News

Tryzone success

Well done to Luke, Nevan and Husna for all their enthusiasm and effort over the last eleven weeks taking part in the pilot Tryzone Learning programme, run by the Leeds Rugby Foundation.  Based at the learning centre at Headingley Carnegie stadium, Tryzone is an education programme to support children and families across Leeds.  As part of the Year 6 group from local schools, Luke, Nevan and Husna have been involved in street dance, yoga, hearing inspirational speeches by Leeds Rhinos players and creating the Tryzone logo, amongst other activites.

Take a look at the highlights from the recent presentation event.

Fab feedback

So that we can feel confident about what we do, we quite often invite feedback.  Thank you to those of you who have returned annual surveys (once again, your feedback is really positive, but with some useful suggestions, too).

Recently, a headteacher from another Leeds school was so impressed by our school’s learning environment, he asked if he could return with the school’s leadership team to get some ideas.  Here are some of the things he said:

Moortown Primary is a school where the learning environment has clearly been carefully considered and a high priority for all members of staff. The compact learning spaces and transitional areas are characterised by creativity, order and clarity.

The organisation and structure of all areas gives a strong indication that pupils are encouraged and able to self-select resources to move learning on independently. There is also an impression that all members of the school community put a high value on maintaining this high quality learning environment.

The use of space was exemplary. This was most strongly shown in the Reception classroom. Areas of provision were well defined, well organised and very engaging for the pupils. The creativity behind many displays/backdrops was admirable. The lack of space did not restrict the broadness of what was offered. Parents/carers had easy and immediate access to pupils’ learning journey folders.

The headteacher went on to praise particular strengths, including classroom displays, classroom management and resources.

Another visitor recently has been a Leeds Primary School Improvement Service consultant.  In her reports, she comments on the Reception classroom and the children there:

The indoor especially is bright, stimulating and offers challenge in all areas to ensure children are making progress. I spent the entire morning in the Reception class. All children were constantly on task due to the engaging provision areas.

When I visited again a week later, there were new challenges to inspire children’s learning at the right level.  All the children were on-task and involved in their own learning due to the challenges and stimulating environment offered to children. The children’s behaviour is impeccable because children are busy and on-task within the learning environment, even in the absence of the children’s usual teacher.

…Once again showing Moortown Primary is a happy, healthy and effective place to learn!

It's Community Week!

This week, we have another themed week at Moortown Primary.  Community Week is the second themed week of the year, following the popular Brain Week in the Autumn term.

Community Week will run along three themes:

Learning about communities

Your child will think about community along four broad objectives:

To know what community is: your child will think about what ‘community’ means, how it feels to belong to a community, and the various ‘scales’ of community, such as local, national and global.

To know what family is and know that families are different: we all know families are made up in different ways, from mum, dad and two children to single parent families and extended families; amongst other things, your child will think about reasons for families being different and how it might feel to belong to a different family.

To know who contributes to communities and how: we’ll think about who contributes to communities and how, referring back to the different ‘scales’ of commmunity, from local to global.

To be aware of who might feel vulnerable in a community and that we all might feel vulnerable at some point: your child will think about different individuals and groups in society who might not feel fully as if they belong, or who might not feel properly safe; individuals or groups which your child will consider will vary depending on age, but might include elderly, those with mental health issues and minority ethnic groups; issues such as sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia might be covered.

Learning about countries

One of the most popular aspects of our themed weeks is when classes mix up, so Reception children learn alongside Year 6 children and everyone in between.  This is obviously especially important in Community Week – highlighting Moortown Primary as a learning community.  Over the course of the week, groups will visit each teacher, from Mrs Burke to Mrs Hazell, learning about a specific country:

• Germany
• Peru
• Ethiopia
• New Zealand
• Canada
• Antartica
• Thailand

Children will be issued a ‘passport’ to complete as they visit each country, learning about language, climate, currency and other facts.

Special events and visitors

Alongside all the learning, we’re looking forward to some visits! Representatives from our current charities, Dogs’ Trust and Water Aid, will visit, as will a group called KidzAware (who promote equality ) and Carla Cantrell from Leeds United Ladies Football Club.

The climax of Community Week is on Friday afternoon.  PTA – a big part of the school community – invite you to our Community Fair.  We all hope to see you there!

Skyride

Launched today, Skyride is a mass participation cycling event taking place in Leeds on 07 July.  This marks the day of 1 year to go until the Tour De France Grande Depart 2014.  The event is anticipated to attract around 10000 participants, many of whom are likely to be families with young children.  For more information please see http://www.goskyride.com/leedsSkyRide.

Attendance update

It’s good to see that our attendance has improved, even if it’s just by a little.  Our average for the year so far is 95.7% – we’re just short of our target of 96.0%.  Year 3 attendance is great – it’s much higher than other classes, and they’ve even managed to increase this further – fantastic!

• Well done to Reception and Year 6, who have all improved their attendance in recent weeks.
• Well done to Year 2, whose attendance (along with Year 3) is considerably higher than the other classes.

Here’s a breakdown of the classes’ attendance, in order:

1. Year 3: 97.3%
2. Year 2: 96.7%
3. Year 4: 95.9%
4. Year 5: 95.7%
5. Year 6: 95.2%
6. Year 1: 94.7%
7. Reception: 94.5%

A couple of points to bear in mind:

All of the children who have made most progress in Year 2 and in Year 6 (the end of Key Stage One and Key Stage Two) have got attendance rates above the school target of 96.0%.  Clearly, the more your child is in school, the more your child will learn.

