Our weekly message: Friday 11 September 2026

Did you catch Tuesday’s message with news of our Summer Competition winners? Well done to them and to all who entered – we loved seeing all your creative ideas.

At the start of every half-term, children in Years 1 to 6 begin a new topic. This week’s message is all about the new topic so you can chat with your child at home about what they’re learning over the next few weeks.

(If your child’s in Reception, check out their Class News page.)

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term, we’re historians. We’ll develop our understanding of the past, both in Britain and the wider world.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary. See pages 26 and 27 of our Topic Curriculum Guide.

Each phase also has key historical concepts which will feature within most lessons. These historical concepts are themes that are revisited, strengthened and deepened during your child’s journey through the history curriculum. See page 23 of the Curriculum Guide.

Years 1 and 2

In this topic, children will learn about a significant British historical event: The Great Fire of London. Children will learn about life at the time of the Great Fire of London. They’ll learn where the fire started and how it spread so quickly and the innovative ways that it was extinguished. Importantly, they’ll learn about the different sources of evidence that have helped us answer these questions, including Samuel Pepys’ diary. Finally, they’ll learn about the significant changes that occurred as a result of the fire, such as legal changes about the way houses were built and the beginning of a fire service in London.

Years 3 and 4

Children in Years 3 and 4 are learning about Ancient Greece. They began by sequencing periods of British history and seeing where the ‘golden-age’ of the Ancient Greek civilisation sits alongside. They’ll then learn about two contrasting city states: Athens and Sparta. Children will learn about the type of government these states had and what the lives of the people living there were like. They’ll then debate which city state was the best.

Importantly, they’ll focus in on the influence that Athens has had on the world: democracy, mathematics, philosophy, literature, culture… Finally, they’ll learn about how the civilisation ended. 

Years 5 and 6

In this topic, children learn about Stone Age to Iron Age Britain and contrast it with Ancient Egypt. They begin by looking at and creating timelines which sequence the periods of British history and also placing Ancient Egypt on this timeline. They’ll learn about the advances and innovations that occurred during the New Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They’ll learn about and understand that the sources of evidence we have are limited to archaeological evidence. They’ll then learn about the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and contrast this with what was happening in Britain at the same time – it’s a stark contrast!

The key concepts for this topic are innovation and power.

How can you help?

Check out the links above. They’ll take you to BBC Bitesize webpages with some really good pages about the different units being studied this half-term.

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. The Class News pages of the school website are a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

Find some books from the library which match what your child is learning. I’m sure there will be plenty of books about the history your child will be learning about.

Watch television shows about history. Horrible Histories is great (regardless of your age!).

For KS1, there’s an excellent website about the Great Fire of London. As well as a game for children to play, there’s information for adults as well.

If it’s a rainy weekend and you’re looking for something to do, why not spend a morning or afternoon in a museum? A visit to Leeds City Museum (next to Millennium Square) would be great for all children but especially for Y3,4 and Y5,6 children as it has some Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian exhibits, including Nesyamum, the 3,000 year old Leeds mummy!

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Summer competition

During the summer holidays, we asked you to get creative with our school logo – the ‘brill buddies’. We’ve had some amazing entries and some great interpretations of the logo – including some mermaids!

Here are our winners!

Well done to everyone who entered the competition – all entries (or photos of them) will be displayed in the entrance near the office.

Key dates 26/27 - amended version

In our Friday message, we sent out a list of key dates for this academic year. We’re sorry but there were a few errors so here is an amended version – please refer to these key dates rather than the ones sent on Friday.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Our weekly message: Friday 04 September 2026

It’s been great to see you at the school gates and to welcome the children back to school – and to welcome new children joining us, too. We’ve loved hearing children greet us happily each morning!

Summer competition

Did you enter our Summer competition this year?

Thank you to those of you who did. We invited you to re-create our school logo in some creative way. Today was the deadline to send in a creation featuring our Brill Buddies logo – we’ll be deciding the winner on Monday.

