Summer smile competition

Have you captured a smile for our Summer competition yet? This summer, we’re looking for smiley faces to sum up our happy and healthy place to achieve and believe!

Over the Summer holiday, we want you to stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you… and take a pic of any hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a day out at the beach might include creating a smiley face, for example! Here’s our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…

…but we’re sure you can do better!

Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…).

To help you get started, look out for some intended smiling faces like McCain Potato Smiles or commercial logos with a hidden smile but they’ll be too obvious to win the competition!

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.

All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Our last weekly school message of the year: Friday 18 July 2025

We’ve reached the end of the school year – we hope it’s been a happy and healthy one at Scholes (Elmet) Primary for you and your child. Our message this week is a long one:

1. Our first message is about swimming – it’s especially important for parents of children moving into Year 3 next year
2. We’ve a uniform update – this is for everyone
3. Also for everyone are some links for holiday ideas
4. Some early news about assessment outcomes
5. Some news about three different spaces in school
6. After this, we’ve an array of celebrations of our happy and healthy school!

The Year 5,6 performance What a Knight was a great success. There were some amazing individual performances which came together to produce something quite special. Well done to everyone involved.

On Wednesday, we presented our Year 5 children with their special Year 6 sweatshirts. We spoke a great deal about being a role model, contributing to our school community, and embracing the challenges and opportunities that Year 6 presents. We know our Year 5 children will take this responsibility seriously.

Of course, this means we say goodbye to our current Year 6 children. We wish them every success as they move on to the next stage of their life-long learning journey.

Thank you for all your support and engagement this year. Have a wonderful summer and we’ll see you back at school on Tuesday 02 September. Have a happy and healthy holiday!

Our weekly message: Friday 11 July 2025

This week has been our Being Healthy themed week, the second of our Living and Learning themed weeks in the year. A big highlight for children in KS2 was skateboarding. Everyone was eager to put on helmets and pads and give it a go. Balancing for some people was the real challenge and for others a few tricks were in order. For younger children, a highlight was Flexdance:  learning a dance routine and performing it all together was so much fun.

We also had our Sports Day. Isn’t the British weather a challenge? Last year, we were avoiding heavy rain showers; this year, we had to avoid scorching sun.  Despite the heat, a fun morning was had by all. The ice pops were certainly a very welcome refreshment.

Home learning

Our first message this week is here for two reasons:

• to help parents of children going into Year 1 in September know about home learning
• to make sure other parents are aware of our expectations for home learning (this stems from feedback in our 2025 annual survey)

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we set out five home learning tasks for children to do:

• Reading – daily for at least 10-15 minutes
• Number fluency – use NumBots or TimesTables Rock Stars for about ten minutes each day
• Spellings – daily for 5-10 minutes
• Talk Time – weekly for about 15 minutes
• Living and Learning– weekly for about 15 minutes

Altogether, this varied diet of home learning totals about 35 minutes each day (that’s allowing for a day or two off). Read our Home Learning Policy. This includes a Homework Guide which you might want to print off and keep somewhere for easy reference.

Summer production

The Year 6 leavers’ production of ‘A Knight’s Tale’ was a huge success. Well done to all of the children and staff involved in putting on a wonderful performance. Thank you, also, to all of you who managed to attend. We hope you enjoyed it.

Governance

For those of you interested to read more about our Governing Board, the Sphere Federation Annual Governance Statement for 2024-25 has been published.

We do still have a vacancy on the Governing Board. Please mention this to any friends or relatives! Anyone interested should contact the chair of governors, Mrs Rachel Cooper: rachelcooper@spherefederation.org

That’s a date!

At Sphere Federation, we like to be organised because we know many of you do, too. That’s why you’ll find most of the key dates in our calendar for 2025-26. Because we’ve got these planned in so far in advance, there’s a small chance one or two might need to be changed (we’ve not had to do this very often this year!). Well over 50 events are listed, including:

• Christmas events
• Class assemblies
• Easter productions
• Early Years events such as Stay and Learn sessions
• all our Living and Learning statements (with improved prompts for continuing the  learning at home)
• Living and Learning themed weeks (Me and My Money and Staying Safe)
• Living and Learning themed days (Anti-bullying day and Safer Internet Day)
• National assessments
• Productions across the year
• Watch us while we work sessions (so you can see some teaching and learning in core skills like Reading, Writing and Maths)
• Topic review sessions (come and and see the learning in Art and Computing)
• Some online presentations (Y6 SATs and residential; Y1, Y2 phonics and early reading; online safety)
• Parent-teacher meetings (in October and February)
• Photographer (for individual and class photos)
• lots of events to celebrate Reading
• Sports Day

Safeguarding over the Summer break

During the Summer holiday, you might have a concern about a child that you feel needs acting on. In term time, we would encourage you to share the concern with us at school but this isn’t possible when school is closed.

