Community week feedback
We’re all enjoying a community themed week at Moortown Primary this week. We’re learning all about identity and community.
As part of the week, Year 2 pupils visited Donisthorpe Hall, just down the road from us. After our visit, we received this lovely email:
Dear Mr Roundtree, Mrs Weekes and all the staff and year 2 pupils involved in the outing to Donisthorpe Hall earlier today.
What a fantastic afternoon which the older residents at Donisthorpe clearly enjoyed. Their joy at seeing and meeting the year 2 children was lovely and the children fully engaged with them. The residents and children had a lovely time. Thank you for organising such a worthwhile community activity.
Family fundraising
As some of you may know, one of our families has started a huge fundraising bid to raise money for some medical treatment. Mr Verro, father of Oliver (Y3) and Charlotte (Y1), has multiple sclerosis and can access some stem cell treatment that could be life changing and stop the progression of the condition. To do this, the family have had to set about raising a large amount of money as this treatment is currently not available on the NHS.
As a school, we would like to do what we can to help and we can do this by alerting you to several ways you could be involved:
There is a GoFundMe page where you can read about the situation and contribute if you wish: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hsct-to-stop-ms
It would also be helpful to share the link to all of your contacts to reach as many people as possible.
There is also a link for easy fundraising where you can have a donation made at no extra cost when you are shopping online; all the major retailers are participating in this programme: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/jcverro-hscttostopms/
However, at the moment, if you use the link below, the campaign will be given a £5 bonus donation every time someone successfully joins and raises £5 as a supporter.
It’s a good way of raising money when you do weekly shopping online and, also, when buying Christmas presents:
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/0HELS8/KC1AVH
The family have organised a reindeer dash (antlers to be worn, of course!) which will be taking place on 14 December at 10am in Roundhay Park; leaflets will be sent out in book bags and Mrs Verro will be selling tickets in the playground. Tickets can now be bought online here:
http://buytickets.at/hsct4jc/
There will be a 2km event and a 5km event to participate in.
On 06 December, there will be a non-uniform day; donations or raffle prizes would be welcome and any funds raised will be split between the nominated school charity and the fundraising campaign.
We’ll act as a collection point for any raffle prizes that you can kindly donate to the campaign – please leave these at the office.
Thank you on behalf of the family for any funds that are raised.
A new edition of #Ditto
#Ditto is a downloadable e-safety magazine for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology.
There’s a lot of interesting information in the November edition. We especially liked the articles on Deepfakes, Influencers and Notifications and Immediacy.
Read your way to a happy and healthy life
We can all agree that reading is important, but do you realise just how important reading actually is?
The Reading Agency outlines the powerful impact reading can have for your child, for you and for society.
The benefits of reading for pleasure for your child (and you!):
- Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development – their brain power – than their parents’ level of education.
- Reading for pleasure is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.
- 16-year-olds who choose to read books for pleasure outside of school are more likely to secure managerial or professional jobs in later life.
- Having books in the home is associated with both reading enjoyment and confidence. Of children who report having fewer than 10 books in their homes, 42% say they do not like reading and only 32% say they are ‘very confident’ readers. For children who report having over 200 books at home, only 12% say they do not like reading and 73% consider themselves ‘very confident’ readers.
- Children who read books often at age 10, and more than once a week at age 16, gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.
- Reading extensively and for pleasure at home can increase literacy skills at a greater rate than through formal lessons at school.
- Incomes are higher in countries where more adults reach the highest levels of literacy proficiency and fewer adults are at the lowest levels of literacy.
- An online poll reveals that regular readers for pleasure report fewer feelings of stress and depression than non-readers, and stronger feelings of relaxation from reading than from watching television or engaging with technology intensive activities.
- Studies have shown that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and a greater ability to cope with difficult situations.
- Reading for pleasure is associated with better sleeping patterns.
- Adults who read for just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to report greater life satisfaction.
We’re often asked how you can support your child more at home. We think one of the best ways to help is to make sure you build into the daily routine some time for reading. For many families, this is a bedtime story every night just before lights out.
Happy reading!
Fortnite - staying safe
As you know, we like to keep you updated as much as possible with how you can keep your child safe when they’re online. This is an ever-changing world and, unfortunately, it’s impossible to keep up with all current issues but there are some ways we can help. Over this year, we’ll communicate to you some factsheets about popular games and apps with some hints and tips about how you can support your child in staying safe.
The first one is some guidance around the game, Fortnite.
As always, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, please chat to someone in school.
Living and Learning: My Community
We’re looking forward to lots of learning about identity, diversity and our community in our next whole school themed week, My Community.
Here are some key events taking place next week.
Living and learning in our happy and healthy school
Although it’s not yet in primary schools’ National Curriculum, most primaries provide pupils with learning around aspects of Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE), and also citizenship (in fact, sometimes, you might see or hear the abbreviation PSHCE) and financial education (I’ve even spotted the abbreviation PSHEE – Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education). Sex and relationships education (SRE, although sometimes the terms are swapped around: Relationships and Sex Education – RSE) also falls under this PSHE umbrella term. As you can see, all these abbreviations can get really confusing!
At Moortown Primary, we cover all this in a weekly subject which is popular with both pupils and their teachers: Living and Learning.
Read more about Living and Learning on our Health page and in our age-related expectations. You can also check out the weekly Living and Learning theme in our calendar – they show for each Monday during term-time.
Watching us while we work
Last Tuesday, you were given the opportunity to come and ‘Watch us while we work’. Thank you to those parents who came along, we hope that you found it beneficial and got an insight into what your child learns in school, how they learn it and how they are taught. This was the first time that we have placed parents in their own child’s class and the feedback was positive. If you couldn’t make it this time, there is another opportunity in January.
“It was interesting to see how the teacher approached times table learning; the children learnt patterns to help them remember more effectively.”
“It was good to see a mix of learning styles being used; whiteboards and written activities.”
“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to observe the teachers; it keeps us updated on what they are learning so we can practise at home.”
Christmas themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 12 December. Please contact the office, before 28 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
Living and Learning: My Community themed week
Themed week – My Community
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 25 November 2019. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion, disability and gender. Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.
Active travel
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school, with prizes available as part of the themed week. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will be keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Email us (moortownoffice@spherefederation.org) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark on your route to school, for the chance to win one of five £10 shopping vouchers. Entries to be submitted by Friday 29 November 2019.
New school charity
During the themed week, children will be researching local, national and international charities and a new school charity will be chosen at the end of the week to replace our current charity, WWF. Children will have chance to consider and suggest charities in the upcoming whole school homework (Friday 22 November 2019).
Identity day
Friday 29 November 2019 will be a non-uniform identity day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. We invite a donation for the PTA Christmas fair.
SAVE THE DATE Community coffee morning Monday 25 November 2019 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA, our governing body, Moortown Community Group and Friends of Moortown Park. There will be chance to hear about proposed plans for the new land to the rear of school. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 10am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Pupil feedback from our previous My Community themed week was to ‘learn more languages that other people speak’. Do you speak another language and would you be happy to speak to children about this? If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard with lots of information about the themed week too. It’s going to be a busy week!