Attending school

We know the Autumn term can be a time when younger children pick up a bug or two. Check out our Attending School page for advice about when you’re child might be too ill to come to school.

Last year, our attendance figure was 96.9% which is great. Can we aim for even better this year? Watch this short clip (only a minute long) about why attending every day matters in primary school.

Dates

Here’s a list of key events across the year.

For a fuller and up-to-date picture of what’s going on, check out our school calendar.

(Have a look at our weekly Living and Learning theme at the start of each week in the calendar, too – this week, our theme’s been ‘I follow the school rules’ so please talk about these at home.)

A few updates

We’ve updated a some policies recently…

Our Homework Guide includes an update about spellings to learn and a couple of other tweaks (the actual policy on pages 2 and 3 hasn’t changed).

We’ve updated our Positive Relationships Policy to reflect a change in language when adults in school use ‘3, 2, 1, stop’ – check out our new expectations on page 2.

Our policy for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) now includes a policy around resources to support pupils (things like fidget objects).

Finally, we reviewed our Uniform Policy in the Summer term, but it might be worth a re-read to check our expectations, especially for PE days.

Our website

As it’s the start of a new school year, we thought it might be a good time for a quick ‘tour’ of some of the key pages of our website.

The Find Out section is there mainly for the key information you need to know about. Particularly useful pages are:

• the Calendar: at the start of the year, we send home a list of key events across the year but for a fuller and up-to-date picture of what’s going on, check out the calendar (have a look at our weekly Living and Learning theme at the start of each week in the calendar, too – this week, our theme’s been ‘I follow the school rules’ so please talk about these at home)
• Policies and Other Points: this page contains lots of information, including our Positive Relationships policies and our Uniform policy – important ones for you to know about

The Join In section describes lots of different ways that you and your child can get involved, from wraparound care and clubs to any job vacancies we may have. There’s information about our Governing Body in this section, too. (On the subject of governors, please contact us if you know of someone who might be interested in becoming a governor.)

The Learn More page is where to go for ways to support your child’s learning. The Class News pages are always the some of the most visited pages – they help to keep you up to date with what your child’s learning. Other pages give you information about different subjects – Reading, Writing, Maths and other curriculum subjects. If you’re a parent of a child in Nursery or Reception, check out the Early Years page, too.

Next week, we’ll talk about our new topic for children in Years 1-6. It’s a History topic – start asking your child now what they’ve been learning in History! In the meantime, have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our last weekly message of the year: Friday 17 July 2026

We’ve reached the end of another happy and healthy school year. This week’s message is a long one, but hopefully the headings will help you to read the parts that matter to you…

Have a happy and healthy summer holiday…

As we reach the end of another successful school year, we’d like to thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and partnership throughout the year. Your involvement has played an important role in helping our children be happy and healthy at Moortown Primary and beyond.

We’re very proud of all that our pupils have achieved and grateful to our dedicated staff for their commitment and care. Together, we have celebrated many successes.

I hope you and your family enjoy a well-deserved, restful and enjoyable summer holiday, creating some happy and healthy memories together. We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another exciting year on Wednesday 02 September.

Junior Leadership Team review of the year

As we approach the end of the school year, we asked our Junior Leaders for some of their highlights…

Year 1

• ‘Handwriting has been one of my favourites because I love learning about new letters.’
  ‘I’ve enjoyed leading my class and discussing the new lunch menus throughout the year.’

Year 2

• ‘I saw one of my club suggestions – Spanish club – get put into action.’
• ‘In Year 2, our skipping festival was so fun.’

Year 3

• ‘I’ve loved having an important role and responsibilities within my class.’
• ‘I enjoy the meetings and helping around school.’

Year 4

• ‘York Museum was a highlight when we were learning about the Romans.’
• ‘My favourite part of Year 4 was residential and I tried the leap of faith.’

Year 5

Our summer competition

Over the summer holidays, we invite your child to re-create our school logo in some creative way – maybe a painting, a collage, even a mobile.

