This week, we are learning to spell words beginning with the super and sub prefix.
Here are the words we would like you to learn at home. Could you write each word into a sentence?
We have been busy developing our descriptive writing in class and have produced some fantastic mini-stories. The children had lots of fun imagining that they were sneaking somewhere to pinch something – of course this is something that they’d never dream of doing in reality, but it was great fun imagining!
We hope you enjoy some more of their stories!
Daisy Edward Ellie Harley Jacob Kara Louie Olivia Phoebe Will Willow
Well done to this week’s Times Tables Rockstars champions.
It is great to see that, this week, 22% more children were active on TTRs than last week!
The children have really noticed this past two weeks, when learning about division, how much easier the division calculations are when they know their tables. Keep practising for 10 minutes a day to help learn your tables!
This week’s message has three new messages and a reminder…
The 2021-22 school year has been officially shortened by one day to take into account the extra bank holiday for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The 2021-22 school year is 194 days. Leeds has decided that schools will break up for summer on Tuesday 26 July 2022 instead of Wednesday 27 July. This ensures that pupils and staff all benefit from the extra public holiday, even though it falls during the May half term break.
We had a training day booked on this day that we’ve moved. The holidays and training days for next year are all in our school calendar.
…to spend just a few minutes completing this year’s annual survey. The survey’s open until Wednesday 30 June so you’ve still got a few days. Thank you to all the parents / carers who have responded so far.
The European Football Championships are well underway. Your child might be reaching for the online game FIFA 21 to virtually recreate the sort of shots, passes and saves they’ve watched their real-life heroes pull off on TV. In the popularity league table, FIFA is the Real Madrid of football games – some seasons are better than others, but it’s never away from the summit for long.
FIFA doesn’t include inappropriate content or violence (apart from the odd reckless sliding tackle!). However, do be aware of risks such as in-game purchases, over-competitiveness and the possibility of becoming addicted. Read more about FIFA 21.
Finally, a short message that we emailed earlier in the week…
The number of pupils absent because of a potential contact with Covid-19 in school has quadrupled in just one week. In our own schools, and in lots of schools around us, there’s been a notable rise in Covid cases – more now than ever before.
Please keep your child at home if:
And an update to this, following an email to schools from Leeds City Council…
As you are no doubt aware, the Delta variant of Covid-19 is now the most prevalent form of the virus in Leeds. The Zoe Covid Symptom Study, the largest ongoing global study of Covid-19, has highlighted that a headache, sore throat and runny nose are now the most common symptoms of the Delta variant, instead of a cough and loss of smell, although fever is still common.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you and those around you get up to.
Year 3/4 have been developing their writing skills using lots of description. We have had a wonderful time imagining being really naughty and pinching some food – of course they would never dream of doing this in reality but we had great fun with developing our writing!
Here is our first instalment of their short stories…Ava Brooklyn Caleb Dexter Eliza Jack Leah Maylee Siana
We will have some more for you later in the week! Enjoy!
So, unsurprisingly, lockdown restrictions won’t be lifted on 21 June. This week’s message is mainly about the current topic learning in Years 1 to 6 – Design and Technology is the main driver. We start with a Covid-related point and end with a quick reminder about something else!
The Prime Minister announced on Monday that current restrictions remain in place. Schools have been advised by the Department for Education to keep current protective measures in place until there is a further announcement on Step 4 of the roadmap. These measures in education settings will remain in place to help reduce transmission of the virus. Subsequent guidance does allow a little bit of flexibility. We’re waiting for more guidance from Leeds Health and Safety advisors to see if any end-of-year events such as Sports Day can happen in some way, although in their typical form that won’t happen.
The rest of this message comes from Mr Wilks, who works at Moortown Primary but is our curriculum leader across all three Sphere Federation schools for Science and Foundation subjects…
Design and Technology is the driving subject for this half-term and it’s a great topic to finish the year! The focus for all classes this year is construction (next year, it’s textiles) so children will be busy designing and making structures, prototypes and products.
A key aspect of the Design and Technology curriculum is the understanding that products don’t just get made. Instead, they go through a design process that includes three key elements: evaluate, design and make. Think of this process as a cycle. For example, Sphere Motors want to create a new family car. Before the car is made, they need to evaluate existing products and talk to customers so that they’re clear about what the new car needs to have. They will then design the car and evaluate those designs. They may make a prototype of the car to help them evaluate the designs. Next, they’ll decide on a final design that will go into production and get made. This finished product will be evaluated and the whole process starts again.
Years 1 and 2 children will be designing, making and evaluating different structures and in doing so, learning about how structures can be strengthened and made more stable. They’ll evaluate real life structures like bridges and towers which will inform their designs.
Years 3,4 children will be creating a prototype of a go-kart using a construction system called TechCard. They’ll evaluate existing products before designing, building, testing and evaluating their own. We will even try to incorporate electric circuits into our designs to power the go-karts.
