have any fruit or vegetables in their packed lunches – often, these children tell us they want some, and usually blame mum or dad!
Please chat with your child about how they might make one small step to a healthier choice.
For further guidance, School Food Trust, change4life, World Cancer Research Fund and Netmums all provide ideas and advice for healthier packed lunches.
SEAL statement 17 October
This week is the first of our focus on manners over this year with ‘I say please and thank you’ as our weekly statement.
We often receive comments from visitors to school that our children are very polite.
Over this year, every half term, we will be focussing on a different aspect of good manners to encourage and remind children to consistently use these important qualities both in and out of school.