News

Great learning behaviour

I’ve enjoyed spending the morning looking around all the classes. I’ve seen some great teaching and some great learning!

In Reception, children are very settled and already displaying some really good characteristics of effective learning. These are really important – more than simply being able to count to really high numbers, for example – because they are the foundation stones on which future achievements are built. There are a lot of siblings in the class, so I already know quite a few of the children. One child has even offered to teach me some Irish dancing – being Irish myself, it’s a skill I’m particularly looking forward to acquiring!

The Year 1 classroom looks great. The door has been removed (by the caretaker from one of the federation schools – thank you, Robert); this means we have a smooother transition from the areas of provision in Reception to a slightly more formal environment in Key Stage 1. The children made so much progress last year and, based on what I’ve seen this morning, will do equally well this year.

Year 2 pupils were busy finding nouns in their reading books. Someone gave me a really helpful definition – it’s something you can see, hear or touch. (You can sometimes smell or taste them, too!) They were enthusiastic about finding as many as they could. Why don’t you spot some on your journey to or from school next week!

Mrs Wells and the Year 3s were concentrating on their multiplication tables – they played ping pong, a quick game you can try at home or in the car: starting from zero, just count as confidently as you can in 2s, 5s or whichever table is being learnt, but the challenge is to alternate between each person. It was good to see the children concentrate hard.

When I visited Year 4, the children were all engaged in a carousel of different activities: reading (and talking about their reading) with Mrs Freeman, enjoying some comics, reading silently, playing a flag game (it’s the Where in the World topic, after all!), and reading with Miss Hale (the teaching assistant). It was good to see so much concentration with so many different things going on – clearly, Mr Owen and Mrs Freeman have got some good routines in place.

Mr Catherall’s classroom looks amazing, with lots of learning prompts for the Where in the World topic and for Maths and English. His class was also busy, taking part in another learning carousel. I was especially impressed by Pohnum and Pavan, whose learning behaviour was impressive and were very much engrossed in a dictionary challenge. I was also pleased to see a large group busy reading and analysing First News. (It’s a great newspaper for children; we subscribe at school, but why not subscribe and receive a copy at home, too!)

Finally, Miss Rushbrooke and the Year 6 children have all entered their second year working together – a smooth and productive transition. Always a mature, enthusiastic cohort, this year looks like being even more impressive for them as they work so well together. The classroom looks impressive, too.

What a great comment!

It was great to read this recent Facebook comment:

First day back I noticed the basketball courts in the main playground, look great, the first thing my 2 kids (in separate classes) said to me at home time on the first day was “mum you have to see the back playground” it looks fantastic! & my son explained the MUGA meaning! We love it & it’s a fab edition to this awesome little school.

We’re all very excited about the new equipment. The back playground will be even better when we get a bit of extra land from the old field – this will happen hopefully next year.

Sport England Primary Spaces award

You may have noticed some playground changes since we have returned to school.  If not, ask your child to take you to the back playground and this is what you’ll see.

The installation of the MUGA (multi use games area), nets in the main playground and playground markings outside Year 5 are as a result of a successful application to Sport England under the Primary Spaces fund to help primary schools who have little outside space.  We were awarded £30,000 to create a multi-sport area and our School Council were part of the decision-makers for the final designs.

The new facilities will provide vital facilities for curriculum PE and physical activity across the school day including playtime, lunchtime and after school.  They have proved to be a hit in the first week back with children eager to use the new facilities and also watch (in a safe manner).

Thank you to Playscheme, the contractor responsible for the installation.

New SEAL theme - New Beginnings

As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New Beginnings.

We begin the theme with a manners SEAL statement, I can greet someone politely.

New Beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.

During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.

Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.

New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.

Does your child have a School Saving Club account?

If so, here are the paying in dates for this year (one each half term).

• Thursday 13 October 2016 3.15-3.45pm
• Thursday 08 December 2016 3.15-3.45pm
• Thursday 02 February 2017 3.15-3.45pm
• Thursday 23 March 2017 3.15-3.45pm
• Thursday 18 May 2017 3.15-3.45pm
• Thursday 13 July 2017 3.15-3.45pm

Children must be accompanied to the sessions.

If you can’t attend the dates, you can bring money to the office in a sealed envelope marked School Saving Club for the attention of Miss Hale.

Also, it’s not too late to open a School Saving Club account.  Please ask at the office for an application form.  

As an added incentive for children moving to Year 3, their account will be credited with £10 once opened.

