Parents Newsletter

"Together We Achieve More"

SPRING 2010 - ISSUE 1

Welcome Back

Welcome back everyone and a belated Happy New Year to you all. We had a fantastic Christmas in school and it was wonderful to see so many parents and friends at all the events. We really appreciate your wonderful support and the children benefit greatly because of it.

The weather has created a number of challenges this term however the children have coped well with the changes to routines, unavailability of the playground etc and have settled back well into their learning. Our text messaging system has been very helpful and made communication with parents generally much more efficient. Of course it relies on us having the correct numbers on our system so please can you ensure they are always kept up to date. We also contact TRAX FM about any school closures so they are also an excellent source of information.

We have had 2 exciting pieces of news since Christmas as Miss Day has had a new baby boy called Oliver and Mrs Robertson has had a baby girl called Freya. I am sure they will soon be bringing them into school to introduce them to the children.

We have several excellent trainee teachers working in school with us this half-term. Samantha Hubbard is a trainee from York University and is working in Class 8 and Janine Lowndes is a Graduate Trainee teacher who is working in Class 1. Mrs Smyth, our GTP trainee, is based in Class 6 until half-term.

All the research re-enforces what we know that children learn most effectively when parents/carers are involved. Details of the learning in each classroom are displayed in school and can also be easily accessed on the school website.

Please continue to encourage your child to read regularly at home, learn their individual spellings and complete their homework as this contributes greatly to their progress. Parents / carers are always welcome in the classrooms and we have fantastic group of volunteers who listen to the children read.

We have lots of additional events and activities planned that we will do our best to keep you informed about. Thank you all for your continuing support.

Janet Foster

Nursery

The Nursery children have really enjoyed exploring winter and since we had the recent cold weather the children have had real life experiences of snow and ice. The children have enjoyed finding out what happens to water when it freezes and what happens to ice if it is left over night in Nursery.

The children have loved having a winter shop in the Nursery as they have been able to recreate roles and experiences and use their imagination. They have been involved in the setting up of the role play and choosing what they want to sell. The children have made price labels for some of the things in the shop and we have been talking about 1p, 2p and 5p coins.

As a maths focus we have been matching pairs of socks on the washing line which links with winter and keeping warm.

The children have enjoyed having hot chocolate and tomato soup for snack time and this week we will be having porridge to keep us warm.

While we have been thinking about winter we have done some activities linked with animals that live in the cold. The children have been involved in looking at different books and exploring them through small world play.

Thank you for your continued support.

Reception

In the three Reception Classes we are concentrating on the topic of ‘traditional tales’. We are approaching this as a cross curricular way: planting beans for the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, making porridge for Goldilocks and building bridges for the three Billy Goats to cross. You can support your child by bringing in stories and drawings associated with the story of the week.

In maths we are concentrating upon addition and subtraction practically and helping the children to record their sums, again support at home would be appreciated.

Keep up with the key rings as your children are continuing to do well. As we are adding more and more your support with spellings will help your child greatly.

Key Stage One - Year 1 and 2

This half term we are enjoying learning about Traditional Stories. We have been re-telling our favourite stories, acting them out and even making up our own versions.

As a result of the PTA’s successful fundraising events we have been able to book a visit from Adam Bushnell, a story writer, to further enhance our learning. We are looking forward to our Book Week, beginning on Monday 8th February and ending with a non-uniform day, which has a story character theme.

We have been working hard to produce some beautiful spring flower sewings, which you will be able to view and purchase at the Art Exhibition in March.

Africa Twinning

We have loved finding out all about our friends in Latrikunda Lower Basic School in The Gambia, West Africa. We have enjoyed collecting information to send back to them. Each class has produced their own booklet and we have answered the questions they wanted to know. We have also made a list of questions that we would like to find out about them. The booklets have now been sent to the school and we are looking forward to hearing back from them!

Gardening & Junior Rangers Club

The children in the Gardening club have enjoyed participating in a wide range of activities. They have made lots of different things including Bat Boxes, carving pumpkins for Halloween and at Christmas they made festive table decorations out of logs.

They have been actively involved by planting seeds, bulbs and vegetables. They also took part in ‘National Tree Planting Week’ by planting trees around the school grounds.

Over the next few weeks the children will be learning about Potatoes and making Bird Feeders.