Years 5,6 children have been set a tricky task of creating a vehicle that can transport an egg (specific tests will be determined by the children) without it breaking. They’ll be using a range of tools (including saws, hammers, drills) to make their product.
In addition to this, children will learn a little about key inventions and designers through history.
Read our Curriculum Statement. On page 17, you’ll find the age-related expectations for the topic. The vocabulary that your child will learn is here:
Years 1 and 2
Years 3 and 4
Years 5 and 6
Don’t forget to spend just a few minutes completing this year’s annual survey. We’re always keen to hear your views. Although we can’t guarantee that we can act on every point raised, we do closely consider all the survey results.
The survey’s open until Wednesday 30 June.
Last week’s message ended with talk of ice-cream and sunny weather over the weekend. This weekend looks like being a bit different to that – have a good one, all the same.
This week we have been discussing how that, although we are all unique, we have similar interests and lives.
We thought about things that we are good at, what we can change about ourselves and things about ourselves that we can’t change. We had some really good discussions! Here are a few pictures of our work.
We also discussed consent, and all the children gave their consent before these pictures were taken!
Last week, we were lucky to welcome Hand to Mouth back into school. Hand to Mouth is a Christian charity that come into schools to work with children to explore Christianity and their own spiritual journey.
Throughout the day, Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 visited a journey where they could explore ‘Christianity as a living faith’. The children visited the journey in pairs and explored different stations throughout.
Throught the day, each class had a visit to learning about different aspects of Christianity as a living world faith.
In foundation, they learnt all about African worship. In the session, they made our very own Kufi Hats and danced around the classroom to some African music.
In year 1,2, they learnt all about different churches and got to make their own church.
In year 3,4, they learnt what worship was and how different this can look around the world.
In year 5,6, they learnt all about justice and what this entailed.
What a difference the sunshine makes! It was such a pleasure to enjoy a happy and healthy half-term break with the end to what started to seem like interminable rain.
Every year, we invite you to let us know how we’re doing via the annual survey of parents /carers. This year’s survey is now open.
The first part of the survey is about some of the changes we’ve made due to Covid – we’re especially interested to hear your views about homework. The second part is more general and includes statements which you might be familiar with from previous surveys.
It should only take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Lots of the questions need only a tick answer. Most responses are optional so you can miss out a question if you’ve no particular opinions. There are only a few (marked with a red asterisk*) where a response is needed.
We’re always keen to hear your views. We do closely consider all the survey results, although we can’t guarantee that we can act on every point raised (this year, because of Covid, that’s been especially difficult).
The survey helps us to gain a broad overview of how we’re doing. For more specific questions, comments and concerns, it’s always best to speak with your child’s class teacher or Miss Beatson. The survey isn’t the right forum to raise a very specific point.
The survey’s open until Wednesday 30 June, so you’ve plenty of time to leave your views.
For the first five half-terms, our overall attendance figure is 95.9% – that’s a good figure. Thank you for helping your child to attend school as much as they can.
With attendance over 98%, well done especially to all the children in Year 1!
In case you missed our earlier message, our new parent governor is Mr Andy Sammons (Candidate 2), whose child attends Scholes (Elmet) Primary.
The election closed on Friday just before the half-term holiday with 89 votes cast overall.
Thank you to both candidates for standing in the parent governor elections.
There’s a lot of uncertainty about 21 June – the final date in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown. This makes it hard to plan for events and activities such as Sports Day, Y5,6 productions and Leavers’ Assembly. These are all still pencilled in, but we’ll have to wait and see whether they can go ahead as normal or whether they need to be adapted (like having a Sports Day but without spectators) or even cancelled.
Enjoy the weekend. Miss Beatson and I might both indulge in an ice-cream… one of us rates mint choc chip as a top choice; the other one always opts for the most unusual flavour on a menu (basil being a recent taste triumph). Can you work our who’s more traditional and who’s more adventurous?
…Mr Andy Sammons (Candidate 2), whose child attends Scholes (Elmet) Primary.
The election closed on Friday and 89 votes were cast overall.
Thank you to both candidates for standing in the parent governor elections.
Mr Sammons’ election note is below:
Fundamentally, the reason why I would dearly love to undertake this role is that I believe in the potential for education to change lives. For me, it is the thing that makes humans unique, and the thing that we must never lose sight of in terms of its ability to give everyone – especially young people – a chance to make the very best of their lives.
As a teacher myself (I am Director of English), I see this every day; as a result, I am ideally placed to understand key educational issues. I feel as though I would have a great deal to offer, as I have played a key role in building an engaging, enriching and ambitious curriculum for my own pupils.
I have one child at a federation primary school, and I hope that my younger child will be given a place too; as parents, we’ve been thrilled with the way that our little boy has settled in and has really started to thrive in terms of his academic progress, but also his social and emotional learning too. To be given the chance to shape and support the school in continuing to grow would mean a great deal to me.