Smile for miles on the St Gemma’s sponsored walk
One of our chosen school charities, St Gemma’s Hospice, is holding their first ever Happy Walk on Saturday 20 September. This is a good opportunity to support our school charity but also to take part in a great morning with your family while walking 3.5 or 5.5 miles around Roundhay Park. The event starts at 10am.
We’ll be co-ordinating registration for the event and registration forms are available now from the office.
Entrance for this event is £5 (children under 12 walk free) and each walker will get a free hot drink and cake. All participants are asked to raise sponsorship money. It is also a pram and wheelchair friendly route so the whole family really can get involved.
There will be an activity pack that children can take with them on the walk where they can look out for wildlife and take some tree rubbings. Before the walk starts there will also be a face painter, a chance to meet Olaf from Frozen, and time to make your own Happy Loom band to wear and keep.
St Gemma’s are also encouraging all walkers to wear what makes them Happy on the walk – whether that’s a silly hat, fluffy socks or a brightly coloured t-shirt.
We hope you are able to join in with the St Gemma’s Happy Walk.
KS2 fruit tuck shop
The KS2 fruit tuck shop returns next Tuesday 16 September with prices remaining at 20p per item. Open to Years 3 – 6, children can come to the tuck shop at playtime to purchase items from a selection of fresh and dried fruits. There is an option to pre-pay so your child doesn’t have to remember to bring money to school. As an extra incentive, you get one week free if you pre-pay for this term. Please return the letter to the office or ask in the office for more information. The Year 5 class will be receiving their training this week to run the tuck shop and look forward to lots of new and regular customers next Tuesday.
New SEAL theme
As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on new beginnings.
‘I make someone feel welcome’ is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme.
New Beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.
During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.
Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.
New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.
Ready to learn
It’s the summer holidays and, in line with our homework policy, there is no formal homework set over the six-week break.
That doesn’t mean that your child won’t be learning! We learn all the time – and so do children, whether it’s through play, day-trips, independent reading, discussions at home…
And of course, you’ll be keen to support your child at home so the basic facts aren’t forgotten. Please think about key English and Maths knowledge that you can gently practise over the holidays:
- number bonds: knowing pairs of numbers that add to make ten, like 3+7=10 and therefore 10-7=3). When your child is secure with pairs that total ten, can they extend this knowledge to pairs which make 20 (13+7=20, for example) and 100 (such as 30+70=100) – make this fun by using some sweet treats or how about stringing ten loom bracelets on string and then hiding some and making the link with the ones that are left (how many are hidden if you can see three bracelets?)
- times tables: Year 2 children should have an emerging knowledge of the 2 times table and the 10 times table at least, and children who have just finished Year 4 should know all their times tables (up to 12 x 12) and the division facts, too (7×8=56 so 56÷7=8) – think about chanting some times tables or buying an app to practise just a few minutes every day to keep your child’s knowledge sharp!
- reading: lots of reading over the holidays will help your child in lots of different ways – visit the local library; take part in our Extreme Reading competition; if you’re going to a theme park or museum, read the leaflet and the website… there are loads of opportunities to build in reading as a daily activity!
- writing: reading will help your child’s spellings and writing style, so don’t force lots of writing, but do try to encourage some useful, purposeful writing – write some postcards to friends and relatives , or send some emails instead, and make lists for what to pack on holiday, or what to buy if planning a sleepover.
Check out this guide about supporting learning, useful whether it’s term-time of holiday time!
Finally, make sure you enjoy the summer break!
10 minute shake up
Change4Life and Disney have teamed up to help your kids have fun and move more this summer. Sign up for the 10 Minute Shake Up Pack and you’ll get a FREE stopwatch, fun activity cards, Disney themed wall chart and stickers – all inspired by your kids’ favourite Disney characters!
The 10 Minute Shake Up games are a fantastic way to help your kids get the recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity they need every day. Being active helps your kids maintain a healthy weight and helps their heart and bones stay healthy. Visit the 10 Minute Shake Up Zone for loads of fun game ideas.
The final Code Club of the year!
It was the final Code Club of the school year on Thursday and the Moortown Scratchers would like to say a huge thank you to Linda for running the club all year. It has been fantastic to see the children’s programming skills grow throughout the sessions and to see their ever increasingly creative projects blossom. Linda and I are very excited about Code Club next year and look forward to trying out some new ideas.
Inspired by the Tour de France?
What an amazing spectacle the Tour de France has been this weekend.
If you have been inspired to get on your bike then next week we are having a bike, scooter and walk to school week alongside our Staying Safe week.
Each day this golden lock will be placed on a random bike or scooter, in our storage area. If it is your bike or scooter you will be the lucky winner of a £20 voucher, kindly donated by the Chapel Allerton branch of Edinburgh bicycle cooperative.
On Wednesday, from 8:30am, Edinburgh bike cooperative will be visiting school for a Dr bike event. Children who bring their bike to school can have a free bike maintenance check to ensure their bike is in its best condition. Edinburgh bike cooperative will be with us all morning checking bikes and also providing bike maintenance sessions for Year 5 so they can maintain their own bikes.
Would you like to explore cycle routes across the city? Leeds City council have produced a series of local cycle maps. Additionally, Go:cycling offer a range of free cycling services.
Code Club
The ‘Moortown Scratchers’ talking about their projects in the last Code Club of the year. A big thank you to all the hard work, creativity and resilience you have shown this year. A massive thanks to Linda as well, who has run the club all year!
Our new SEAL theme for this half-term is…
…’Changes’.
We begin the half term with a focus on manners: I use good table manners. Adults in school, including lunchtime supervisors, will be looking out for children who show good table manners – not talking with their mouth full and using their cutlery correctly. What other table manners can you think of? Ask your child to add their suggestion to their class SEAL box.
Following this, the Changes theme aims to equip children with an understanding of different types of change, positive and negative, and common responses to change.
It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of living and learning: motivation, managing feelings and social skills.
The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:
- Change can be uncomfortable, because it can threaten our basic needs to feel safe and to belong
- Change can also be stimulating and welcome
- Both adults and children can experience a range of powerful and conflicting emotions as a result of change – for example, excitement, anxiety, uncertainty, loss, anger, resentment
- Worries about change can be made worse by uncertainty, lack of information, or misinformation and lack of support from others
- People’s responses to and ability to cope with change are very variable, and might be influenced by individual temperament, previous experience of change, and the nature of the change – chosen or imposed, expected or unexpected, within our control or out of our control
Some children may welcome most forms of change and dislike routine and predictability. Other children may find even small changes very difficult.
Within school, children, who are coping with or have undergone significant change, are supported in a variety of ways:
- Our positive ethos within school
- Support systems, from staff and peers, for children who have undergone change or who maybe new to the school
- SEAL and circle time sessions where children feel safe to talk about their feelings
- Class SEAL boxes for children to record any concerns
- Preparing children wherever possible for planned changes for example, a change of class teacher, Key Stage or even school
Roundhay Football Tournament
A report from Zakir:
“In the semifinal, Year 5 played Talbot Primary School to book a place in the final. Unfortunately, we lost on penalties after a tense match. Talbot scored first then suddenly Year 5 climbed back with a brilliant goal from Harris. The final whistle blew meaning the match was going down to penalties. Unfortunately, we lost the shoot out in a heartbreaking result. Let’s see who wins next year!”
Zakir asked Mr Catherall (the head coach) for his views:
“Everyone was immensely proud of the way both teams played and the sporting manner of both their wins and their defeat.”
