The end of the first half-term!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick message to congratulate all the reception children on completing their first half-term! There were certainly some tired children at the end of the day today. We have sent children home with their 'Who am I?' sheet that was up on the display board this week. There were some lovely things written by different people in the school (including year 4 buddies). Children also have their PE kits with them to be cleaned over the half-term. 

Thank you for all your support so far and I hope the half-term gives you a chance to rest and come back ready for another one! Thank you also for the baby photos, we will give these back to you after half-term. 

Reception team

Right to clean water

As part of our work this week about UNICEF's rights of all children the Reception class did some activities this afternoon with Mr Farrington about our right to clean water. We learnt a hand washing song and talked about all the ways we use and need water. Mr Farrington also showed some photos of how water is used in India to wash clothes, pots and pans, to irrigate fields and to cook rice. The children then chose various activities using water to cook rice, wash pots and pans full of Year 2's curry, clean saris in soapy water and irrigated a patch of soil to grow some vegetables. The wellies came in handy!

Sounds this week and sound pots

Hi all,

Thank you to those who wrote something on the 'Who am I?' wall this morning! Please feel free to keep adding to this all week.

We are making fantastic progress with our phonics and this week we have started the next phase! The sound being covered this week are:

'v' - as in van - Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv.

'w' - as in wind - Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh.

'x' - as in fox - cross wrists together and say ks, ks, ks

'y' as in yak - Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y.

'z' & 'zz' - as in zap/buzz - Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz.

After half term there will also be a phonics/handwriting workshop available if you wish to go. There will be a form up outside the reception classroom door for you to write down what days/times would be preferable. We will try to accommodate as many as possible.

Today children also came home with their own sound pot! These are for the children to keep and use as we progress through the year. To begin with children will have received the first few sets of sounds that we have covered in class. Please use these to help consolidate the sounds and as children become confident with the individual sounds, use them to make simple words. If you would like any further guidance on the sound pots please come and chat to us. 

Reception team

POWSA AGM

Just a quick reminder that the POWSA AGM is happening this Thursday 23rd October 19.45 in the school staffroom.
This is a great opportunity to meet the current POWSA Committee, find out what we do for the school and enjoy home made goodies! We are a committed, friendly but small band of parents and we are always looking for new members. the level of your involvement in planning, implementing and running POWSA events is entirely up to you. We don't expect you to be at every meeting and at every event from start to finish but with more members and if we all do a little bit then there is plenty of time for us all to enjoy each event with our families as well as helping out.
It is a lot of fun and in return you receive a huge amount of satisfaction and feeling of pride that you have raised funds which are used to help all our children and our fantastic school.
Please consider coming along and finding out a bit more. Hope to see you there, POWSA.

The Great PoW Poetry Competition!!!!! Get Writing!!!!!!

What a wonderful, exciting and inspiring time of year we are immersed in - beautiful autumnal colours, leaves floating to the ground and flooding the pavements, conkers peppering the streets, crackling fires, Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire Night, moving towards winter and all the excitement of Christmas............so let's fire up our creativity and use it to compose a poem!

I am thrilled to announce The Great PoW Poetry Competition!

The theme is Autumn/Winter.

BE AS CREATIVE AS YOU LIKE! Your poem can be as long or as short as you like, it can rhyme or not, you can use any particular style (Acrostic, Haiku, Tanka, rhyming couplets........) However you choose to construct your poem make sure it conveys the theme, remember the presentation of you poem is important too and why not illustrate it as well!!!!!

For Reception ONLY: if writing your own poem is a bit tricky, why not find a favourite poem about this theme and try to copy it, get an adult to help you write one, use a computer or even record yourself reciting one!

There will be one winner per class so, PUT YOUR NAME AND CLASS ON YOUR ENTRY AND HAND IT IN TO YOUR CLASS TEACHER BY FRIDAY 7th NOVEMBER.

The winners will also be displayed on the New Golden Writing Wall!!!!!

We are a very creative school with a bubbling and overflowing imagination so I would love to see as many of you as possible having a go...........then we can have more competitions like this!!!!!

Get writing!!!!!!!

Good Luck - Mrs. Johnson (Literacy Coordinator)

I have the right to an Identity...

Hello everyone,

Today we started a whole school themed week centred around the 'Unicef Rights of the Child'. The two rights that we will be focusing upon are 'The Right to an identity' and 'The right to education'. 

Throughout the week we will be creating a class charter with the children's rights and responsibilities. The children came up with some fantastic ideas as to what we should include on our charter (including the right to have a trampoline!). This will be going up this week by the computers in the reception classroom. 

You may have also noticed a display with the children's pictures up in the classroom. This is going to be our identity wall for the week. You are welcome to add anything to the wall that you think helps identify your child - and any other children. Feel free to bring certificates/awards and pictures in from home to add to the wall. There will be some post-it notes by the display to write things up if you wish - some have already been added by staff at the school. 

Tomorrow we will be having a visit  from the fire department. Hopefully children will be full  to the brim with information tomorrow after school.

Reception team

Baby/family photos

Hello everyone,

Next week the whole school will be having a week focused on the 'Right to an identity'. In preparation for this could we kindly ask you to bring in a photo of your child as a baby or a family photo. These will be copied and the originals given back to you. We are going to be using them to set up an achievement wall. Parents, friends, buddies, teachers and the children themselves will all be welcome to come and put something up on the wall underneath each child's picture. Thank you for your help

Lastly, thank you for the immense number of Wow! Moments being brought in to school. These are fantastic to read out to the class. Keep them coming.

Reception team