SATs information session
Supporting our school charity
St Gemma’s Hospice is our current school charity chosen democratically by the children.
Today, we welcomed Steph and Stewart from St Gemma’s Hospice for an assembly to find out more about the fantastic work they do in our local community.
Here, two of our junior leaders are presenting them with a cheque for £377 for the money we have raised so far.
Steph and Stewart commented on the impressive behaviour of the children and the intelligent questions they asked.
Our junior leaders are planning a visit to the hospice over the next few weeks to continue this partnership.
Living and Learning: I know that people shout treat others respectfully when online
On the 7th of February, Moortown celebrated ‘Safer Internet Day’ along with lots of other schools and organisations in the UK.
We spent some time learning about how we can work out if online information is true or not. ‘Fake news’ has become more of an issue on the internet and therefore, it is important that the children understand what it is and how to identify it.
We learnt some tips which help us in decipher what is ‘fake news’ and what news can be trusted. Some of these include questioning the source of the information, whether the story appears in more than one place and asking ‘if it feels right’.
We also spoke about the importance of speaking to a trusted adult if we see anything online that worries us.
Help at home by asking your child how they might be able to decipher whether a news story is trustworthy or not.
Topic – Geography
Last week, Year 4 finished off their Geography topic by creating a double page spread. Here they could show off their new knowledge about natural disasters and more specifically, about volcanoes.
The class did an incredible job at planning, completing and decorating their double page spreads. They worked so hard and were so independent with their ideas. The only guidance that they had was what they had to include and the rest was up to them to use their books to fill it with information!
- What is a volcano?
- How are volcanoes formed?
- Tectonic Plates
- Positives
- Negatives
- Did you know?
- Extra: Focus on a specific volcano.
Here are just some of the fantastic pieces:
Very well done Year 4! On to computing…
Safer Internet Day 2023
“Happy Safer Internet Day!”
On the 7th of February, Moortown focused their learning around internet safety. This umbrella term covers lots of areas such as; online behaviour, keeping personal data safe, understanding how news can be false and knowing to ask an adult for help.
Firstly, we spent the morning learning about how we can decipher if online information is true or not. ‘Fake news’ has become more of an issue on the internet and therefore, it is important that the children understand what it is and how to work with it.
There were some tips that the children practised and will remember for the future:
- Question the source. Where has the information come from and is it a reliable source?
- Does the story appear on more than one source? If it is on numerous news websites, it could be true!
- Does it feel right? Some times you will have a gut feeling that a news story isn’t right…
- Ask a trusted adult. If you are ever unsure, ask a trusted adult to help you work out if it’s true or not.
This followed onto to our next focus: I know I can ask a trusted adult for help.
This statement is true for any subject, problem or question and it is definitely important when talking about internet safety.
Help at home: Whether it is a trusted adult at home, at school or at a club your child goes to, remind them that they should feel safe asking for help.
Living and Learning: I know that people shout treat others respectfully when online
On Tuesday this week, it was internet safety day. This is where we had a day to learn about how to be safe online and how important it is to treat others respectfully online.
In the morning, we had some very, very special visitors; the NSPCC team and Buddy made an appearance. This workshop was a follow up from our learning earlier in this half term (I know how to seek help). We revisited how and who we could speak to if we needed help (trusted adults).
Later on in the day, we discussed why it is important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online; the potential consequences for bad online behaviour and how it is okay to step away.
Help at home: Discuss at home what advice Tunji’s friends should give, who they can get help from and how will this make the situation better.
‘Tunji tells his friends that he made a joke about someone’s gaming avatar. Tunji didn’t think it would be a big deal, but the person has been very upset by his comments. Two of their friends have started sending Tunji mean messages because of what he said.’
Living and learning: online safety and safer internet day
Over the last two weeks, Year 1 have been learning about four main areas of online safety (plus lots of other online safety tips too).
- I know that there are sometimes age restrictions online.
- I know that passwords are important.
- I know that some things online may not be true.
- I know that I shouldn’t share personal information online.
We welcomed Dave from d:side last week to support this learning and this week was Safer Internet Day.
We’ve had lots of discussions about staying safe online. We read the book Chicken Clicking by Tony Ross. In the story a chick gets access to the farmer’s computer and makes a chick friend online. He goes to meet his new friend in the woods… I’ll let your children tell you what happens next.
The children wrote some speech bubbles giving Chicken Clicking some superb advice about how he should have acted differently.
We learnt that the padlock next to the web address tells us this is a secure and trusted site.
We also watched some videos starring Jessie and her friends. In the first video Jessie shares some personal information whilst playing a game with a person who is pretending to be kind. We spoke about how we should always keep our personal information private.
On Thursday, we recapped our learning from Safer Internet Day and wrote some excellent reports about what we had learnt. Well done Year 1.
Help at home by reinforcing the important messages above but also that if anything worries or upsets your child they should tell a trusted adult straight away.
We are scientists
This term, Year 1 have been learning all about different materials. We have looked at what materials different things are made from and what properties those materials have. Last week, we tested different types of paper to see which was the most absorbent. It was lots of fun and we did a brilliant job taking turns as well as carefully observing and discussing the results.
This week, we tested the same types of paper but this time we investigated whether you could write on the paper. The results were very different! We discussed how different properties of materials make them suitable for different jobs.
Help at home by discussing what different materials things are made from and why that material is suitable for that object. Also, ask what would be an unsuitable material? Why?
Real-life superheroes, length and more
This week, we’ve been learning all about real-life superheroes. We read non-fiction texts about police officers, firefighters, dentists, paramedics, doctors, vets and more. Our focus story was The Great Fairies of the World. We designed our own fairies and wrote sentences about their jobs.
This morning, we had a real-life superhero come to visit us! We listened carefully and asked lots of questions. We were so excited when we saw the police van pull into our playground.
In maths, we explored length. We cut a piece of ribbon as long as our arm and explored finding things in the environment that are longer, shorter or the same length.
We also used different objects of equal length to find out how long we are. We made sensible predictions and then checked to see if we were right by counting them.
Yesterday, we made a height chart to see who is the tallest.
We carried out a colouring mixing experiment and watched the primary colours (red, blue, yellow) travel up the kitchen roll to make a secondary colour.
The Bee-Bots have been a big hit this week! We’ve loved programming them and watching them move around our classroom.
Reminders
- Class assembly – Wednesday 22 February, 2:40pm – 3:00pm
- World Book Day stay & learn session – Thursday 02 March, 8.50am – 9.30am
- Comic Relief: Red Nose Day – Friday 17 March
Your child can come to school in non-uniform. - Learning Journey Drop In’s – Tuesday 28 March – 8.50 – 9.30am or 3.15 – 3.45pm & Thursday 30 March – 8.50 – 9.30am or 3.15 – 3.45pm
Lexia
To login into the Lexia app, please use moortowneyfs@spherefederation.
Once you’ve done this, you should be able to login into your child’s account using their login details.
Finally…
I can’t believe we’re half-way through the year! The children are thriving with their learning. They are becoming confident independent learners.
Thank you to all who attended the parent-teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to share the children’s wonderful achievements.
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to send me an email of what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 20 February.
Have fun and keep reading!
Science: Moon studies
Over this past month, Year 5 have been taking photos of Earth’s moon. We have been looking at the different phases the moon exhibits. This scientific enquiry type is observation over time. Have a look at their amazing photography:
Special shout out to Cate who took this fantastic photograph!
