News

The Stephen Lawrence Standard

The Stephen Lawrence Education Standard is unique to Leeds. It was developed in partnership between Education Leeds, the Leeds City Council and Black and Minority community representatives, in response to the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the publication of the MacPherson Inquiry Report into Stephen’s death in 1999. The Standard was launched in 2003, the first of its kind in the country.

At Moortown Primary School, we have had the award for some time now.  We now want to update it. We know Moortown Primary School is a happy and healthy place to learn. Children tell us, parents and carers tell us, and awards such as this one, the Healthy Schools status and the Inclusion Chartermark prove it. 

We want everyone in our community to be treated fairly.  We want to recognise everybody’s similarities and their differences – and celebrate their differences. We make sure this happens by our Visual Ethos Statement that underlies everything we do.  Our ethos is talked about – children know what the symbols mean, including the globe which shows that we are a multi-cultural school with pupils and staff from many different countries, the four children holding hands that show that we all work together and the religious symbols you can see represent children who have different faiths (or no faith at all).

The children linking arms is echoed in our school logo: children are represented as happy, healthy and co-operative.  When our school council chose this logo in 2008, the different colours in the logo was suggested by a councillor as being symbolic of the different ethnicities in school.  This went further than the original design remit and represents the confidence and positive awareness we try to nurture amongst all our stakeholders.

Practical means to promote awareness, cohesion and equality range from SEAL, a fundamental, on-going theme in our school, to themed weeks, such as the forthcoming ‘My Community’ week (the second themed week to celebrate and learn about belonging, identity and differences such as race).  Our growing links with Shallcross Primary in South Africa will further enhance children’s and adults’ understanding and empathy.

The Stephen Lawrence Standard means a lot to us.  We know we’re doing things right and we want to be recognised for this as well as learn more about what we can do in the future to be even better.

SEAL Statement 21 March

‘I can receive a compliment in a sensible way’ is the new SEAL statement for this week.

Children are often keen to give compliments or ‘friendship tokens‘ but receiving a compliment can make some children feel self- conscious.  Responding with a simple thank you would be a sensible way to accept the compliment.  It’s nice to let someone know that you value their kind words.

SEAL statement 14 March

‘I can help someone with a worry’ is the new SEAL statement for this week.  We will be looking at developing empathy skills to recognise if others are worried and how children can help others in these situations.

Each class has a SEAL box where children can ‘post’ any suggestions, news or worries to share with their teacher, class or school councillors.  In addition to this is the worry box, available for the whole school to use, monitored by Mrs Wilson, our Learning Mentor.

We really are happy and healthy!

At Moortown, we pride ourselves on being a happy and healthy place to learn. We monitor this closely to make sure that it’s not just an empty slogan but a true picture of life in our community.

For the past three years, one of our classes has been taking part in a short survey (‘Me and My School’) which looks at responses in relation to emotional difficulties, behavioural difficulties and school climate. The results help us to ensure our provision best suits the needs of our children – and we receive vouchers to spend on play equipment, too!

There is strong evidence that there is a higher proportion of pupils with low anger and aggression scores at Moortown Primary School than participating pupils both nationally and locally. The school climate is rated better at Moortown Primary School than schools nationally and locally. The emotional difficulty scores of pupils at Moortown are lower.

As well as Moortown, 181 other schools across England took part. A total of 20 schools in Leeds completed the ‘Me and My School’ questionnaire. Children responded to a series of statements, answering ‘Never’, ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Always’.

SEAL statement 07 March

For this week our SEAL statement is ‘I can respond to difficult situations in a positive way.‘

The mouse character in the Good to be me SEAL assembly last week responded to a difficult situation by recognising her gift and releasing the animals.  She believed in herself.

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.