Welcome to Year 1
Wow! What a brilliant start to Year 1. The children have moved from Reception to Year 1 without any upset and are certainly ready to learn – well done to Mrs Burke and her team who have done a brilliant job preparing the children for Key Stage 1.
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, learning new routines and getting straight into all lessons. We have seen some fantastic independent writing and have discovered that there are some great imaginative ideas when predicting stories. Gerry the Giraffe has helped us to learn some positional language and there has been some great PE which has impressed Mr Catherall.
Here are some photos of our first couple of weeks:
Smile for miles on the St Gemma’s sponsored walk
One of our chosen school charities, St Gemma’s Hospice, is holding their first ever Happy Walk on Saturday 20 September. This is a good opportunity to support our school charity but also to take part in a great morning with your family while walking 3.5 or 5.5 miles around Roundhay Park. The event starts at 10am.
We’ll be co-ordinating registration for the event and registration forms are available now from the office.
Entrance for this event is £5 (children under 12 walk free) and each walker will get a free hot drink and cake. All participants are asked to raise sponsorship money. It is also a pram and wheelchair friendly route so the whole family really can get involved.
There will be an activity pack that children can take with them on the walk where they can look out for wildlife and take some tree rubbings. Before the walk starts there will also be a face painter, a chance to meet Olaf from Frozen, and time to make your own Happy Loom band to wear and keep.
St Gemma’s are also encouraging all walkers to wear what makes them Happy on the walk – whether that’s a silly hat, fluffy socks or a brightly coloured t-shirt.
We hope you are able to join in with the St Gemma’s Happy Walk.
New SEAL theme
As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on new beginnings.
‘I make someone feel welcome’ is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme.
New Beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.
During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.
Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.
New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.
Ready to learn
It’s the summer holidays and, in line with our homework policy, there is no formal homework set over the six-week break.
That doesn’t mean that your child won’t be learning! We learn all the time – and so do children, whether it’s through play, day-trips, independent reading, discussions at home…
And of course, you’ll be keen to support your child at home so the basic facts aren’t forgotten. Please think about key English and Maths knowledge that you can gently practise over the holidays:
- number bonds: knowing pairs of numbers that add to make ten, like 3+7=10 and therefore 10-7=3). When your child is secure with pairs that total ten, can they extend this knowledge to pairs which make 20 (13+7=20, for example) and 100 (such as 30+70=100) – make this fun by using some sweet treats or how about stringing ten loom bracelets on string and then hiding some and making the link with the ones that are left (how many are hidden if you can see three bracelets?)
- times tables: Year 2 children should have an emerging knowledge of the 2 times table and the 10 times table at least, and children who have just finished Year 4 should know all their times tables (up to 12 x 12) and the division facts, too (7×8=56 so 56÷7=8) – think about chanting some times tables or buying an app to practise just a few minutes every day to keep your child’s knowledge sharp!
- reading: lots of reading over the holidays will help your child in lots of different ways – visit the local library; take part in our Extreme Reading competition; if you’re going to a theme park or museum, read the leaflet and the website… there are loads of opportunities to build in reading as a daily activity!
- writing: reading will help your child’s spellings and writing style, so don’t force lots of writing, but do try to encourage some useful, purposeful writing – write some postcards to friends and relatives , or send some emails instead, and make lists for what to pack on holiday, or what to buy if planning a sleepover.
Check out this guide about supporting learning, useful whether it’s term-time of holiday time!
Finally, make sure you enjoy the summer break!
10 minute shake up
Change4Life and Disney have teamed up to help your kids have fun and move more this summer. Sign up for the 10 Minute Shake Up Pack and you’ll get a FREE stopwatch, fun activity cards, Disney themed wall chart and stickers – all inspired by your kids’ favourite Disney characters!
The 10 Minute Shake Up games are a fantastic way to help your kids get the recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity they need every day. Being active helps your kids maintain a healthy weight and helps their heart and bones stay healthy. Visit the 10 Minute Shake Up Zone for loads of fun game ideas.
Inspired by the Tour de France?
What an amazing spectacle the Tour de France has been this weekend.
If you have been inspired to get on your bike then next week we are having a bike, scooter and walk to school week alongside our Staying Safe week.
Each day this golden lock will be placed on a random bike or scooter, in our storage area. If it is your bike or scooter you will be the lucky winner of a £20 voucher, kindly donated by the Chapel Allerton branch of Edinburgh bicycle cooperative.
On Wednesday, from 8:30am, Edinburgh bike cooperative will be visiting school for a Dr bike event. Children who bring their bike to school can have a free bike maintenance check to ensure their bike is in its best condition. Edinburgh bike cooperative will be with us all morning checking bikes and also providing bike maintenance sessions for Year 5 so they can maintain their own bikes.
Would you like to explore cycle routes across the city? Leeds City council have produced a series of local cycle maps. Additionally, Go:cycling offer a range of free cycling services.
Tour de France
After going to have a look at the amazing bikes at the front of school…
Year 1 wanted to find out some more about the Tour de France.
- ‘Did the first race start in France?’
- ‘Why is it so long?’
- ‘What colours will the bikes be?’
- ‘How many people will be part of the Tour de France?’
- ‘Why are girls not allowed to ride?’
- ‘Who is taking part this year?’
- ‘Who won the Tour de France last year?’
So we decided we needed to ask the experts: Year 4.
Year 4 came to teach us lots of facts and information from their Tour de France topic. They had even written quizzes and made leaflets for us to take home. Thank you Year 4 – you were great, well-prepared teachers!
Oh we did like to be beside the seaside.
Year 1 and 2 donned their sunhats, sun-cream and flip-flops for a day on the beach last week and oh what fun we had!
Once we arrived, we set off on the long downhill trek to the beach and settled ourselves on the sand to have a play and eat our lunch.
Unfortunately, a particularly vicious seagull stole Mrs Maqbool’s sandwich!
After lunch, it was time to get ourselves wet and have a paddle. We all had a great splash around and then had a quick change as the tide was coming in.
Once we were all dry, we moved the other side of the beach where the tide wasn’t in yet and where the ice-cream van was parked. Everybody had an ice-cream with a flake. The most popular flavour was mint-choc-chip whilst the teachers favoured cinder toffee. Yum!
It was a beautiful day and we were all sad to have to leave the beach to climb up the hill to the coach again to head back home. I don’t know about Year 1, but Year 2 were surprisingly lively all the way back home. Hopefully, they were then tired out for bed at the end of the day.
Farewell to Nothing
Today, we said farewell to Nothing by having a celebration of the time he has spent with us. There were party games and food and a chance for the children to say a message to Nothing before he left to return to his family.
- ‘Hope you have a nice time with your family.’
- ‘Hope your family look after you.’
- ‘I hope you have enjoyed visiting our school.’
- ‘I’m sorry that you are leaving.’
The children have thoroughly enjoyed the Nothing project and have shown great understanding and learning.
- ‘I know we don’t pick things up and eat them.’
- ‘We need a healthy diet.’
- ‘There are things we need and things we want.’
- ‘Don’t talk to strangers.’
- ‘All medicines are drugs but not all drugs are medicines.’
Thanks for coming to visit us, Nothing.
Seaside sing-a-long
Year 1 have been getting in the mood for our upcoming seaside trip with a seaside-themed singing session. A sailor went to sea, sea, sea is one of our favourites and Mia even taught us the clapping rhyme to go with the song – great partner work.
