News

Today’s message (Friday 29 January 2021)

We’ve reached the end of another week and, indeed, the end of the month. Today’s message returns to what we talked about on Monday – ways to get through the home learning…

We presented eight ideas to support you during this period of home learning – using one of the timetables in our Home Learning Guide and a few replacements (or additions) to the seven daily sessions that we’re providing. Using Times Tables Rock Stars or NumBots instead of the Maths sessions is ok, too – in fact, we’d really like your child to come back knowing the numbers facts and times tables.

We encouraged you to tell us a few more top tips. How about creating a chart to tick off the sessions when they’ve been done. This one looks great!

In case you can’t see it clearly, each of the white bits of paper is labelled up with one of the daily sessions, and you can see that, when the pic was taken, five of the sessions had been marked off for Monday. This visual ‘checklist’ acts as a real celebration of achievement!

A couple of other ideas came in that might help:

• when your child’s working, they could wear a sweatshirt, and when they’re finished for the day, they change – this can help to signal the shift from ‘home learning’ to ‘home life’
• on a similar theme, moving rooms (if you can) can help with that transition, too: one room for home learning and another for relaxation – or even just positions (sitting at a table for learning, and on a couch for relaxing)

And finally, we presented a challenge to our grammar and punctuation superstars in Years 5 and 6. Did you spot the error in the email from the Department for Education, featured in yesterday’s message?

Well done to the people who made suggestions, many of which were arguably more a style choice (although I do agree with the idea of a comma needed after ‘February’ in paragraph 2). The actual error is in the last paragraph: there’s a missing apostrophe… ‘two weeks notice’ should read ‘two weeks’ notice’. If you’re ever in doubt, we like Grammar Monster!

Today’s message (Thursday 28 January 2021)

The news that schools won’t open until Monday 08 March is a disappointing and frustrating one…

Here’s an extract from the email from the Department for Education, sent daily to school leaders:

Today, the Prime Minister has announced that it will not be possible to resume face-to-face learning immediately after the February half-term and instead hopes it will be safe to commence the re-opening of schools and colleges from Monday 8 March. This is in response to the national public health data and pressure on NHS capacity.

If the Government achieves its target of vaccinating everyone in the four most vulnerable groups with their first dose by 15 February then those groups will have developed immunity from the virus around three weeks later, that is by 8 March. It is for this reason that we hope it will therefore be safe to commence the reopening of schools from Monday 8 March.

Education settings, as well as students, parents and carers will be given at least two weeks notice to prepare for a return to face-to-face education.

Over the last week or so, it became increasingly clear that this delay would likely be the case, but that doesn’t take away from the concerns we all share. Do contact your child’s teacher, or the Head of School, with any particular questions, comments or concerns. Teachers’ emails are in our Home Learning Guide.

Talking of which, we’ve updated the guide. There are a few small changes to who’s leading the home learning sessions, but the main change is on page 9, which is our temporary policy on emails between school and home. The new point is that teachers will respond when you email them, but for safeguarding reasons they won’t respond to children – your child should stay in touch with their teacher through the daily afternoon Zooms and when staff phone home.

Finally, a challenge for Year 5 and 6 children, so many of whom are experts on grammar and punctuation. In the Department for Education extract, above, there’s a little error – a tricky one to spot, and a common error, too. Can your child spot the error and explain it? If so, let me know (via an email from Mum or Dad, not the child, of course!).

Remarkable Writing

From Mr Owen, who’s leading the Y5,6 home learning writing sessions…

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some of the fantastic writing that’s been happening in Y5 and Y6 recently, both at home and in school. Children have been creating their own planets, including maps and loads of links to geography learning. Classes in Moortown, Scholes (Elmet) and St James’ have all been working on the same projects, and the end products look great! Children should be really proud of what they’ve created.

Here are just some of the great examples that I’ve been sent. If you’d like to send yours in, I’d love to see it! (Send me an email – davidowen@spherefederation.org)

In St James’… How awesome is this?

In Moortown, Y6… What a great effort!

In my class: Moortown, Y5… This one even had an accompanying video!

This one included lots of the things we’ve been working on recently and included great vocabulary:

Scholes (Elmet) children have been really creative too…

At St James’ again… Working hard to create amazing planets!

Amazing presentation, fantastic ideas and great writing skills on show!