It could be anything – the only rules are:

• it needs to be ‘display-able’, so we can put it on display along with the other entries
• it needs to show our Brill Buddies logo in some recognisable way (but the more original, the better

To enter, your child needs to bring along their pieces of art in the first week – no later than Friday 04 September. Entries will be displayed in a Moortown Primary Brill Buddies display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Summer savings

This is a reminder of something from a previous message…

The Great British Summer Savings scheme starts next week. Running from 25 June to 01 September 2026, its aim is to help families feel a bit less squeezed this summer.

The scheme includes reduced VAT on days out, including tickets at attractions like soft play, adventure centres and theme parks, children’s tickets for theatres and cinemas, and children’s meals in restaurants. Children aged 5 to 15 in England will also be able to travel free on local bus services throughout August.

Sphere Summer of Smiles...

Our weekly message: Friday 10 July 2026

What a busy week! We’ve seen some great performances…

Year 5 and Year 6 worked really hard to perform two showings of ‘The Amazing Adventures of Superstan’. There was some brilliant acting talent and great singing plus a few superstar children who stepped in at the last minute because of illness. Great performances from all!

Yesterday, Year 2 children celebrated their reading progress with their parents and carers in their Ready to Read assembly. They proudly showed fluency, prosody and other reading skills. Well done – we’re really proud of you. Your journey with reading continues in Year 3.

The Nest

Some of you might be aware we recently sought planning permission for a small, new building towards the back of the school. We’ve recently had the permission to go ahead with this. We’re going to christen the building The Nest. It’ll be at the back of the Y5,6 building, taking the space where an old ‘garage’ is currently located. We plan to use the space so that we can look at expanding the capacity for our wraparound care and also as a learning space for small groups during the day.

Non-uniform day

Next Friday is the last day of the school year. We’ve recently updated our Uniform Policy, but the content about non-uniform days remains the same:

Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully, even on non-uniform days. Clothes are inappropriate if they, for example, glorify violence, feature bad language, are very short (eg crop tops), or relate to age-inappropriate topics. When consulted, junior leaders described this as ‘setting-appropriate’ clothing and clothing that is ‘well-judged’. Make-up…is not allowed. Flipflops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.

Our summer competition

For the past few years, our summer competitions involved taking a pic – this might be a pic of a letter spelling out ‘HAPPY’ or ‘HEALTHY’, a pic of ‘extreme reading’, or a pic of a ‘hidden’ smiley face.

This summer, it’s time to get even more creative. Over the summer holidays, we invite your child to re-create our school logo in some creative way – maybe a painting, a collage, even a mobile.

It could be anything – the only rules are:

• it needs to be ‘display-able’, so we can put it on display along with the other entries
• it needs to show our Brill Buddies logo in some recognisable way (but the more original, the better

To enter, your child needs to bring along their pieces of art in the first week – no later than Friday 04 September. Entries will be displayed in a Moortown Primary Brill Buddies display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Ping Pong Pete

Ping Pong Pete, who runs our popular table tennis after-school club, is hosting a table tennis camp in Otley in the last week of the summer holidays.

Contact peter@pingpong4u.co.uk to book on or for more information.

Have a happy and healthy weekend – stay cool!

Our weekly message: Friday 03 July 2026

This week, your child received their end-of-year report. We hope you find it a helpful summary of your child’s learning journey, perhaps with one or two areas highlighted where you can support at home.

Sports day

We enjoyed another successful Sports Day on Tuesday – some amazing performances and great sportsmanship (excluding some of the mums and dads who became very competitive and cheated!). Thank you to everyone who came to support their mini-athletes, and a big thank you to Mrs Taylor for all of the hard work behind the scenes.

Summer Fair

Our Summer Fair is on Friday 10 July from 3.20pm. It starts with Reception children performing around the maypole.