From September 2013, the Department for Education’s new guidance for schools makes it clear that term-time holidays must never be authorised; as a result, we are changing our policy accordingly (exceptional circumstances such as the death of a close relative with whom your child has had frequent contact will not be treated in the same way, but it is expected that this will be rare).

2013-14 term time dates

We break up for summer on Friday 19 July.  After two training days at the beginning of the year, we return from the summer break on Wednesday 04 September.  In the Autumn term, there will be two further training days.

Here are the dates of the holidays and school training days for 2013 – 2014. We are always required to close for the local elections in May, but the date for this has not yet been set.

Governing body news

Each year, governors like to update you with what’s going on in the governing body of Moortown Primary. This year, the chairs of the three sub-committees give you this overview…

Teaching and learning sub-committee

The governing body’s teaching and learning committee consists of five governors and Mr Roundtree. The purpose of the committee is to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s work around pupil attainment and progress, which means how well children do in tests at the end of key stages and how much improvement they make between key stages. Our role is to look at this for the pupil body as a whole, but also for groups of pupils, such as boys and girls, pupils from different ethnic backgrounds, pupils with a special educational need, etc. We use national comparison data to assess how well pupils at Moortown are doing, compared with similar pupils nationally.

We meet every term to discuss issues such as how much progress children are making in their learning throughout the year, how the needs of children who need a little extra support in their learning are being met, and how the school is making good use of its pupil premium funding. (Pupil premium is a government initiative to provide additional funding for pupils whose families have a lower income; the eligibility for pupil premium is whether a child is or has been entitled to free school meals – even if they have a packed lunch instead.) We don’t look at the data for individual children; we use the school’s own tracking processes to look at progress for each class as a whole, and for some groups of pupils within a class.

Within the committee we have a link governor for literacy, one for maths, and one for the Early Years Foundation Stage (teaching and learning in Reception). The role of the link governors is to meet every term with the corresponding member of school staff and discuss progress in the action plans for each of these areas. In this way we have members of the governing body who become more knowledgeable about each area and are well placed to undertake their role as ‘critical friend.’

Pupil support sub-committee

The Pupil Support Committee meets every term to discuss the matters that affect pupils when they are at school. The committee is made up of four governors, one of whom acts as the chairperson, and the Headteacher. Other teachers or staff members might also come along to meetings depending on what is to be discussed.

There are certain things that we talk about regularly such as attendance, safeguarding (ensuring that children are kept safe when in school) and behaviour in school. We also discuss and approve a wide range of policies including Uniform, Positive Relationships (about behaviour in school) and Equality – these can be found on the school’s website.

One of the first things that we will be discussing at our next committee meeting is the Attendance Policy. We have high expectations with regard this.

Mr Roundtree outlined in a recent letter to parents and carers the regulations on school attendance are changing. From September onwards, term-time absences can only be granted in exceptional circumstances and the school’s Attendance Policy will be changed to reflect this and to clarify what we and other local schools regard as ‘exceptional’. This does not mean simply to go on holiday or visit a distant relative – school holidays are the time to do this.

Resources sub-committee

The Resources Committee meets termly to discuss financial, health and safety and premise matters facing the school. The committee comprises of five governors, one of whom chairs, and Mr Roundtree and Mrs O’Malley.

In addition to the termly meetings, governors participate in monthly budget reviews and provide challenge as to where the school spends its money, as well as the annual budget setting with the local authority. We are pleased to inform you that the budget is healthy and that the school has a strong financial foundation.

This means we can refurbish and develop the existing ICT Suite. The works will be undertaken this summer and will be ready for use when the pupils return in September. We’re creating a multi-purpose room for cooking, circle times, ICT skills – basically, a new learning space!

We also undertake premises inspections with the Resources Manager (Mrs O’Malley) and provide challenge to estate and health and safety issues.

Next week is Bike Week

Next week is National Bike Week (www.bikeweek.org.uk).

The more times your child comes by bike to school, even for part of the way, the greater the chance of winning a competition running throughout the week.

Each day, we’ll take photos of seven randomly selected bikes in school. Pictures will be put into a hat for a raffle on Friday.

Results from our school survey showed that 34% of children would like to bike to school.

Did you know we have a bike storage facility beside the Year 3 and 4 cloakroom, available to store bikes and scooters?

Tennis competition

Well done to the Year 3/4 tennis team who fought off all the local opposition and got through to the Leeds City Finals.

The finals took place last Wednesday, at John Charles Sports Centre, where the Moortown team did us proud and took fourth place overall.

Well done to the whole team – you played some fabulous tennis!

Goodbye, Miss Hewson!

On Friday, children, parents and staff said goodbye to a much-loved member of our school community: Miss Hewson.

Miss Hewson had been with us for just short of five years (the picture below was taken in her first year at Moortown Primary).  She has left to take up a leadership role in a school in York, closer to her home.Amongst the comments in Friday’s assembly, when people were asked to suggest some of Miss Hewson’s talents (fitting in with last half-term’s Good to be Me SEAL theme), were her teamwork, her support for others, her dancing (during Wake Up, Shake Up sessions) and her ability to smile all the time!  As well as obviously missing the Moortown community, Miss Hewson commented on Friday that she would miss being the youngest teacher in a school – a feature of which she has always been most proud!

Miss Hewson, we will miss you and we all wish you well for the future.