Here are some options for you if you have any concerns:

• During office hours: You can call Children’s Social Work Services on 0113 222 4403 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, except Wednesdays when they’re open from 10am). You can also discuss your concerns with someone who works with children and families, such as your health visitor or your GP
• Out of office hours: If you think a child is in immediate danger call the police on 999
• Our Federation Safeguarding Lead will also be picking up emails. You can contact her using our safeguarding email address: stayingsafe@spherefederation.org

Talking of summer, don’t forget…

Our Summer competition

The aim is simple: capture or create a smiley face to sum up our happy and healthy place to learn! We want you to stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you… and take a pic of any hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a day out at the beach might include creating a smiley face in the sand, for example! We’re sure you and your child can do than our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…

Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…).

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject. All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Next week’s our last week of the 2024-25 school year. The last day of term is Friday 18 July (it’s a non-uniform day). If your child’s in Year 6, we’re looking forward to seeing you for our Leavers’ Assembly on Friday at 2.15pm.

Our weekly message: Friday 04 July 2025

You should have received your child’s annual report this week. Please contact your child’s teacher if you’d like to discuss the report – your questions, comments and concerns are important.

This week’s message has a few repeats of previous messages so you’re prepared…

Themed week: Being Healthy

Next week is the second of two themed weeks in the year. Here are a few reminders.

• Children should wear PE kit throughout the week, but please make sure it follows our Uniform Policy:

• Travel actively to school! For the chance to win a book voucher, send your photos to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Thursday 10 July.
• At 3.00pm on Thursday 10 July, a d:side representative will be in the front playground ready to answer any questions you might have about the drug education sessions taking place for all classes.
• Friday 11 July is our Sports Day: our Sports Roundabout for Reception and Key Stage 1 at 9.15am-10.30am, and competitive sports for children in Key Stage 2 at 1.15 – 3.15pm.
• Pupils have an online health questionnaire at home for their homework.

To help us continue with themed weeks such as this, we’re asking for a small contribution: £2 per pupil (Gateway) will help us to pay for visitors for themed weeks. Visitors include LS-TEN skateboarding, Flex Dance and d:side. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

Production

Don’t forget our Key Stage 2 Summer production next week, too. There are three performances:

• Tuesday at 6.00pm
• Wednesday at 1.45pm
• Wednesday at 6.00pm

Classes for next year

On Wednesday, your child met their new teacher and spent some time with their new class.

We’ve got a few changes to our staffing structure for next year as we say goodbye and welcome back to some Sphere Federation staff.

After ten years at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, Miss Parling is leaving to take on a new challenge. We’re all envious of her intent to travel. We’ll also be sad to say goodbye to Miss Gilliland but she’s not travelling as far as she is heading over to St James’ CE Primary to teach.

We’re welcoming back from maternity leave Mrs Paterson. After Christmas we’ll also welcome back Miss Iveson. Mrs Lake is also joining us from Moortown Primary. Mrs Lake worked with us a few years ago – it will be great to see her back.

The school will be organised as below:

Early Years

• Nursery: Mrs Beesley
• Reception Sunshine: Mrs Brown (4 days), Mrs Allen-Kelly (1 day); after Christmas, Mrs Brown (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day)
• Reception Rainbow: Mrs Long (3 days), Mrs Allen-Kelly (3 days)

Key Stage 1

• Year 1: Miss Young
• Year 1,2: Mrs Latham
• Year 2: Mrs Paterson (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day)

Key Stage Two

• Year 3,4A: Mr Wain
• Year 3,4B: Mrs Lake (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day); after Christmas, Mrs Lake (2 days), Miss Iveson (3 days)
• Year 3,4C: Mrs Wadsworth
• Year 5,6A: Mr Goodwin
• Year 5,6B: Mrs Hogarth
• Year 5,6C: Mr Lindsay

That’s all for this week. Before we end, here’s an idea if there’s a summer birthday in your household…

Herd Farm is a council-run activity centre offering a range of outdoor activities and pursuits for both adults and children. They’ve recently launched a Birthday Adventure Offer which they’re trialling during the summer holidays. Interested? Check out this video clip.

Our weekly message: Friday 27 June 2025

This weekend, why not pay a compliment or two?

