Great competitors
Well done to pupils who have represented school recently in sporting competitions.
Congratulations to our Year 3 qualifier in the West Yorkshire cross country final. She ran a fantastic race at the event at Temple Newsam.
In wet conditions last Friday, our Year 5/6 hockey team competed in the Leeds Quick Sticks competition. Well done to all the children involved.
Thank you to parents and carers who supported these events by transporting the children.
Why is travelling actively to school important?
Sustrans have recently published this article about the importance of travelling actively to school.
With just two weeks to go, Sustrans Big Pedal, is one way we will be encouraging active journeys this term alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Sustrans Big Pedal is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved. For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting.
This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
You might also be interested in a current bike promotion from our local Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative branch.
Whodunnit? Continued…
In order to give Headquarters the best chance of arresting the correct person, we analysed their character traits and decided on their main motive.
Zidaan said, “Malvayon’s motive was jealousy. His dad paid more attention to the warlock than him and he wanted to be better than his brother.”
The Queen’s motive was greed. “She doesn’t want her gold to be robbed by the warlock. She wants it all for herself,” quoted Rabiya.
Zak explained, “Elphator’s motive was also greed because she wanted whatever the warlock had because she explored with him and she’s seen the treasure he’s got. She wants it all for herself.”
“Raemon would get the warlock’s castle if he disappeared and everything the warlock and his army had so he would be the new warlock. His motive is also greed,” stated Omar.
Our predictions were as follows…
We spotted a quick opportunity for some maths! We were challenged to create either a bar chart or pictogram (or even a pie chart if we really wanted a challenge) to display our data.
Homework Heroes
Year 5 have, yet again, completed their homework to a very high – and very creative – quality!
I can present a summary of our class novel so far.
Byron nominated Arundeep: “It’s an amazing drawing and it looks like he put loads of effort in.”
Eve nominated Darien: “Even though it wasn’t a big model, she drew a story map with lots of the parts of the story like when we threw the cheese at the painting.”
Ben nominated Gurnoor: “It seemed like she put lots of effort into moulding the clay into the words and her idea of a game was brilliant in general.”
Alexander nominated Omar for his story map.
Enas nominated Eve: “She made a big picture and cut out the eyes to make it look like a person like in the story.”
Kirsten nominated Evie: “She put loads of effort in because she made her own music.”
Sam nominated Finlay: “It looked like he put a lot of time and effort into it and it was a really good map.”
Rabiya nominated Nayaab for her poster.
Others used ICT…
… or used drawing and colouring to represent their summary!
Well done, everyone!
Living and Learning – I can do the right thing.
In this week’s Living and Learning lesson, we’ve looked at what it means to do the right thing. Sometimes, it’s not always clear and people may not act in the way you’d expect. We read situation cards:
We discussed what happened, whether this was the right or wrong thing to do and how the people involved might have been affected.
We also had a chat about our own ability to do the right thing. It’s important to know that it’s difficult at times! Talking honestly and being open about when you’re unsure can really help. Ask your child:
- What happens if you do the wrong thing?
- What choices can you make to improve the situation?
Whodunnit?
This week’s reading lessons have centred around a text similar to our Fighting Fantasy class novel. It’s a text about the mysterious disappearance of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
Year 5 have taken on the role of Detective Townmoor and it’s been our job to find out who is responsible for the crime.
Earlier in the week, we had to help a friend at the Yorkshire Evening Post by distinguishing between statements of fact and opinion regarding the case. This was important to make sure only facts – and no biases – are reported. We also looked at how this helps us to be safe online by being critical. Ask your child how to be a critical user of the internet. (Hint: fake news!)
Analysing the suspects and their relationships to the victim and each other will help us understand their thoughts and feelings. It may even highlight a foundation for why someone wanted the warlock out of the picture. First, we filled out a relationship grid to send back to our Headquarters by analysing three suspects.
Then we thought of questions to ask the suspects in order to find out more information …
… before we came together as a class to collate our analysis on a giant relationships grid where pink, green and yellow post its were negative, positive and neutral feelings respectively.
Next, we will put the suspects under the microscope even further by analysing their traits and motives for the crime.
Active travel update
Here’s an update on our latest active travel initiatives for this half term.
Living Streets WOW Travel Tracker
Meltem from Living Streets visited school for an assembly today to launch a new challenge for our WOW active travel tracker.
