Our weekly message (Friday 12 July 2024)

It’s our penultimate weekly message of the year. It’s a bit of a cliché, but has to be said – we can’t believe how fast the year has gone.

Themed week

This week has been our Staying Safe week.

Of course, staying safe isn’t just about one week of the year. Check out these Summer safety tips. and this clip about staying safe near water.

This week is also a good time to think back to previous Living and Learning statements. For example, does your child know the two STOP messages about bullying from Autumn 2 (Several Times On Purpose and Start Telling Other People)? Does your child understand the importance of permission / consent? What online safety tips can your child tell you about?

Every year, we have two themed weeks. Next year, it’s the turn of Me and My Communities and Being Healthy themed weeks.

Moving on…?

The close of the school year sees Year 6 friends getting ready to move on to secondary schools. There’ll also be children in other year groups moving on, too – perhaps you’re moving house and therefore your child is switching schools.

Whatever the cause, this change can be a source of anxiety. It’s a perfectly natural response to a new environment and a new society into which to fit. With this in mind, Childline has published advice to help children deal with their feelings as they move on.

Our Summer competition

Have you and your child started to think about our Summer competition?

Take a pic of one particular letter in MOORTOWN – each letter is for a year group in school. This list refers to current years…

• • M – Reception
  • O – Year 1
  • O – staff
  • R – Year 2
  • T – Year 3
  • O – Year 4
  • W – Year 5
  • N – Year 6

The winning entry will be a letter that’s been ‘found’ or created in an unusual way. There’s a £10 book token for one winner in each year group.

To enter, email your pics to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 06 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.

Get caught in the Breeze

The Breeze people write:

Are you ready to have some fun this summer?! Breeze in the Park is back to bring family fun to a park near you this summer holidays.

We’ve 26 events plus 8 relaxed events, all jam-packed and ready to bring the sun, fun, chills and thrills to your holidays!

Expect sports, games, arts and crafts, interactive play, food, entertainment and, of course, their famous inflatables. Plus, much much more!

The events, which are aimed at 0 to 19-year-olds, will run as two separate sessions on the days. The first session takes place from 12pm to 2:30pm and the second session runs from 3pm to 5pm.

Along with the open sessions, eight of the events throughout the summer will also be hosting relaxed sessions for children and young people with additional needs. These sessions will run from 11am to 12pm and will have additional staff, minimal queuing and reduced crowds.

Tickets for Breeze in the Park are 50p per child and must be pre-booked in advance. Fast track five times on our most popular inflatables with a Breeze Pass…the best accessory for this summer giving you discounts, giveaways, offers and early access to many venues and events!

Book your tickets now and avoid disappointment.

Next Tuesday is our reserve day for Sports Day. We’re sorry about postponing last time – it was obviously a bad call on our part because despite the very wet conditions first thing, it dried up quickly.

Next Friday’s a non-uniform day here at Moortown Primary. Please check out the guidelines for non-uniform (they’re at the bottom of the first page).

Have a happy and healthy – and hopefully dry – weekend.

Thank you..

..for your support in raising money for our chosen charity, Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. We have had an email today to thank us for our support so far this year!

Your support and generosity is greatly appreciated. 

Our weekly message (Friday 05 July 2024)

With just two more weeks left of the school year, it’s time to start thinking of our Summer Competition!

Summer competition

Each year, we invite you and your child to take part in our Summer Competition. We’ve asked for pics to show extreme reading, happy and healthy, smiley faces… This year, we’re inviting you to think about our name. More specifically, take a pic of one particular letter in MOORTOWN, but one which is hidden away or created in some unsual way.

Each letter is for one year group in school (this list refers to current years)…

• M – Reception
• O – Year 1
• O – staff
• R – Year 2
• T – Year 3
• O – Year 4
• W – Year 5
• N – Year 6

The winning entry will be a letter that’s been ‘found’ or created in an unusual way. There’s a £10 book token for one winner in each year group.

To enter, email your pics to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 06 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject. All entries will be displayed in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Here’s an idea to get you thinking…

Uniform

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve featured our updated Uniform Policy to help you to start preparing early for the new school year. Please read the latest version.