Our Living and Learning statement this week…

…has been I can say one good thing about myself.

Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. These feelings can change as things in your life change, such as going to a new school or becoming a brother or sister. Does your child recognise their strengths? Do they know subjects at school they’re strongest at? Outside school, do they know what skills are they especially good at? Just as importantly, what are their strengths in their character?

At home this weekend, have a chat about strengths. Think about questions such as:

• What are they?
• How did they become strengths – practise or a natural talent or luck?
• How can we maintain them?

Attendance matters

This year, the government introduced new measures to tackle unnecessary term-time absence.

• Since August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country has been £80 if paid within 21 days, or £160 if paid within 28 days.
• If a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.
• If there’s a third time, other action like a parenting order or prosecution will be considered. If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500. 

Leeds has issued 7,410 penalty notices so far this year and will continue to issue notices across Summer. This figure includes second fines for some parents following two separate periods of absence in the year. It doesn’t include situations where there is a third instance because this results in legal action.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, attendance for the vast majority of pupils is good. Thank you for avoiding unnecessary term-time absence.

Our Summer competition

It’s time to get your thinking caps on for the return of our Summer competition. This year, it’s the return of smiley faces to sum up our happy and healthy place to learn!

Over the Summer weeks, we want you to stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you… and take a pic of any hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a day out at the beach might include creating a smiley face, for example! Here’s our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…

…but we’re sure you can do better!

Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…).

To help you get started, look out for some intended smiling faces like McCain Potato Smiles or commercial logos with a hidden smile but they’ll be too obvious to win the competition!

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.

All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

As we approach the end of the year, the next few weeks are busy ones – please keep an eye on our calendar. Next week…

• the annual report for your child will be emailed – the day for this depends on your child’s year group
• on Wednesday, your child will meet their 2025-26 teacher
• for parents of pupils in Year 2, there’s a Ready to Read celebration assembly on Thursday
• on Friday, there’s another FOSP Disco to enjoy

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 20 June 2025

Have you completed our annual survey yet?

If you have – thank you. We’ll spend time over the next few weeks considering what you’ve said (and making sure we pass on any compliments).

If you haven’t, there’s still time! We’ll close the survey at 6pm today. Complete the Scholes (Elmet) Primary survey here.

The main part of this week’s message comes from our Junior Leadership Team…

Junior Leaders

We are the Junior Leadership Team and we are very pleased to be able to share our experiences from this year. At the start of the year, our classes elected us to represent them at the JLT meetings and make positive changes for our school.

We strive to be great role models who are helpful, respectful and responsible. We listen to the views of our peers and make important decisions on behalf of the school and the children. The children in class use the voice boxes to make suggestions and we take these to our meetings. We vote for our decisions democratically and these result in changes and actions. We aim to make our school even more happy and healthy and enjoyable for all children. Pupil voice is definitely at the centre of our school.

This year, we took on the role of reviewing the school dinner menus with our catering staff. We made sure that the menus were healthy and contained plenty of fruit and vegetables. We fed back that the children really enjoy the salad bar and this is available on more occasions now.

One of our early year tasks was to select our school charity. Each JLT member led a vote in their classes for their favourite charity. These nominations were brought to a meeting and we took a democratic vote. As a result, The Willow Foundation became our charity this year.

One of our favourite activities this year has been generating donations for our School charity and other local and national charities. We are often seen at the school gate shaking our buckets, collecting donations. We successfully raised £416.89 for Children in Need and £324.21 for Red Nose Day – we couldn’t do this without for generosity or support – thank you.

Later this year, we had the privilege of selecting a theme for the local village show. We generated lots of ideas from music to wildlife. After a democratic vote, we settled on a ‘Spectacular Sport’ theme. The children in each class will spend time creating some art work to represent this theme, either around their favourite sport or a sporting hero.

As a JLT, we aim to promote a happy and healthy school and we have a real passion for ensuring everybody is active. As such, we took on the role of discussing how the zoned areas (different areas containing different physical activities) on the playground would be organised at lunchtimes during the winter months to make sure we are all safe.

In September, it will be time for the new JLT election. It will be time to allow others to enjoy the exciting challenge of representing our school and making positive and worthwhile changes. As ever, we are very proud of our achievements this year.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us in our roles to make our school an even better place to learn.

Vacancy

We’ve a vacancy for a Senior Administrator at Moortown Primary. Hours are negotiable but around 23.75 hrs per week, term time plus two days (11.45am – 4.30pm, Monday to Friday). Read more about the post.

