Testing times...
Do you have a child Year 2 or Year 6?
If so, they will be taking the national curriculum tests (SATs) in May 2016. The tests will provide information about how your child is progressing, compared to children the same age nationally. The results are used to ensure that schools are teaching their pupils the essential knowledge and skills in the subjects that are the early building blocks. This is to ensure every child reaches their full potential. There are changes to the tests this year at both key stages. This is because the tests are based on the new national curriculum, which your child has been taught since September 2014.
The Standards and Testing Agency has published a leaflet and short video for parents about the 2016 tests.
PTA event coming up...
PTA writes:
Cheese and wine evening
Friday 22 April, 7.30pm for an 7.45 start
Dear parents / carers
Over the last year, the PTA has organised some memorable quiz nights for parents and carers. These have been very popular, and thanks to your support we have raised large amounts of funds which have gone towards the new school library and building the field fund.
With this in mind we are pleased to invite you to our first PTA cheese and wine evening. We promise you a fun evening trying out hand-picked wines to compliment a range of specially selected cheese. The cheese will be provided by cheesemonger George & Joseph of Chapel Allerton and the wine by Majestic Wine.
Join us for the evening to find out more about the selected cheese and wine from the experts, and take part in the tasting to see if you agree with their selection! There will be the opportunity to buy your favourite cheese to take away after the tasting, and you could also win great prizes on the night by entering the raffle or taking part in the cheese and wine quiz.
Tickets cost £10 per person, which includes the cheese and wine tasting, and the disco after the tasting. A range of drinks will be available to purchase from the licensed bar throughout the evening.
Please note that this is an over-18 event only, and friends and family are welcome.
Tickets will be sent in book bags prior to the event.
We look forward to seeing you on the night for what will be a fun evening!
Please contact the school office no later than the 18 April to book tickets.
Are you keeping up with ways to support your child to stay safe...?
…or just hoping they will stay safe on their own? You wouldn’t expect them to cross a busy road without teaching them and checking they know what they’re doing – it’s pretty much the same for online safety!
Each week, Parent Zone produces a newsletter full of useful advice, and their website is packed with other great ways to support your child. They update content every week, usually on a Thursday afternoon, so don’t miss out on the latest articles and information for parents. In this week’s newsletter…
Nude selfies: understanding why
A film explaining what they are, and what parents should know about them.Setting safety and privacy settings for social media apps
If you want to set parental controls on apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, here’s how to do it.Self-harm: what parents should know
Why do young people self-harm and what can you do to help them? Expert advice from SelfharmUK.Teens on Tinder
Shockingly, 13-year-olds can legally use Tinder. Here’s what parents need to know about the popular dating app…In case you missed it: Don’t pay the price for your child’s online fun
Parents sometimes end up paying unexpectedly large phone bills and don’t know why. PhonepayPlus, the premium rate services regulator, explains what to look out for when giving your child a mobile device…
Three or free?
Increasingly, we’re noticing children who are not speaking clearly enough – and this is having a negative effect on their spelling.
Listen to your child as the say words like ‘three’ and ‘the’. More and more children are saying these words in a way which sounds like ‘free’ and ‘vuh’ or ‘fuh’ – all words that use ‘th’, in fact.
We know this is simply because children are not learning to stick their tongue out to make the ‘th’ sound – maybe it’s a bit lazy, maybe it’s because they never learnt, maybe it’s because the London accent (where this is more historic) is heard so much these days. When we prompt children, the vast majority can do say ‘th’ perfectly.
Does this matter?
Well, yes. This week, a child told me in a Maths lesson that the cost of something was ‘free’ – he meant £3. In the same week, a good writer demonstrating his ability to use a wider bank of words begun a sentence with ‘Furfermore, …’
If the way children pronounce words means that someone can confuse what they say, or that they end up making mistakes in spelling a simple word like ‘further’, then yes, this does matter.
