Key dates
- Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd October – Parents evenings. Please attend during your allocated slots. Teachers will try their best to stay on time and conversations may need to continue at another time if the discussions run over your allocated 10 minute slot.
- Friday 24th October – End of term and home clothes day. Children do not need to wear their school uniform to school. The last day of every term will be home clothes day (6 times a year). Donations for FHIS welcome.
- Wednesday 10th December 2025 – 9:30am Reception Nativity performance to parents/carers.
- Harvest Donations – We will be collecting donations of dried or tinned foods or toiletries which we will donate to the work of the Salvation Army with some of the most vulnerable people in Bristol. Members of the Salvation Army will be visiting school on Monday 20th October, so that will be the latest morning for donations.
Noticeboard
- You should have received the first part of your child’s learning diary on Tapestry now, ahead of our discussions at parents evening. Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you cannot access it.
- Children need to bring their book bag with their reading record and book into school every day.
- If you haven’t already, please provide your child with a PE kit.
- Please provide your child with 1 portion of fruit or vegetables (no crackers, breadsticks etc) in a named pot every day.
- When dropping your child off at school in the morning, please make sure they do not play with the resources that have been carefully placed for learning later in the day.
- On your way into/out of school, please do not let your child climb on and walk along the wall. Due to safety reasons, we cannot allow 30 children to walk on during the school day. It is really difficult for children to have two different sets of rules, therefore we ask that no children walk on the wall.
All About Me Box
In the coming weeks, every child will have the opportunity to take home the class ‘All About Me Box’ for one night. We ask that adults at home support their child to fill it with some items listed below. We appreciate this may take some time to prepare, hence the advance warning.
| Item | Examples |
| An item to enable them to talk about a past event in their own life. | A photo from their third birthday party. A fridge magnet bought on a holiday. |
| One or two printed family photos that we can keep and display in our classroom for the year. | N/A |
| An item that symbolises being part of a community or a family tradition. | A pair of ballet shoes if attending a regular class. An item used in a religious festival. |
| 3 or 4 printed photos of themselves at different stages of their life. | 1 baby photo, 1 toddler photo, 1 photo when they were 3 and a photo of their first day of school. |
| 1 other thing they would like to share with the class. | If you are a bilingual family, a story book in another language. A favourite toy. A special item of clothing worn for a celebration. |
Once the box is filled, they will bring it back to school the next working day and discuss the items with the class (with support from teachers). You may want to support your child by having a ‘practice run’. This activity will help to develop their speaking skills if presenting, and their listening, attention and understanding skills if in the audience. The aim of this activity is so that the class can find out more about every child. At the end of the day, the items (apart from the family photos) will be returned to you.
Key text
The objectives below will be covered over the four ‘Structured Story Times’ this week.
We will continue to refer to this book throughout the year for different celebrations.
| Book: | Celebrations Around the World |
| Vocabulary focus: | exchange, chime, tradition, sunrise and sunset, victory and defeat, wealth, decorated, adorned |
| At the end of the week, children will know… | that non-fiction books are true and can be read in any order what a celebration is that different festivals are celebrated around the world, and they have different traditions. |
| At the end of the week, children will be able to… | discuss different celebrations and festivals from around the world. ask questions about the book. make comments and share their own ideas and experiences. |
Next week’s learning
| Subject | This week’s learning objectives |
| Communication and language | Speaking (through All About Me box): Use language to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events. Become increasingly aware of audience. Include relevant details to engage their audience. Listening, attention and understanding (through All About Me box): Understand questions such as who; why; when; where and how. Ask relevant questions or make relevant comments in relation to what they have heard. |
| Personal, Social and Emotional development | To explore diversity through talking about similarities and differences. |
| Physical development | Write Dance and Disco Dough – To develop the gross and fine motor skills needed for writing. PE – To work cooperatively with a partner. |
| Phonics | To know the phonemes (sounds): l,ll,ss To know the common exception words : go |
| Reading | To blend words using known phonemes in phonics lessons and when reading books. To say what the initial, middle and final sounds are in CVC words. To say how many sounds there are in a word. |
| Writing | To revisit correct pencil grip through point, pinch, flip strategy. To develop mastery in prewriting shapes to support correct letter formation. |
| Maths | Composition of 1, 2, and 3 – Explore different ways to make 1, 2, and 3 using addition and subtraction. |
| Understanding the World | History (through All About Me box): Talk about past and present events in their own life. Know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities, cultures and traditions. Geography and R+WV (through All About Me box): Talk about their immediate family and community and some of their routines, culture and celebrations. Recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. Name the street where their home and school are. History: To relate the changing seasons to the passing of time. R+WV: Recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. Geography: To know the names of the seasons and what the weather is/can be like in each. To talk about the changes that each season brings in relation to their environment: the clothes they wear, the weather and the plants. To describe how trees and plants change in different seasons. |
| Expressive Arts and Design | To use items collected on the Autumn Walk to make a picture in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. |