Spring term after-school clubs
Our spring term after-school clubs will be starting next week and while many of the clubs are full, we do have some spaces available for the following clubs.
Attendance matters
Our whole-school attendance figure so far this year is 96.5% – that’s a little lower than it was this time last year.
However, a big well done to Year 2 children (and mums, dads and carers at home) for their amazing attendance: it’s just short of 98%!
Well done to Year 3, with a figure of 96.8%. Also well done to our Reception class – their attendance matches the school average, which is really good because it’s quite often the case that Reception classes have a lower figure (because they may be more susceptible to bugs going around).
All the attendance figures are here:
- Reception – 96.5%
- Year 1 – 96.2%
- Year 2 – 97.9%
- Year 3 – 96.8%
- Year 4 – 96%
- Year 5 – 95.9%
- Year 6 – 96.1%
Is your child in Year 2 or Year 6?
If your child is in Year 2 or Year 6, they’re in the final year of Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) or Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6). This means that towards the end of the year, they’ll be doing end of key stage assessments, often called the SATs.
These short videos help to explain more – just be aware the videos are a couple of years old so some details like dates won’t be accurate.
In the past, parents have said they’ve found the videos helpful. Nevertheless, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, speak with your child’s class teacher or Mrs Weekes.
Does your child use TikTok?
If you’re child uses TikTok, read this guide for parents.
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app available on iOS and Android which lets users create, share, and view user created videos much in a similar manner to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It’s main draw, however, is that users can record and upload bite-sized looping videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to popular music or soundbites, often for comedic effect, which can then be further enhanced with filters, emojis and stickers. TikTok has been designed with the young user in mind and has a very addictive appeal. At the beginning of 2019 it skyrocketed in popularity to become the iOS store’s most downloaded app with over 33 million downloads. Estimates suggest that it now has anything between 500 million and over 1billion monthly active users worldwide.
Living and learning: d:side visits
This half term, our Living and Learning focus includes staying safe. We have arranged for visitors to come into school to help to deliver this key aspect of education.
We have been working with d:side for many years and they will be visiting school to deliver sessions based around drug education and e-safey sessions to coincide with Safer Internet Day (11 February).
d:side is a comprehensive drug & alcohol education programme that encourages children to make positive & healthy life-choices whilst promoting a pro-active attitude to life. They focus on developing the children’s knowledge, skills & attitude, whilst equipping them with the appropriate life skills to successfully manage sensitive situations with peers & encourage a positive approach to life.
As part of these visits, there are two specific parent/carer information sessions.
Tuesday 21 January 3.05-3.30pm d:side drug education informal information session (open to all parents)
A d:side representative will be available to provide information about your child’s drug education learning with d:side and answer any other related enquiries.
Tuesday 04 February 2:50-3.30pm d:side e-safety informal information session (open to all parents)
A d:side representative will be available to provide information about your child’s e-safety learning with d:side and answer any other related enquiries.
Please contact school if you would like to attend.
Tennis opportunities
Today, Year 2 – Year 6 pupils have taken part in tennis sessions to give children a taster of tennis and to promote sessions starting locally at Chapel Allerton Tennis and Squash Club.
Celebrate Yorkshire themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 16 January. Please contact the office, in the next few days, if your child would like a school dinner on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
Living and learning this half term
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning. There will also be some whole school homeworks on these themes.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I know how to seek help.
- I make safe choices, including online.
- I can assess my own risks.
Packed lunches
At Moortown Primary, our packed lunch guidance includes:
- information about the different food groups
- how to put together a healthy, balanced packed lunch
- links to recipes and ideas for healthy packed lunches
This week, our packed lunch guidance will be emailed to parents and carers and sent home to children who have a packed lunch in school.
Packed lunches should be in a secure named container. No sweets are allowed – instead, we encourage lots of fruit or vegetables. Water is available on all tables for children who choose a packed lunch. However, your child can bring their own drink in a non-breakable container – please avoid fizzy drinks.
Change4life provides lots of ideas for healthy packed lunches including suggested swaps.
As an alternative to packed lunches, school meals, including a vegetarian option, are a great choice and are prepared daily in our kitchen. Children are offered a choice of main courses and desserts and they select their main meal choice at the start of the day. Catering Leeds provides food which meets national Food Standards criteria. School meals can be combined with packed lunches.
Free school meals are available to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. They are also available to some older children according to family income. It’s important to register for entitlement to free school meals, even if your child has a packed lunch or is in a younger class – this is so we can receive additional funding (called the pupil premium) which we can use to help your child. Please check if this is something you might be entitled to.
New annual report format
At Moortown Primary, we seek your thoughts on lots of things, whether this is straight after an open-session in school like our Watch us while we work sessions, or in the annual surveys in the summer term.
Just before the summer term last year, we also asked for your views on the annual reports. We wanted to make sure we kept the reports as informative for you as possible, and we also wanted to relieve some of the workload for teachers when they write them.
You told us that the aspects of the reports you found most helpful were the teachers’ overall comments and the grades for progress, attitude and attainment – we’ll be keeping these aspects in the new reports (we’re going to make the grades even clearer and use them for attendance, behaviour and effort, too).
Some of the sections will be made smaller or not included. This is based on your feedback, too.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who helped us with this. Do speak with me if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns.
