Nursery staff would like to say a big well done to all Nursery children this week. It is fantastic to see children walking into Nursery and waving goodbye to their grown-up with such confidence. We have missed you all!

In the Nursery setting, we have been focusing on settling back in and getting into a good routine. We have been really impressed with the work children have produced at home. It is evident that many children have been practising writing their name. Keep up the good work everyone. 

In class this week, we have enjoyed exploring our environment and listened to a range of stories including: ‘The Very Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Enormous Turnip.’ The children are really enjoying accessing our Farm Shop role play area. We will be planting some seeds soon and making observations on what plants need to grow. Watch this space… 

We have really enjoyed welcoming all the children back to reception. It is wonderful to see how they have become much more confident learners whilst working from home. All the children have settled back into the classroom setting with ease and we are so proud of them all.  

During the first week back at school, we have focused on well-being activities and have been allowing the children lots of time to play together. Miss Thomas and Miss Harper have enjoyed watching the children continue to develop their strong friendships in class. The children have enjoyed talking about what they would like to learn now they are back in school and their aspirations for the future. Following our return to school, we have started to take part in the daily mile to keep ourselves fit and healthy. We have challenged ourselves to see how many laps of the playground we can walk, jog or run every day. 

In class this week, we have continued to learn about topics that we covered during home learning. In literacy lessons, we have continued to learn about Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have really enjoyed accessing our giant’s castle role play, retelling the story with confidence. During our child-initiated learning session, the children have enjoyed drawing their own story maps. In class, the children have been getting sticky, making their own collage of the beanstalk to display in our classroom. 

During our maths lessons, we have been recapping all our skills through daily maths meeting sessions. We have practised counting, number recognition, positional language, pattern, 2D and 3D shapes and much more. The children have been applying all the learning they completed at home during their play. 

We look forward to seeing how much the children progress through the rest of the Spring and Summer term. Once again Miss Thomas and Miss Harper would like to thank parents/guardians for all their hard work during the period of home learning, it is clear that this has had an impact on all of the children. 

We are approaching the full-time return to school…hooray!

This week, Year 5 have continued with their learning in Maths based on properties of shape (angles). The children have used their knowledge of types of angles and developed their skills further to find missing angles on a straight line and in a full turn. The children working online have used the digital whiteboard to complete their calculations and have applied this within their independent work.

Following lots of discussion about animals in captivity, in both reading and writing, the children have used an example text to explore their opinions further within a discussion text.  We have worked together to write a shared example each lesson using various grammatical features, and then the children have used their own ideas, alongside shared examples, to begin building their own discussion text.

When animals are put into captivity, they are given the right habitat so that they can survive in the right temperature and not die in the wrong habitat. They are also fed whenever possible, so they won’t die or be too full because they were overfed. The zookeepers also train the animals, so they won’t attack, kill or hurt humans when walking past them. Although the animals might not be happy, they will still be looked after with good care and medicine when it is necessary otherwise, they will die.

Throughout this term learning at home, Year 5 have worked hard to improve their comprehension skills whilst reading a range of texts. This week, the children have used the new vocabulary linked to animals in captivity, alongside our discussions to answer a range of comprehension questions, and it is clear that they are becoming more confident to answer long response questions.

Based on our whole school project, the children in school have worked extremely hard to create some posters about deforestation, highlighting the key problems that come from this global issue. They have been learning how to draw rainforest animals, which have looked amazing on their posters!

Both Miss Hughes and Miss Jones would like to say a massive well done and thank you to all of Year 5 for their hard work and resilience during this term so far. We can’t wait to see you all on Monday 8th March to continue this fantastic work!

This week is National Children’s Mental Health week and this year’s theme is Express yourself! We would love to see how you all express yourselves whether it be through art, story writing, dressing up or singing. Upload pictures/videos or stories to your teachers on teams and let them know it’s for Children’s Mental Health Week.

The latest statistics show that 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental illness. However, in these trying times, it’s understandable that most children are feeling the pressures. Things like mood swings, being low and problems with behaviour is to be expected. 

Thursday 4th February is Time to Talk Day. On this day, we would like for you to spend some time talking to each other about anything and everything. 

The best way to encourage your children to express their feelings is through general conversation. So here’s a family challenge for you. 

Play a game where each of you chooses one of your favourite things in the world and don’t tell anyone else. Take it in turns to ask yes/no questions to find out what that thing is. For example, is it an animal? Is it a toy? Is it blue? Etc.

See how quickly you can work out what it is.

If you would like any more information about Children’s Mental Health week or resources to use at home, please visit https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/

If you have any concerns about your child’s mental health, please contact the school for further advice.