One of the competitions that you can enter features some very cute pics of some of the staff in their younger years. For a small fee, you’ll get a list of staff and some photos of lovely wee cherubs. All you need to do is match the angelic faces with the correct staff member. Here’s a sneaky preview at some of the photos:

Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs) results

Yesterday, we received news from the Department for Education about the SATs results:

Schools were due to receive their results on 7 July 2026. However, results will now be available on 16 July 2026.

I appreciate that schools have been waiting for these results and that this delay will be frustrating… The delay relates to the readiness of the system used to make results available to schools. Importantly, this delay is not due to any concerns about the quality of the tests or the accuracy of results.

It certainly is frustrating. we’ll aim to get results to parents and carers as soon as we possibly can.

2026-27 classes

This section is a repeat of an earlier email, in case you missed it…

Your child met their new teacher on Wednesday. Here are the year groups and teachers from September:

• Reception – Mrs Wood (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and Mr Wilks (Friday)
• Year 1 – Miss Birch
• Year 2 – Miss Newman
• Year 3 – Miss Wilson
• Year 4 – Mrs Wadsworth (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and Mrs Taylor (Friday)
• Year 5 – Mr McGriffiths
• Year 6 – Miss Goswami

We welcome Mrs Wadsworth who is joining us from Scholes (Elmet) Primary School. Mrs Palmer is going to work at one of the other schools in Sphere Federation. Good luck to Mr Volpe who is moving on to a new job.

If you’ve any questions or concerns, please ask Mrs Weekes.

Junior Warrior

Year 6 children loved Junior Warrior last Friday. They got incredibly muddy! Despite this, we only had a few shoes come off too – what a win.

As always, we hope you have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 26 June 2026

What a week – it’s been incredibly hot. Rest assured, we’ve taken lots of precautions to make sure your child remains happy and healthy and as cool as possible.

This week, we were delighted to welcome a former pupil back to Moortown Primary. Along with his older brother, Kojiro started Moortown Primary in the same year that Mrs Weekes and I joined the school – 2007. He recently returned to Leeds from Japan to undertake a short medical elective at Leeds General Infirmary.

Enterprise event

Our Year 5 and 6 children have been exercising their entrepreneurial skills! Pick your child up from 2.30pm and have a go at the stalls they’ve created.

Sports day – reminders and requests

Moortown Primary’s annual Sports day is on Tuesday, weather-permitting. (Too hot? Too wet? At the time of writing, it looks about right!)

Gazebos: To help shelter children from the sun, if you have a gazebo that you can lend us (and help assemble), it would be greatly appreciated. Staff will be on sight at Roundegians from 7.45am. Use the entrance to the rugby club off Chelwood Drive.

Suncream: Please make sure that your child has suncream applied before school. They should also bring a hat and water bottle. They can also bring cream to reapply at lunchtime.

Start times: KS2 starts at 9.30am; Reception and KS1 starts at 1.30pm.

Walkers: If you’re able to help us to walk the children from school to Roundegians, it would be really helpful. Please be at school from 9.00am for KS2 and from 1pm for Reception and KS1.

Tremendous times tables

Every year across England, children in Year 4 do an online Multiplication Tables Check. Last year, the national average was 21 out of 25. Just over a third (37%) achieved top marks.

At Moortown Primary, our Year 4 pupils have achieved an average of 23.6 out of 25 – way higher than last year’s national average.

Just as impressive, 60% of pupils got top marks – 25 out of 25.

Amazing! Well done to all our Year 4 pupils and thank you for your support at home.

Leeds SEND WhatsApp channel

Leeds has launched a new WhatsApp channel for families to find out more about the Leeds local offer. There’s news about Local Offer developments, SEND service updates and information about events for families. Join the WhatsApp channel here.

Earrings

Last week, we let you know about our updated Uniform Policy, so you’ve plenty of time to start thinking about any changes ready for September. This week, we’d like to focus on just one part of the policy – earrings.

