Noticeboard

• We have noticed a decline in parents writing in their child’s reading record over the past term. Please make sure you record in their reading record every time you read with your child. We look at your child’s reading record every time we read with them to see how many times they have read the book previously. This allows us to adapt our teaching focus depending on the amount of times they have read at home (e.g. if they have not read the book, we will focus on decoding the words, if they have read the book multiple times, we may focus on comprehension questions). If there is nothing recorded, we assume they have not read it yet. The children are telling us they have been reading, but nothing is recorded. This means that we are finding it difficult to pitch our focus with your child and their learning is not being moved on in the most effective way. We do not mind if it is as simple as the date, title and a tick or smiley face. 
• Friday 24th January – Inset day, school closed to children.
• Wednesday 29th January – 7-8pm – Smart phone safety session – alongside the Juniors we are holding an online session, where the speaker will be talking about smart phone safety (more information was in the newsletter)  
• Please alert your child’s class teacher when your child has filled up one side of their bookmark. 
• In the final week before Christmas, we sent out Term 2 of your child’s learning diary on Tapestry. Please celebrate the learning your child has been doing in school with them by sharing the observations. 
• Please find the lunch menu by clicking here. 
• Please use the school calendar to find up-coming dates (including our Nativity performance and carol service).
• Please make sure your child has a coat in school every day. We will go outside even when it is cold and raining.
• Please do not allow your child to play with the resources that are on the Reception patio in the morning. These have been carefully positioned and are there to support your child’s learning during the school day.

Celebrations

The children have had another brilliant week at school. A particular highlight was painting landscapes. The children used watercolours to paint landscapes from around the school. The adults were really impressed by their attention to detail as they continually looked at the photographs while painting. We have also spent some time in the ‘big playground’ as the Reception children will join Years 1 and 2 next week at lunchtime. The Reception children will have the option of the small playground, which they are familiar with, as this will be open as a ‘calm playground’, or they may choose the big playground which will be called the ‘active playground’.

Tapestry observation request 

The focus this week is Communication and Language. We would love to see a video clip of your child reciting a rhyme they know off by heart.

You can also send us any moments that you feel are significant in your child’s learning or want to share with your child’s class teachers. Click the links below to find out how to add observations from different devices. 

 Apple device Andriod device Desktop

Star of the Week 

Daisy Class – Ruairidh

Buttercup Class – Harper-Rose

This week’s learning

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This week the children will be working on their teamwork and perseverance skills by building dens as a team.

Communication and Language

We will continue to have structured storytimes using our quality text Martha Maps it out by Leigh Hodgkinson 

We always encourage the children to engage in story times and non-fiction books in theses ways:

Listen to and talk about stories to build familiarity and understanding. 

Ask questions to find out more and to check they understand what is being said. 

Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences. 

Connect one idea or action to another using a range of connectives. 

Describe some events in detail. 

Word of the Week: landscape

Makaton:

Physical development

This week in PE we will be going under the sea! The children we be developing the skill of changing direction whilst playing different games with an under the sea theme. 

Literacy

In our Phonics lessons this week, we will focus on sounds which our assessment of our class shows need further practice.

We will practise blending phonemes to read, and segmenting words to spell them using the phonemes and graphemes we have learned so far.

Writing:  We will be using our phonics learning to write a short dictated sentence.

Maths

This week, we will continue to learn about numbers 6, 7 and 8. The children will be learning about the composition of these numbers and learning to quickly recall 1 more or 1 less than numbers up to 8.

Understanding the World

Children will be going on a walk around the school grounds this week looking for the different signs of winter. They will take photos of the things they observe and we will discuss the different seasons as a class. We will also use the photos and our memory of the walk to draw a whole class map of the school, plotting the key features of the school grounds.

Expressive arts and Design

In our music lesson this week we will be continuing with our Handa’s Surprise topic, listening to the story and learning a song which supports children to listen and recognise different rhythm patterns.  They will be supported to identify instrumental timbres (sounds) of non-European music and to correctly pitch (sing) a response.

Religion and Worldviews

As we continue to explore, “Why are some times special?” we will be learning about Muslim prayer times.