News

Are you interested in a career in primary teaching?

Our teaching school partner, Pudsey Primrose Hill Primary, writes:

Pudsey Primrose Hill, a strategic partner of Noctua TSA, are the Lead School for School Direct (Salaried) and School Direct (Fee Paying) and work in collaboration with Educate Teacher Training.

We have a partnership of schools across Leeds and Bradford who work together to deliver the School Direct route into primary teaching.
We have created a ‘learning on the job’ style programme with trainees allocated to one of our partnership schools for the academic year.
Trainees carry out a six week second school placement, also in one of our partnership schools.
We offer both Salaried and Fee Paying programmes and have delivered Initial Teacher Education for over 8 years.

If you are interested in attending the Information Event on Wednesday 4th October , please book a place using the contact details below.

Our information event will begin with a short presentation at 6pm followed by the opportunity to ask questions and speak to school direct
trainees past and present.

We look forward to meeting you there!

Phone: 0113 2574129
Email: kathryn.dickson@pudseyprimrosehill.co.uk

Annual Survey Feedback

• making sure that all children are challenged appropriately, particularly those who are attaining higher in some subjects; our end of Key Stage 2 assessment data indicates that we are already doing this very effectively, but we’re always considering ways to improve so we meet the needs of all pupils
• making sure that less confident children are heard and not overwhelmed by louder more confident children; however, again, this is something we feel we do well as Moortown Primary is a small school where staff know every pupil
• ensuring that class news pages reflect regular learning for all classes and use this as a communication tool for parents; we’ll monitor more closely each page from each teacher.

Another issue that will be considered is to provide an electronic system to pay for school trips / clubs etc. In fact, Mrs O’Malley is exploring different options, but we don’t want to buy in to an expensive system – it needs to provide value for money.

Healthy feedback

Just before the holidays, the children were asked to complete a “pupil health survey” as part of their homework.  We’ve had some really positive feedback from the children and, as always, some ways in which we can improve. Here is some of the feedback:

• “The after school clubs are great because you can learn new things that aren’t in the curriculum.”
• “Fruit tuck shop means we get fruit at a low price and it helps you to have one of your 5 a day.”
• “I’m happy at school because I learn new things and there is always a teacher or TA to talk to if I’m worried or upset.”
• “Everyone looks after each other.”

Some overall feedback from one child said, “I think this school is a happy and healthy place to learn.”

Thank you to all the children, and their families, who completed this survey.

Living and Learning

Living and Learning is our new name for SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).

Living and Learning will continue to cover SEAL learning but will also incorporate other aspects of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) such as keeping safe, identity, drug education, physical health, rights and responsibilities and healthy minds.

We begin our Living and Learning learning this week with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.

For the rest of 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 two 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 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 respond to feedback.

Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.

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 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

School meals

Following feedback from parents and pupils (School Council and pupil health questionnaires), and a successful trial of children selecting their main meal on Fridays, we will be extending this to every day from next week.  Children will select their main meal choice at registration.

Please share the menu with your child so they are aware of the choices for each day.

Leeds Children's Mayor voting

Congratulations to Pippa who was selected as our school entry and submitted her manifesto to be considered as the new Leeds Children’s Mayor.

Out of 48 entries, unfortunately Pippa wasn’t selected as one of the finalists.

Children are invited to vote for their two favourite manifestos from the twelve candidates.

The finalist who has the most votes when voting closes on 15 September will be elected as the new Children’s Mayor of Leeds.

Christmas card competition

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Jane Dowson, is looking to have her Christmas card 2017 designed by a child from Leeds (aged up to 13 years). The card will be sent out by the Lord Mayor across the city and beyond. The theme is “Leeds at Christmas”.

The rules/details are on the attached poster and the closing date is 09 October. The winner will be presented with a copy of the card and a special gift by the Lord Mayor.

This is a really exciting and unique opportunity for children.

How to enter: Designs should be completed on A4 paper. Please write (in pencil) the child’s name and age on the reverse and a parent or guardian’s contact number. Crayons, felt tip, pen and paint can be used for the design, however items should not be stuck on to the paper as this will not replicate when the design is scanned. Entries should be sent to: Lord Mayor Christmas Card Competition, 8 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD by the closing date of Monday 09 October 2017.

