KS1 and KS2 Olympic Event
Today, a group of KS1 and Year 5/6 pupils took part in the East & North East Leeds Well School Partnership KS1&2 ‘Olympic’ Event at Leeds Beckett University.
Our KS1 children completed a 10-station skills circuit carousel on the pitch in the middle of the track while our KS2 children took part in athletic track and field events.
Well done to all the children for giving 100% in all of the activities and learning new skills in such a great sporting setting.
It was really fun and we got to do a mixture of events. There was something for everyone.
I thought all the activities were really good. My favourite was the skipping.
We had chance to run around the big track.
It was all about having fun and cheering on your team.
Moortown’s super skippers
Today, Year 2 took part in the Skipping School KS1 festival at Leeds Trinity University against four other Leeds schools.
The children have been learning lots of individual and group skipping skills and today it was great to see just how much the children have progressed.
We were lucky enough to win some awards for the following events.
After all the points (skips) were added up, the winning school was announced…
We were so excited and proud to hear we had won!
A huge well done to all the children for fantastic determination, resilience and team work. They have worked so hard by practising in PE, at lunchtime and playtime, at skipping after-school club and even at home!
We looked super smart in our new KS1 PE tops too.
Skipping is amazing because it gives us exercise.
I really liked learning new skips at the festival.
It’s all been fun and it is good for your mental health.
Living and Learning: relationships
For the last few weeks, our Living and Learning lessons and circle times have been all about happy and healthy relationships between our friends, peers and families.
Here, we thought about what makes a family.
A family can be three people or four people. It just matters that you LOVE them!
A family is a group of people and they love each other.
A family is people who are combined together.
You can show you care for your family by loving them as much as you love yourself and be kind and respectful.
Family respect you, take care of you and show you kindness and love.
Sometimes, you might have fall outs but you will come back together.
We read some texts about how not all families are the same and that is ok. The children also enjoyed sharing special members of their family.
The Great big book of families by Mary Hoffman
What is a healthy relationship? What does a good friend do? What should I do if I’m not happy with a friendship? These were all questions we considered as we moved onto thinking about friendships.
Consent is also part of this relationships learning. We have already learnt about consent in terms of permission seeking when online but here we thought about it when we are with others. We practised showing how we give and don’t give consent and how we can also change our mind if we want to.
We will continue to use this text to support learning about consent.
Finally, you will have seen the children have brought home the NSPCC Pants Underwear rule. We revisit this important learning every year.
Help at home: read the NSPCC pants underwear rule with your child/children and think about how this keeps you safe. This parent guide is available too.
England Schools’ Swimming Association Primary Team Championships
This weekend, our Year 5 and 6 swimmers took part in this prestigious national finals event at Ponds Forge, Sheffield after recently qualifying in the North East regional heat.
Competing against schools from all over the country from Westminster to Guernsey to Devon, and with tough competition, all the team put in 100% in their mixed stroke and freestyle races. For some of our swimmers, this was their first experience of competitive swimming. We are very proud of how well all the children represented Moortown with such a great, supportive team spirit.
A huge thanks go to parents for their support with the team over the two events.
Races can be watched back on the following link.
1:08:00 lane 2 mixed stroke
2:40:50 lane 7 freestyle
PE: Tennis skills
This half term, Year 2 are learning the fundamental movement skills associated with tennis. Throughout the half term, we will be doing individual racket and ball activities and learning different skills. We have also started doing some partner activities; rolling and bouncing balls in and out of hoops, serving into a hoop and striking the ball on the floor to their partner with the tennis racket.
Help at home by talking about the skills your child is learning and practice hitting a ball with a tennis racket.
Visitors
This week, as part of our biology learning in science, some visitors arrived in class.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be making lots of observations to see what changes over time with our caterpillars.
We have been learning about the different stages of the butterfly life cycle in science but also from our non-fiction reading fluency text.
Take a look at this video to see this amazing transformation and this video for more about animal life cycles.
When comparing butterflies to other living things, we noticed the offspring look very different to the adult.
Help at home: ask your child what is the next stage in the life cycle of a butterfly and what we will expect to see next.
What can you achieve?
Today, Jess Wright, who is a coach with PE Partner and leads one of our after-school clubs, came to speak to the children in an assembly.
At only 17, Jess has been playing football for over ten years and currently plays for Sheffield Wednesday. She also coaches at different levels from children to adults and referees too.
Jess has another role which is to try to get children, especially girls, into football and providing opportunities for children who want to get involved.
Jess shared information of how to get involved in local physical activities. This could be our school after-school clubs, other local physical activities listed in our guide for parents and carers or other opportunities especially around football and getting girls into football.
Leeds City JFC are a local club looking for new members especially in their girls teams.
Wigton Moor JFC are another local club with opportunities.
Catalan Soccer offer classes and camps.
Thank you to Jess for coming into school to inspire the children and to share her experiences around football and the opportunities and skills it provides.
Design and Technology: Textiles
This half term we are learning all about Design and Technology and we will be sewing our own hand puppet! We are very excited to get going. This week, we have learnt how to thread a needle and tie a knot. This took great resilience and perseverance but everybody did a brilliant job.
Once the needle was threaded, we began to sew. We practised both the overstitch and the running stitch and we were all very proud of ourselves!
Help at home by practising threading a needle and tying a knot.
We are scientists
This half term, we’ve continued to be biologists in our science learning.
We planned an investigation to see what would happen if we planted a seed and a bulb in warm and cold conditions.
After three weeks, here are the results.
In the warm
In the cold
This comparative test shows that as well as water and sunlight, plants need a suitable temperature to grow healthily.
We’ve also been thinking about the benefits of wildlife and the importance of caring for wildlife.
Here are some ideas we’ve been learning about to look after wildlife.
Look at this hedgehog house ready for visitors!
Help at home: ask your child for some ideas for helping wildlife in the local area.
Living and Learning: physical health and fitness
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of physical activity and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.
The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’.
We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate, make us breathe harder and make us feel warmer.
We thought about how we manage to achieve our active 30 minutes during the school day.
Wake Up Shake Up
PE sessions
running, skipping and playing tig at playtimes
playing in the MUGA at lunchtime play
Go Noodle, Supermovers and active counting in class
jogging around the playground for brain breaks
Then, we shared ideas as to how we achieve the 30 active minutes outside of school.
travelling to and from school in an active way
after-school physical activity clubs
practising gymnastics
dancing
playing football
going for a jog
going on a bike ride
swimming
martial arts
boxing
Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school. Use our physical activity guide for some ideas. Encourage your child to practise some skipping ready for our skipping festival (skipping ropes are available to buy from class for £3).
