Our weekly message: Friday 14 November 2025

Last week, our Junior Leadership Team took receipt of a huge (literally) cheque from Persimmon Homes. They’ve helped us clear the space ready for the development of our Forest School. Their generous donation has helped to pay for all the equipment needed so that in January we can enjoy learning in our outside space. Thank you.

The rest of this week’s message is about the Autumn 2 topic in Key Stages 1 and 2. Last half-term, it was a Geography topic; this half-term, it’s Art…

This half-term, we’re artists. We’ll be developing our art knowledge and skills. The learning has two aspects to it. In art history and appreciation lessons, children will be learning about some specific artists and their work. In art process lessons, children will practise and develop skills by creating art.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. Follow this link to the Curriculum Guide to find out more.

Years 1 and 2

Children have two featured artists who they’ll be studying across the half-term: Leonardo Da Vinci and Paul Klee. They’ll compare their art, talking about similarities and differences. They’ll discuss what they like and dislike about the art and how it makes them feel. They’ll also learn about the artists’ lives and where in the world they lived.

In practical art lessons, children will be honing their artistic skills and knowledge by sketching objects using pencil, learning about and mixing colour and then they’ll be learning how to print by creating relief prints inspired by the artwork they’ve studied.

Part way through the half-term, they’ll visit the Hepworth Gallery for a printmaking workshop to complement the learning in school.

Years 3 and 4

Children will be learning about the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Martha McDonald Napaltjarri. They’ll compare and contrast the artworks by these artists and also learn about their lives and the places they lived. In particular, children will learn about abstract and figurative art (see the vocabulary for definitions of these words).

In practical art sessions, children will develop observational drawing skills and their understanding of colour by learning about warm, cold and complementary colours. They’ll then apply what they’ve learnt by creating sculptures inspired by the artists they’ve studied.

Years 5 and 6

Children are learning about sculpture in their art lessons and will be focussing on three artists: Thomas J Price, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The children have already been on their school trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where they’ve seen and learned about sculptures by these artists. In Art history and appreciation lessons, they’ll learn about the lives of these artists and how their localities have influenced their art. They’ll learn about classical and modern art in relation to their featured artists and in art movements more generally. They’ll also learn when and why the modern art movement happened.

In practical Art lessons, children will develop their observational skills and will create ‘soap sculptures’ inspired by the work of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

How can you help?

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

Familiarise yourself with the artists and the artwork that your child will be learning about in class. Look in books or on the internet for pieces by the artists and talk about them. Find art by other artists that you like and compare it to the featured artists. If you feel confident, you can go into more depth using the vocabulary. However, if not, leave that to the teachers and just enjoy looking at the pieces and asking general questions:

• What do you like or dislike about the art?
• How does the art make you feel?
• Is it life-like or not?
• What colours can you see?

The Tate Gallery has a good children’s website with games and activities which children can explore.

If you’re in Leeds, the Leeds Art Gallery and Henry Moore Institute are both free to enter.

Our weekly message: Friday 07 November 2025

We hope you had a good half-term break. This week in school has been a themed week – Me and My Money. Talk to your child about something new they’ve learnt or considered about money!

Odd socks day

Monday is Odd Socks Day.

The day celebrates that we’re all unique. Children are invited to wear odd socks to school today, marking the fact we’re all different in some way. Part of Anti-Bullying Week, the day sends an important message to pupils that they should be allowed to be themselves, free from bullying. It helps us celebrate anti-bullying day in a fun and positive way.

Help at home: Please make sure your child knows that bullying is wrong and damages children’s social and/or emotional health. Check they know our two STOP messages:

• Definition: What is bullying? Hurting someone Several Times On Purpose
• Solution: How can we stop bullying? Start Telling Other People

Bullying is often group behaviour. For older children, it would also be great if you could talk about the different roles people might play. Watch this short clip together, and link it back to Start Telling Other People.

Children in Need

Next Friday is the annual Children in Need fundraising day. Your child is invited to attend school in non-uniform with a donation to the charity. If you wish to donate at school, please donate in cash only.