Today’s message (Wednesday 27 January 2021)

Our message today comes from Miss Hague, the Head of School…

Almost every message or conversation I have at the moment seems to start with a nod to how tough things are at the moment. They are tough and everyone is feeling it at different times and in different ways. I hope you’re experiencing some glimmers of hope, possibly by family members receiving the vaccine.

School is much busier than it was during the first lockdown but we’re still missing so many of our children. We can’t wait to get back to normal with a school full of happy and healthy learners. I expect all of you, trying to juggle work and home schooling, have the very same wish!

For those of you learning at home, our staff are working hard to give you a call each week. We hope you’re finding these a useful way of staying in touch and resolving any issues that may arise.

In non-Covid-related news, Mrs Latham is in the process of ordering some new outdoor equipment for the Key Stage 1 playground. It’s similar to the equipment in our front playground and looks fantastic. The quad area (the little enclosed space hidden from the rest of the playgrounds), which FOSP has helped us develop, is taking shape. It now has grass (artificial, so it can stay looking smart all year round), and the picnic benches have arrived and just need constructing. We can’t wait to get using it when the weather improves!

As always, get in touch if you have any concerns or questions.

Stay safe.

Thanks to Miss Hague for today’s message.

Today’s message (Tuesday 26 January 2021)

Mrs Weekes is the Safeguarding Lead across all three schools in Sphere Federation. In her first message, she writes about the digital five-a-day…

During these strange and uncertain times, it’s really important that we’re making sure our children are safe online. Lots of time is being spent on devices and we’re expecting children to be resilient and independent. Unfortunately, that means they might be on devices while you’re working or helping others in the family. To help keep them safe, the online safety message needs to be regular and manageable.

Don’t feel bad about the time your child is currently spending on devices – just make sure they are happy, healthy and safe.

Screen time is not the issue. Aim for screen quality.

Spending time on social media is not the same as doing a Facetime with grandparents, or making a film or story. Make screen time count. Try and plan or review your day together using the Children’s Commissioner’s Digital Five a Day:

1. Be mindful.
2. Connect.
3. Be active.
4. Get creative.
5. Give to others.

Talking about these all in one go might be too much. Why not spend time discussing just one of these each day over the next few days?

The Digital Five a Day idea is based on the NHS’s evidence-based ‘five steps to better mental wellbeing’ – also worth a read.

Devices are really helping at this time – just make sure they’re being used productively and safely.

Today’s message (Monday 25 January 2021)

This lockdown seems a lot tougher than the last one. Nevertheless, we hope your weekend was as good as it can be at the moment.

As usual on Mondays, we start the week with links to the school assemblies. This week, they’re all about respect, linking with the Living and Learning message ‘I respect myself and others‘.

• the Moortown Primary assembly is led by Mrs Weekes
• Miss Hague leads the Scholes (Elmet) Primary assembly
• the St James’ CE Primary collective worship is led by Mrs Rowley

Your child can watch the assembly at any point in the week. After watching, have a conversation at home about respect:

• What is respect?
• When and where should people show respect?
• Who should we respect?
• Why is it important to show respect?
• How do we show respect? Does this differ depending on the situation?

Remembering the Living and Learning message ‘I respect myself and others‘, don’t forget to talk about self-respect – respecting yourself.

As we said at the start of today’s message, this lockdown just seems tougher in lots of ways – the weather, the short days, the fact we’ve been through it all before…

This weekend, The Guardian reported that ‘Parents’ stress rises over home schooling in Covid lockdown’. In the article, it’s reported that ‘Nearly half of parents say primary school teachers are expecting more of their child this time round’. This time round, the Department for Education expectations are for children in Key Stage 1 to have three hours of learning every day, and four hours for children in Key Stage 2. The seven daily sessions that we’re providing, plus independent reading, learning spellings and some physical activity provides this. However…

…that’s tough, we know. We’ve suggested that five might be realistic – maybe less, depending on your context. Here are some strategies that you’ve told us about for coping with home learning:

• using the timetable we provide in our Home Learning Guide to set expectations – we’ve provided a template for five as well as seven sessions across the day
• for time away from a screen, don’t under-estimate the value of quiet reading (or reading aloud to each other)
• another idea for time away from the screen is to drop a session and do something practical instead – cooking something up in the kitchen is a valuable learning experience, for example
• as an alternative, check out the BBC’s offer online, on TV and on iPlayer
• you could even consider buying some workbooks as a screen-alternative (for example, the CGP books are quite well-priced and popular amongst children) – this would mean your child is engaging in some appropriate and useful learning, although it will be different to others doing the home learning
• if your child doesn’t pause for the independent activities that are featured in our recorded sessions, and instead watches the clips through, don’t worry too much – at least they’re engaging
• try watching a session from a younger year group if your child’s struggling – it would do no harm to practise and secure Maths and spellings / phonics, especially, and might help boost your child’s confidence
• daily physical activity really helps learning and encourages a positive attitude

Do let us know any other ways you’re coping so we can share them.