This week, we’re looking at what our policy says about jewellery…

Only discreet (ie small, not brightly coloured) stud earrings and items that are absolutely required by a religion are allowed. Advisors recommend no earrings are worn for PE; therefore, we will ask your child to remove earrings before the lesson and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by the child. If they are unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.

A watch or step counter is allowed. Any device that connects to the internet (eg a smart watch) or that can record (including taking photos) is not allowed for safeguarding reasons. Such items should be left at home, but can be handed over at the start of the day. Refer to the Positive Relationships Policy for more details of items not allowed.

We don’t accept responsibility for any loss or damage to an individual’s property.

Staying safe

Next week is another Living and Learning themed week.

The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations: at home, at school, online and in the environment. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education, including…

• road safety (Leeds City Council)
• water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI)
• fire safety (West Yorkshire Fire Service)
• staying safe around dogs (Dogs Trust)
• first aid (Leeds Beckett and Red Cross)
• safety in our community (PCSOs)
• e-safety (d:side)

Some of the events require parental permission and these letters have been sent out separately.

There are also some opportunities for parents and carers, from all year groups, to get involved in the week:

• Monday 08 July, 3pm – 3:30pm: d:side e-safety drop in information session – a representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be available to discuss e-safety issues and details of your child’s e-safety learning in the themed week
• Thursday 11 July from 8:30am: West Yorkshire Police bike register event –
  pupils are invited to bring along their bikes to be registered at this bike security marking event at school; registering your bike helps police and retailers identify and verify the legitimate owner of bikes that have been stolen or are being resold; this is a first come, first served event
• Friday 12 July 2:35-3:15pm: Leeds Beckett University Carnegie Great Outdoors basic first aid session for parents/carers – there are limited places available so please confirm your place via School Gateway

Our Living and Learning statement is I make safe choices, including online. Check out these tips for helping children stay safe online.

The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active and safe ways to travel to school. Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way.

For a chance to win one of three £10 Love2Shop vouchers, we’d love to see their active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing their bike helmet (send photos to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org). Photos should be sent by 4pm on Thursday 11 July and winners will be announced on Friday 12 July.

Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, this year, we’re requesting a voluntary contribution of £1 per pupil to go towards paying for visitors. This can be made on School Gateway. Thank you for your support with this.

Thank you for your support to keep Moortown a happy and healthy and safe place to learn!

Next week is also the Key Stage 2 production: Tuesday and Wednesday at 6pm.

National news

You’ll have read about the swimming success of one of our Y6 friends before; in a couple of weeks time, she is going off to high school but she’s certainly leaving on a high!

She’s just heard the news that she’s been promoted to the National Age Group Squad. There is no doubt that she has worked really hard to earn this but apparently extra helpings of yorkshire puddings, at school, have helped her on her way – we do like to help in any way we can!

Congratulations – this is an amazing achievement.

Sports Day is postponed

We’ve made the decision to postpone Sports Day today because of the weather. There was quite a lot of rain last night meaning the grass is slippier than we’d like it to be.

The reserve Sports Day date is 16 July.

(The long-term forecast indicates the weather will be much more favourable.)

It’s always a difficult decision to postpone or cancel these events – we’re sorry if this has caused you inconvenience.

Our weekly message (Friday 28 June 2024)

What a hot one! Hopefully, next week will stay bright and sunny – though maybe not so hot – when we have our Sports Day on Tuesday. More about that later…

Survey

Thanks to the 51 parents and carers who have completed this year’s annual survey. If you haven’t, there’s still time! In fact, you’ve one more week left to complete – the survey closes at 2pm next Friday.

Uniform

Last week, we flagged up our updated Uniform Policy in time to help you to start preparing for the new school year. Please read the latest version.

In particular, we drew your attention to expectations for PE – it basically only involves a change of clothes for the bottom half only.

This week, we’re looking at the uniform itself – please follow the points set out here:

A word from our Junior Leadership Team

Here’s a review of the year from our Junior Leadership Team…

During this year as JLT, we have done many things and made some of our own decisions. We feel that we have achieved a lot and supported our friends and their wishes.

