Welcome to Class 1

Dear Parents and Pupils,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the break. If I haven’t had a chance to speak to you in person, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year!

The term is now underway and we have lots of exciting learning opportunities planned for the children to enjoy! I hope you find the following newsletter and the information contained helpful.

Diary Dates
Mrs Lawson will add some dates for your diary onto the Arbor App shortly, but here are a few dates for you to make a note of:

Tuesday 13th January at 6.30pm - PTA meeting, all parents welcome.
Monday 26th January from 1pm – 6pm (start time will differ between classes) – Parents’ Evening - details of how to book appointments will be sent home shortly.
Thursday 12th February at 9.15am – Class One Assembly for Parents. All parents and family of Class One are most welcome to attend. You can drop off your children at the usual time and sit in the school hall, tea and coffee will be available for you while 
you wait!
Tuesday 24th March at 2.30pm – Whole School Easter Service *TBC.
Friday 27th March at 9am - 10.30am - PTA Easter Coffee morning followed by the Egg Hunt on the school field, school closes at 2pm.

Routines
Just a reminder of the school routines, we open the doors at 8.40am and take the register at 9am prompt. At 9.10am we have daily phonics until 9.30am, when our literacy session starts. We have milk and fruit at 10.10am and this is special time when we chat about what we have had for breakfast, reinforcing good listening and speaking, good manners and turn taking. The children go out to play at 10.30am. After morning break we have our numeracy session. At 11.45am Class 1 go for lunch 15 minutes earlier than Classes 2 and 3. This gives us some extra time for eating in a slightly quieter hall! Lunch playtime finishes at 1pm. The sessions in the afternoon vary day to day although the football session with Rowan will be every Friday 1-2pm
(please make sure your child has warm joggers and hoodie or similar until the weather improves!) We have afternoon playtime each day at 2pm. 
We will have whole school assemblies every Monday and Wednesday, with a Celebration assembly every Friday at 3pm. 

The Children
All the children have returned to school in great spirits and quickly settled into the school routines. In Nursery, we have recently been joined by Moggie (Millie), Mollie and Tyee, we very much welcome our new additions to the class!

For the children in Reception and Year One, I will be consolidating the progress your child has made and now expect even more of them! If your child is in Reception or Year 1 then they will have brought home their completed phonics workbooks. It 
would be really beneficial for you to revisit the workbooks to consolidate the sounds they have learned so far.

Reading books.
With regards to reading books sent home, the guidance from government is that children should have fully decodable reading books that match the sounds already taught and mastered, and that the books children bring home should be ‘easily’ read. It makes sense that the books the children are reading match the sounds taught and the phonics workbook they are working at. Reception have just started workbook 3, so their reading books should have a number 1 or 2 sticker on them, Year One are working on workbook 7 so their reading books will most likely have numbers 5 – 7 on the front dependent on individual ability. We really value your comments in the reading record, and would ask that when you share a book with your child that you write a comment in the reading records for us. Ideally, I would like the children to share their book with an adult every night, this should take no longer than 5 or 10 minutes. To encourage any reluctant readers, why not read the book to your child first and then ask your child to read it to you? This strategy helps to build confidence and a shared love of books.

Writing skills.
The Nursery children will continue to enjoy stories, practise rhymes and listen for initial sounds and begin to look for them in our learning environment.

Reception children are beginning to write their own sentences, something we very much encourage. Let your child sound out each word, identify the number of sounds, and encourage them to write the sounds that match their spoken words. Please do not correct spelling mistakes at this stage as this will discourage them from wanting to write. 
Year 1 children are now confidently writing several sentences independently. Once we have written a sentence, I want the Year 1 children to carefully read that sentence, checking for correct punctuation, and to look carefully at each word and check that it is spelt correctly. This is something we do every day in school, and they are getting quite good at it!

Reception and Year 1 children will continue with taught handwriting, please do ask them about the letter of the week which will have its own little rhyme to aid the correct formation as we are really focussing on correct letter formation this year.

Homework.
The Year 1 children are well into the routine of weekly homework and spellings to learn. You will notice that the level of challenge in the homework will increase. 
Reception will now have a few spellings to learn each week!

The Curriculum.
Our whole class theme is Pirates!

As a guide, this term we will be learning about.

History - Learn about famous pirates, pirate ships etc the life of Christopher Columbus (linked to geography)

Geography - Land and oceans. Countries of the UK. Where have I been on holiday? Investigate the 7 continents. Routes and voyages of Christopher Columbus

Design and Technology - Build a pirate ship adding the deck, masts, portholes, crows nest, rigging and sails

Art – Drawing and painting. Explore watercolours to create a sea scape, using man-made paper materials to add effects.

PSHE - Feelings and Emotions, exploring feelings, special people, friendships and the importance of listening Valuing difference, Friends, bullying, differences, being kind/unkind.

Computing – Finding pictures using the web, creating a fact file using Word.

Science - Properties of materials, investigating floating and sinking, waterproof and absorbent materials.

PE - Multi skills and Football with Rowan (Friday afternoon), throwing and catching and simple games

Music - Charanga! We will learn new action songs, play the glockenspiel, body percussion and other musical instruments. Perform and compose.

RE - Judaism – The Jewish story of creation, Shabbat, Jewish traditions and celebrations. Easter, crosses and crucifixes, create an Easter garden. What is hope?

Communication.
We try to keep parents as fully informed about school, visits and anything extra happening in school via school letters. As you know, my door is always open. In addition, Mrs Evans, Miss Simpson, Miss Jackson and I are always available for a chat at the start, or the end of any day and we would urge you to come in and see us at your earliest convenience should you have any concerns, or questions about what is happening at school.

I would like to thank everyone for their support during the Autumn term, the Christmas gifts and cards were very much appreciated. I am sure that the Spring Term will be just as much fun for the children and the staff!

Yours sincerely,

Lynn Harrison. 

Headteacher