Please remember that pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully, even on non-uniform days. More details can be found in our Uniform Policy.

Is my child too ill for school?

As winter approaches, schools face rising illness-related absences. We know some are unavoidable, but please refer to NHS guidance to know if your child is too ill for school.

The Department for Education has asked us to share some key messages:

1. Always ask: Is my child too ill for school? Use the NHS site for guidance – it’s easy to use.
2. Pupils shouldn’t miss school on a precautionary basis and can normally attend with a mild cough or cold, unless they have a fever or diarrhoea or vomiting.
3. Book medical appointments outside of school hours where possible. Where this isn’t possible, they should bring their child to school before, and return after, if they are well enough. Pupils can attend appointments in their school uniform.

Our new charity

This week, our children have been voting for a new charity to support.  Voted for by the JLT,  The Woodland Trust has been chosen.  Money raised through various school events will be donated to this charity which create, protect and restore woodland areas around the UK.

Times tables

The government sets out the expectation that children should know their times tables by the end of Year 4. Knowing times tables off by heart makes a huge difference to children’s progress in​ Maths. It helps them:

• ​solve harder problems more easily
• work more confidently and quickly
• ​focus on new concepts without getting stuck on basic facts

Times tables underpin many other areas of ​Maths, such as division, fractions, long multiplication, algebra and ratio. The more fluent your child is, the better prepared they’ll be for future learning.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, children in Years 3 and 4 take part in daily Mastering Number lessons to learn their times tables. Older children continue to practise their times tables.

In school, we chant multiplication facts by saying the smallest number first and we don’t say ‘times’ or ‘equals’. For example, for 4×3=12, children would say ‘3, 4, 12’.

Towards the end of Year 4, children do an online Multiplication Tables Check – find out more about this.

Since this national check was introduced, we’re proud that the average score at Scholes (Elmet) Primary has been higher than national each year. Thank you for continuing to help your child practise their times tables at home.

Finally this week…

Admissions consultation

Leeds City Council is running a public consultation on the 2027/28 admission policy for Leeds community and voluntary controlled schools. You can share your views until 1 December. Find out more.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

School Journalists: Me and My Money Themed Week

This week at Scholes (Elmet) Primary school, we have been learning about money. We have read books about money, learnt about credit cards, debit cards and certain bank accounts. Here we will tell you all about what we have been reading, learning and doing this week.

Credit and Debit cards by Lewis

Me and my Money Week is an important week at Scholes. We’ve been learning about credit and debit cards. The difference between a credit and debit card is that when you use a credit card you are using the bank’s money and you have to pay them back. A debit card is using your own money. We’ve also been learning about finding the best deals in a shop. You do this by dividing the weight by the price and then do it with another size and see which is best value. We’ve also learnt about how we can exchange pounds into other currencies such as Euros or US dollars.

Bank Accounts by William

As well as cards, there are also different bank accounts: basic accounts (accounts that don’t include interest or an overdraft), current accounts that adults use for every day life (they include negative interest and an overdraft) and finally savings accounts (they have positive interest which means that if you put lots of money in you will normally get money back – normally 5% of the money you put in). These accounts are for saving money up then spending instead of saving money immediately. We learn this so we know what to use when we’re adults.

Reading about money by Ava

This week, we have been learning about how not everyone has a lot of money. We read ‘No Money Day’ by Katie Milner. This book tells the story of a little girl and her mother who are struggling for money. This resulted in her and her mother going to a food bank. Her mother is uncomfortable about needing help to get food and is struggling to keep up with bills. This made us think about how privileged we are and that some people do not have the same things we do. We used this to think about needs vs wants.

The Big Interviews

What does Mrs Wadsworth think? By Stanley and Bradley

We interviewed Mrs Wadsworth who organised Me and My Money Week. We asked her some questions about it like if she liked it and how she learned about it. Mrs Wadsworth said she likes Me and My Money Week because it can teach you lots of knowledge about money and how important it is not to overspend. She said that it was interesting that children were so shocked by how expensive energy is. Mrs Wadsworth explained that she organises themed weeks alongside a teacher from another school and we have a money themed week every two years.