Discreet (small, not brightly coloured) stud earrings are allowed. However, earrings can cause serious injury: imagine a bang against the ear… serious accidents occur as a result of contact between pupils wearing earrings or studs and other pupils or equipment, thus damaging the ear, or where items of jewellery have caught in apparatus and torn the ear lobe.

We expect your child to remove earrings before PE lessons and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by your child. If they’re unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.

Please consider the risk of injury during other active times such as an after-school club or class trip.

If you do want to pierce your child’s ears, please do so at the start of the summer holidays so sleepers and studs can be removed in September.

Marvellous mathameticians

Yesterday, some of our Y5 children went to Allerton Grange to take part in their annual  ‘Primary Maths Challenge’.

Humayrah, Aaniyah, Oliver and Raphael represented the school brilliantly. Not only that, they performed so well that they scored higher than all the other primary schools who attended and won the challenge. Amazing job – well done!

Finally this week…

Three of our Y1 friends had a very active weekend last week. They took part in a 2.5K inflatable obstacle course and raised over £500 for St Gemma’s Hospice (one of our previous chosen charities) – well done for thinking of other people!

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 19 June 2026

Well done to all our Year 2 skippers who took part in recent the Year 2 Skipping Festival. Sadly, we weren’t the winning school but we were so pleased to have received so many awards. Read more in the Year 2 Class News.

Thanks to everyone who completed the annual survey. We’ll review the results and update you soon.

Dates for your diary

Here’s an example of how we’ve previously acted on your feedback… In previous annual surveys, you’ve said the earlier you know dates, the better. That’s why we’re busy adding dates for next year into our calendar.

Most of the 2026-27 dates are already there. On rare occasions, we sometimes have to change a date. For next year, we’ve had to move a training day due to a clash out of our control. The training days when school is closed are now:

• Tuesday 01 September 2026 – straight after the summer holiday
• Friday 02 October
• Friday 23 October – just before the October half-term break
• Monday 07 December
• Monday 07 June – just after the Summer half-term

There’s a lot going on as we approach the end of the school year. Please check our calendar for what’s going on.

Uniform update

Another thing we’ve done based on feedback in previous annual surveys… Around this time of year, we review and update our Uniform Policy. This is so you’ve plenty of time to start thinking about any changes ready for September. Please read our updated policy.

The main points haven’t changed:

• Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully for school (including on non-uniform days)
• All clothing should be clearly labelled
• Avoid expensive items – we don’t accept responsibility for any loss or damage to an individual’s property

Sports Day

This year’s Sports Day takes place on Tuesday 30 June at Roundhegians Rugby Club, LS8 2AT. (If weather conditions mean we have to change the date, the reserve date is Thursday 02 July with the same timings.)

• Key Stage 2 events take place 9.30am-11.30am
• Reception and Key Stage 1 1.30pm-3pm.

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. If you’re able to help accompany the children, please let the office know.

Our teams will be green, blue, white and red. Your child has been told their team. If possible, please could your child wear a t-shirt to wear to match their team colour.

On the day, your child will need 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.

SEND inspection

Yesterday, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published their Area SEND Inspection report for Leeds. Its inspection outcome is:

There are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), which the local area partnership must address urgently.

The local authority fully accept the findings and welcome the report as ‘an important and independent assessment of our services and a clear starting point for the next stage of improvement’.

The report identifies areas where the wider system must improve. It does also recognise that important steps are already being taken to strengthen leadership, governance and partnership working.

We know that some parents are unhappy with the support that we’ve provided for their child with SEND. We hope you recognise we’re working in a very challenging context. Locally and nationally, we’re told systems and support will improve.

Summer savings

The Great British Summer Savings scheme starts next week. Running from 25 June to 01 September 2026, its aim is to help families feel a bit less squeezed this summer.

The scheme includes reduced VAT on days out, including tickets at attractions like soft play, adventure centres and theme parks, children’s tickets for theatres and cinemas, and children’s meals in restaurants. Children aged 5 to 15 in England will also be able to travel free on local bus services throughout August.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.