We have been talking a great deal this week about the forgiveness of sins and how we must all repent and ask for forgiveness, as we all make mistakes. It is important that the children recognise we all make mistakes, but that these can be put right through saying sorry, meaning it and trying to be better. Throughout Lent all of Year 1 are trying to be better - this is the challenge we have set ourselves and I hope tat you can see this in your own child. We are working particularly on our friendship skills and trying to make things right ourselves - this is hard as the children often think that they make things better by telling me - but I am encouraging the children to speak to each other when things go wrong, to see if they can reach a solution themselves. This is a work-in-progress, but we are all trying to be ‘‘better’.

This week we have been learning…..

English - our focus has been our RWI lessons where we concentrate on phonics, spelling, reading and writing. In class we continue to work hard on our pre-cursive handwriting, spelling of the common exception words and our independent sentence construction.

Maths - this week we have focusing in on numbers up to 20 and how to partition them into tens and ones. We have used our base ten to help with this and recognise that numbers 10-19 all contain 1 ten. We have also thought about one more and one less and how to compare numbers using the greater than, less than and equal signs.

RE - we have continued to look at the story of the Good Samaritan, this week through our own writing and the story of the miraculous catch of fish the day that Jesus told the disciples to take out their boat and try again after they had failed to catch fish all night.

Science - we have continued with our weather watching and been looking for signs of Spring! We have looked at photos of the seasons and identified different features of each season.

Topic - we have made a little fact flower full of facts about Queen Victoria.

Art - the children have painted their Spring trees already for our Spring Season board.

ICT - we have taken our photographs this week for our story board as part of our digital imagery unit of work.

These are our certificate winners this week….

Golden Award - Sienna for super balancing work in PE - very impressive!

Writing Award - Priya for super pre-cursive letters - you are making super progress with your handwriting.

Maths Award - Matilda for super work on tens and ones

As you will be aware, we are not just battling covid at school, but also chicken pox and scarlet fever. PLEASE ensure you have read Miss Haggerty’s letter regarding confirmed scarlet fever cases IN SCHOOL. Scarlet fever can prove more of a risk to those children who have recently had chicken pox.

SCARLET FEVER SYMPTOMS

A main symptom of scarlet fever is a rash of small, raised spots which feels like sandpaper. You may have flu-like symptoms before the rash appears.

The first signs of scarlet fever can be flu-like symptoms, including a high temperature, a sore throat and swollen neck glands (a large lump on the side of your neck).

A rash appears 12 to 48 hours later. It looks looks like small, raised bumps and starts on the chest and tummy, then spreads. The rash makes your skin feel rough, like sandpaper.

On white skin the rash looks pink or red. It may be harder to see on brown and black skin, but you can still feel it.

A white coating also appears on the tongue. This peels, leaving the tongue red, swollen and covered in little bumps (called "strawberry tongue").

The rash does not appear on the face, but the cheeks can look red. The redness may be harder to see on brown and black skin..

The symptoms are the same for children and adults, although scarlet fever is less common in adults.

IF YOUR CHILD HAS THESE ANY OF THESE SYMPTOMS - PLEASE SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE.

Despite the legal rules on Covid changing, we still ask parents NOT to send their child to school if they suspect they have covid or have any covid symptoms. We know that children are mildly affected by this virus, but that is not always the case for the adults who teach them and the virus remains highly contagious. IF YOUR CHILD IS OFF SCHOOL WITH A HIGH TEMPERATURE THEY MUST TAKE A COVID TEST BEFORE THEY CAN RETURN TO SCHOOL.

We ask you to remain mindful of this when considering whether your child is well enough for school. We must still do all we can to keep each other safe. Mrs Veasey and I will continue to wear visors in class and masks in shared spaces to do all we can to keep each other and your children safe - we ask that you do all you can to keep our class a safe space for everyone. Many thanks for your continued support with this matter.

If your child is isolating from school due to Covid 19, or any other illness and they are well enough to work, you can find their work on the HOME LEARNING page of the Year 1 section of the website. I have been using Oak Academy units as they all contain a little video and a task for the children to complete that does not require you to print anything - your child just needs a piece of paper and a pencil!! And maybe some colours for the art activities! https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr1-home-learning

Please DO NOT send the work into school with your child on their return, but send photos of it through Class Dojo and add work to your child’s profile. You will each get an invite to this through the email you gave to school when your child was in Reception.

If your child is off school, please inform the office and NOT the Year 1 email or Class Dojo. Many thanks

Any questions or queries either catch me or Mrs Veasey at the gate or email using year1@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk.

Things to note…

Children should have their water bottles each day. Water bottles must be taken home and washed daily. Children can only have plain water in their bottles, not juice or flavoured water.
PE is Monday and Friday
Earrings cannot be worn for PE
Nail varnish cannot be worn for school.
Earrings should only be small, plain, gold or silver studs
Children should have long hair tied back for school
School bags should just be the red book bags you were given in Reception
Please keep reading folders in the children’s school bags so that they have them on the right day - many thanks.
Homework Expectations for Year 1 can be found on the Homework page. https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr1-homework/2022/1/3/year-1-homework-expectations-spring-term

World Book Day will to celebrated in school on FRIDAY 25th MARCH - not 3rd march due to other commitments in school that day. On that day we ask that the children come to school dressed as their favourite BOOK character. They can even bring the book with them to share in class. (Please ensure that any books brought into school are named). Please do not feel you have to spend a lot of money on costumes - the homemade ones are always our favourites! We look forward to seeing who we have in class that day!!