News

SEAL statement 06 June

Our final SEAL theme for this year is ‘Changes’ and this week we will be focussing on, ‘I can cope with an unexpected change.’

This SEAL theme tackles the issue of change and aims to equip children with an understanding of different types of change, positive and negative, and common responses to change. The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:

• Change can be uncomfortable, because it can threaten our basic needs to feel safe and to belong
• Change can also be stimulating and welcome
• Both adults and children can experience a range of powerful and conflicting emotions as a result of change – for example, excitement, anxiety, uncertainty, loss, anger, resentment
• Worries about change can be made worse by uncertainty, lack of information, or misinformation and lack of support from others
• People’s responses to and ability to cope with change are very variable, and might be influenced by individual temperament, previous experience of change, and the nature of the change – chosen or imposed, expected or unexpected, within our control or out of our control

Some children may welcome most forms of change and dislike routine and predictability.  Other children may find even small changes very difficult.

Within school, children, who are coping with or have undergone significant change, are supported in a variety of ways:

• Our positive ethos within school
• Support systems, from staff and peers, for children who have undergone change or who maybe new to the school
• SEAL and circle time sessions where children feel safe to talk about their feelings
• Class SEAL boxes for children to record any concerns
• Preparing children wherever possible for planned changes for example, a change of class teacher, Key Stage or even school

SEAL statement 23 May

It’s ‘My Community Week’!  This week our statement reflects this: ‘I can make a positive contribution in my community.’

Over this week the children will be learning:

• what is meant by ‘community’
• what communities we belong to
• we are all part of a ‘world community’

More success at Moortown!

The Quality Mark is a recognition that some schools choose to work towards to help them monitor what they do for their learners and to celebrate successes within school.  Because Ofsted chose not to inspect our school this year due to our continued good provision, we welcome feedback from other external bodies.  This year, therefore, we decided to be re-assessed for the Quality Mark.

The re-assessment visit happened on Monday 16 May 2011.  I’m delighted to say we’ve yet again been recognised for the great teaching and learning at Moortown. Here are some extracts of the visiting assessor’s report:

“The assessor felt that this was one of the most impressive visits he has ever made in nine years of visiting Quality Mark schools. David, the head, has lots of plans – he needs no points of action or areas to develop suggested from us. It was a privilege to visit.”

“Since the monitoring visit, the school has accomplished an impressive amount of progress.”

“The school has radically reshaped the intervention programme it operates with pupils… It has put into action what many other schools are now realising – that the huge weight of strategies that have been recommended to schools over the past ten years are of limited effectiveness unless they are tailored to exactly what the pupil needs at the time that s/he needs it.”

“Classrooms all show consistency of approach in teaching – learning objectives visible, use of speaking and listening partners, learning walls for each class…  Consistency in marking of writing is assured through a detailed and very clear marking policy.  The Year 6 pupils who showed the assessor around school were at pains to draw his attention to these features and kept up a running commentary of how pupils learn (including telling the assessor that in the Reception class it’s ‘learning through play, you know!’).”

“Moortown has successfully devised and implemented a curriculum and teaching methodology that involves pupils in their own learning, is rigorous and demanding whilst at the same time makes learning an enjoyable experience for pupils.”

Thanks to the dedication and support of staff, parents / carers and children, I know we do a fantastic job at Moortown.  It’s great to know that visitors to school are struck by this great work, too.

I’m grateful to the five parents who spoke with the Quality Mark assessor, and to the two Y6 pupils who provided a tour of the school.

SEAL statement 16 May

Following our encouraging SATs week for Year 6, some of our other classes are completing assessments this week and ‘I can feel proud of others‘ is the new Relationships SEAL statement.  Recognising and acknowledging the achievements and efforts of others forms part of our work on relationships.

Subscribe to our calendar

We publish a calendar of all our school events and holidays on our website. We’ve just announced the dates of our five training days for next year – the first school in the city to do so.

Did you know that if you use an electronic calendar at home or at work you can subscribe to ours? This means that you’ll always have accurate information about what’s going on in school, alongside all your own appointments.

If you’ve previously subscribed to our calendars, you’ll need to resubscribe as we’ve changed the URL (website address) at which they’re published. Sorry for the inconvenience. This is a one-off change; you won’t have to update them again.

• Subscribe to Holidays and Training Days
• Subscribe to School and Class Events

Subscribing to calendars should work in Outlook, iCal, Google and all other popular calendar apps.

Training Days

We’re happy to confirm the training days for next year:

• Monday 05 September
• Tuesday 06 September (which means children return to school on Wednesday 07 September)
• Monday 31 October (following the half-term holiday, which means children start the second Autumn term on Tuesday 01 November)
• polling day, sometime in May (this is likely to be 10 May, but has not been confirmed)
• Monday 23 July (this is the last day of the school year, which means children finish the Summer term on Friday 20 July).

We’re one of the first Leeds schools to confirm their training days.  We’re happy to do this in order for you to arrange holidays and therefore ensure term-time absences are kept to a minimum.

The dates will be posted to the school’s website calendar shortly.

SEAL statement 09 May

This week, as the Year 6 class prepare to sit their SAT tests, our SEAL statement is ‘I try my best for others and for myself.’

As Mrs Hazell has commented in the Year 6 class news the children have put a lot of hard work and time into their preparations.  Good luck to all of Year 6.

The Relax Kids website has some ideas for supporting your child through tests and you can view their magazine online too.

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.