World Book Day menu
World Book Day is celebrated on 03 March and during that week (Wednesday 02 March) we will be having a World Book Day Roald Dahl menu for school dinners.
Our next SEAL theme – Getting on
For this half term, our SEAL theme Getting On covers four main aspects:
- developing the social skills of friendship
- working well together in a group
- managing anger
- resolving conflict
A key resource for children to refer to during this theme, and at other times, is Peaceful Problem Solving. This is a useful resource to encourage children to sort out their own problems. You may wish to talk through this with your child(ren).
When group work takes place in school, some questions for children to consider are:
- Did everyone take turns?
- Did everyone listen to what other people thought?
- Did each person have chance to tell the group what they thought?
- If people had different ideas could the group reach a compromise?
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, managing feelings and social skills.
We start our weekly SEAL statements with a focus on manners, I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or with my hand).
Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile comes to Leeds
The Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile is back – and it’s coming to Leeds.
Yorkshire Sport Foundation will host a Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile on Sunday 20 March.
Setting off from Woodhouse Moor, the Yorkshire Sport Foundation Leeds Mile event offers a 1 mile, 3 mile or 6 mile route.
School Council elections
It’s was a busy morning at the Moortown Primary School polling station with all classes taking part in our School Council elections. We’ve had a record number of children choosing to stand as candidates including the majority of the current School Council. Candidates prepared and delivered some great speeches to their class earlier this week in preparation for the election.
With a number of very close results, the winning candidates were announced in our assembly this afternoon.
Well done to our new school councillors – we are sure you will represent your class well.
The first meeting will be held after the half term on 01 March and one of the initial decisions to be made will be how we can support Sport Relief.
School Council Elections
Following in-class election speeches this week, our School Council elections will take place on Thursday, 11 February. All children have the opportunity to vote at our polling station using the following instructions.
Before voting, please read the following:
- Vote once for one person.
- Place one X only on this ballot paper beside the name of the candidate you have chosen.
- Do not write or mark anything else on the ballot paper; if you do, your paper will be invalid and your vote will not be counted.
- When you have marked the ballot paper, fold the paper and place it in the box provided.
Results will be counted on Thursday and our new School Council will be announced at the end of the day. This will be made up of two children from each class with the highest number of votes.
Good luck to all our candidates.
Mindfulness in Reception
We’ve had a very mindful morning in Reception.
As part of our learning in SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning), we’ve been considering different emotions and how to recognise these feelings in ourselves and others.
When thinking about the emotion of anger we thought about what someone would need to do if they felt angry.
One way to calm down and focus the mind is the starfish meditation and we all had a go.
Starfish Hand Meditation
This is a great way to divert and refocus the mind.
- Spread your fingers out like a starfish on one hand.
- Take your finger from the other hand and trace around your fingers and hand.
- As you do this, concentrate on only how it feels and let other thoughts float away.
- Continue until you feel relaxed and calm.
At the end of our PE lesson we had some focussed time and practised finger sticks. Finger sticks, another mindfulness technique, involves co-operation, trust, concentration and focus. There was some great partner work.
Sticky learning!
School dinners
Our school dinner menu was discussed by our School Council this week. They also talked about ways to encourage others to try some of the new meals that are on the Spring term menu.
Did you know the menu is available to view on our website and also displayed on our dining room window. This is a good way to make your child aware of what the daily meals are.
The menu follows a three week cycle and it changed on a termly basis.
Here are the options for today.
School Council elections 11 February
Our current school councillors held their final meeting today as we prepare to elect our new school council. This year’s election date is Thursday 11 February.
Children from every class, including Reception, are encouraged to prepare a speech to present to their class as part of the election process. Our whole school homework before the election date (05 February) will give children the chance to plan their speech.
Thank you to our existing school council who have been involved with many decisions and discussions throughout the year. On today’s agenda, there have been discussions around the new school dinner menu, classroom reading areas, e-safety and general suggestions put forward by children in each class. It appears they have enjoyed the role as they all intend to stand again at the elections.
Phonics mornings
This week, we’ll be holding our second of three phonics sessions.
The children are now beginning to learn long vowel phonemes and digraphs (two letters making one sound, like ‘sh’ and ‘th’) and to read and write sentences and longer words.
We expect all parents / carers to come along and see how much the children have learnt and find out ways you can support your child at home.
