Topic Review open afternoon
We were delighted to see those of you who came to the open afternoon on Monday. You had a chance to join in a reflection session as we approach the end of the second Big Topic of the school year, which has been based around a class novel. Here are some of your comments:
- ‘It was wonderful to see all the hard work and creativity the children have put into this topic.’
- ‘My daughter has thoroughly enjoyed this topic and has requested lots of visits to the art gallery.’
- ‘It was really interesting to see how the review was done. The most and least favourite was a good way to review the learning.’
- ‘Thanks for having us in to watch!’
How to get active locally
With the holidays coming up, here is a reminder of some local physical activities that you and your child might like to get involved with.
The comprehensive physical activity guide was produced to signpost parents and carers to help children achieve the governments recommended daily 30 minutes of physical activity outside of school.
School meals - parent/carer feedback and pupil voice
The School Council have recently discussed an idea we received from a parent about our school meals. Currently, where there is a meal served with a side, such as curry and rice, the curry would be served on top of the rice. The suggestion was made to have the curry served alongside the rice giving the children the choice to mix the two parts of their main meal if they wish.
The School Council held a vote to decide this democratically. The result of the vote, nine votes to one, was to change to have the part of the meal served separately. This has been fed back to the Catering Leeds kitchen team and will start immediately.
Thank you for your comments of how we can improve or make changes to our current meals.
A great start to the Big Pedal
After day one of the Big Pedal, we are 38th out of 500 schools in the small school category – the top school in Leeds! Brilliant news. The leaderboard can be viewed via the Sustrans Big Pedal website.
Well done everyone – keep your active travel going, great for you and great for the environment.
Remember active travel counts as walking, park and stride, scooting and biking. Supporter (parents/carers, siblings and staff) travel counts too.
Let’s keep those numbers high for the rest of the week and hopefully we’ll move up the leader board and be in with the chance to win prizes.
Thinking of a holiday in term time?
If so, please: think again.
Amongst the continued talk about Brexit (or not to Brexit!), you might have missed this news story from yesterday: The number of fines issued to parents in England for taking children on term time holidays has almost doubled in a year, statistics show.
Penalty notices rose by 93% to almost 223,000 in 2017-18. In Leeds, there were 2620 fines for term-time absence caused by holidays – that’s 25 pupils in every 1,000, which averages out to about five pupils at Moortown Primary.
“Unauthorised family holiday absence” was the most common reason for attendance fines, the Department for Education (DfE) said.
In our school, governors have agreed an attendance policy that’s clear: we can’t authorise a holiday in term time – we value learning too much to authorise a disruption in children’s education. If you do anticipate your child may have to have a day or more off school (to attend a funeral or a parent’s graduation, for example), please do speak with the Head of School and also ask at the office for a form to complete.
Just one week until Big Pedal starts
It’s just one week to the return of the Big Pedal.
We’re looking forward to taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2019, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school. We would love everyone to be involved.
For the first time, walking (and park and stride) will be counted alongside cycling and scooting. This year’s Big Pedal will run for five days, from 25th March to 29th March.
On each day, schools compete to see who can get as many of their pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school then our results will determine our final position in the national league table.
To help parents prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide packed with advice, games and challenges to help with having a hassle-free cycle, walk or scoot to school.
Cycling opportunities
Here are details of local cycling events due to be held in the Easter holiday.
Beginners Learn to Ride Sessions (FREE)
For non-riders aged 5 years and above
Tuesday 2nd April, Thursday 4th April and Tuesday 9th April – limited availability
At Carr Manor Community School (Secondary Phase)
Times: 9:30am, 10:45am, 12:30pm and 13:45pm (Tues 2nd only)
Improvers Cycling Session (FREE)
For ‘new’ riders aged 5 years and above
Thursday 4th April
At Carr Manor Community School (Secondary Phase)
Time: 13:45pm
The Brownlee Centre will also be hosting a pop up school holiday ride.
Positive pupils
Our governors play an active role in our school – find out more about the governing body and what they do. One of our governors is responsible for collecting the views of pupils – an important role because we value the views of pupils so much. As well as staff in school, it’s useful for a governor to do this because children sometimes prefer to talk to an ‘outsider’.
Here’s what our governor found following a recent visit where she spoke with a group of pupils:
All of the children were keen to talk about how much they enjoyed school.
- Y1: ‘It’s fun to learn new things.’
- Y4: ‘I enjoy school because I get to make new friends.’
All children strongly believed all of the teachers helped them to do their best.
- Y6: ‘If you get stuck, teachers don’t just give you the answer but they help you to find the answer.’
All children said that their learning is challenging.
- Y2: ‘I know my learning is challenging when I can’t do it and then when I think a bit more, I can do it.’
- Y3: ‘My learning is challenging when I get a step in my book.’
- Y6: ‘My teacher gives me tricky learning when I’m confident. When I’m confident with my learning there is always another harder challenge waiting!’
Children enjoy learning.
- Y1: ‘I like learning phonics.’
- Y4: ‘My learning is fun in my book like when we crack codes in our lessons.’
- Y6: ‘I really enjoy learning about science’
All of the children were adamant that their teacher listens carefully to what they have to say, particularly in reading lessons.
- Y6: ‘Mostly in reading because people all have different answers.’
- Y3: ‘My teacher listens to everyone’s opinion.’
All children knew to speak to an adult if something was worrying them, or share their worry in other ways.
- Y2: ‘I would tell adults in school.’
- Y4: ‘I’d tell someone I trust.’
- Y6: ‘We can use the Living and Learning box in our classrooms to share a worry.’
Regarding behaviour, all children were aware of the school’s definition of bullying and knew that bullying at school is zero tolerance. Regarding staying safe, all the children said they felt very safe at school. The children were able to talk about lots of ways we promote health, whether physical activity or emotional health.
Finally, all of the children were certain they would recommend the school to someone else.
- Y6: ‘Moortown Primary always thinks about your feelings and helps you to get involved with loads of things. Moortown Primary would always be there for you.’
School Savings Club paying in dates
Please note a change of day for the remaining School Savings Club paying in dates.
If your child has a School Savings Club account, we hold paying in sessions on the penultimate week of every half term.
Thursday 18 October 2018 3.15-3.45pm
Thursday 13 December 2018 3.15-3.45pm
Thursday 07 February 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 20 March 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 15 May 2019 3.15-3.45pm
Wednesday 10 July 2019 3.15-3.45pm
If you are unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be paid in, to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Mrs Tiffany.
If you would like your child to open an account, please enquire at the office. Pupils in Year 3 can still take advantage of the £10 incentive offer.
Attendance matters
Well done to the Year 2 children: they have the highest attendance in school so far this year! Year 6, Year 1 and Year 5 are also doing really well.
Up to the beginning of March, the average attendance for each class is:
- Reception – 96.4%
- Y1 – 96.9%
- Y2 – 97.9%
- Y3 – 95.9%
- Y4 – 94.6%
- Y5 – 96.8%
- Y6 – 97.1%
The whole school attendance figure is 96.5%.