A Child’s View by Faith

Today, I’m interviewing Clara (Y4) to get her perspective on Me and My Money Week.

What do you think about Me and My Money Week?

I like Me and My Money Week because it’s different to everyday learning.

What do you think about the book ‘It’s a No Money Day’?

I like it because its always nice to hear different stories.

Do you like Me and My Money Week?

Yes because it’s fun.

How does Me and My Money Week affect you?

I think it’s great and it overlaps with maths.

Our weekly message: Friday 24 October 2025

What a busy week…

Thank you to all the parents/carers who met with teachers this week for the first of two parent-teacher meetings in the year. We’re available for short updates and questions, comments and concerns at other times, but we hope you found the meeting this week helpful.

Today, we’ve had a training day. Teachers from across Sphere Federation have had four professional development sessions:

• Art
• Maths
• Special Educational Needs
• Assessments

Applying for a place in Reception or secondary school?

The deadline for applications for Year 7 places falls in half-term: 31 October 2025. If you need help with an application, please contact startingsecondary@leeds.gov.uk.

If you’re applying for a Reception place, you might want to check out Leeds City Council’s You Tube video about applying for a school place.

Staying safe online

We’ve recently updated our Online Safety page on our website. If you’ve not spoken with your child about the importance of staying safe online for a while, it would be worth having a look at the clips and checking out the NSPCC link over the half-term break.

Watch us while we work

If you visited us for our recent Watch Us While We Work session, thank you. An even bigger thank you if you left us some feedback:

• ‘The activities were led fantastically by the teachers and very engaging.’
• ‘Always nice to see my son learning at school and learn some things to do at home.’

One comment was around varying the subjects we feature. We’ll act on this next time.

Coming up in the first week after half-term break…

Me and My Money themed week

Our next whole school themed week, Me and My Money, is based around money and financial education. A variety of events and lessons are planned to help us deliver this aspect of our Living and Learning curriculum. Learning throughout the week will include:

• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• How do we spend money?
• How do we manage money?

If your job involves an aspect of finance and/or money and you can support our themed week by coming into school, please contact us.

On Friday, we’ll be having a penny trail where children are encouraged to bring in any 1ps and 2ps coins to their class during the week and a trail will be created using all the money brought in at the end of the week. The money raised will be our last donation to our current charity, Willow Foundation, before the new charity is chosen.

We’ll select the new school charity as part of the themed week. The shortlist is:

• Zarach, whose mission is to end child bed poverty, giving children the opportunity to engage at school and break the cycle of poverty.
• Martin House provides family-led hospice care free of charge for children and young people with life-shortening conditions.
• Emmaus (pronounced em-may-us) helps people move away from homelessness by providing a home, training and work opportunities as part of a package of long-term support.
• National Deaf Children’s Society, who support deaf children with any level of hearing loss.
• Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, whose vision is a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature.

Have a happy and healthy half-term break.

School Journalists: Y5,6 Trip

Today, we have another article from our new school journalists. This time, Stanley, William and Lewis tell us all about the Y5,6 trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

On the 22nd of October 2025, the year 5,6s went on a school trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park . One pupil said, “It was amazing!”

The most famous sculptures in YSP are Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man, Damien Hirst’s Charity and Niki de Saint Phalle’s Buddha. People were flabbergasted at the size of the park .

We interviewed some people in our school .” I thought it was incredible because we learnt how things like race can affect the artwork,” exclaimed Toby Hunter-Steele (Year 5).

“I loved seeing the sculptures and the using the media (sketching and clay),” said Mrs Hogarth.

School Journalists: FoSP Disco!

We recently recruited our new team of school journalists. In the background, they’ve been busy planning some articles and they’ll aim to keep you updated on all aspects of school life from the most important perspective of all: the children’s.

Their first article is all about the school disco. We have three school discos each year – all organised by our amazing PTA, Friends of Scholes Primary (FOSP). Not only are these a highlight of the calendar for our children, they help to raise essential funds for FOSP, which in turn benefits our school community.