We have collected everyone’s ideas and taken them to JLT meetings to talk to Miss Birch or Mrs Weekes. Some of the things that we have done this year include choosing the new school charity; going to St Gemma’s to buy the Christmas tree; and helping to decide the equipment we would like on ‘The Green’. We were really pleased that the new charity choice will help children in Leeds who need heart surgery.

We also enjoyed talking to Mr Roundtree about what our school logo means to us and we told the inspectors all about Moortown.

Here is what some of the JLT think about the past year at Moortown:

• ‘Maths is fun but also challenging at the same time.’
• ‘I enjoy the active trips that we go on e.g. Ninja Warrior Junior and  orienteering.’
• ‘There’s a wide variety of clubs that we can choose from!’
• ‘PE is great as it’s a chance to get active and I’m really enjoy tennis at the moment.”
• ‘The clubs like hamma beads and fun and games are amazing.’
• ‘My favourite subject to learn about is maths but I like lots of others too.’

We’re looking forward to the summer holidays now but we don’t want to say goodbye to Year 6.

Sports day – an important update

For our sports day at Roundhegians rugby club next Tuesday, we’ve been advised that the normal vehicle access and car park for Roundhegians is currently out of use due to building work taking place at the clubhouse.

Instead, access will be through the gate on High Moor Avenue. This will mean there will be limited on street parking so please walk to the venue if you can.

You’re welcome to bring chairs/rugs to enjoy the morning/afternoon’s events.

Here’s a reminder of the timings:

• Key Stage 2 – 9:30am
• Key Stage 1 and Reception – 1:30pm

Hopefully, we’ll see you there!

Finally, a few things to look out for next week… As well as the Sports Day, we’ve the PTA Summer Fair on Friday. We also send annual reports home next week, staggered across the week. In next week’s message, look out for details of the 2024 Summer Competition, too!

Marvellous manners

Many of our Year 6 children have been visiting their new high schools in preparation for their move to Year 7.

Sienna was one of our Year 6 friends who visited Allerton Grange  and she was picked out from 300 pupils as the most polite student. What an achievement, Sienna. Well done – we’re very proud of you!

Thinking of others

One of our Y3 friends showed that she really thinks of others by spending some of her spare time raising money for our chosen charity, the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

She decided to make bracelets with loom bands and while her mum was working at a local fair, she sat alongside her and sold her bracelets (and made more) to raise money. She made signs explaining about the charity and about school choosing a different one each year.

She raised £18.40 which she’s brought in and we will pass it on to the charity for her.

Well done – an amazing gesture!

Our weekly message (Friday 21 June 2024)

It’s not been a great summer yet, has it? With the hope we might enjoy some sunnier days ahead, don’t forget to follow the NHS advice on sun protection for your child.

Sports Day

This year’s sports day takes place on Tuesday 02 July 2024 at Roundhegians Rugby Club LS8 2AT.

• Key Stage 2 events take place 9.30am-11.30am
• Reception and Key Stage events take place 1.30pm-3pm

(If weather conditions mean we have to change the date, the reserve date is Tuesday 16 July with the same timings.)

Spectators are welcome. Access to Roundhegians Rugby Club is from Chelwood Drive. Please bring your own seating. We’ll be walking the children to Roundhegians on the day so if you’re able to help accompany the children, please let the office know.

For Sports Day, our teams will be: White, Red, Blue, and Green (no political allegiances intended!). Your child will be told what colour team they’re in. If possible, please could your child wear a t-shirt matching their team colour.

Please ensure your child has their water bottle and a cap/hat at school. It would also be useful if you could apply sun cream before your child comes to school.

Normal lunch time and end of school collection arrangements still apply on this day.

Uniform

Every year, we review our Uniform Policy. We know some parents/carers like to start preparing early for the new school year, so please read the latest version.

Please note what we expect children to wear on PE days – it basically only involves a change for the bottom half:

Annual survey

Your views count. Every year, we ask for your views and we follow up on as many as we can. Thank you to the 35 parents/carers who have already completed it. If you’ve not yes, there’s still time: please complete this year’s survey before the 05 July deadline.