Finally this week…

Happy and healthy highlights

Last week, 16 children in Key Stage 2 took part in an orienteering event at Temple Newsam. They used their geographical and PE skills to help them navigate the park and enjoyed a happy and healthy time doing so! This was a great opportunity for the children to develop their communication skills as they had to discuss different coordinates and work out how to find particular locations. The children used their map reading skills and compass skills to achieve this.

Well done, everyone.

And another well done…

Well done to our fantastic Scholes A and B football teams on their final game of the tournament.

Thank you also to FOSP for providing the football kits and to parents for supporting the children during all weather conditions throughout the year.

Our weekly message: Friday 13 June 2025

Every half-term, we have a new topic in Key Stage 1 and 2. (Check out the Class News pages for what’s happening in our Nursery and Reception classes.)

What is this half-term’s topic?

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). Children will be busy designing and making products using different materials.

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
• 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.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. See page 14 and 15 of the Topic Curriculum Guide.

Years 1 and 2

Children will be introduced to the design process (design, make, evaluate). They’ll then look at some badly designed products and identify why they are badly designed. Following this, they will set up and perform tests to see what types of shape make strong and stable structures. They’ll then work as groups to create structures out of paper which may be strong enough for a child to stand on. After this, they’ll use the knowledge and skills gained to design and make a chair for Baby Bear from Goldilocks. They’ll design, make, test and evaluate the chair.

Years 3 and 4

Children will be reminded of the design process before learning about design criteria. They’ll look at different products and identify what the design criteria were for each product. They’ll also learn about a pioneering British female designer called Caroline Haslett. Following this, they’ll be given their design brief and design criteria for their project: create a prototype go-kart using TechCard. They’ll investigate existing products before designing, making and evaluating their go-karts. An extra challenge will be to integrate an electric circuit to make their go-kart move.

Years 5 and 6

Children will begin the topic by learning about some different pioneering female engineers. They’ll then look at different bridges and list the design criteria for these bridges. After that, they’ll be introduced to their project for the half-term: create a vehicle for Eggy (the egg). The vehicle will need to meet specific design criteria agreed by the children. One of these design criteria will be about safety. Pupils will investigate different safety features in cars and this will lead to them creating designs for their own cars which have some safety features to protect Eggy. They’ll then make them using different tools. Finally, they’ll put the vehicles through some rigorous tests to evaluate them.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’re learning in class. The Class News page of the school website is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

The school library and local libraries will have some books about Design and Technology which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and design knowledge.

Finally, check out BBC Bitesize KS1 and BBC Bitesize KS2 plus all programmes on CBBC and CBeebies with a Design and Technology focus:

• Bitz and Bob
• Grace’s Amazing Machines
• Junk Rescue
• Maddie’s Do You Know?
• The Dengineers

Our weekly message: Friday 06 June 2025

We hope you had a happy and healthy half-term break.

Do you have a friend or family member looking for a Nursery? Along with Reception, our Nursery was judged by Ofsted (May, 2024) to be outstanding. If you know of someone looking for a place, let them know about us. We have places in Nursery available.

Thank you!

Did you visit our recent Book Fair?

We sold loads of books – a grand total of £1348.78. This means that we now have £737.43 to spend on Scholastic books for school – a win-win for all!

Themed week: Being healthy

Our next themed week is the week beginning Monday 07 July. This is the second of two themed weeks each year.

Learning will be based around how to be healthy physically and emotionally.  A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of Living and Learning. Visitors include LS-TEN skateboarding (KS2), Flex Dance (KS1 and Reception) and d:side (Reception – Year 6). Due to the nature of the activities planned, children are allowed to wear PE kit all week. Please respect our Uniform Policy for what to wear on PE days.

Drug education

D:side will deliver drug education sessions to all classes on Thursday 10 July and Friday 11 July. Information for parents and carers about these sessions will be available from d:side on Thursday 10 July from 3.00pm-3:30pm. Weather permitting, you’ll find Dave in the KS2 playground or gazebo.

Sports Day

As part of the week, you’re invited to watch your child take part in our annual Sports Day on Friday 11 July:

• Reception and Key Stage 1: 9.15am – 10.30am – Sports Roundabout
• Key Stage 2:  1.15pm – 3.15pm – Sports Day

(You’ll notice this is different to our usual sports day organisation as our non-competitive sports roundabout is now only for Reception and Key Stage 1. This is based on your feedback about the day.)

