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23 November 2012

This week the tricky words to learn to spell are:

These words will be tested on Friday 30 November.

23 November 2012

We are revisiting one of our key spelling rules this week: double up for short vowel sounds. This week’s spellings are all in the past tense so have ed endings as well.

Children will be tested on eight out of the ten spellings on 30 November 2012.

23 November 2012

The spelling rule to chant this week is ‘double up for short vowel sounds’. They also all have a common suffix which is ‘ive’.

Paper plane pandemonium!

This afternoon, we’ve built and flown paper aeroplanes. Well done to Jawaad and Oliver for their winning flights!

Road Safety

This afternoon, we’ve been learning about road safety. We’ve learnt about how important it is to always wear a seatbelt – even for short journeys. We’ve learnt that children who are under 135cm tall should also use a booster seat when in a car.

All aboard for the National Railway Museum!

Year 3 and 4 had a fantastic trip on Wednesday to the National Railway Museum. We learnt about forces such as gravity and friction.

We saw lots of different types of trains. We even took a ride on the Chinese Bullet train!

We also did some sketching in our sketch books of our favourite trains.

Some of the wheels of the trains were taller than the children!

23 November 2012

This week’s whole school homework is creative.  It’s due in on Wednesday 28 November.

I can show what bullying means and how to stop it.

As part of the current SEAL theme of Getting On, this week is anti-bullying week.  Within class, the children have been asked to consider bullying including these key points:

• What is bullying?
• What are the different types of bullying?
• What should you do if you are bullied?
• What should you do if you see someone being bullied?

Useful websites to look at include:

• Childline (http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/Pages/Bullyinginfo.aspx)
• Go-givers (http://www.gogivers.org/)
• Kidshealth (http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/bullies.html)

You could produce:

• art work
• poetry
• a poster
• writing: diary, story, letter
• a rap
• a mindmap
• your own creative idea

23 November 2012

This week’s spellings are words ending in ‘ing’. Your child will be tested on Friday 30 November 2012.

• joining
• fishing
• floating
• reading
• teaching
• writing
• sleeping
• looking
• thinking
• beating

Reception class

Around this time last year, Ofsted inspectors visited school.  Whilst we were very happy with the school’s overall judgement of ‘outstanding’, we were disappointed that our Reception class was singled out as an area to improve.  Parents tell us (and told the inspectors) that they are happy with their child’s progress in the first year at Moortown Primary, but inspectors were less enthusiastic.

Since the inspection, we have thought hard about the next steps.  We didn’t want any knee-jerk reactions which would lead to only superficial improvements, if any.  Here’s how we’ve responded to the inspection so far.

This year, staff in the class are participating in a year-long project with a private, Early Years specialist, Early Excellence.  Six other primaries in the area are joining us.

Part of the project involves a visit from an Early Years specialist.  We’re delighted with the feedback so far; below are some extracts from her report.

• The staff team work extremely well together and support children’s interests sensitively.
• The staff were very tuned into the children and responded with useful ideas and possibilities that they could think about.
• Children are encouraged to share their work with each other and to celebrate good learning together at the regular plenary sessions.
• Staff were observed through the session pointing out and reporting to each other things that were happening all around the room and outside.
• Organisation of provision in the indoor space is challenging.  It is surprising how much staff have managed to fit in and are offering a good range of provision areas.
• There is a lot of encouragement for purposeful writing and mark-making in the areas – I like the writing wall in the role play area.
• The light and friendly ethos enables the children to feel secure and to take risks as they learn new skills and techniques.
• The headteacher is very supportive of development in the Early Years.
• The school clearly has a close-knit team that operates well together.

The report also praises the children in Reception, who ‘were observed working collaboratively together and talking spontaneously about their activities’.

As well as this project, we’ve invested in a lot of new furniture to help meet pupils’ needs even more, and new resources for children to play with and learn with.  Ofsted inspectors also advised that the school’s leadership team (the assistant headteachers and me, the headteacher) should improve their evaluations in Reception; with this in mind, a range of external experts will observe provision and evaluate it alongside the school’s leaders, and the headteacher will visit Reception classes in other schools to evaluate alongside other school leaders.

We believe the provision in our Reception class matched the good and outstanding teaching and learning elsewhere. Nevertheless, we are keen to move forward positively, and take the Ofsted recommendations as a constructive prompt to get even better.  We’ll continue to invest in training and resources to ensure the best provision and the best outcomes.

Astounding Artwork

Year Six have been given the challenge to produce a piece of group art with the title Rich.
I rather think they’ve succeeded!