Today’s message (Friday 22 January 2021)

How’re you getting on? These are tough times for us all. Try to find time to rest, recuperate and recover at the weekend. Today,  is a mix of short messages…

Have you received a phone call from us? During this period, teachers and teaching assistants are making regular phone calls to review and reflect on how you and your child are getting on. This means you might get a call from a withheld number because some staff will be using their mobile phones or home landlines.

Is your child joining the daily Zooms? Teachers are telling us these are proving to be useful opportunities to provide feedback on how the learning is going, and to guide children in some way. They’re also a chance to socialise with classmates. When your child joins the Zooms, please make sure they follow the points set out on page 10 of our Home Learning Policy, and listed here, too:

• call from the living room or kitchen, not a bedroom
• wear appropriate clothes, not pyjamas
• stay in the same spot, not move around
• follow our school rules

Also, the Zoom name used should be one that makes your child easily identifiable – page 11 of the Home Learning Policy sets out how to change this.

One more important message:

The parent-teacher meetings for the last week of this half-term (week beginning 08 February 2021) are postponed. We’ve done this for two reasons: hopefully, the phone calls and emails between you and your child’s class teacher should be keeping you updated, and we think a meeting (likely by Zoom) would be better once your child is back at school, when we can update you on how well they’re doing once schools are open again.

And finally, this online magazine proved popular in the Spring-Summer lockdown…

Have a good weekend.

Today’s message (Thursday 21 January 2021)

Our message today follows on from yesterday’s…

…when we provided you with a one-page list of the geographical words and phrases from the current Geography topic.

Check out our Curriculum Statement for a similar list of the key scientific words and phrases for this half-term’s Science topics, along with an overview of the learning (the age-related expectations) for each topic:

• Year 1 and 2: Everyday materials (a chemistry topic – read pages 38-40 – it’s the Cycle B topic that children are doing)
• Year 3 and 4: Rocks, soils and fossils (also a chemistry topic – also pages 38-40)
• Year 5 and 6: Earth and space (a physics topic – see pages 41-43)

To support your child to learn and use the words, you could:

• encourage them to research the words and find out more about them
• create a wordsearch or a crossword
• quiz your child the to see if they can match the words and the definitions
• play a could of rounds of Articulate (even if you don’t have the board game) by describing a word without actually saying it

As the topic progresses over the half-term, talk with your child about which words and phrases they’re learning in the recorded session.

Contact your child’s class teacher for help finding the Science vocabulary in our Curriculum Statement.

Today’s message (Wednesday 20 January 2021)

Our message today is about learning in Topic this half-term. This message was written in December and intended to go out at the start of the half-term, but events overtook us a little, so here’s a slightly tweaked version…

Each week, two of the seven daily sessions are Topic and two are Science.

In Topic, children in Key Stage 1 and 2 are geographers this half-term – geography is the main focus for Topic learning. The theme is about the environment and/or natural disasters:

• Year 1 and 2 children are learning about their local environment
• Year 3 and 4 learners are finding out more about volcanoes and earthquakes
• Year 5 and 6 pupils are learning about climate change and the link with seas and oceans

You can help at home by checking out the geographical words and phrases that will be focused on during the topic. Encourage your child to research the words and find out more about them. As the topic progresses over the half-term, talk with your child about which words and phrases they’ve learnt about in the recorded home learning sessions.

Today’s message (Tuesday 19 January 2021)

Phonics

In the Autumn 2 half-term, we hosted a series of Zoom sessions where teachers in school guided you to ways to support your child’s learning at home. All the sessions were well-received, but perhaps the best-attended session was the one about phonics – a fundamental strategy to support effective reading and writing.

Following the session, we recorded two presentations which might help you with home learning:

Phonics video 1 – supports parents with children in Foundation 2 (Reception) who are learning phonics at Phase 2.

Phonics video 2 – supports parents with children in Foundation 2 (Reception) and Year 1 who are learning phonics at Phases 3, 4 and 5 (the Year 1 phonics screening check which is mentioned is cancelled for Summer 2021).

SATs and other assessments