As Mrs Burke tells her class in phonics lessons, saying ‘th’ is the only time your child is allowed to stick their tongue out at someone – please help your child get out of this habit, whatever their age!
How are you feeling?
Across school, we’ve been trialling the use of colours to represent children’s emotions. Children are then encouraged to think whether this is a blocker or driver for their learning.
- ‘I feel blue because I am calm.’
- ‘I feel red because I had a fall out at lunchtime.’
- ‘I feel orange because I am excited to celebrate my brother’s birthday.’
Here is a new website to support young people’s emotional wellbeing in Leeds.
‘If you’re a young person, MindMate can help you understand the way you’re feeling and find the right advice and support. If you’re a parent, carer or professional, MindMate can help you support a young person you know.’
Children are also encouraged to speak with an adult, friend or use our class SEAL boxes to share any worries.
Fab feedback!
Moortown Primary has a long history of supporting teachers, headteachers and schools across Leeds. This morning, five new headteachers visited us to learn more about self-evaluating (where a school evaluates its own provision and works out how it can improve – look at our self-evaluation summary) and improvement planning. They also took the opportunity of looking around school. Here’s some feedback following their visit:
What a wonderful experience and privilege to be invited to look behind the doors of your fabulous school; engaged learners; friendly, happy, smiley children; clearly dedicated staff and an enticing learning environment for everyone to grow and learn.
It was also lovely to have a look around your school which must be the living embodiment of ‘great things in small packages’. The school feels like a well run ship with everyone buying into the principles and practices you want. The pupils were also a credit in that they didn’t even look up from their learning when we all walked in.
A wonderful school you have there – I will work extremely hard to have somewhere that shines as a beacon for its community like your school does for Moortown.
PTA News
Our PTA plan lots of exciting events in the next few months, some for children, some for adults, some for both!
Cupcake Competition! Thursday 24 March
Children are invited to decorate a cupcake for this competition. Entries to the office by 9.00am on the day.
Bun Sale Thursday 24 March, 3.15pm
Please leave bun donations at the office on the day.
Parents & Community Cheese and Wine Tasting Friday 22 April, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Can you tell your Camembert from your Cabernet, and does ricotta go nicely with Rioja? Join us for an adults only evening of cheese, wine, disco and much more!
Family BBQ and Disco Evening Friday 17 June, 6.30pm – 9.00pm
Celebrate summer with a barbecue and disco for all the family. Further details next term.
Roundhay Schools Fun Run 2016 Saturday 25 June (provisional date)
An annual community event involving many local schools. Further details next term.
School Summer Fair Saturday 09 July
We hope to welcome all your friends and family! Further details next term.
Let's get moving!
Supporting Sport Relief…
On Friday 18 March, children are invited to come into school in sports-related clothing and during the day they will be walking a mile around the school grounds. Children are asked to bring a donation of at least £1 to raise money for Sport Relief.
On-line safety
Thanks to the parents / carers who attended one of the two on-line safety workshops this week, led by experts from the NSPCC and O2. Parents were very positive about the sessions:
- “Very useful, especially the resources that I found out are available and the leaflets for further reference.”
- “Very informative and educational. Gave real-life examples. Definitely inspired to go on NSPCC website to educate myself more.”
- “Opened my eyes to lots of apps I had never heard of.”
- “I got some very useful tips on online safety. Has made me reconsider the lack of restrictions we have at home.”
- “Really eye-opening. Great to know where I can go to check apps out.”
Leeds Let’s Get Sugar Swapping!
Following the introduction of the Change4life Sugar Smart App, the Leeds Sugar Smart Challenge has been launched to ask families, schools and other organisations to share the amount of sugar they have saved by making sugar smart swaps. The Change4Life website has lots of information to help you to look for sugar on food labels if you are unable to access the app.
Leeds Sugar Smart Challenge features a city totalizer to record the number of sugar cubes saved, with prizes available at random to top swappers.
