Author: Mr Roundtree

11 May 2018

This week’s homework is Creative and is due in on Thursday 17 May.

I can identify sounds that keep us safe.

Having looked at safety as part of our previous topic, electricity, we are now going to consider safety within our new topic, sound.

Keeping safe is sometimes dependent on listening to the sounds around us to alert us to potential dangers that cannot always be seen straight away. How many sounds have you heard or can you think of that are designed to help keep us safe?

Present your findings as creatively as possible. This may be:

  • a sound safety poster
  • an audio clip of recorded sounds
  • a slideshow of photographs showing sources of sounds

Your views matter!

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’re always keen to hear your views. Most parents and carers are happy to let us know at any point if something’s gone wrong – and even sometimes when things have gone well! However, it’s always useful to collect your views on some standard questions – the same questions that Ofsted use during inspections.

We ask that you visit the survey site and respond to a series of statements – either agree / agree strongly or disagree / disagree strongly (or say that you don’t know). The statements include:

  • My child is happy at school.
  • My child feels safe at this school.
  • My child makes good progress at this school.
  • My child is well looked after.
  • My child is taught well.

There’s also the opportunity to add any comments you may have. The survey should take you about five minutes – maybe a bit longer if you add lots of comments. The survey is open until 11 June.

The results of the survey are used by school leaders, including the governing body, to shape what we do in the future – your views do matter.

As always, if you’ve any questions, comments of concerns, do let us know.

27 April 2018

Spelling Activity:

The following words, taken from our Year 3/4 list, use ‘ou’ in the middle, but make different sounds when read.

The task this week is to find a way of remembering how to spell these words. The children can do this in a variety of ways: use doodle pictures (e.g. show thought as a thought bubble and through as a tunnel), rainbow words (write over the same words many times in different colours), pyramid words (start with a single letter at the top of the pyramid and add a letter on each layer) or any other way that helps remember how to spell them.

  • through, thought, though, although
  • enough, rough, tough,
  • cough
  • favourite, famous

Term-time absences

In the summer term, the number of parents / carers requesting term-time absence increases a little. We do not authorise term-time absence for holidays or other reasons that are avoidable. This follows our Attendance Policy which the Governing Body agree, and follows the recommendations from the Department for Education.

If a child has unauthorised absences, there is the likelihood that parents will be issued with a penalty notice from Leeds City Council.

The National Association of Headteachers has produced some guidance recently, extracts of which are shown here:

The Education (pupil registration) (England) (amendment) Regulations 2013, which came into force on 1 September 2013, made it clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless ‘exceptional circumstances’ prevail.

The fundamental principles for defining ‘exceptional circumstances’ are that they are ‘rare, significant, unavoidable and short’.

Term times are for education. This is the priority. Children and families have 175 days off school to spend time together, including weekends and school holidays. Head teachers will rightly prioritise attendance. The default school policy should be that absences will not be granted during term time and will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

If an event can be reasonably scheduled outside of term time then it would not be normal to authorise absence for such an event – holidays are therefore not considered ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Living and Learning: I can name emotions.

Healthy Minds is the Living and Learning theme this half-term. Being aware of different emotions – both positive and negative – is an important basis for good mental health.

Throughout this week, Year 3/4 have been naming emotions that we feel. We discussed how different emotions make us feel inside and the situations that happen that can change our emotions.

Year 2 and Year 6 assessments

The STA has published an information leaflet and two videos for parents/carers of children in Year 2 and Year 6 about national curriculum assessments. The purpose of these materials is to help you understand more about the end of key stage assessments that will be administered in primary schools in May. (The end of Key Stage 1 is Year 2; the end of Key Stage 2 is Year 6.)

The materials provide basic information about the purpose and format of the tests, how parents can best support their children and how results will be reported.

Read the leaflet.

Watch the videos.