Our weekly message (Friday 14 June 2024)

Don’t forget the school photographer’s in next Thursday to take class pics – please make sure your child is in uniform, even if it’s a PE day.

This week’s message comes from our Science and Foundation Subjects Leader. It’s about the final topic of the year.

Just before that: good luck to our Year 5/6 swimmers who are competing in the English Schools Swimming Association Primary National finals on Saturday at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

What is this half-term’s topic?

Design and Technology is the driving subject for this half-term and it’s a great topic to finish the year! The focus for all classes this year is textiles (next year, it’s construction) so children will be busy designing and making products using fabric.

A key aspect of the Design and Technology curriculum is the understanding that products don’t just get made. Instead, they go through a design process that includes three key elements: evaluate, design and make. Think of this process as a cycle. For example, Moortown Motors want to create a new family car. Before the car is made, they need to evaluate existing products and talk to customers so that they’re clear about what the new car needs to have. They will then design the car and evaluate those designs. They may make a prototype of the car to help them evaluate the designs. Next, they’ll decide on a final design that will go into production and get made. This finished product will be evaluated and the whole process starts again.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic – see pages 14 and 15 of our Topic Curriculum Guide.

Years 1 and 2

The product children will be designing, making and evaluating is a hand puppet. They’ll start by learning about the design process before looking at and evaluating existing hand puppet products. They’ll then learn to use an over stitch and practise threading needles and tying knots. Following this, they’ll be introduced to all the materials they can use to create their puppet. Once they’re familiar with the materials, they’ll design their puppet. Next, it’s on to the making stage. They’ve already honed their sewing skills so they should be confident making and then decorating their puppets according to their designs. Finally, it’s evaluation time: children will compare their designs to their finished products. They’ll reflect on successes and things they’d do differently next time.

Years 3 and 4

The product the children will be designing, making and evaluating is a pouch. The function of this pouch is entirely up to them. It could be used to store some pens, trading cards, a shell collection. Children can be as creative as they like – as long as the pouch can be made using a 20cm² piece of felt!

Before they begin to design their pouch, they’ll learn about a famous designer and how they became a designer. They’ll also learn some important skills that a designer needs to have. Children will then evaluate existing pouches, with a focus on fastenings, and will then design their pouch. They’ll practise their sewing skills, becoming proficient using a running stitch. They’ll then begin to make their pouches. First, they’ll create a template which they’ll use to cut out the pieces. Next, they’ll join the pieces using their running stitch and create a fastening for their pouch. Finally, they’ll evaluate their designs by comparing them to their designs, testing whether they’re fit for purpose and reflecting on their successes and areas to improve.

Years 5 and 6

Children will be designing, making and evaluating a cushion. However, before they get stuck into their cushion, they’ll learn about some designers who changed the world: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, George Stephenson, Lewis Latimer and Jony Ive. They’ll learn about their creations and their impact and look for things that link the designers.

Following this, children will learn about the importance of design criteria when designing a product. After this, they’ll practise their sewing skills and learn how to sew using a backstitch. Next, they’ll evaluate existing cushions. They’ll then decide on the specific design criteria for their cushions and create their designs using an annotated sketch, detailing the dimensions of their product. They’ll learn about the importance of using sustainable materials when researching the filling used for their cushion (the plan is to use old, unwanted pieces of fabric to stuff the cushions rather than Polyfill so please have a look through your wardrobe and keep hold of any old t-shirts or other clothes as we’ll need them later in the half-term).

Children will use a template to cut out the shapes, use a backstitch to appliqué decoration to their cushion, before finally sewing the pieces together and stuffing them. The final stage is to evaluate the designs against the design criteria.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they have been learning in class. The class news page of the school website is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

The school library and local libraries will have some books about Design and Technology which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and design knowledge.

Finally, there’s a lot of programmes on CBBC and CBeebies with a Design and Technology focus:

• Bitz and Bob
• Grace’s Amazing Machines
• Junk Rescue
• Maddie’s Do You Know?
• The Dengineers