Dear Parents, Carers, Boys and Girls
We have had a busy half term in school. All pupils have been involved in assessments Year 6
and Year 2 have now completed their SATS. Year one have their phonics screening check in
June. These are statutory assessments and the results are published by the Government each
year.
I’m sure you will all agree that regular school attendance is vital for children to make
progress. We are very proud of our excellent attendance record at Moorhouse. Please
arrange for your family holidays to be taken outside of term time. Head teachers are not
allowed to authorise term time holidays. Our attendance policy states every child should have
attendance of 96% or above. The chart shows how many lessons your child would miss if they
have attendance of 95% or below. The time is precious and it would be impossible to repeat
missed lessons.
Our staffing plans for September have been finalised and are set out below:
Nursery
Reception 1
Reception 2
Year 1K
Year 1L
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Mrs Eastwood Mrs Naughton
Miss Butterworth Miss Dolan
Miss Bond Mrs Freeman
Miss Kershaw Mrs Nicholson
Mrs Lee Mr Patterson
Mrs Brown, Mrs Gul / Mrs Pegg
Miss Jepson, Mrs Williamson /Miss Spooner
Mr Patel Mrs Richards / Miss Keating
Mr Dean Mrs McPherson
Mrs Wetton Mrs Rigby/ Mrs Ahad
Teaching assistants are used flexibly across the school and the above is subject to change
depending on the needs of the children.
School Meals
Please remember to inform the office if your child is changing from packed lunches to school
dinners and vice versa. The kitchen order food well in advance and we need as much notice as
possible.
Packed lunches – please ensure your child does not bring in chocolate and sweets or drinks.
School provide milk and water for all the children.
If each child brought in a plastic drink bottle / carton every day that is over 1000 empty
bottles a week for the school to dispose of. Schools have to pay to have rubbish removed and
this means less money for the school to spend on books, computers and other equipment. We
are asking that pupils having a packed lunch take home their rubbish with them in future.
More importantly we want our pupils to be healthy. Fruit acid and sugars are proven to
damage teeth. Moorhouse holds Healthy School Status and actively promotes health choices.
Please see our website for more information.
Transition
Pupils will be having move – up sessions throughout the term and on 5th July the Y6 pupils will
be at their high schools. The rest of the school will be moving up for the day. We realise this
may coincide with Eid. But we are restricted to the dates set by Hollingworth.
Eid
Eid is due to fall on the 5th of July this year. May we remind families that pupils are allowed
to take one day off school for religious observance.
Holidays
We hope all our families have a lovely half term beak and we look forward to seeing you all on
Monday 6th June 2016.
Foundation Stage
In Foundation Stage we have been busy learning about shapes. We have been on a
shape hunt outside and found lots of 2D and 3D shapes. We also made shapes out of
sticks!
We had some visitors...
There was lot of strange footprints, slimy goo and sparkly dust!
We were very excited and after much thought we decided that aliens had visited. So
we read lots of books with aliens in and made our own aliens.
Year 1
In Year One we have been working on our topic 'People who help us'. We have been learning all
about Florence Nightingale and have been reading stories about the different jobs people do
(The Jolly postman and the Lighthouse Keeper's lunch). The children have written some
brilliant letters and lists during their English lessons. We used our shopping lists on our visit
to ASDA and bought lots of food for our own lighthouse keeper's picnic.
Some children from Year one took part in the Rochdale AFC schools cup. The event took place
on Spotland football pitch. We had lots of fun and worked well as a team! All the children
received a medal!
Next term we will be learning all about plants and animals. We will be visiting the EUREKA
museum to listen to a sensory story and visit the global garden.
Phonics screen check
These checks will take place the week beginning 13th June. You can help your child by reading
with them every night and practising their sound mat. Phonicsplay.co.uk is great for practising
'monster' words!
Year 2
What a busy half term! We are all so proud of how hard the children have worked for
their end of Key Stage SATs – every single child tried their very best, trying to
remember the things we have been learning in class! We can’t ask any more than that!
We took the children along to the library and Milnrow Park as a little treat – what fun
we had! We may have returned to school a little wet – but we had smiles on our faces!
In our science topic we have been learning lots about plants. The children have
planted broad bean seeds and sunflower seeds. They are doing well in our garden area
in school!
In topic we have been taking a journey around the world learning about the continents
and a range of different countries. We have had great fun tasting lots of different
food – we even made our own sushi!
Next half term we will
be learning about The
America’s and Africa.
We will be linking this
work to Science.
Looking at animals and
their habitats and
plants too!
Have a great half term!
Year 3
This half term we have been learning about the Tudors. The children have really enjoyed the
topic and it has been great to hear them talking about their learning around school. We have
written persuasive letters to Henry VIII and found out all about Tudor food, houses,
exploration and much more.
On 24th May we went to Ordsall Hall and had a fabulous day. We prepared the table for a
wedding feast, took part in a role play about Henry VIII and his wives, worked in a Tudor
kitchen and found out about daily life for rich Tudors. We finished the day by dressing up in
Tudor clothing and performing a ‘Rat dance’ to scare away the rats. The children really
enjoyed the day and were a credit to the school.
On 16th June we will be taking part in ‘Not Strictly Eurovision’ at Oulder Hill. Letters have
been sent out this week outlining details. Tickets are on sale from the office for £1.
Year 4
Ancient Egyptians
This half term we have been learning about Ancient Egyptians. The children particularly enjoyed the
gruesome parts of mummification. We learnt all about Canopic Jars and had a go at making our own, with
some impressive results.
We also wrote persuasive letters to the Pharaoh, pleading with him to spare the live of a slave. The children
came up with some very convincing arguments.
Weavers!!
The children (and Staff) in Yr4 have discovered a love of weaving. We made some beautiful, woven flowers
as our contribution to the Moorhouse carnival float. We all thoroughly enjoyed creating our floral
masterpieces and found the process of weaving to be very therapeutic.
Pocket cornets
We are still having lots of fun learning how to play the pocket cornet. The children have recently added the
song ‘hot cross buns’ to their musical repertoire.
Year 5
Miss Bullock is running a recorder club for some Year 5 children who will be involved in a
performance with other schools in June. They are practising well and becoming very good!
Keep up the good work.
Year 5 is very lucky to be working with the Halle Orchestra after half term. We visited the
Bridgewater Hall a few weeks ago and the next phase is the musicians visiting school to
compose a piece with our children, culminating in a finale in July. We will let you know more
about this soon and do hope you will be able to support us on the day.
Year 6
Robinwood
Year 6 had a fabulous time at Robinwood this year. The weather was lovely and we enjoyed all
of the activities-even though we were very scared by some of them! Have a look at the
photographs on our school website.
Transition.
We are looking forward to visits to our new school in the next few weeks and finding out
about what life will be like at high school. Mrs Edmonds from Hollingworth Academy is visiting
us regularly to make sure we feel we are ready to move on and answering all of our questions.
All parents should have been sent information from their child's new school about transition
days. If you are unsure when they are, please contact our school office.
There will be an informal coffee morning at Moorhouse for parents of pupils who will be
attending Hollingworth next year on Tuesday 21st June. Letters will be sent out shortly giving
more details.