Currently, children record how they get to school on the WOW daily online travel tracker and those who complete at least one active journey per week to school (bike, scoot, walk or park and stride) are rewarded with a themed monthly badge.
As this has been a big success, with increased active journeys and less journeys by car, from March, we will be challenging children to make at least three active journeys per week to earn their monthly badge.
There were some queries that were raised at the assembly.
Can your three active journeys be different?
Yes – active journeys include walking, biking, scooting and park and stride so as long as your journeys are any of these three in a week you would qualify for a badge.
What can be included as park and stride?
Ideally park and stride is where you park away from school and walk the final 5-10 minutes to school. This ensures that areas close to school are free from traffic. Marks and Spencer has many spaces available for families to park and walk the final part of the journey to school.
Sustrans Big Pedal 2019
Get set… the Big Pedal is back! We’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2019, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved. For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting.
This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
On each day, schools compete to see who can get as many of their pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school then our results will determine our final position in the national league table.
If you need the car to bring your child to school, perhaps you could park and stride the last part (our suggested park and stride site is Marks and Spencer car park).
The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Why we’re taking part
It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school in an active way. Also, schools will be entered into a daily prize draw for rewards including equipment and accessories if over 15% of our school community cycle, walk or scoot on that day of the challenge.
What do you need to do?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle, scoot, walk or park and stride to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.
Living and Learning: Being me
- I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze). Get your child to demonstrate the ‘vampire’ method to family members at home.
- I can say something good about myself. It’s important that your child can confidently talk about themselves in a positive way.
- I pay and receive compliments in a sensible way. Try paying compliments each day to each other! Some children struggle to hear positive words about themselves, but this is important for self-esteem. Try paying (and listening) to praise and compliments.
- I recognise my talents. Talk to your child about talents, whether academic, physical, social or emotional. Some of us may have a natural talent, but most have talents that derive from lots of practice.
- I know the difference between being proud and showing off. We encourage compliments to be paid – but encourage your children to know the balance between being having self-esteem and showing off.
Living Streets (Moortown group) update
An update and a call for support (by Friday 15 March) from our local Living Streets group.
WE HAVE GOOD NEWS!
Back in autumn we submitted a response to the ‘Connecting Leeds’ consultation for improvements in Moortown. The feedback you provided in our survey helped us to share a number of ideas with Leeds City Council to help make the routes to school safer and more pleasant for all members of the community.
It’s very pleasing to see that a number of suggested improvements have been incorporated into the revised proposals, including:
• Priority for pedestrians at both the entrance and exit of the parade car parks (kerbs to run through with visual priority for people on foot so drivers know to give way).
• Replacing the badly positioned concrete bollards on the northern parade with a continuous low-level fence (to match the south parade) to prevent vehicles blocking the footpath.
• Low-level fencing at Manning Stainton to allow access only via the official dropped kerb and not across the full length of the footway.
• Planters adjacent to the road outside Manning Stainton to enhance the area and prevent HGVs and other vehicles driving and parking on the footway.
• Improved crossing times for pedestrians at the main M&S lights.
• A widening of the public footpath/reduction in road space adjacent to the south parade to allow for the future introduction of a pavement at the shops (not in the scope of this project).
Existing proposed designs for this future work can be found in Moortown Community Group’s Neighbourhood Design Statement (available at moortowncommunitygroup.org.uk).
BUT IT’S NOT A DONE DEAL YET. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP…
Although the public consultation for Moortown is now complete, there will still be some local targeted consultation with residents and business owners directly affected by the proposals. They will hopefully support the revised proposals too, but there’s also a chance some won’t, particularly if it affects current parking arrangements.
We want to ensure that the improvements for pedestrians many of us have been campaigning for are delivered and a great way to demonstrate your support is to post a comment about the revised plans on Twitter, tagging both Connecting Leeds and Moortown Living Streets Group, or email Connecting Leeds directly if you don’t use Twitter:
Twitter: @ConnectingLeeds + @MoortownLSG
Email: connectingleeds@leeds.gov.uk
Follow this link to see the updated Moortown plans as well as a number of other local schemes which are now open for public comment (including Alwoodley, Scott Hall Road and Chapel Allerton).
Many thanks once again for your continued support!
Dom Jacques
E: moortowngroup@livingstreets.org.uk T: @moortownlsg
World Book Day school dinner menu
On World Book Day, Thursday 7th March, there will be a special themed menu for school meals.
Please contact the office, as soon as possible, if your child would like to have a school meal on this day.