To poll or not to poll

Typically, one of our training days in the school year has to be in May. This is so that it fits with polling day, which is nearly always the first Thursday in May. It’s not ideal for us because it follows the May Day bank holiday and is just before the Key Stage 2 SATs week.

The Leeds City Council Electoral Registration Office has provided this information to schools:

2017 is a fallow year,  therefore no local elections are due to take place. However, schools should be aware that the school may still be required for polling if any unexpected elections occur, such as a general election or a by election.

The local elections in 2018 are due to take place on Thursday 03 May.  Your school remains on the list to  be used as a polling station for the elections that will take place on Thursday 03 May 2018.

Because we’ve been told that there are currently no scheduled elections, we’ve decided not to have Thursday 04 May 2017 as a training day. Instead, we’ve moved the training day to Friday 12 May – this is the Friday of the SATs week – a welcome treat for our hard-working Year 6 pupils!

Does your child suffer from asthma?

Every year, there’s a peak in admissions for children having an asthma attack in September. The cause of this is not clear, but it’s believed that when children return to school they’re exposed to a number of new environmental factors that can trigger an asthma attack. Children are also exposed to new viruses which can be another trigger of an asthma attack.  If children with asthma return to school with their lungs in the best possible condition, then an asthma attack maybe prevented.

NHS staff encourage children with asthma to attend their GP practice for an asthma review during the school holidays. This gives the nurse or doctor the opportunity to review their medication, check their inhaler technique and give them a personal asthma action plan. Pupils will then be able to bring a copy of that updated asthma action plan into school in September; this will give us the information we need to support pupils with their asthma in school – this could prevent an asthma attack.

Heading to secondary school in 2017?

Pupils who have just finished Year 5 are due to go into Year 7, the start of secondary school, in September 2017. Parents will be able to apply for a place between 01 August 2016 and 31 October 2016.

All applications need to be made via the online application system. This site also contains a YouTube video giving parents a step by step guide to completing their online application. The online application form and the video will be available from 01 August 2016.

Parents will need a valid e-mail account in order to set up and create an account in the online system. Free computer access and help with setting up an e-mail account is available in Leeds City Council libraries and One Stop Shops. If parents need help applying online for a secondary school place they can come to one of the drop in sessions outlined below for support with their online application.

• Armley One Stop Centre – 13/10/2016, 10:00-12:00
• Beeston Library – 04/10/2016, 10:00-12:30
• Bramley Library – 11/10/2016, 12:00-14:00
• City Centre One Stop Centre – 10/10/2016, 11:00-13:00
• Headingley Library – 03/10/2016, 13:00-15:00
• Middleton Library – 06/10/2016, 9:30-11:30
• Seacroft Library – 12/10/2016, 10:00-12:00
• The Compton Centre – 07/10/2016, 11:00-13:00
• The Reginald Centre – 05/10/2016, 13:30-15:30

If you’re still having difficulty with completing an application online, you should contact the Admissions Team on 0113 222 4414 to access individual support including alternative methods of application if required.

Changes to training day dates 2016-17

We try hard to communicate well in advance training dates and other significant events. However, sometimes this backfires and dates need to be changed. Next year, we had told you the provisional dates for training dates. However, we now need to re-arrange three of the dates:

• 21 October
• 25 November
• 20 February

These three training days are now on the last three days of the school year: Monday 24, Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 July 2017.

We hope you can see some benefits in this, a main one being that children will break up a little earlier at the end of what could have been a very long term.

Whilst we know it is not helpful to change dates, we hope we have given you enough notice and apologise in advance for the inconvenience and confusion caused.

What healthy changes are you making?

Last week, our SEAL statement was I can make a healthy change.

It was great to hear all the changes that children were making and also encouraging their family to take part in.

Here are some examples from Year 3.

Children were also encouraged to travel to and from school on foot, by bike or scooter.  The class with the most healthy changes and sustainable journeys were Year 5 with over 200 counters!

Here are some suggested healthy changes for over the holidays.

• Try tennis for free – these sessions continue monthly during the summer and are held locally at Roundhay Park tennis courts.
• Local leisure centres offer a range of holiday activities.
• Maybe you took part in the recent Sky Ride event and want to know how to maintain your bike? Halfords are running free bike maintenance sessions.
• The Little Gym is now open locally at the Moor Allerton Centre offering classes and summer camps.
• The Change4Life Sugar Smart app allows you to check levels of sugar in foods. How much sugar is in your snack? Is it time for a change?
• Change4Life and Disney have teamed up again with a 10 Minute Shake Up summer adventure, inspired by Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory.

We hope you have a happy and healthy active break.