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%.
Living and Learning
As part of Living and Learning, some older children were involved in some learning around discrimination and that respect should be shown to everyone. They worked in groups to plan how they would present their thoughts and views to the rest of the class. One group decided to write a poem which they then performed. It encompasses how we want children at Moortown to think:
People that are gay should not delay;
We all have feelings no matter what the meaning;
Girl or boy,
Emotions are not a toy;
Some people have a mum and a mum,
Or a dad and a dad;
That’s no reason to be sad;
Nothing matters as long as you’re happy;
No need for people to be snappy;
We’re all the same,
It’s not a game.
Living and Learning - body image guide for parents and carers
Our focus in Living and Learning, for the rest of this half term, is body image.
What is body image?
Body image describes our idea of how our body looks and how we think it is perceived by others. This can include our thoughts and feelings about our height, weight, shape, skin colour, and our appearance and attractiveness more broadly.
This parent and carer guide has been designed to give practical ideas to support your child in building their emotional resilience in this area.
Great competitors
Well done to pupils who have represented school recently in sporting competitions.
Congratulations to our Year 3 qualifier in the West Yorkshire cross country final. She ran a fantastic race at the event at Temple Newsam.
In wet conditions last Friday, our Year 5/6 hockey team competed in the Leeds Quick Sticks competition. Well done to all the children involved.
Thank you to parents and carers who supported these events by transporting the children.
Why is travelling actively to school important?
Sustrans have recently published this article about the importance of travelling actively to school.
With just two weeks to go, Sustrans Big Pedal, is one way we will be encouraging active journeys this term alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Sustrans Big Pedal is 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.
You might also be interested in a current bike promotion from our local Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative branch.
PE and Sport Premium - how this is invested at Moortown Primary
We are required to publish details of how we invest our PE and Sport Premium funding.
What is the Primary PE and Sport Premium?
The government provides funding to improve provision of physical education and sport in primary schools. This funding is ring-fenced and therefore can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in school.
For 2018/19, our grant allocation is £17,800.
How will we invest this at Moortown Primary School?
At Moortown we have developed a provision plan to ensure this funding is invested (rather than ‘spent’) to maximise the long term impact of our PE provision for pupils and staff. The funding is invested in various ways and the impact of these initiatives is closely monitored through assessment of children’s skills, staff and pupil feedback, uptake of clubs etc. At Moortown Primary, we pride ourselves on being a happy and healthy place to learn.
Our 2017/18 PE provision plan is now fully evaluated with impact from last year’s investment.
Our 2018/19 PE provision plan detailing proposed investment is also published.
Active travel update
Here’s an update on our latest active travel initiatives for this half term.
Living Streets WOW Travel Tracker
Meltem from Living Streets visited school for an assembly today to launch a new challenge for our WOW active travel tracker.
Currently, children record how they get to school on the WOW daily online travel tracker and those who complete at least one active journey per week to school (bike, scoot, walk or park and stride) are rewarded with a themed monthly badge.
As this has been a big success, with increased active journeys and less journeys by car, from March, we will be challenging children to make at least three active journeys per week to earn their monthly badge.
There were some queries that were raised at the assembly.
Can your three active journeys be different?
Yes – active journeys include walking, biking, scooting and park and stride so as long as your journeys are any of these three in a week you would qualify for a badge.
What can be included as park and stride?
Ideally park and stride is where you park away from school and walk the final 5-10 minutes to school. This ensures that areas close to school are free from traffic. Marks and Spencer has many spaces available for families to park and walk the final part of the journey to school.
Sustrans Big Pedal 2019
Get set… the Big Pedal is back! We’re 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.
If you need the car to bring your child to school, perhaps you could park and stride the last part (our suggested park and stride site is Marks and Spencer car park).
The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
Why we’re taking part
It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school in an active way. Also, schools will be entered into a daily prize draw for rewards including equipment and accessories if over 15% of our school community cycle, walk or scoot on that day of the challenge.
What do you need to do?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle, scoot, walk or park and stride to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.
Living and Learning: Being me
- I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze). Get your child to demonstrate the ‘vampire’ method to family members at home.
- I can say something good about myself. It’s important that your child can confidently talk about themselves in a positive way.
- I pay and receive compliments in a sensible way. Try paying compliments each day to each other! Some children struggle to hear positive words about themselves, but this is important for self-esteem. Try paying (and listening) to praise and compliments.
- I recognise my talents. Talk to your child about talents, whether academic, physical, social or emotional. Some of us may have a natural talent, but most have talents that derive from lots of practice.
- I know the difference between being proud and showing off. We encourage compliments to be paid – but encourage your children to know the balance between being having self-esteem and showing off.
