Latest News
Find out what's happening in school:
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Sports Update
Tue 26 Jun 2018The last few weeks have been a particularly busy time for sports in school.
Key Stage 1 football:
Last week, two teams of Key Stage 1 children went to Garforth Academy to take part in a football tournament. Both teams represented our school really well in terms of their behaviour and attitude. One team also managed to win their group, before narrowly losing a semi-final 1-0.
Girls' football
Eight Y5/6 girls went 'Goals' on Kirkstall Road to take part in the St. Bart's Cup. Over the course of our 5 groups games, we won twice, lost twice and drew once, which wasn;t quite enough to qualify for the knock-out phase of the competition. However, the team scored 6 goals and had 3 different scorers and it was really good to see the team's commitment and the improvement that some of them made over the course of the matches.
Rounders
We took Y5/6 rounders teams to the annual rounders competition at Garforth Academy on Monday. Each team played three games, with the girls winning twice and losing once, and the boys winning once and losing twice.
Cricket
Our cricket team's journey to the West Yorkshire finals came to an end today. We are really proud to have made it through three qualifying rounds to get that far, but today was not our day! Although the team lost all four games, the difference between the teams was close (we lost one game by only two runs!) and I firmly believe on another day we could have one at least three of our matches. All the same - well done to the team for getting this far, and a real measure of our success is the number of boys now talking about wanting to join a club to play out of school.
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Music Day
Tue 19 Jun 2018Last Thursday (June 14th) we had our second annual 'Music Day'. The whole day was given over to music activities. Once again, it was a huge success! We had Maia with us again, a local band who play a mix of pop, folk and rock music. The children enjoyed their 'mini-gigs' in assembly at the start and end of the day, and some classes also worked with them to accompany them on one of their songs in workshops over the course of the day. We also had Chris, who ran a 'junk percussion' workshop for Year 3 and 4, who spent large part of the day bashing away rhythmically on wheeled bins and kitchen pans, amongst other things! Our younger children had a 'Songs and Stories' workshops and were able to hear music and experience instruments from around the world.
It was a great day and hopefully lots of our children will be enthused to go away and take up instruments!
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More cricket!
Wed 13 Jun 2018The cricket team played in the Leeds city finals today. The tournament was made up of 10 teams who had come first or second in their area competition, and as such, the competition was of a high standard. Despite that the team put together some fantastic performances!
We won our first game against Horsforth Newlaithes by a narrow 4-run victory, which set the tone for the day. We won all four games in our group, meaning we came first. We then played Gledhow in the semi-finals and returned another win, setting up a final which was a repeat of our first game against Horsforth Newlaithes. Unfortunately, this time the game went the other way, with Newlaithes deservedly winning the final. However, our performance gave us second place across Leeds, and enters us into the county finals in two weeks!
The way the team encouraged and supported one another was really incredible and all players from all teams were rightly praised at the end for their sporting spirit and good attitude. In particular, it was a pleasure to see the improvement in performance from some of those who had not played much cricket at all until recently. Their progress in batting, bowling, fielding and tactical awareness has been noted by parents who have watched the teams matches. Well done boys!
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Cricket
Thu 07 Jun 2018Our cricket team had a fantastic day yesterday at the local finals. They won 3 of their 4 games, meaning they finished second of five and qualified for the city finals. They performed brilliantly as a team and it was really good to see how much some of them have improved since we started training a few weeks ago.
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Year 1/2 Inspire events
Sun 03 Jun 2018In the final week of the May half term we held our final Inspire events of the year, this time for Key Stage 1. Once again, the events were well attended - thank you to all those parents, carers and grandparents who were able to put time aside to visit the school to learn more about how we teach the children Maths. As ever, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Listed below is a selection of the comments received on the feedback forms.
Did you enjoy the event? If so, why?
“Yes – lovely to see the children enjoying doing Maths tasks.”
“Yes, nice to spend time with my son and see how he works and interacts.”
