Welcome back to the Spring Term and the start of a brand new year - Happy New Year to you all! We have welcomed in 2024 in class with a super start to the new term. The children have settled back into class, they all have new talk partners to work with and/or new places to sit and they are already working hard. This week has been all about the Three Wise Men and the gifts that they brought for Jesus - we have asked ourselves in class, what can we bring to the baby Jesus?
This week has brought about many changes for us all in Year 1. As you know, Mrs Veasey has now begun her retirement and Miss Simons, our new Teaching Assistant has joined us in Year 1. We have also welcomed another new member of the team to class this week; Mrs Gilheaney, a qualified teacher, will take the children for Art and PSHE on a Thursday afternoon during my class release time. Mrs Gilheaney will be suported by Miss Simons, Miss Murray and Mrs Connolly in this role.
This week Miss Sanderon has been supporting our new members of staff by helping with with our RWI lessons, but from next week these sessions will be run by Mrs Connolly, Miss Simons and myself. Miss Simons has already taken over the role of leading the Guided Reading sessions.
Lots of change for us all, (although mainly for me!), to get our heads around this week, but I am sure you will join me in welcoming our new members of staff to Year 1 - the children have made our new adults very welcome.
English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line. We are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day!
We have had a bit of a change around with our groups this week, with Mrs Connolly now taking what was Mrs Veasey’s group and Miss Sanderson supporting Miss Simons has she takes on her new role. From next week it will be me, Mrs Connolly and Miss Simons.
Maths - this week has all been about subtraction, part part wholes and fact families. We have used the three numbers from a part part whole to write a subtraction question - making sure we know what each part of the calculation represents. We have used part part whole models, counters and ten frames to support our learning.
RE - this week has been all about the gifts that we can bring to the baby Jesus - the children have amazed me with their wonderful responses - giving themselves to the Lord. We have celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany by going to Mass as a whole school yesterday.
Science - this week we have begun our new topic all about Materials. We started by examining a range of different objevts and seeing if we could identify the materials they are made from.
Geography - our focus for this half term is all about maps and the various pieces of information that different maps provide. We started by looking at a variety of maps and then made our own treasure maps and directed our partner around it using the compass points.
ICT - this week we started our programming unit by using the Bee Bots and reminding ourselves of how these work.
Art - this week the children focused on mark making as part of their new drawing unit.
Many congratulations to this week’s winners…..
Golden Award - Edie for caring so deeply about the feelings of others that she will go out of her way to ensure that an adult knows if someone is upset or unhappy. Edie is always thinking of others before herself and showing true discipleship - well done Edie.
Writing Award - Karson for super RE writing about the Presentation of the Lord using his own ideas and sounding out words he wanted to use. Also super reading of Common Exception words! A great week.
Maths Award - Hallie for excellent work on learning her number bonds to 10 AT HOME! Amazing knowledge Hallie - I am so proud of the effort you have made at home to learn these facts. Keep up the hard work.
PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.
Water bottles - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have white tops.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Gilheaney, Miss Simons and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson
Party Invitations - I am afraid that Miss Simons and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.
Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.
School bag - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.
Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! Yr1 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)
Catholic Life of our school..
The following resources are a great way of keeping you all informed of our current liturgy themes and of the weekly Gospel scripture, with some activities that the children can complete at home. We hope you find these resources useful and that they help you to support prayer and worship in your own homes.
https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6
http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
This month’s online safety guides give helpful advice about…
Top Tips for Managing Screen Time - This guide provides some practical tips for helping to reduce your family’s screen time and promote healthier use of their devices.
What Children & Young People Need to Know about Free Speech vs Hate Speech - This free information guide has tips to help combat hate speech online, while still respecting people’s right to free speech.
We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.
And finally….may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Have a lovely weekend…Mrs Hollinghurst, Miss Simons and all the Year 1 team.
A few pictures of our week…..
