Christmas dinner themed menu
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, will be running a special Christmas themed menu on Thursday 15 December.
Please contact the office, by 30 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
8 Rs for learning – our new SEAL theme
This half-term, we’re thinking about the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.
Each week, we’ll focus on different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?
You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.
Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.
I take a safe risk.
Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.
I take responsibility for my own learning.
Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.
I respond to feedback.
Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.
I can show I am ready to learn.
Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!
I am resourceful.
Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.
I am resilient.
Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.
I remember.
Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:
Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!
I reflect about my learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:
how they learnt
why they learnt it
when they’ll use their learning
how they would teach this to someone else
what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc
York Art Gallery
After reading all about Katie’s adventures in art galleries and museums, in our class novel topic, we enjoyed a class trip to the York Art Gallery. We were very impressed by the children’s behaviour, interest and knowledge throughout the visit. Here is a snapshot of the day.
Welcome back
Welcome back.
This half term is going to be just as busy as the last one. The whole class have shown maturity, enthusiasm and a super learning attitude – keep it up!
We have had great fun with our topic so far. This half term, we’ll be designing and making our own picture frames. When complete, these will showcase the children’s wonderful Roald Dahl-inspired art work done in the style of Quentin Blake. Look out for our own Year 4 art gallery.
We also look forward to cooking this half term – you’ll have to wait and see what delights will make your taste buds tingle!
Please note a change of PE day from Thursday to Friday. The class are going to be taught by some students from Leeds Metropolitan University. An outdoor kit is essential as we hope to be outside whenever possible.
Asking questions about WW2
Before half-term, we were fortunate enough to be able to email Mrs Weekes’ dad, who was evacuated from Newcastle during WW2, and ask him lots of questions about his experience.
Today, we received a response and were fascinated to hear all about it! However, there was a problem. Somehow, all the answers and questions had been jumbled up so we had to use our comprehension skills to match the questions to the answers. Once we’d managed to do this we studied the responses – it was very interesting. In particular, we were amazed at how little children were allowed to take with them: only some clothes!
Then, we thought about the characters in our class novel. Max and Anna are German refugees so we discussed the difference between refugees and evacuees (help at home by asking your child about this and discussing this topic in more detail). Finally, we pretended to be Max and asked some of our own questions.
Here are some pics:
On behalf of all of Year 5, I must say a huge thank you to Mrs Weekes and her dad for answering our questions.
Another letter from DfE
Yet another letter from the DfE congratulating us!
Over the past two years, we’ve received three letters congratulating us on results for disadvantaged pupils and for high achievement in the Year 1 phonics screening.
We’ve just received another letter, this time congratulating school on the high standard of achievement in the 2016 phonics screening check. Nick Gibb MP (Minister of State for School Standards) sends us congratulations, stating that we are in the top 8% of all primary schools in the country regarding achievement in phonics. He writes:
I would like to congratulate you, your staff and your pupils for your school’s very high standard of achievement in the 2016 phonics screening check.
We want to ensure that every child develops a firm grasp of phonics which is why I was delighted to see your results. With at least 95% of pupils at Moortown Primary School reaching or exceeding the pass mark in the check, your school is in the top 8% of all primary schools in the country.
This year’s figures show 89% of pupils who achieve the expected standard in the check go on to achieve at least the expected standard in Key Stage One reading, which underlines the value of developing the ability to decode words effectively at an early age.
We are extremely proud of this high standard of phonics teaching, as we are of all our teaching and it shows that our staff, parents and children are committed to maintaining these high standards. Moortown Primary carries on being a happy, healthy and successful place to learn.
Save the Scholes swimming pool
Scholes (Elmet) Primary is one of our Sphere Federation partner schools. It’s also very unusual in that it has its own swimming pool. It’s a small, shallow one, but is great for introducing younger children to swimming. Sadly, the pool has been closed for essential maintenance and a massive fundraising campaign is underway. We need you now to vote for the school to benefit from a grant.
From today, voting opens for the Aviva Community Fund, and the campaign to Save Scholes Pool is one of the potential grant winners. If the school gets the most votes we could be granted between £5,000 and £10,000. Please vote here.
Half term
There is no homework assigned over half term so we hope you all enjoy a rest, some time in the outdoors and maybe visiting some of the activities happening in the area.
Remember, Lexia and Mathletics are always available for children to dip in to at home.
You may also want to take a look at the York Art Gallery website, in preparation for our trip on Tuesday 01 November. Also on an art theme, if you visit the city centre, you may want to take part in the Leeds Welcome Art trail.
Have a great half term.
Athletics club and competition
There are places available on the athletics after-school club, starting after the half term, if your child would like to come along.
The club will run on Monday 31 October and Monday 07 November, 3.15-4.15, in preparation for a local competition on 23 November.
Please inform the office if your child would like to join. We particularly need girls to join the team.
21 October 2016
It’s half-term, so there’s no homework. Enjoy the holiday instead: hunt down a collection of chestnuts on a walk at Roundhay Park, enjoy a cinema trip on a damp day, go further afield and visit somewhere new…
Whatever you do, have a good break.
