Upcoming sporting events
Sports & Active Lifestyles Fair
Find out what sports clubs and physical activity opportunities are available in our area for all children, young people and adults. This is a great opportunity to come as a family or with friends and take part in sport / activity taster sessions and watch sports demonstrations from local clubs.
- When: Thursday 5th June 2014
- Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
- Where: Roundhay School
Roundhay Park Family Fun Run (1K & 5K)
- When: Saturday 7th June 2014
- Time: 10:00am
- Where: Roundhay Park
REAP and Roundhay Live are starting the celebrations of Le Grand Depart early with this community event, full of family fun, music, food and cycling.
- When: Sunday 22nd June 2014
- Time: 12:00pm-5:00pm
- Where: Roundhay School
For further information about any of these events please ask at the school office.
Our new SEAL theme for this half-term is…
…’Relationships’.
We begin the half term with a focus on manners: I cover my mouth (when I cough, sneeze or yawn) is our statement for this week. Children, and adults, will be taught the ‘vampire method’ for coughs and sneezes in order to prevent the spread of germs – ‘use your sleeve to cough and sneeze’.
Following this, the Relationships theme explores feelings within the context of our important relationships including family and friends.
It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy.
There is a focus throughout the theme on helping children understand the feelings associated with an experience that we all need to cope with at some time: that of loss – whether of a favourite possession, a friend, a family home, or a loved one. Although relatively few children are bereaved, most will experience losses of other kinds during their childhood; losing a home, losing friends because of moving house or changing schools, or losing a pet are examples.
We would therefore ask for parents / carers to alert us to any experiences your child has had that might make this area particularly difficult for them – for example, a bereavement.
It’s the Easter holidays…
…so we have no set homework or spellings, in line with our Homework Policy.
That doesn’t mean we expect your child not to be developing their skills in reading, writing and maths!
Your child should be reading daily – this could be fiction, factual books, a comic or newspaper, and could include being read to at bedtime, too.
It would be good to practise basic skills in writing by writing a letter or email to a relative, perhaps recounting a day-trip or reviewing a film your child watched.
We’re finding quite a few children are ‘squashing their sentences’ such as I went to Leeds City Museum it was really interesting which is wrong. It would be much better with punctuation to separate or a word to join:
- I went to Leeds City Museum. It was really interesting. (A comma isn’t strong enough to separate two sentences.)
- I went to Leeds City Museum – it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum; it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum and it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum which was really interesting.
Finally, to improve calculation skills, please keep practising mental number facts which your child must know:
- number bonds (two numbers which add up to 10, 20 and 100 eg 3+7, 13+7, 30+70) – these facts should be known by children in Y1 – Y2
- times tables (up to 12×12) and the division facts with your child – children in Y2 should have rapid recall of x2, x 5 and x 10 at least
We know we mention these ‘basics’ a lot, but that’s because they involve practice, practice and more practice – we practise a lot at school, but your child will need to practise at home, too, if they are to truly succeed.
Learn more about current expectations for reading, writing and maths. However, do be aware that a new National Curriculum comes into effect from September, meaning these expectations have been raised and so many aspects of learning now feature in younger age groups.
Sentences
Explaining to young children what a sentence is can be difficult. Through reading, children quickly learn that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. They are told that a sentence makes sense on its own and is complete; that it makes sense in some way such as consisting of an idea. Helping children to recognise when they have written a sentence is more difficult.
How you can help at home:
- When reading with your child, point out the sentences and punctuation in the book
- Encourage your child to think of the whole sentence (an idea) and say it aloud before they begin to write
- Get them into the habit of rereading and checking their writing
- Read a sentence aloud and ask your child to count the words
- Model speaking in sentences and give your child lots of opportunity to construct sentences orally
Class assembly
Thank you for coming to our bear-themed class assembly. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I was delighted to see the re-telling of We’re going on a bear hunt – it’s good to re-tell stories over and over again. This develops a real awareness of story structure and language can be reinforced through repetition. Plus: children love it!
Here are a few comments:
- ‘Really enjoyed the performance, especially the dancing.’
- ‘Fabulous! Our first assembly. Our the children were brilliant.’
- ‘Very well rehearsed. Really enjoyed it.’
- ‘Great effort as ever. Really well done.’
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Settling In surveys
To those of you who have completed and returned the Settling In surveys, thank you very much.
We’ve had 15 responses, all of which were positive overall, and some of which suggested a few areas to develop. These include:
- More homework – this is going to be reviewed at a whole-school level, based on the feedback here and on ParentView
- More information about how much progress your child is making – this we will also look at because quite a few of you have mentioned this, but in the meantime, do please contact Reception staff or me – we’d be happy to talk through your child’s learning with you. By now, you will have attended two parents’ evening appointments; last year, we introduced a third parents’ evening appointment at the very end of the year when the final Early Years Profile has been completed and when most children will have reached Early Learning Goals and a Good Level of Development.
If you have any questions, comments of complaints, please do come and see me. In the meantime, thank you again for completing the short survey (look out for the Parents’ Annual Survey towards the end of the year!) and also for your support – I know Mrs Burke and her team appreciate this a lot.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Evie and Poppy who were elected as the school councillors for Reception Class.
Well done to all the other candidates as well. We were really impressed with how confidently and clearly everyone spoke.
Multiplication in Reception
This week in Maths, children will be learning about multiplication and counting in 2s.
Multiplication is often seen as repeat addition, but it differs from addition in that the sets of objects you are totalling are made up of the same number of items. In Reception, children’s experience of multiplication as counting equal groups is done through pairing and counting feet, eyes, socks, gloves and pairs of shoes!
Counting two objects as one unit is an important multiplication skill.
How you can help at home
Give your child lots of practical experiences. Let your child help to put socks in pairs and count how many there are.
It is important that children also see multiplication as an arrangement of rows and columns. Examples of this around the home include
- egg boxes
- egg and bun trays
- squares in a large chocolate bar
- some of the buttons on most remote controls
Happy holidays!
We are reaching the end of the children’s first term in Reception. It has been a delight to see how the children have changed and developed over the last few months.
Well done Nayaab, Enas, Aisha and Kirsten for their increased confidence and to Zara for finally gaining the confidence to speak to adults.
Well done, Daniel, for always making good choices.
Jacob, Ben, Zakariya and Musa have improved their learning behaviour and are listening more attentively on the carpet.
William and Charlie have kept us amused with their great sense of humour and Rabiya, Kismat, Gurnoor and Tasha have shown concern and care for their friends.
We are all impressed with Sam’s perseverance in holding his pencil to write his name and Ahmed’s speed in learning and using English.
Well done to Byron, Alexander and Evie for great learning in maths and Eve, and to Alexandra, Eliza, Eleni and Poppy for their progress in reading.
Everyone has been impressed with Arundeep and Zidaan for their great manners and Maggie and Finlay for their creativity and model making.
Have a great holiday and happy new year from everyone in Reception!
Writing!
Reception children are writing everywhere!