Our time at the school disco! Written by Bradley, Ava and Faith.

Last Friday night, we had our first school disco of the year. The theme was Halloween and lots of people dressed up in spooky costumes. We had lots of fun dancing, eating sweets and playing with our friends – and, we even had a DJ!

Georgie in Year 3 said, ‘ I really enjoyed the school disco!’ She also said that her favourite part was dancing with her friends and singing along to her favourite songs.

Thanks for reading – we’ll be back soon with more news!

JLT

Democracy is a key part of British Values and during this week, our classes have cast their votes for who they would like to represent their class on the JLT. We were absolutely overwhelmed by the number of children that wrote speeches. These were well written, full of ideas and showed off their best qualities such as leadership, good listening skills and initiative.
The votes were counted and the new members have been announced!
Here are our new members:

5,6A – Stanley
5,6B – Joseph
5,6C – Grayson
3,4A – Marshall
3,4B – Penny
3,4C – Jessica
2C – Oliver
1,2B – Oscar
1A – Harlow

Well done to each of you. I’m looking forward to working with you this year and can’t wait to get started.

Our weekly message: Friday 17 October 2025

Let’s start this week with a thank you…

A few weeks ago, we asked for donations to support our Cooking curriculum. To make sure that we can continue to offer this, asked for a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. So far, we’ve received £205 which will really help to pay for the ingredients we need. Thank you for your support.

For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year A this year.)

Being geographers

Our topic this half-term is a Geography one: Where in the world. This week, you might have spotted our children exploring the local area being geographers. We’ve measured carbon stores in trees and explored our locality.

Arbor

We have recently moved our Management Information System (MIS) to Arbor. Arbor will allow us to communicate with you more efficiently and will eventually bring all core school data into one system.

Yesterday, you should have received an email letting you know how to login to the parent portal/app for your child. If you’ve not received this, please let the office know.

You can familiarise yourself with Arbor using this link: Getting started – Log into the Parent Portal and the Parent App

Arbor also offers access to other training resources, which can be found here.

Before the half term break, we hope to have finalised the payments area in Arbor, so you’ll be able to pay for school meals on the portal or app. We’ll let you know when this is live.

If you’ve any questions, please contact the school office.

Marvellous mapping!

Our Weekly Message on 12 September was all about the current school topic – a Geography one called Where in the World. In it, we suggested a challenge:

Children could draw a plan/map of their bedroom with a key. Older children could try to do this for each room of their house. Children could also create a map of a mythical location with an accompanying key.

Bradley in Year 5 has stepped up to the challenge wonderfully.. He’s created a map based on an area of one of our National Parks, used as a location for a new natural history attraction featuring dinosaurs – a sort of Jurassic Park, if you like!

How I made the map:

1. I started by looking at different maps of our National Parks and trying to understand their geographical features. I picked an area with a variety of natural features that will help support the dinosaur exhibits.

2. Then with help from my dad we traced the area of the map I wanted to use onto A3 paper. We only included natural features and didn’t trace man made structures.

3. After tracing the map we added some basic contours and then I coloured in the map.

4. Next we scanned the map onto the computer. Then I made a digital drawing. Then came the fun part where I was able to add icons to the map to show where various dinosaurs may live inside the safari park. We added some physical features to improve the park for visitors.

5. Lastly, I made a key for all the symbols used on the map.

We all love it!

Have a happy and healthy weekend!

Our weekly message: Friday 10 October 2025

First of all this week, a big…

Thank you

Protected characteristics

This week’s Living and Learning theme has been about the nine protected characteristics – characteristics protected in law. Nine is a lot to learn about, and some are more suitable for older people to consider. More important than simply remembering all of them is to encourage your child to be aware of fairness and equality.

You said, we’ve done…

Just before the Summer holiday each year, we ask you to complete a short survey. We take your views really seriously. School leaders have met and reviewed thee suggestions you made. Some might be useful across all Sphere Federation schools and others relate more specifically to Scholes (Elmet) Primary. We’ll look to action quite a few points. For example, some parents suggested we include more assemblies about special educational needs and Black history.