Our parents/carers annual survey

Thanks to all those of you who took the time to complete our recent parent / carer survey. There were 71 responses in total – that’s around one in three of you. More Reception and Year 3 parents/carers responded; other than those classes, the response rate was reasonably evenly spread.

Below is a summary of what you’ve said.

Lots of you added some comments after each question; we’ve included here just one or two positive and negative comments that present typical responses. Please do contact us directly if you said something which might help us improve further. We can’t guarantee we can accommodate everyone’s wishes or opinions, but we do guarantee we consider each one.

Finally, don’t forget there’s a post box just inside the main entrance – you can use this to post any sort of feedback, as and when you like. And, of course, Mrs Weekes is around at the start and end of most school days if you’d like to pass on any questions, comments and concerns.

1. My child is happy at Moortown Primary School.

80% of you strongly agreed with this, and 18% agreed – this is great!

We are, however, concerned about the one other respondent who strongly disagreed – please do contact school to discuss the matter if you don’t think we are aware.

There were eight comments made for this statement. Six were entirely positive (such as ‘He bounces out of bed in the morning: there is always something to look forward to!’ and ‘Loves school. Finds it exciting, stimulating.’), and two expressed concerns about academic pressure or their child’s occasional worries.

2. My child feels safe at this school.

Everybody agreed with this statement, with over 75% agreeing strongly. We take safeguarding at Moortown Primary very seriously so we’re really happy about this – we’ve nearly always been rated 100% for this statement in the past.

Comments back this up:
‘He and his friends know that bad behaviour and bullying are not acceptable – and that teachers will deal with any problems swiftly and fairly.’
‘Yes. The school also approaches wider safety issues well e.g. through the staying safe themed week, discussing in an age-appropriate way worrying things in the news (such as the recent terrorist attacks), and regular news updates about safety (staying safe online of particular interest to me).’

3. My child makes good progress at this school.

63% of you strongly agreed with this, and 32% agreed. Nobody disagreed, but three respondents were unsure.

Of the nine comments, five were entirely positive (such as ‘It’s great that they are animated about their learning – the topics in particular seem to go down well’ and ‘I feel my daughter has thrived at Moortown’), one was neutral and three were somewhat critical, wanting to see more progress, especially greater challenge for higher attainers (‘I would like the high achieving children challenged more with their learning’).

This concern about challenge is not unique to Moortown Primary. Since the government moved away from assessing children according to levels, and placed an emphasis on ‘mastery’ and ‘deeper learning’, schools have faced the challenge of providing greater opportunities to develop this deeper learning and not automatically going to a level higher up. We are reassured that the proportion of children who have achieved ‘greater depth’ in the end of Key Stage 2 tests is significantly higher than national figures, suggesting that we do challenge the higher attaining children. However, we are not complacent and we do intend to continue exploring ways to provide challenge.

4. My child is well looked after.

All but one of you agreed here (96%), and again, the proportion who strongly agreed was substantial (63%). This leaves just one respondent, who indicated they were unsure.

Other than two which mentioned very specific instances (relating to an instance of vomiting and a lack of extra toilets), comments were positive:
‘I feel the teachers at Moortown are empathetic regarding the children. They understand a child’s needs and are always happy to comply to any special requests. For example when [my daughter] had a poorly knee, the teacher was happy for her to sit on a chair at carpet time.’
‘Very much so. Particular thanks to Mrs Small for ensuring daughter’s worries are listened to, and Mrs O’Malley for ensuring the children have been fine after various minor ‘falling overs’ in the playground.’

5. My child is taught well at Moortown Primary School.

100% of you said yes to this, with 70% agreeing strongly – that’s a great result, and teachers will be pleased and proud.

‘Every year his new teacher is viewed with initial suspicion (because he loved his old teacher) but quickly becomes his “favourite ever teacher”!’
‘Teaching is very strong, but it’s also good to see creative and more non-academic subjects aren’t ignored. I’m particularly pleased at the number of sporting opportunities that have been available to my children this year – netball and Tchoukball tournaments, triathalon event, cycling, to name a few.’
‘She has really progressed and is confident in her learning.’

6. Adults in school make sure pupils are well behaved.

66% strongly agreed with this, and 30% agreed. Just one person disagreed and two were unsure.

