News

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.

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.

Successful Staying Safe Week

Our recent Staying Safe themed week was a big success with a variety of visitors and visits across the week.  These included Emergency First Aid, food safety and cooking at Allerton Grange, drugs awareness (d:side), fire safety (Moortown Fire Station), road and firework safety and stranger danger (Police) and staying safe around dogs (Dogs Trust).  Have a look on the class news pages to see some photos from the week.

The key message was how to be safe in a variety of situations:

‘I learnt how to use a knife, for chopping vegetables, safely by not cutting towards you.’

‘Be safe near the oven.’

‘I have learnt how to put somebody in the recovery position.’

‘I have learnt that you should not go into the water to save someone.’

‘The surface of the water is warm but the bottom is cold and people who can swim can still drown.’

‘Never give out your personal information.’

Here are some useful websites if you would like to follow up any of the work done by your child / children throughout the week:

General safety

http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/index.html

Staying Safe online

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Fire Safety

http://firekills.direct.gov.uk/index.html

Road Safety

http://www.dft.gov.uk/think/education/early-years-and-primary/

Electricity Safety

http://www.switchedonkids.org.uk/

Food safety

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/

SEAL statement 10 October

This week, our SEAL statement is ‘I can make my classroom a good place to learn’.

At this stage in the first half term, children will be familiar with our established school rules but also their class contract.  Teachers, this week, will be looking for those children who consistently follow these and who therefore make their classroom a good place to learn.

As a reminder, our three school rules are:

1. Follow instructions
2. Use positive language
3. Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself

Ask your child what’s in their own class’s contract.

SEAL statement 3 October

‘I can do something brave’ is the SEAL statement for this week. 

Following our Staying Safe themed week we are now returning to our New Beginnings SEAL theme and this week also sees the start of our new topics. 

As children are settling in to their new classes and getting more familiar with their new routines they may be more comfortable to try something brave, maybe working with someone different in their class, trying to answer a question they are not 100% sure about or attempting to move up their learning mountain.