News

School Meals

Our school dinner menu is usually changed on a termly basis but this is now changing to half yearly.  Our new menu will therefore be from February 2017.

When we return from the Christmas holiday, we will start on Week 3 of our current menu until the new menu is introduced.

Give your views...

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are government-funded schools that offer 14-19 year olds something different. UTCs are schools for 14-18 year olds specialising in the delivery of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The purpose of a UTC is to develop the advanced technical skills required to ensure that the UK prospers in the 21st century and provide students with a deep understanding of the sectors they can apply their skills in as they learn.

A proposal is being put together for a new UTC here in Leeds.

The people setting this up are keen to hear your views. They need to gauge the level of interest in this alternative education institution.

They write:

In a fast-paced, ever-changing digital world and increasingly competitive job market there is a real chance for the students of this proposed secondary school to be one step ahead.

If the bid is successful, Leeds Creative Digital UTC students will gain invaluable skills and be well equipped for the world of work with unrivalled digital expertise – both technical and practical in nature.

Not only will this help develop the future employment potential of our children it will play a huge part in supporting the local area by addressing and improving youth qualifications and unemployment in our region.

Why do we need a UTC?
The UK needs advanced technical skills to prosper in a service-centric world economy – and more importantly, we need young people entering higher education and the technical professions who have the skills, knowledge and experience to be productive from the outset.

Leeds City Region has the largest digital sector outside of London and employs almost 50,000 people, accounting for 4% of the workforce.

In July 2015, Leeds had over 640 active Digital & ICT vacancies on 120 company websites. Sky has created 400 jobs at their New Dock office in Leeds. With 150 empty chairs, Sky’s growth will only be limited by the availability of talent.

The traditional school system is based around a curriculum which changes slowly and offers little opportunity for employers to contribute to developing their ideal job applicants – UTCs address that and also act as a route to workplace degree apprenticeships or for universities to nurture their future intakes.

UTC students work closely with employers, who take an active role – regularly mentoring students and providing opportunities for work experience in a number of areas. Students will work on real-world projects with access to world-class facilities and equipment, with a “working day” that usually starts at 8.30 and finishes at 5 – leaving evenings free for other activities.

Read more about the proposed new UTC.

Complete the on-line survey.

Zipit

It’s easy to think your child is safe once they’re indoors. And it’s easy to think your child will always be responsible and safe online.

However, most older children and young people can be on-line, meaning they’re not quite so protected as you might think. And it’s easier than you think for a child to make a choice that they wouldn’t do in person.

Increasingly, we’re being told of problems on social networking sites. These include grooming.

The ‘zipit’ app is a download from Childline for iOS and Android. The app aims to help young people safely respond to requests for inappropriate images by sending back a ‘joke’ image. Using it might help your child maintain some credibility as well as staying safe.

Safeguarding in sport

The continued disclosures in football have rightly started a national conversation about the sexual abuse of children by people in positions of responsibility.

Talking to your children about sexual abuse?

The BBC published an article last week, ‘How do you talk to your children about sexual abuse?’ which is a good summary of the different ways parents can have conversations about keeping safe with their children.

FA captains’ video raises awareness

Captains of three England football teams have taken part in a film about how to keep children safe in the sport. The video for the NSPCC and the FA explains how parents and children can raise concerns they may have about adults working in football.

Don’t forget we published an article with advice about safeguarding in sport back in October, too.

PE and Sport Premium funding

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.
Each school receives £8000, plus £5 per pupil on roll. This gives us a total each year of about £9,000.

For 2016-2017, our grant allocation is £8910.

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 2015/16 PE provision plan is now fully evaluated with impact from last year’s investment.

Our 2016/17 PE provision plan detailing proposed investment is also published.

Physical activity - the facts

In August 2016, the Government released its Childhood Obesity Strategy. This document outlines actions which will address the rising rates of childhood obesity.

Yorkshire Sport Foundation have produced the following poster with statistics and key information from the strategy.

We continue to monitor and improve our physical activity provision (see our current PE Provision Plan (pe-and-sport-premium-2016-2017) and our previous PE Provision Plan (pe-and-sport-premium-2015-2016).

Childline - on the web

This year is the 30th anniversary of Childline. It’s often thought that Childline is just a phone number, but their website is full of useful information in different formats. If you haven’t looked at the site, check it out, and encourage your child to visit, too. Remind children that they don’t have to be be in distress to find the Childline information helpful.