“Yes. It was lovely to spend time with my son in school and find out what they are taught in Maths.”
“Yes, nice to see and help in his learning.”
“It was lovely to see what my son has been up to.”
“Yes, it’s useful to understand teaching methods, e.g. the bar model.”
“Yes, it’s always good to see the children in their own environment.”
“It was informative and good to see how the children are learning Maths.”
“Very much. It’s good to have the chance to see more clearly what the kids get up to in school.”
“It was great spending time with my son in a school-like lesson.”
“Yes, lovely to see how my daughter learns and interacts at school.”
“It was very interesting to see how the children are taught and the logic behind the methods.”
“It is good to see how they are taught Maths as it is different to my day!”
“Very much. It was interesting seeing how the children work and to be able to work with them was fun.”
“Yes, it’s always enjoyable to see the children in their own environment.”
“Yes – good to interact with the children.”
“It gets you understanding what the children are learning.”
“Yes – it was great to learn how the children learn in class.”
“It was fun to work with the kids and learn how they do Maths.”
“Yes – nice to spend time with the children, learning what they do and how.”
“Very informative. I enjoyed seeing how my granddaughter works.”
“Yes we had a lovely time seeing our daughter in her school environment and helping her do Maths.”
“It’s great spending time learning together in my son’s school environment.”
If we were to do another Inspire event in the future with a different theme, would you attend again?
“Definitely.”
“Absolutely.”
Do you feel that you learned more about your child’s educational experience at Strawberry Fields?
“Yes, very useful”
“Yes, it’s advantageous to know learning and teaching techniques.”
“Definitely.”
“Yes, very much so.”
“Yes, very much.”
“Yes, and helpful to be able to reinforce these ways at home.”
“Yes, much more.”
Did you find the films at the start informative/interesting?
“Much better than just being talked to!”
“It was good to see the way things are being discussed in school.”
“Yes, a different perspective.”
“Yes – a great way for children to understand some fundamental concepts.”
“Yes – good to see current thinking.’”
“Very interesting.”
“Yes, they were interesting.”
“Yes – it explained the thought pattern.”
Do you feel better able to support your child with their Maths learning as a result of attending the session today?
“A lot more confident – it seems to be all about how you explain it to the children.”
“Yes, I understand better what level she is at and the types of problems she can tackle.”
“Yes – I will be using more visual ways of teaching my son to learn at home using objects.”
“I do.”
“Yes – I’ve taken the sheets home and will be using the website.”
“I can see areas that I can work on with him.”
“Yes – thank you very much!”
“Yes, I have a better understanding.”
“Yes, I understand better what level she is at and the types of problems she can tackle.”
“Yes – I will be using more visual ways of teaching my son to learn at home using objects.”
“I do.”
“Yes – I’ve taken the sheets home and will be using the website.”
“I can see areas that I can work on with him.”
“I do – sometimes I am nervous of confusing my son.”
“Yes – good to see different ways of explaining it.”
“Yes – I’ve found other ways of explaining it.”
“Yes – I never learnt the basics at school, nice to know how to teach and assist at home.”
“Yes, I can adapt my style of working with my son to suit.”
Do you have any further comments?
“Love what was said – ‘We want to see your children making mistakes’ – learning process.”
“Keep up the fantastic work and thank you.”
“Thank you for inviting us along. I feel I will be able to help my son more at home. I look forward to the next one!”
“All very good and enjoyable.”
“I appreciate the effort put into the morning. Thank you.”
“Great fun and great learning.”
“Thank you for taking the time to set these events up.”
“Thank you.”
“Well done to everyone involved for organising the event – thanks!”
“I feel because there are always so many changes to education that the inspire events give the parents and opportunity to develop the learning with them.”
“It was a wonderful experience.”
“Keep these events up thanks!”
“Thanks for taking the time out.”
“Inspire is a good way of seeing a child’s advancement and how the school works towards this.”
“This event showed how you teach the children.”
“Thank you for the opportunity to come in.”