Healthy way to travel to school

This themed week is a good opportunity to think about a healthy way to travel to school. We encourage children to use an active and sustainable method of transport, maybe parking further away from school, scooting, biking or walking to school. We’d love to see some active travel photos. Please send photos to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Thursday 10 July. There will be a prize draw at the end of the week for children to win a book voucher.

Voluntary contribution

Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, we’re inviting you to make a small contribution: £2 per pupil will help us to pay for visitors and ensure themed weeks like this one can continue in the future. If you choose to contribute, you can do this on School Gateway. Thank you for your support with this.

Can you help?

If your job involves an aspect of health and you can support our Being Healthy themed week by coming into school, please contact the office to pass on your details.

Keep up to date

We’ll keep you up to date about events during the week on the Class News pages on our website.

Thank you for your support to keep Scholes (Elmet) Primary a happy and healthy school.

Staying safe in the sun

Now that summer’s here, it’s important to remember to stay safe in the sun. Please remember to apply sunscreen to keep your child safe.

Every day matters

Our whole-school attendance figure is 95.9%. This means we’re securely above national figures: 93.3% for all schools and 94.9% for primary schools.

All the classes in Key Stage 1 and 2 remain above the national figures. Particular well done to Class 3/4A (Mr Wain’s class)…

• Sunshine Class (Miss Parling): 93.2%
• Rainbow Class (Mrs Allen-Kelly & Mrs Long): 94.2%
• Class 1A (Mrs Brown and Mrs Wilkins): 95.7%
• Class 1/2B (Mrs Latham): 96.7%
• Class 2C (Miss Young): 96.4%
• Class 3/4A (Mr Wain): 97.2%
• Class 3/4B (Miss Gilliland): 96.1%
• Class 3/4C (Mrs Wadsworth): 96.8%
• Class 5/6A (Mr Goodwin): 96.6%
• Class 5/6B (Mrs Hogarth): 95.2%
• Class 5/6C (Mr Lindsay): 95.7%

Thank you for making sure your child attends school as much as possible.

Finally…

Have you had a chance to complete our short annual survey? It’ll take just five minutes or so. You’ve still plenty of time – the closing date is Friday 20 June.

Our weekly message: Friday 23 May 2025

Happy half-term! We can’t believe we’ve reached the end of Summer 1 term so quickly.

Targeted training

We’ve the third of five training days in school today. On training days like this, the teachers across Sphere Federation gather together and benefit from training that’s age-specific. This means that teachers in each phase (Early Years, Years 1/2, Years 3/4 and Years 5/6) receive training that helps to support their teaching in specific age groups. Today, teachers have been planning, practising and preparing for three different subjects: PE, DT (Design and Technology) and Maths.

The training our teachers receive was recognised by Ofsted in all three of the school’s inspections:

• ‘Professional development for all staff is exemplary. Leaders have planned high-quality training.’ (Moortown Primary, March 2024)
• ‘The professional development available for all staff is of high quality, and they appreciate the collaborative support shared among the schools in the federation.’ (Scholes (Elmet) Primary, May 2024)
• ‘The school ensures that staff receive regular, high-quality training and development. This contributes to staff having excellent subject knowledge across a range of subjects.’ (St James’ CE Primary, January 2025)

The last two training days are on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 July, meaning the Summer 2 term ends on Friday 18 July.

Uniform update

Every year around this time, we review our Uniform Policy. You’ve told us in previous annual surveys you like to have the policy well in advance so you can start to prepare for the new school year. Read the 2025-26 Uniform Policy. There are a couple of minor changes:

• additional guidance around footwear – choose shoes that are safe to run around for healthy, active playtimes (eg avoid Crocs)
• additional guidance around hair accessories – hair bands, bows and other accessories should be minimal: as small as possible and not too bright

Talking of uniform…

Top tip

Are you thinking of having your child’s ears pierced? Please do this at the start of the summer holidays to allow for healing time. Advisors recommend no earrings are worn for PE. We expect children to remove earrings before the lesson and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by the child. If they’re unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.

Finally this week…

Have you completed our annual survey yet? It’ll only take a few minutes.

Have a happy and healthy half-term holiday.

Our weekly message: Friday 16 May 2025

Well done to all our Year 6 pupils for completing the end of Key Stage 2 assessments this week.

This week’s message kicks off with with another well done…

Football heroes

Yesterday, some of our Year 5 footballers travelled to Leeds United’s training ground to play in the final of the Moran Cup (a tournament open to every school in Leeds). Despite a narrow 6-5 defeat, the children represented school brilliantly – we were proud of their effort, their passion and the way they conducted themselves from start to finish. What an amazing achievement to get to the last two in the whole city!

Annual survey