Four comments were made. Three are entirely positive, including: ‘There is a good ‘warnings’ system and rewards system in place. I always see well behaved children. They understand the boundaries which are enforced throughout the school’.

One of the four comments was less positive: ‘My child has learnt quite a lot of bad habits and words from other children which often can’t be helped but I do think manners should be promoted and children shouldn’t go to the toilet together as they learn disgusting habits’.

Regarding the first part of this comment, at Moortown Primary, for many years now, we have regular weeks in which we promote good manners – you can see when these are on the website (usually at the start and end of half-terms). For 2017-18, the weeks are ‘I greet someone politely’ (04.09.17); ‘I say please and thank you’ (11.12.17); ‘I don’t interrupt’ (02.01.18); and ‘I cover my mouth (when I yawn, cough, sneeze)’ (19.02.18). As well as this, we reward instances of good manners continually, and we ‘model’ good manners amongst staff.
Relating to the second part, we’re not entirely clear how and when children go to the toilet together – it’s not something we want to happen. We are keen to explore this more, so if you made this remark, please do contact us.

7. Moortown Primary deals effectively with bullying.

34% strongly agreed and 41% agreed with this statement (‘My son spent 7 years at the school and never mentioned any occasion of bullying.’). It’s quite typical that there is a large proportion of parents / carers who indicate they are unsure (this year, 24%) – respondents cite the reason for this being that their child hasn’t encountered bullying (‘Aware of the policy although no personal experience.’).

We’re not complacent. Sadly, in all schools, some bullying behaviour may arise. However, this comment is very reassuring: ‘First time this year we’ve had a brush with bullying. Daughter spoke to me about her concerns, and we talked about the school’s definition of bullying and what we could do about it. She decided as a starting point to put her concerns in the SEAL box. This was picked up very quickly by the school teacher and resolved immediately, before the situation could escalate. Daughter in particular was very happy with how it was sorted.’

This comment perfectly illustrates our message to our children. We define bullying as upsetting or harmful behaviour which is Several Times On Purpose, and we encourage children to Start Telling Other People before it becomes a problem. (Please help us reinforce this message at home, too.)

Of concern here is the one respondent who disagreed, and the one critical comment – perhaps from the same person. We can’t explore this issue here, but really would encourage parents / carers who have any concerns to follow similar advice to what we say to children: start telling us.

8. The school is well led and managed.

70% strongly agreed and 28% agreed (nobody disagreed and one person was unsure).

This is an especially important point this year as Moortown Primary has undergone quite a significant leadership change.

One comment was negative: ‘I believe it has dropped in standards since Mr Roundtree has left’. This is a tricky one: I left, but then Moortown joined a federation of which I’m the senior leader – so I’ve not actually left. Also, learning outcomes this year are as good as ever (and substantially so for our Year 6 cohort who have just left). Perhaps the respondent is referring to other standards – we’d be keen to discuss this more.

The three other comments were very positive, including: ‘Absolutely. Mrs Weekes is highly visible around school (e.g. often at the school gate) and very approachable. Joining Sphere and Mr Roundtree moving to Head of Federation has not affected the quality of the leadership and management at Moortown, and this continues to be very strong.’

9. The school responds well to any concerns I raise.

51% of respondents strongly agreed and 39% agreed: ‘The only concern I have ever had so far was regarding school dinners which was handle efficiently and sympathetically’.

Rather like the bullying statement above, it’s not surprising that there is a large proportion of parents / carers who indicate they are unsure (10%) – respondents cite the reason for this being that they’ve never raised concerns (‘Luckily I haven’t had to raise any concerns over the last 7 years’).

Well done to Mrs O’Malley and Mrs Russell: ‘Not needed to raise any major concerns, but am sure that these would be dealt with well. School office excellent first ‘go to’ place and fountain of knowledge for minor queries’.

…And to Mrs Valentine: ‘I was most impressed with Mrs Valentine’s willingness to give her time to discuss some concerns about [my daughter]’s spelling with me. She was receptive to learning more about specific spelling disorders/weaknesses and how this might be addressed. A valuable exchange of ideas.’

10. I receive useful information from the school about my child’s progress.

Just over half of the 61 respondents (51%) agreed strongly with this, and another 42% also agreed. Three respondents (4%) disagreed and two were unsure (3%).