Why do children contact Childline?

The two most common reasons children contact Childline are low mood/unhappiness and family relationships. Childline made 4,005 referrals in 2015/16 on behalf of 3,609 children to external agencies, a 7% increase in referrals since 2014/15. There was a 49% increase in referrals about mental health since 2014/15. (Source: How safe are our children 2016, NSPCC, 2016)

Safeguarding in sport

Sport is a terrific way for young people to develop their physical skills, team work and confidence. Thousands of people give up their time to coach and encourage youngsters, but occasionally incidents of grooming and abuse occur. Ensuring that children in sport are as safe as possible is much more rigorous than ever before.

Following last week’s disclosures by Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Paul Stewart about the abuse they suffered as young footballers, the importance of effective policies and procedures has been brought into sharp focus. We have to remember that the abuse of children by adults they trust can occur in any context.

The NSPCC have dedicated resources for safeguarding children in sport.

Below is a Moortown Primary news story from 01 October on this subject:

What children say about bullying

We’re reaching the end of anti-bullying week (although, of course, every week should be an anti-bullying week!).

At Moortown, there is very limited bullying – in fact, children frequently tell us there is none at all, which is great. Even so, it’s still important to prepare your child if they encounter bullying. Please discuss at home how harmful bullying can be, and encourage them to start telling other people.

A report by the NSPCC describes the nature of bullying experienced by young people contacting Childline. Its key findings are:

• Bullying is the second most common reason for boys and the third most common reason for girls to contact Childline. It makes up 9% of all counselling sessions (25,740 sessions in 2015/16).
• In a quarter of counselling sessions about bullying, children also talked about mental health and wellbeing issues.
• Last year, Childline provided more counselling sessions about physical bullying (4,723 sessions) than online bullying (4,541 sessions).
• However, there has been an 88% increase in counselling about online bullying over the past five years.
• In 2015/16, there were 1,420 counselling sessions with young people talking about bullying on social networking and gaming sites, up 34% on the previous year.
• Of the children who contacted Childline about bullying, 12% said they had not told anyone else about it.
• The young people who had told someone else were most likely to have told a parent (31%), a teacher (30%) or a friend (16%).
• Childline delivered over 300,000 in-depth counselling sessions to children and young people in 2015/16.
• Overall, Childline provides more counselling sessions to girls than to boys.
• Although Childline provide more counselling sessions about bullying to girls, it is a more common concern among the boys who do contact them.
• Due to the confidential nature of the Childline service, young people do not always disclose personal information, such as their age and gender.

'Power for good'

Next week is national Anti-Bullying Week.

The theme this year is ‘Power for Good‘ with the following key aims:

• To support children and young people to use their Power for Good – by understanding the ways in which they are powerful  and encouraging individual and collective action to stop bullying and create the best world possible.
• To help parents and carers to use their Power for Good – through supporting children with issues relating to bullying and working together with schools to stop bullying.
• To encourage all teachers, school support staff and youth workers to use their Power for Good– by valuing the difference they can make in a child’s life, and taking individual and collective action to prevent bullying and create safe environments where children can thrive.

Our school definition has recently been reviewed by the School Council and remains unchanged.

‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’

We also encourage children to use their ‘Power for Good’, if they were to experience or witness bullying, by using another STOP message, start telling other people.

In class, children will discuss these aspects of bullying:

• Our definition of bullying (above)
• Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
• What to do if children experience bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)

Recently the School Council responded to this question, ‘What would you do if you were bullied‘?

• ‘Start telling other people – tell someone who I trust and who I can talk to.’
• ‘I would tell someone I trust (family member, member of staff or friend).’
• ‘If I were bullied, I’d tell my parents, a friend, a teacher and if nothing changed I would phone ChildLine (08001111).’
• ‘I’d tell a teacher, maybe a friend and put in a worry in the ‘worry box’.  Also, I’d tell a parent.’
• ‘I would tell anyone I trust: my friends, my mum or dad or a member of staff.  They could sort it straight away.’
• ‘I’d tell my mummy and daddy.’

All classes have access to their class SEAL box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.

For further support, bullying resources can be found at…

• http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/resources/disablist-bullying/resources-for-parents/
• http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/pages/bullying.aspx
• http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
• http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/worried_about_your_child/bullying