Friday 15th November 2024

Please see this week's floor book entry attached.

This week in phonics, we've learned two new graphemes: 'ck' and 'e'.

You'll have had the grapheme pictures and tiles for 'g', 'o', 'c' and 'k' come home in your child's bookbag today. You can add them to your collection. Playing games whilst revisiting sounds already learned will really help to consolidate your child's understanding of the grapho-phonic correspondences. You'll also be able to show them how to compose many simple CVC (and now CVCC) words!

In maths, we've been continuing to consolidate counting and looking at the composition of numbers up to 5, understanding that we can count objects in any order but only once each, remembering to stop on the final one. We've also been comparing numbers and exploring vocabulary such as: less, fewer, more, bigger, smaller, most, least and equal.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent in wellies for their child to wear when we get outside and visit the muddier areas of our school. If your child already has a pair at Puffin club, we'll liaise with them so please don't worry that you'll need to buy an additional pair.

Please remember to clearly label both wellies. 

Another thank you for all of your donations for Children in Need today. 

Thursday 14th November 2024

Thank you to those who were able to attend for joining us on Monday.

Please see the attached slides used in the meeting for those of you who were unable to make it but wanted a chance to catch up on anything missed.

Reading slides to follow.

Friday 25th October 2024

During this last week of the half term, we've been exploring and describing the signs of autumn. Thank you so much for all the conkers, pine cones, leaves and other natural materials you've been bringing in. They have been fabulous for giving the children meaningful hands-on experiences and very much appreciated! 

In maths we've been comparing numbers 1-5 using the vocabulary 'more' and 'less', continuing to build on our subitising skills too, then quickly comparing two different amounts. The conkers have come in handy for that too!

In phonics we've learnt two new sounds: 'g' and 'o'. Now there are even more words we can begin to read and write.

After the half term break we will be starting a new topic: 'Are you afraid of the dark?' This will focus on learning about light and dark as well as different festivals celebrated in different religions and cultures in the autumn. We'll be looking at Diwali, Bonfire Night, Mid-Autumn (Moon) festival (even though it's a little bit late) and later on ... Christmas!

If there are any festivals or celebrations important to you and your child that you'd like to share with us, please get in touch. It doesn't have to be just in this coming half term. We'd love the opportunity to learn about different traditions and celebrate each other's cultures throughout the year. We'd also welcome any parents who would like to come in to talk to the reception classes about any festivals they celebrate with their families and friends. Sharing traditional dress, tasting food, observing artwork or artefacts, etc. would be fantastic experiences for the children. Just email if you'd like to help and we'll schedule in a visit.

There will also be a reception parents' meeting about reading taking place on Monday 11th November at 2:15pm. We hope to see many of you there!

We hope you have a wonderful and restful half term break and look forward to seeing you on Monday 4th.

Friday 18th October 2024

We've been working hard again this week, teaching our 7^th and 8^th sounds in phonics: 'm' and 'd'. So many more children are now blending which is fantastic!

We have also been developing a deeper understanding of numbers 1-4 and been sharpening our subitising skills. 

Our junk model houses are well underway. We'll be adding more detail to them next week and then assembling them all to create a street.

Thank you so much for all the cardboard box donations - they've all been used as they were much needed!

Next week we're focussing on autumn. We already have a few conkers, but if any of you get outdoors this weekend, we'd love to add to our collection. Any leaves that would be good for rubbings or comparing colours would be fabulous. Pine cones would also be greatly received!

We will also have some focus lessons on our new RE curriculum. Our overarching question for this unit is "How can people show that they belong together?" Within this first week, we will be trying to answer the questions:

1.    Where do I Belong?

2.    What groups can people be part of? 

3.          How do some people show their worldview? 

We'll be exploring different symbols for some of the main world religions, reading the book 'Hats of Faith' and beginning to explore a Muslim and Sikh Worldview. 
If any parents belong to a faith and would be interested in coming into school for a short visit and talking to the children about your beliefs and practices, that would be fantastic. Please bear in mind the age-group, so it will just be a very short and simple discussion, but such a valuable opportunity for some of our pupils to also share their religion and culture with their class.

We'd love for the children to be able to learn more about special clothing, jewellery or artefacts that are significant to your faith; if you have any items that the children could see and ask questions about, or potentially handle (if appropriate) that would be wonderful too.

If you're available to help, please let Mrs Towers or Mrs Thomas know, either at the beginning/end of the school day or by replying to this email, and we'll organise a time.

Thank you for your much appreciated continued support.