Comments here (eight in total) were mixed. There was a good deal of praise (‘Learning updates at parents’ evening are provide a good overview. I know that if I have any concerns about their learning, their teacher will make themselves quickly available to talk to us. This is appreciated.’).

Some respondents would like more frequent learning updates, or more about subjects other than core subjects (reading, writing and maths). There’s obviously a balance to be struck here: providing more information can be time-consuming and the majority of parents don’t need or want it. Teachers are happy to speak to individual parents who would like a few more updates, as one respondent notes: ‘Regular parents’ evenings are held but also teachers are available to speak to before and after school’.

However, we’ll encourage teachers to refer to more subjects during parents’ evenings – we value all learning, and need to reflect this.
Incidentally, information about supporting your child’s progress comes in many ways: learning workshops and ‘Watch us while we work’ sessions are a regular feature in the Moortown academic year. Last year, teachers held duplicate learning workshops – one straight after school and one in the early evening – sadly, these were poorly attended.

Finally…

..we asked you to tell us about things you like and the things we could improve on. We’re delighted by all the praise here – with 47 comments out of the 61 responses in total, it far out-weighed suggestions of ways to improve.
Typical responses relate to how friendly the school is and the good behaviour of our children.
‘The general ‘village’ feel of the school: everyone at school knows and looks after all the children; the staff seem to communicate well at all levels; and the children leave primary school well rounded individuals. Oh – and the new website looks great!’
‘Moortown is an inclusive school and is a supportive, friendly environment. Both my children have felt supported and as a parent I feel that any issues that I may raise no matter how small are listened to and acted upon where necessary.’
‘Proud to be part of the Moortown family. I like the school because it is small and feels friendly, I also feel that it makes use of the limited space available. Always tales of innovative learning at home!’
‘I like the community feel and that both my children are happy to,come to school and are motivated to learn. I find the head of school and many other staff welcoming and very approachable.’
‘Positive management of behaviour and encouraging children to take responsibility for their own choices.’

The suggestions to improve are very varied.

Some comments which crop up more than once is our size, the traffic on the school run and limited play space – all of which are to an extent out of our immediate control, but things we do try to influence (…and let’s hope our new green space will happen soon).

Quite a few comments relate to school dinners, which we’ll consider. We are exploring ways to improve choosing the dinners, which will help.
There were other, more specific comments. These include a Class News page for the website (there used to be one, and there will be one soon for the new website); a third parents’ evening (instead of this, parents are encouraged to raise any questions, comments and concerns whenever they arise, and they are always invited to attend a drop-in session following their child’s annual report); and paying for trips and clubs electronically (something we’ve looked into, but are still reluctant to introduce due to additional costs).

Perhaps inevitably, there were contradictory suggestions, too (such as ‘More classroom based learning as well as more homework would help kids learn faster and also make them work harder, preparing them in a better way for the higher classes’ versus ‘There is a lot of pressure on children to achieve and progress. I struggle to get my child to do his homework as we spend a lot of time doing other things…’).

Finally, even amongst the suggestions to improve, there was a lot of praise! (Thank you for comments such as these: ‘Nothing Moortown could do to improve. They are simply fantastic’ and ‘I am happy with what the school offers my child’ – we do very much appreciate them.)

How writing progresses across year groups

Now that we’ve finished the school year, we thought you might be interested to see the progress in writing from year to year. Below is an example of writing from each year group. (We’ve chosen a good, typical example, not a flawless one. Also, it’s important to note that teachers should not assess a pupil’s writing skills on just one piece – it’s writing a selection of different pieces over time that matters.)

At the end of Reception, this child is using phonic knowledge: some words are spelt correctly whilst others are phonetically plausible (‘sum tee’ is a plausible attempt at spelling ‘some tea’). The sentence can be read because the spelling is good, but also letters are formed correctly and there are gaps between the words (we often refer to the gaps as ‘finger spaces’). Finally, the sentence as a whole has meaning – it makes sense. Next step here would be to include a full stop – something children might begin in Reception, but should definitely do in Year 1.

​Straight away you can see what progress is made in Year 1! Sentences ​are effectively demarcated with capital letters and full stops, although the last sentence would benefit from a full stop after ‘drum’ (to avoid what we call ‘squashed sentences’ or, more accurately, run-on sentences). The writer makes good use of phonics – many words are correctly spelled, and where they are not (‘dinasor’) the attempt is plausible. There is an awareness of story language (look at the writer’s use of the traditional start and end to a fairy tale), and the writer consistently uses the past tense.

