Bluebells
Teachers
Mrs Hughes is the teacher on a Monday, Tuesday and Mrs Tebbitt is the teacher on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
There will be times when Mrs Hughes teaches on a Wednesday if Mrs Tebbitt has classroom release time.
Teaching Assistants
Mrs Barton is our Teaching Assistant who will work in the class on a Monday and Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning and all day Friday. Mrs Clark will be the Teaching Assistant on a Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday. Mrs Palmer and Mrs Hacker will also be Teaching Assistants in the class.
Reading
We aim to change your child’s reading books once a week. The children will be given one reading book and one library book – for ‘reading for pleasure’. Please share these books with your child as often as you can and record this in the reading record book. We have a guided reading lesson four times a week when the children will be doing class and group reading and reading activities. This is the time when the teachers will be hearing your child read and assessing their progress. Any time you spend sharing books has a big impact on your child’s progress. Please also spend some time practising the sounds and words to read if you have a card in your child’s book bag. We also run two reading incentive schemes – one where the children get a raffle ticket if they read 5 times a week when this is recorded by you in their reading record books. When the raffle is drawn the children win a book and time with Mrs Pass to enjoy a hot chocolate and a biscuit. We also encourage the children to read the books on our ‘50 books to read list’ which also earns small prizes. Please hand this in regularly so we can keep up to date with how many books the children have read.
Spelling
The children will have a spelling book in their book bags with words to learn each week. There is guidance in the front of the book. We will be collecting these in on a Thursday and they will be given out with new words to learn for the next week on a Friday.
Handwriting
During Year 1 the children will begin to learn how to join letters in a cursive style. We will be writing words in the spelling books using this style but the children do not need to write using joins straight away. We want them to become familiar with how the style looks and begin to use it when they have learnt the correct formation and when they feel ready to do so. They can still print their words when writing their spellings. A sheet will be put into the reading folder with the correct formation for each letter. The Year 2 children will be continuing to learn how to join their letters and thinking about the size of letters and placement on the line.
Phonics
In preparation for the statutory Phonics Screening which takes place in June, the Year 1 children will be expected to confidently recognise the 40+ graphemes (written sounds). They will be continuing to learn how to use these graphemes to blend (for reading) and segment (for spelling).
Maths
Please continue to encourage your child to practise counting and writing their numbers 0-100. Children are assessed termly in maths using a mixture of formal and informal ‘quizzes’. Please remember to access Doodle maths which gives the children an opportunity to practise their maths at home.
Early Morning Activity
The children complete early morning activities every day. We try and encourage your child to be as independent as possible in school; it would be helpful if you could also be mindful of this, especially at drop off.
P.E
We will be having PE on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please make sure all items of clothing are clearly labelled with your child’s name and include items that are suitable for outdoor PE during colder weather. Please see the PE letter sent home. The children will wear PE clothes to school on both days.
Wellies
Please send in a named pair of wellies, we will be using
these for outdoor learning and playtimes, if necessary.
Water Bottles
Please ensure your child has a named water bottle in school. Our school policy is that these are filled with water. Please make sure these are returned each day.