Class assembly
Thank you for coming to our bear-themed class assembly. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I was delighted to see the re-telling of We’re going on a bear hunt – it’s good to re-tell stories over and over again. This develops a real awareness of story structure and language can be reinforced through repetition. Plus: children love it!
Here are a few comments:
- ‘Really enjoyed the performance, especially the dancing.’
- ‘Fabulous! Our first assembly. Our the children were brilliant.’
- ‘Very well rehearsed. Really enjoyed it.’
- ‘Great effort as ever. Really well done.’
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Settling In surveys
To those of you who have completed and returned the Settling In surveys, thank you very much.
We’ve had 15 responses, all of which were positive overall, and some of which suggested a few areas to develop. These include:
- More homework – this is going to be reviewed at a whole-school level, based on the feedback here and on ParentView
- More information about how much progress your child is making – this we will also look at because quite a few of you have mentioned this, but in the meantime, do please contact Reception staff or me – we’d be happy to talk through your child’s learning with you. By now, you will have attended two parents’ evening appointments; last year, we introduced a third parents’ evening appointment at the very end of the year when the final Early Years Profile has been completed and when most children will have reached Early Learning Goals and a Good Level of Development.
If you have any questions, comments of complaints, please do come and see me. In the meantime, thank you again for completing the short survey (look out for the Parents’ Annual Survey towards the end of the year!) and also for your support – I know Mrs Burke and her team appreciate this a lot.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Evie and Poppy who were elected as the school councillors for Reception Class.
Well done to all the other candidates as well. We were really impressed with how confidently and clearly everyone spoke.
Multiplication in Reception
This week in Maths, children will be learning about multiplication and counting in 2s.
Multiplication is often seen as repeat addition, but it differs from addition in that the sets of objects you are totalling are made up of the same number of items. In Reception, children’s experience of multiplication as counting equal groups is done through pairing and counting feet, eyes, socks, gloves and pairs of shoes!
Counting two objects as one unit is an important multiplication skill.
How you can help at home
Give your child lots of practical experiences. Let your child help to put socks in pairs and count how many there are.
It is important that children also see multiplication as an arrangement of rows and columns. Examples of this around the home include
- egg boxes
- egg and bun trays
- squares in a large chocolate bar
- some of the buttons on most remote controls
Happy holidays!
We are reaching the end of the children’s first term in Reception. It has been a delight to see how the children have changed and developed over the last few months.
Well done Nayaab, Enas, Aisha and Kirsten for their increased confidence and to Zara for finally gaining the confidence to speak to adults.
Well done, Daniel, for always making good choices.
Jacob, Ben, Zakariya and Musa have improved their learning behaviour and are listening more attentively on the carpet.
William and Charlie have kept us amused with their great sense of humour and Rabiya, Kismat, Gurnoor and Tasha have shown concern and care for their friends.
We are all impressed with Sam’s perseverance in holding his pencil to write his name and Ahmed’s speed in learning and using English.
Well done to Byron, Alexander and Evie for great learning in maths and Eve, and to Alexandra, Eliza, Eleni and Poppy for their progress in reading.
Everyone has been impressed with Arundeep and Zidaan for their great manners and Maggie and Finlay for their creativity and model making.
Have a great holiday and happy new year from everyone in Reception!
Writing!
Reception children are writing everywhere!
Getting ready to write!
The children are progressing quickly with their phonics learning and reading. Alongside blending to read, the children also need to segment words to spell. Children often find this harder and lack confidence in their ability to write.
In Reception, the children take part in shared writing activities where they can ‘have a go’ on whiteboards with the support of adults. We then encourage independent writing in all the areas of provision. This includes writing a label for their model, writing a shopping list in the role-play shop or writing a letter to a friend. We value all the children’s attempts at writing and model writing (and making mistakes) to them.
You can help at home by:
- Providing plenty of different types of pens and pencils and encouraging your child to use a correct grip
- Encouraging them to use the school’s handwriting style and to use lower case letters; we teach that a capital letter is required for the first letter in a name and at the beginning of a sentence
- Spelling is harder than reading words – praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting
- Remember that at this stage children’s phonetic attempts are valued. They will learn the correct spellings of words later. We want the children to become confident writers by ‘having a go’ and using their phonetic knowledge independently.
- To be able to write, children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and over-arm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea.
Have fun!
STOP!
Today is anti-bullying day, part of national anti-bullying week. Several of our classes have taken part in anti-bullying dance workshops led by Melissa from Flex Dance Inc. All the artists of the songs used in the whole school performances have been victims of bullying in their lives. Well done to all the children involved who learned their routines in such a short time and produced very confident performances.
Last week at our latest School Council meeting, all school councillors agreed to keep our current definition of bullying:
Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, more than once and on purpose.
Alongside this definition we have used the following prompts for the children to remember:
- Several
- Times
- On
- Purpose
- Start
- Telling
- Other
- People
Advice about bullying is available on a number of websites. These include Kidscape, Childline, anti-bullying alliance, BBC and ThinkUKnow. Talk Time homework this week will give you chance to discuss this important topic with your child/children.
Our children tell us they would speak to an adult in school, family or friends if they were to experience bullying or if they saw bullying.
‘I feel safe because school would deal with bullying.’
‘I feel safe at school as there are always teachers there if you ever have any problems.’
‘I feel safe at school because everyone around me looks after me.’
Pupil health questionnaire 2013
If you do have any concerns about bullying, please speak to a member of staff.
Roundhay Juniors Park Run
Roundhay Juniors Park Run – Weekly Free 2km Timed Run for Juniors
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/roundhay-juniors/
It is only for juniors – if you’re not a junior, how about trying one of the weekly Saturday parkrun events?
What is Roundhay Juniors parkrun?
It is a 2km run for juniors only (4-14 year olds). If you are not a junior please try one of our weekly Saturday parkrun events instead.
When is it?
It is run every Sunday at 9:00am.
Where is it?
It’s run in Roundhay Park, Leeds. See Course page for more details.
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/roundhay-juniors/course/
What does it cost to join in?
Nothing – it’s free! Please register before your first run http://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/. Only ever register with parkrun once. Don’t forget to bring a printed copy of your barcode (request a reminder).
How fast do I have to be?
We all run for our own enjoyment. Please come along and join in whatever your pace! We’re friendly! Every week we grab a post parkrun coffee in a local café – please come and join us!
Spiders!
Reception are loving their topic on arachnids. They even made their own web!