It’s not an expectation for Year 2 children to write in paragraphs, but we find most children are able to do this, especially for non-narrative (non-story) writing such as this letter of complaint. The cohesion of the piece shown here is very good. The sentences make sense and are in the correct tense. Punctuation is accurate: full stops and capital letters are used correctly ​and there are also some exclamation marks and a question mark.
The writer’s vocabulary choice is also very good: he’s made the writing more interesting by using adjectives and has carefully selected other words to match the context and purpose of the text. Most impressive is ​the writer’s editing: although you can’t easily see it here, he’s corrected a range of mistakes using a purple pen. (Whilst that might mean the writing doesn’t initially appear impressive, the process of editing and improving writing is a very important one that we’ve been developing over the year.)

The teacher has used green text here to show aspects of this Year 3 writing that she particularly liked. Sentence openers that tell you how, where or when something happens (‘fronted adverbials’ including Just then, … and On the boat, …) are impressive and dotted throughout the piece. Descriptions using adjectives (to make ‘expanded noun phrases’) are also good – we can see One dark, damp night and a deafening bang, for example. There’s clear progression in punctuation, too: this writing shows increasingly sophisticated punctuation including inverted commas for speech, brackets and ellipsis.

This Year 4 writing might not appear to be the neatest piece in the series, but the focus here was to edit and improve – it’s hard to do that neatly without re-writing the whole piece. This writing is an example of a recount, a piece that re-tells what has happened (whether real or fictional). Unlike the Year 2 piece, the tone is informal; the writer has managed this well. Like the Year 3 piece, there are lots of effective fronted adverbials. There are examples of sophisticated punctuation (including hyphens used here); when writing longer pieces with more skills, it’s sometimes easy to slip up on a basic – capital letters for proper nouns (The Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the name of a book and film, so needs capitals). This is a common error, but you can support your child at home – get your child to practise their spellings by writing sentences that use the spelling and include proper nouns.

This is a great story – and a real one, too! Having heard and read about the story of two male penguins trying to hatch a stone, the task for this Year 5 writer was to re-write the story. The teacher has starred two ‘Ps’ for punctuation (a colon and a dash are used effectively and appropriately) and a ‘PV’ for using the passive voice (a common feature in formal, journalistic writing). Look at the complexity of the first sentence, too – more than one fronted adverbial used, and making a good use of commas. These fronted adverbials are used throughout and really give the writing cohesion.

The Year 6s all loved their residential to Robinwood and had no complaints whatsoever. However, to capture a child’s imagination, it can sometimes be good to turn everything upside down and write about the opposite. What we can see here is also the writer becoming someone else – very different to what a younger child would be able to do. The task to write as Mrs Weekes to make the complaint demanded a formal tone. And your task? Think about how else this piece shows progression across the years…

We hope...

…you have a happy and healthy summer holiday.

There’s a lot to get up to in and around Leeds. Breeze is a good place to start looking, and also check out What’s On in Leeds and Leeds List.

The summer holiday is a long one, so keep up with reading. Encourage your child to continue to read often – quarter of an hour, most days will be a great way to keep their reading skills strong and their love of reading alight.

It’s not just about books – reading a comic or magazine, a website, a recipe, First News newspaper are all good ways to keep your child reading. Why not take a trip to one of Leeds’ libraries – a local one, or why not try the Central Library in town for an afternoon trip out?

You might also want to keep your child’s number skills fresh, too. For younger ones, knowing their number bonds is a good start. For older children, knowing their times tables and corresponding division facts is so important.

Taking up these top tips for learning will be a great way for your child to return to school in September hitting the ground running as a confident learner.

Don’t forget our summer competition, too. Whether you go away or not, we want to see some maths done in an unusual place or using unusual things, or a pic that shows somewhere/something ordinary but which shows lots of maths.

Take a photo and send it to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org or print it out and bring to school in the first week back in September – entries must be in by 08.09.17. There will be prizes for great examples of the Extreme Maths. We’re looking forward to seeing your entries!

Whatever you get up to, have a great holiday. See you on Tuesday 05 September.