Friday 11th October 2024

Please see the attached floor book pages for this week.

There won't be any Floppy's phonics folder with sheets in your child's bookbag this week as we've been learning 'i' and 'n'. Next week we will be focussing on 'm' and 'd', and after that we will send the sheets with all 4 sounds on and the picture and grapheme tiles to add to your collection and expand on the games.

In maths this week, we've been looking at the composition of numbers up to 5, but focusing mainly on the 'threeness of 3' and understanding that if you rearrange three objects into a different order, if they're different colours, shapes or sizes, 3 is still 3! We've also been making patterns: ABAB, ABB and ABC. We'll continue to practise these skills through a range of different activities in our provision

We've been so lucky to have lots of visits from babies this week! The children have enjoyed learning about what babies can't do by themselves that they can now that they're 4 and 5. We also created  timelines to show change over time and build on our understanding of simple chronology.

Next week, each child will be creating a junk model house to add to a whole class 'street'. If you have any small cardboard boxes to donate, no bigger than 20x20x30cm (roughly, or something similar!) it would be very much appreciated! We have a few already, but extras would be great.

Parents' evenings are coming up and the booking system went live on Wednesday. If you haven't yet had a chance to book your appointment for Thursday 17^th of Tuesday 22nd October, you can follow this link: SchoolCloud Login. If you're experiencing any difficulties with the booking system, please get in touch with the admin team and they should be able to help you.

We've had a few requests for a guide on the marking symbols used in school.

We also sometimes use SC for 'self correction'.

We hope that's helpful.

Friday 4th October 2024

It's been a very exciting and different day. The children were so well behaved, walking together safely and being excellent representatives for our school. We are very proud of them. There may have been a few welly/shoe mix-ups - there were a lot to organise! If you're missing anything, please let us know and we will locate and return your items to you as soon as we can!

This week we've been busy learning another 2 sounds: 't' and 'p'. You'll notice a new Floppy's Phonics Folder in your child's book bag containing a couple of sheets. There's one with 4 sections which has already been completed. These are our Floppy's Phonics sheets which we complete in school and will be sending home at the end of each week so you can see what we're learning, how your child's getting on and what they need to keep practising. Please keep your child's sheets in the folder. You may send it back to school on a Monday so new sheets don't get creased when we put them in your child's book bag at the end of each week.

There's also a sheet of grapheme and picture cards with this week's sounds. The attached document provides guidance for parents on how to use this as a resource which you'll add to each week and can use as ongoing support for your child's phonics learning at home. Keeping them in an envelope or plastic wallet is ideal. Please don't stick the cards in your pink shared learning books - that way you can keep using them. Try to make it a short, snappy and fun way to engage your child with consolidating their learning and spending some quality time with them, all in one go! It shouldn't be onerous or stressful for you.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be revising the first 4 sounds, learning the next few sounds and working on our recognition of the letters corresponding with their sounds as well as starting to blend them together to begin to make consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

In maths, we've been working on counting small groups of objects, images and even counting out the number of sounds we can hear! For successful and secure counting,  children need to understand the five principles of counting. If you're interested in knowing more, please see the attached explanation.

Friday 27th September 2024

This has been yet another busy week. 

We have now started our main topic for this half term: 'What makes a home?'.

This week our topic focus has been looking at different families as well as talking about drawing our own families. Attached are the week's pages from our floor book. 

We had an exciting week where we had a visit from teachers and pupils from Rugby School, performing in a short concert for the children in Cygnets and Reception together. They introduced the children to a few different types of instruments. Everyone really enjoyed it and loved describing the different sounds: high, low, loud, quiet, sad and happy.

Then we had a visit from Warwick the Bear, which we've already emailed you all about - we'll start sending him home for weekend adventures soon.

We've also started our phonics and mastering number lessons and even got outside when we managed to avoid the rain!

There is also an information booklet attached with guidance on how to use the Floppy's Phonics Extra Practice Zone. This is simply there if you want to use it. We understand that different learning approaches suit different children (and their parents) so this is not compulsory, just a resource you may use if you wish to.

Thank you to everyone who could make it to the reception parents' meeting this afternoon. You should have already received the slides, but we'll also be adding them to the school website so you can catch them if you missed it or want to have another look. 

Friday 20th September 2024

It's been another busy week in reception and we've achieved an awful lot!

You'll see from the attached pages from our floor book just why your child may be exhausted after we've packed so much in. Every child's face is covered as the admin team work hard to compile permissions lists for all year groups.

