News

Using our postbox

Our postbox is just inside the Reception entrance.  It’s a white postbox on the right hand side – you just need to lift the lid and post any payments you need to make.  You can use the postbox to leave other items, too: letters, concerns, term-time absence requests.  In the summer term, we invite parents / carers to complete an Annual Survey – using the postbox means your responses can be anonymous if this is important to you.

When you need to make a payment at the office, for dinners, clubs, trips etc, it’s a good idea to remember the following two points:

• Money should be in a sealed envelope clearly labelled with your child’s name and class and what the money is for.
• All envelopes should be ‘posted’ in the post-box just inside the Reception entrance – this is a quicker way to pay than queueing!

SEAL statement 28 February

For this half term we return to the SEAL theme of Good to be me! The theme was launched with a whole-school assembly on Wednesday 02 March – ask your child to describe the story of the mouse and how she changed during the course of the adventure.  Our first weekly statement is ‘I can do something to make me feel proud.’

The SEAL theme Good to be me focuses on three main areas of learning:

• Self-awareness – feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
• Managing Feelings – understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself –assertiveness skills, standing up for your views.
• Empathy

This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.

The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:

Building emotional resilience

Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.

Coping with anxiety and worrying

Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.

Calming down

Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.

Assertiveness

The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.

Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour

The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened /under stress.

SEAL statement 14 February

Reflection is the last of our 7 Rs of learning and this week’s statement is ‘I can reflect on my learning.’

Self-reflection is something we always encourage the children to do whether it is during lessons to understand their next steps or after their work has been marked to understand, and learn from, any mistakes.

This week Key Stage 2 children will be ‘reflecting’ on their 7 Rs of learning and some children will be working with Mr Roundtree to reflect on certain areas of learning through pupil interviews.

Next half term, we’ll be returning to the SEAL theme Good to be me.

Happy and healthy outdoors

Sustrans is a charity that encourages people to travel by foot, bike or public transport more often.  Recently, they’ve produced a couple of very thought-provoking articles about children’s experiences of their journey to school (‘A child’s eye view of school travel’) and outdoor play (‘Free range kids’).  Here’s an extract from ‘Free range kids’…

90% of us adults regularly played outside in our street as kids, compared to fewer than one in three UK children today.  As 73% of them prefer outdoor activities, the charity Sustrans wondered why they aren’t getting out more, benefiting from the sunlight and fresh air…and splashing around in the mud and rain. After all, it’s their preferred way to have fun (whilst burning calories and getting their daily dose of activity).

Emma Kenny is a well-known expert in child psychology, and a parent too. She gives us her thoughts on why these things are so vital for growing children, and what we as adults can do to help.

What are the benefits of outdoor play?

Children who are allowed to explore their personal worlds are bound to feel that, on the whole, life is a playground where adventures are to be had. This means they’re more likely to approach new challenges with confidence, forge new peer relationships more easily, will be less likely to suffer obesity and issues with isolation and feel that they are unique and trusted individuals within their own worlds. Physiologically, the benefits of spending a couple of hours in daylight are proven: the white light we experience means lower levels of stress and healthier mental states and, of course, fresh air is always a healthy addition to our lives.

What might happen if kids don’t have their freedom?

If you cage any animal, it will begin to demonstrate a fear of leaving its environment in spite of this appearing unnatural. We are creatures of habit and we adjust our beliefs to reflect this. If we are inside and isolated much of the time, we will start to fear that which is outside and new. Kids need to have a sense of self within their environment. We should encourage them to do this.

Read more of this and other articles in Sustrans magazine: The Hub, Spring 2011 edition.

SEAL statement 07 February

The next of our 7 Rs for learning is remembering and this week ‘I can remember what I learn’ is the weekly statement.

By remembering what you learn you can apply your learning in different lessons.

SEAL statement 31 January

‘I can be responsive’ is the SEAL statement for this week. 

Listening skills can play a key role in how responsive children are to peers and adults in school. 

A good listener always:

• looks at the speaker
• asks appropriate questions
• answers correctly to show they are listening
• doesn’t interrupt the speaker

The Great Swapathon

The Great Swapathon is a new initiative from Change4Life and aims to give families tips, help and advice to encourage healthier lifestyles in an effort to deliver one million swaps across England.

Whether you swap fizzy drinks for pure fruit juice, swap snacking on a bag of crisps for a handful of fresh or dried fruit or swap four wheels for two feet there are simple swaps that everyone could try.

Today all children have received information about the campaign and will complete Talk Time homework to show how they can make a healthy swap.  We do have some spare voucher books if you would like more or to pass them on to others.  Please ask at the office.

 The Change4Life website includes a useful new tool to help people find more personalised swaps and also recipes for meals and healthier alternatives to favourite snacks.

 Our Packed Lunch guidance, launched last term, also includes lots of ideas for healthy swaps including:

• swapping white bread for wholegrain and other carbohydrates such as pasta
• swapping sweetened drinks for water provided at lunchtime
• swapping unhealthy snacks every day to once a week. 

We would encourage children who bring a packed lunch to school to consider a swap they could make to their packed lunch.  The Packed Lunch guidance is available from the office or in the Find Out section (meal).

 It would be great to hear about your swaps and more importantly if you have managed to stick to them!

Birthday 'treats'

We are currently reviewing our Food in School policy and would welcome parents’ / carers’ views on ‘treats’ brought in for birthdays.

Within school we recognise that providing treats can create pressure amongst parents / carers, reduce teaching time, create problems with allergies and create litter.

A number of parents /carers have given their views to Mrs Taylor before school today in the playground.  However, if you have any views on this and whether we should ban or discourage birthday treats please contact Mrs Taylor via the office.

SEAL statement 24 Jan

Being resourceful is the next of our 7 Rs for learning.  ‘I can be resourceful’ is this week’s statement.

Resourcefulness includes managing your time, resources and ultimately your learning. 

This week, take some time to look at the all the resources available in the classroom to help with your learning.

Do adverts put too much pressure on young people?

Farhan is one of two Advisors to the Children’s Comissioner from Moortown Primary.  To all children and young people, he writes:

Do you feel that you have to buy certain things and look a certain way just to be cool?

The goverment has promised to help and protect young children from bad advertising, so the Children’s Commisioner for England would like to hear your views. She would like as many children and young people to fill out this survey so that your opinions can be put into action.

The survey will only take about 10 minutes and there are no right or wrong answers – this is all about your views and feelings. Nobody will ever know who gave what answers – it is totally anonymous, so please be honest!

The closing date is Friday 28th January 2011.

Thank you.

Farhan