News

Safeguarding – Keeping Children Healthy and Safe from Harm

We are always happy to share with you our policies and practices.  Policies relating to safeguarding help to ensure that children are taught and encouraged to live healthy lifestyles and adopt safe practices – they enable a consistent approach throughout the school because they are adhered to by staff, governors and volunteers.

The policies include Child Protection, Attendance, Behaviour, Safer Recruitment and Acceptable Use of ICT.

Please check the policies section of the website or ask a member of staff about safeguarding at Moortown.

Heroes - what a topic!

What a topic! 

In Year 1 and 2, the children this term have had much of their learning based around the theme of Heroes.

Heroes covered so much that inspires and engages our children.  The Year 1 and 2 classes have learnt about lots of different aspects of being a hero, starting from what they think a hero actually is – quite a deep question in itself, especially for six and seven year olds!  They went on to consider lots of different types of hero, fictional (even Superheroes!) and real-life. 

Real life heroes included those who volunteered following the Haiti earthquake – a really useful link that helped the classes to consider global issues.  The children wanted to become heroes too, and came up with the idea of a Book and Bun Sale, which the whole school got involved with.  Some children were surprised to think that by contributing to different things they could be actual heroes as well. 

They didn’t forget heroes closer to home – those in our local community such as police, nurses and firefighters.  A visit to the rugby stadium at Headingley was a great success and helped to highlight sporting heroes, too.

Also in the topic, the classes have learnt about historical and religious heroes like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Florence Nightingale.  This helped children to appreciate that heroes can come from all walks of life, from all countries, and be heroic for lots of different reasons.

Along with the other topics (Where in the World, Snowbound and The Tempest), Heroes has another example of great learning that matches the interests and experiences of our children with brilliant outcomes.

After the Easter holiday, we look forward to the summer topics…

Thanks, IBM!

Last term, we were happy to accept a grant of £650 from IBM.  The grant came as part of IBM’s volunteer programme which supports IBM workers in their volunteer efforts.  The £650 recognises the commitment of Mrs Janice Rush to the role of Chair of Moortown Primary Governing Body.

We have spent the money on new projectors for classrooms so images are brighter and easier to read.

Ten Top Tips for Homework

The DCSF has produced a useful leaflet called Ten Top Tips for Homework Survival which is aimed at parent / carers of children aged 8-13 years – the tips they mention fit in really well with the different types of homework we set and – importantly – are realistic and achievable. Download the PDF.

New SEAL statement 22nd March

‘I can recognise my talents’ is this week’s SEAL statement.  Share these with your friends this week – they may learn something new about you!

Join a club!

We’ve an ever-widening range of after school clubs starting after Easter – here’s the menu of activities available. For further details, contact Paula O’Malley in the School Office.

‘You’ve got loads of really good clubs – a really good selection. The only problem is my son wants to do them all!’

Gymnastics
Proskills (an after schools sports provider) will be running a gymnastics club on Mondays. This club will start on Monday 27 April straight after school until 4.15pm, and will run for ten weeks. There is a cost of £3.50 per session for this after school club, payable to the provider.

Yogabugs
After a very successful, very popular taster session held in school, we are pleased to announce a new YogaBugs after school club aimed specifically at Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. This will run for ten weeks from Tuesday 27 April if there is enough interest. (Previously advertised cost of £4.20 is now reduced to £3.50, subsidised by NE/XT, the school’s extended services cluster.)

TaeKwon-Do
We are hoping to start a TaeKwon-Do after school club on Thursdays, starting on Thursday 27 April for ten weeks. The club will be operated by NTX Schools who run several clubs in the area. The cost of this club will be £3.50.

Athletics
Now the weather is getting better, we are going to start the Athletics club on Fridays, ending at 4.15pm. This club will be organised by Miss Hewson and will take place on the field to the rear of school. It may be subject to cancellation due to bad weather. This club is free.

Boxing
Non-contact boxing is a great way to keep fit and burn off that excess energy. A local boxing professional with experience in many Leeds schools is able to offer a ten week boxing course which includes fitness, conditioning and nutrition advice. This would be at a cost of £3.50 per lesson. Dates to be arranged subject to enough interest.

Street Dance
Some of our children have been taking part in a dance class which has been incredibly popular over the last three years. We have an opportunity for this dance class to continue after Easter at a cost of £3.50 each session. It’s high energy, fun, and children really enjoy learning new moves and working together to produce a show stopping routine.

Sing and Sign
Would you like your child to learn how to use sign language? We have the opportunity for an after school club for children to learn a useful life skill – please see the attached letter for more information.

French
The Moortown French Club has been up and running for a while now – all the children have been learning many useful words in French, and now is the time to spread the French word further. If your child is in Y2, Y3 or Y4 and would like the opportunity to sample another language in a fun way, please let us know. This club is free.

Board Games
This is another popular club that’s been running for a while now. Board games are proven to help children with mathematical skills as well as being a lot of fun. The club is open to Y3 – Y6 children and is free.

Please return the form sent out to parents and carers by Friday 26 March to register interest.

New SEAL statement 15th March

Our new SEAL statement for this week is ‘I can receive a compliment in a sensible way.’  What would you say if someone gave you a friendship token by paying you a compliment?

New SEAL statement 8th March

‘I can help someone with a worry‘ is the new SEAL statement for this week.  Use your friendship skills to to help others if they have a worry.  You can always ask an adult in school or use the worry box if you have a worry.

New SEAL statement 1st March

This week our new SEAL statement is ‘I can respond to difficult situations in a positive way.’  You may need to use skills from our Getting on SEAL theme to acheive this, for example the peaceful problem solving process.

Happy and healthy learners - the proof!

Recently, some of our children expressed their views about aspects of emotional health as part of a three-year national study into the mental health of young people.

For the second year running, a significantly higher proportion of our children are positive about their school climate than others in Leeds and in the rest of England and Wales.

In addition, much fewer of our children show any signs of emotional and behavioural difficulties.

This shows what we all know: our children are happy and well-behaved and our staff are doing a great job in supporting this.  To sum up…

…happy and healthy learners!