Don’t wait until the annual survey! One parent recently raised some really useful suggestions about how the Junior Leadership Team is elected in order to make it fairer – they were great suggestions and we’ve planned a few small changes (such as no prepared PowerPoint presentations) that might just make a big difference.

Flu vaccinations

From September 2025, the School Aged Immunisation Service (SAIS) began delivering flu vaccinations to primary and secondary school-aged children across Leeds. The vaccine offers vital protection against flu, helping safeguard both individuals and those around them. Read more about these immunisations.

Community Cafe and Advice Hub

There’s a new supportive space for families to access services and additional advice and support: the Community Cafe and Advice Hub. It’s open between 10am and 12pm every Friday at the Church Room, St James’, Wetherby. There are free refreshments and young children are welcome. Check out this poster with the essential details and the newsletter.

The Spy books series

We want to make you aware of a recent issue affecting some popular children’s books by Andrew Cope, including the Spy Dogs, Spy Cats, and Spy Pups series.

Some editions of these books include a printed web address at the back. This link used to go to the author’s website, but the domain is no longer under his control. It has since been taken over by another party and now leads to inappropriate adult content.

The publisher, Puffin, has stressed that the website has no connection to the author or publisher.

What this means for you:

• If your child has any Spy Dog, Spy Cat or Spy Pups books at home, please check the back for website links and make sure they do not try to visit the site.
• It’s safe for children to continue reading the stories themselves — the concern is only with the outdated link.
• We recommend talking with your child about the importance of not following web addresses in books without checking with an adult first.

Reception Stay and Learn session

Thank you very much if you managed to attend our recent Stay and Learn in Reception. And thanks for the feedback we’ve received:

Having an introductory presentation before we went into the classroom was very useful.

If you’ve time, please let us know your feedback.

Finally this week, as the half-term holiday approaches, you might be looking for a holiday club. Check out PE Partner.

As always, have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 03 October 2025

We’ll start this week’s message with a letter from the Safer Leeds Partnership. You should be aware, although it’s probably more relevant if you’ve older children.

This week’s message has four articles, including a couple of different ways to support your child…

Support with sleep

Does your child struggle with sleep sometimes? If so, you might like to attend a workshop coming up from MindMate Support Team. The workshop will cover:

• Why sleep matters for mental health
• Common sleep difficulties and their impact
• What healthy sleep looks like at different ages
• Tips for building a consistent and positive bedtime routine
• Evidence-based strategies to make bedtime calmer and more manageable

The hour-long session is on Wednesday 15 October 2025 at 5pm. It’s at Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings C of E School, LS22 5BS.

Top trips

Class trips are a wonderful enrichment to the learning going on at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, especially in Topic and Science. We’ve recently reviewed the trips, taking on board the views of pupils and teachers, and your comments from the annual survey in the Summer term.

The visits are mapped out across Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to ensure progression and continuity (subject to change eg if a venue is temporarily closed). The 2025-26 school year is in Cycle A.

Read more about our curriculum, including the Topic and Science long term plans.

12 ways to help your child make friends

Some people might think of school as being all about learning. It’s not. Making relationships with other children is one of the prime purposes. The social aspect of schools is vital to the socialisation of children at important points of their lives. Properly socialised children make for properly socialised adults, who in turn make excellent citizens in later life.

For some children it may be easier said than done. Navigating the topsy-turvy of these nascent relationships is not for the faint hearted, yet it must be done. ACAMH Learn has produced a webinar (it’s short – only 15 minutes) to explore some of the ways this can be helped: watch the webinar here.

Year 5: Bikeability

Bikeability takes place in the Spring term for children in Year 5. This year, it will take place from Monday 16 to Monday 23 March 2026.

The training has two core elements: basic skills and road safety. If your child is unable to ride a bike, they may be unable to take part in the road safety aspect as they will not be able to cycle outside of school. We’re giving plenty of notice, in case your child would like to practise before March.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.