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14 December 2012

The homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 19 December.

I can show what I have learnt about time.

We’ve been learning to tell the time and find time intervals this week so the children are tasked with showing me what they have learnt!

They could:

• Create a game.
• Make a clock and ask and answer some questions.
• Use a timetable (TV magazine, bus timetable) to ask and answer some questions.
• Match a time in words to a clock showing the same time.

14 December 2012

This week, the final homework of 2012 is practice makes perfect.

As the Key Stage 1 production is approaching, the homework this week is to practise and prepare:

• the words to the songs (these are in your child’s Homework Book)
• individual parts (practise projecting your voice!)

Don’t forget: Monday is dress rehearsal so we need all costumes in school.

Public performances are on Tuesday and Wednesday, 2.15pm – donations to Dogs Trust (one of our school charities).  See you there!

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are contractions: words which use apostrophes to shorten or contract two words into one word. I’ve noticed that children are struggling to read these words and/or write them correctly.

Just noticed that I’ve listed I’ll twice. Sorry!

14 December 2012

Our spellings this week are all homophones. That’s when two or more words sound the same but are spelt differently. All children have the same ones this week.

The individual words aren’t too tricky but the real challenge is being able to use them at the correct time. Year 4 therefore need to practise using the right homophone in sentences, which is how they will be tested.

League tables

The primary league tables have been published.

The Department for Education site publishes the percentage of children at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6) achieving Level 4 or more in both English (reading and writing) and Maths together.  It shows at Moortown Primary, this percentage has gone from 78% in 2009 to consistently over 90%.  In 2012, 94% of children achieved Level 4 or more.

What the league tables don’t show is the stories behind the data.  We’re proud of this figure: 94% continues to place us amongst the highest in the country.  But it’s a little lower than 2010 and 2011.  One child missed out on a Level 4 by a couple of marks in Maths but achieved Level 4 in English – this is shame, especially since Ms Hazell reports that the pupil was working quite securely at Level 4 for much of the year (perhaps SAT nerves or test technique let this pupil down on the day…?).  Another much-loved child has very specific special needs meaning he could not do the tests at all, but is included in our school results – parents and carers are often surprised to hear even pupils with quite extreme special needs are included in the league tables.

The BBC version of the league tables publishes the percentage of pupils reaching Level 5 (the level of a typical 14 year old) or more in both subjects.  Our percentage is 45%.

Again, it’s useful to put that figure in a context.  First of all, it’s very good, although not quite as high as some other high-performing schools.  Our data for this particular class of children shows 61% of pupils achieved Level 5 in English and 52% in Maths.  It can be a lottery of a kind to find out which of those children achieved Level 5 in both.

Additionally, the BBC describes this aspect of the league tables as ‘high-achieving pupils’.

However, we like to think that children who make lots of progress as high-achieving – and many of our children exceeded average progress expectations.

Moreover, in Maths, we have a high percentage of pupils who achieved not just Level 5 but Level 6: 13%.  This is a result of their hard work at home, in class and at supplementary sessions – our Tough Stuff Maths club!  (Very few pupils nationally achieved Level 6 in English – most teachers and headteachers were struck by just how hard the test for this was.)  This year, we continue to challenge and support those with potential to work towards this very significant level.

Well done to all our pupils in the 2011-11 cohort.  You achieved well socially, emotionally and academically.  We’re proud of you all.

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are words starting with ‘wh’.

Your child will be tested on Friday 21 December 2012.

14 December 2012

This week’s spellings are tricky words. Your child will be tested on Friday 21 December 2012.

After the holidays, the children will be split into different spelling groups. You will know which group your child is in as it will be written on the inside of their spelling book.

• their (used for a name/person)
• there (used for places and has the word ‘here’ in it)
• people
• asked
• could
• saw
• thought
• friend
• once
• were

Christmas news

We have a number of exciting events coming up:

PTA Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre is taking place on Friday 14 December between 2.30 and 4.30pm.  As well as the popular Bun Stall, there’ll be games, tombola and an opportunity to visit Santa.  If you are able to help at the Fayre, please leave your contact details at the office.

Reception and Key Stage 1 Christmas Production

Hey, Ewe! Why are the sheep so restless?  Reception and Key Stage 1 families can find out by coming along to one of the performances on either Tuesday 18 or Wednesday 19 December.  A booking slip has already been sent home.

Key Stage 2 Carol Singing

To continue making a positive contribution within our local community, we have carol singing arranged for the last week of term.  On Thursday 20 December groups will be singing carols outside Marks and Spencer.  Year 3 and 4 will sing from around 10.30 to 11.00am and Year 5 and 6 from around 11.15 to 11.45am.  Please come along and support your child.  We understand that you may prefer for your child not to attend.  If you do not want your child to participate in this carol singing session, please leave a message at the office.

Class Christmas Parties

Key Stage 1 parties will be on Thursday 20 December and Key Stage 2 parties on Friday 21 December.  Party treats are funded by the PTA.

Finally, we hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas break and we’ll see you when school re-opens on Monday 07 January 2013.

07 December 2012

Spellings this week are all ly words – ‘ly’ is a consonant suffix which usually makes the words adverbs.  Consonant suffixes can be added without changing the base word, except for words ending in y which changes to i.

Spellings will be tested on Friday 15 December.

• secretive > secretively
• joking > jokingly
• unfortunate > unfortunately
• strange > strangely
• normal > normally
• real > really
• total > totally
• happy > happily
• speedy > speedily

07 December 2012

This week homework is Practice Makes Perfect.

I can describe a scene and create a mood.

Children have been given four pictures of four different settings. The task this week is to describe two of the scenes using the follwing writing skills that they use in class:

• great punctuation
• adjectives
• similes
• adverbs
• metaphors
• alliteration
• a variety of sentence types and sentence starters

Homework is due in on Wednesday 12 December 2012.