1. September 2016

2.  water bottles every day (own fruit may be brought for playtime)  all items of uniform including PE kits must have name labels.  PE kits must be in school at all times  book bags in every day (just for reading books and homework books please)  Please do not bring in other bags or pencil cases  next half term-wellingtons for outdoor learning (names inside please)

3.  That you are informed about what is happening in school.  That you are informed about what we need you to do at home to help your child.

4.  website  texts  letters - please check book bags.  notices  each half term we inform you of what your child will be learning

5.  Appointments can be made through the office or directly with the teacher. Please let us know what it is concerning so that we can be as helpful as possible.  We can only take very quick, short messages as the children line up.  Children need to learn to take responsibility for delivering homework/ letters and looking after their own things.

7.  High standards of behaviour are expected at all times in class, in the playground, on trips, when we have visitors.  Children must follow instructions, show good manners, have respect for adults and children as well as school equipment.

8.  We expect children to be putting maximum effort into their listening, taking part in lessons and their own work.  We expect them to respond to teacher comments in their books about how to move on their learning.  We will speak to you if our expectations are not being met.

9. All classes are now organised into mixed age groups. There are different objectives for each year group. Within their new classes each child will be taught their own objectives with the appropriate level of challenge by working in a suitable ability group. We are striving to help the children achieve understanding at greater depth by developing their reasoning skills and their ability to apply what they know in a variety of situations independently.

10.  Maths will be given on Wednesday to be returned by Monday the following week. Sometimes work will be done in books. At other times children may be asked to learn facts.  The work given is intended to involve parents in developing children’s knowledge of number facts and understanding of maths. The children may be preparing for work to be done next week or consolidating their work last week.  Please keep practising counting on and back in ones, twos, tens, fives, threes and answering learn it facts (all the different ways of making the numbers up to 20 e.g. 7+2=9, 4+9=13). After this learn the 10x, 5x, 2x 3x, 4x tables.

11. In Read Write Inc the children work in one of 6 appropriate groups according to their phonic knowledge which is continually assessed. They work at learning the next sounds; they read out loud daily and talk about the story; they write and check the spelling words they have learnt at home which include their new sound. When the phonics programme is completed, the children work on comprehension and spelling Writing In class- Talk for Writing The class learn a text to help children have great language patterns engrained in their memories; the teacher plans and writes in front of the children using the children’s ideas to show them how to write well; the children plan their own story, saying their sentences out loud to practise them; some children may then write just one sentence, others write more or the entire story depending on their level of development. The children are given clear information about the kind of language and punctuation they should be using (steps to success).

12.  The children are working on punctuation and grammar in class.  Yr1- leaving spaces between words, using and as a conjunction, using capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, using capital letters for proper nouns  Yr2-as Year 1 plus using commas for lists and apostrophes for the contracted form- can’t, I’m etc. and possession- the girl’s magic porridge pot, Charlie’s golden ticket; using statement, question, exclamation, command sentences; understanding nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, the present and past tenses.  handwriting skills- Year 1- correct letter formation, Year 2 joined handwriting

13.  Every Wednesday the children will be given spellings to learn for the next Wednesday.  The spellings practise a particular sound as well as the key words that Key Stage One children need to learn.  Please keep practising the words during the week. Keep the book in your child’s reading bag until the following Wednesday.  Mrs Bardsley’s group have begun the new spelling programme which means this group will practise spelling in school. Spellings will go home occasionally.  We also ask the children to do a book review. We want the children to focus on writing in sentences, using conjunctions and applying all of the writing skills they have learnt in class.

14.  Some children are daily readers and read with our TAs.  Other children read their library books every day in class and change the books themselves within their band colour.  Reading and discussion of the story and characters need to be part of the daily routine at home.  Please ensure that you sign your child’s reading record book, noting the page they have read to, as we look for this before we allow them to change their books.

15.  Let your child see you read and read to them  Tell your child about interesting things that you have read in newspapers, magazines and books.  Visit the local library and bookshops.  Sit with your child every night and engage with them in their reading.  Discuss with them about what they have read in the book.  Ask them to retell the story.  Talk about interesting words and identify words or interesting phrases that they might use in their writing.

16.  BEFORE SCHOOL GROUPS:  are used to secure quick progress. (Currently the children in morning are completing the last set of sounds to boost their reading and writing skills).  are intended to be short-term.  are used for pre-teaching in maths (being prepared for new learning in the lesson).  DURING SCHOOL TIME:  TAs practise reading regularly with those children who are not yet ready for library books.  small groups practise phonics, reading, fine motor skills, maths skills, develop vocabulary.

19. Why Learning Log?  They are an opportunity for children to extend and consolidate learning in the classroom.  They encourage all children to be creative and independent.  They encourage children to be actively involved in their work and take pride in it.  Learning Logs encourage partnership between home and school.  As Learning Logs are personalised there is no right or wrong way to approach a task.  They give children ownership of their work.

20.  Our topic is Healthy Me.  You could-  find out about your body  create a model or a picture  show others how to be healthy  tell everyone something about you  do something of your own  Please complete by- Friday October 7th

21.  Year 1s- phonic screening check will be carried out in June.  Year 2s –in May Key Stage One tests  Reading test – two comprehension papers  Grammar and punctuation and spelling  Maths-two papers-arithmetic and reasoning We will prepare your child to undertake these.

22. Thank you !