Both classes are now very familiar with the daily routines and we're seeing more and more happy, confident faces coming in each morning. 

We've been learning about Chris Haughton's story 'Don't Worry Little Crab', which has been a great conversation starter for talking about feeling worried about starting school but it never being as bad once we get there, as well as things and people who help us when we're anxious. We're also been making stick puppets to help re-enact the story and creating artwork for a collaborative display (we'll send a photo through when it's all finished and ready) using a range of different tools and techniques.

Please could we remind everyone to ensure your child comes into school with a coat suitable for those sudden rain showers. We try to get outside whenever we can, even when there's light rain and the weather's quite unpredictable at the moment!

You are all invited to join us for the Reception Parents & Carers meeting on Friday 27^th September at 2:15pm. We will share with you what a typical day in reception looks like, the seven areas of learning and the skills that your child will be building through our curriculum. We understand that many of you work during school hours and will be unable to join us - we will send out the slides and links to useful clips after the meeting.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch. If you'd like to catch us at the end of the day, please wait until we've dismissed all of the children, ensuring that everyone has reached their adult safely first.

We go through all the discarded cardigans and jumpers at the end of each day, giving them out to the children but sometimes they still get left behind! You're always welcome to come in and have a look through the cloakroom, in case we've missed any. We also have a small pile of unnamed items already forming - If you think any of them might be yours, please just come and let us know. We're happy to help.

Friday  13th September 2024 

Well, we've made it through our first full week in reception and the children have been amazing! There have been a few tears coming in in the mornings, but it hasn't taken the children long to settle once in their classrooms.

We've attached some photos to show you some of the things they got up to so far. They've all been very busy and had plenty of time mixing up between the classes and in the outdoor classroom!

We'll continue to send home a weekly email with pages from our reception floor book, keeping you updated, especially when we're introducing new learning or an activity that might be useful at home. These will be uploaded regularly to our class page on the school website: https://www.bawnmoreinfantschool.co.uk/reception-1/

There is a lot for our admin team to do in order to be up and running with everything needed on the website, so please bear with us.

During our first couple of weeks, our topic is 'How do I feel?'. We will start by thinking about the emotions we all experience. We will name them and talk about when or where we feel them. The children will then talk, draw and maybe write about the things they are good at or enjoy doing at school and at home.  We will discuss whether these things are the same for all of us.

For the rest of this half term, we will be asking the children to explore the question ‘What makes a home?’. More information will follow, but you can have a look at our planning overviews for each, attached and to be uploaded later to our curriculum pages on the website: https://www.bawnmoreinfantschool.co.uk/reception/

You'll also find the shared learning webs here (but we'll send them out as paper copies and in an email next week too)!

We will be using our outdoor environment regularly to practise our gross motor skills on the trim trail and the wheeled vehicles (balance bikes, scooters, etc.) as well as getting to know all our new friends by sharing and taking turns with activities together in the outdoor classroom.  In PE we will start practising our physical skills with our PE curriculum with Miss Sprayson as well as having PE with our class teachers.  PE days are Tuesdays and Fridays and the children come to school wearing their PE kits.

In Literacy our school follows the ‘Floppy’s Phonics’ scheme which is linked to the Oxford Reading Tree books.  We will start to learn our first sounds (s, a , t , p, i, n, etc).  These will help us ‘sound out’ and blend simple words when reading and spelling.  We will also get to know the characters in our reading books: Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog.  Listening to and talking about stories and poems will of course be a big focus and we will be doing this every day.

In Numeracy we will be following the NCETM Maths Mastery Number Sense programme to explore and develop our understanding of numbers to 5.  We will be using a variety of practical apparatus and visual representations to count, group and find patterns within numbers. We will also learn about and develop the children’s vocabulary related to shapes and measurement in our environment. Attached is an overview for the year, for your information.

Our shared learning books will come home in your child's bookbag on Wednesday afternoons and you can share your child’s learning at home by recording it in this pink book and returning it to school on Monday mornings.

Our priority is that your child is happy to come to school, try new things and make new friends! If you have any questions or concerns about classroom matters you can always talk to the class teacher at drop off or pick up times (after we've dismissed all of the children) or email us on this email. If it's particularly busy at drop off you can always pass a message to the admin team or put a note in your child's bookbag - this is checked each morning. Again, if we're in high demand at pick up time, you can always email us to arrange a specific time to meet or have a quick phone call.

Here is a QR code to join the Reception 2024-25 WhatsApp group. It's not officially run or monitored by Bawnmore staff, but can be a really useful way of making connections and keeping in the loop.