Well done, Year 1!
Well done to every child in Year 1 for a great assembly this afternoon. Special thanks to Byron who offered to take over Arundeep’s lines.
The children have all tried very hard this week to learn lines, use props and to speak in front of an audience. There were a few nerves but also excitement this afternoon. Aisha summed it up well: ‘That was fun!’
Thank you to all the family and friends who came to watch.
Good luck with the Wake up Shake up routine tomorrow.
Art around the world
As part of our Big Topic, Katie and…, we have been finding out about art from around the world – a good chance to check our geographical knowledge from our recent Where in the World topic, too.
Aboriginal art has certain features that we tried to include in our own examples. Can you see them in the work below?
Cooking in the new curriculum
Teachers have been busy learning about the different cooking skills we’ll be teaching your child this year!
Today we’ve made a tasty (and healthy) garden salad!
Meet the artists in Year 1
The first week of our Big Topic has been really busy. We had an amazing day with Splats – the children worked on their scene from Katie’s Picture Show for 45 minutes and then it all came together for a professional performance. Well done to all of the children and thank you to Arran who co-ordinated the whole day and narrated the story in the performance. There are a few photos below from the day and also some photos of our own artists – following Vincent Van Gogh’s lead, drawing sunflowers.
Did you know yoga means union?
From balances to relaxation, Year 1 had a very calming end of the day with a yoga session with Roisin who runs a local children’s yoga class at Yoga Kula in Chapel Allerton. Information will be sent out about her class for any children who are interested in doing yoga regularly.
Take a look at some of our poses.
Vincent Van Gogh or Kandinsky?
Today we have started our new Big Topic, Katie and… based on the books by James Mayhew.
Year 1 had some great group discussions about likes and dislikes of a number of famous paintings. We concluded that it was ok to each have our own opinions and to respect others’ opinions, too.
Ralph the Rabbit
Let me introduce you to a member of Year 1 that you may not have met before – this is Ralph:
Ralph goes to someone’s house every Friday but doesn’t like being away from school too long so needs to be returned to school on Monday morning. Ralph will have a rucksack with his pyjamas in and he has a full set of clothes (including boxer shorts) so please make sure he doesn’t sleep in his clothes. In the bag with Ralph, you will find a book for you to record what Ralph has done at your house while he has been visiting. Please make sure that all his clothes are returned back to school with Ralph – one of the main objectives for your child is to be responsible for something else which means caring for his possessions.
We hope you enjoy having Ralph to stay – he’s a very easy-going house guest!
Welcome to Year 1
Wow! What a brilliant start to Year 1. The children have moved from Reception to Year 1 without any upset and are certainly ready to learn – well done to Mrs Burke and her team who have done a brilliant job preparing the children for Key Stage 1.
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, learning new routines and getting straight into all lessons. We have seen some fantastic independent writing and have discovered that there are some great imaginative ideas when predicting stories. Gerry the Giraffe has helped us to learn some positional language and there has been some great PE which has impressed Mr Catherall.
Here are some photos of our first couple of weeks:
Smile for miles on the St Gemma’s sponsored walk
One of our chosen school charities, St Gemma’s Hospice, is holding their first ever Happy Walk on Saturday 20 September. This is a good opportunity to support our school charity but also to take part in a great morning with your family while walking 3.5 or 5.5 miles around Roundhay Park. The event starts at 10am.
We’ll be co-ordinating registration for the event and registration forms are available now from the office.
Entrance for this event is £5 (children under 12 walk free) and each walker will get a free hot drink and cake. All participants are asked to raise sponsorship money. It is also a pram and wheelchair friendly route so the whole family really can get involved.
There will be an activity pack that children can take with them on the walk where they can look out for wildlife and take some tree rubbings. Before the walk starts there will also be a face painter, a chance to meet Olaf from Frozen, and time to make your own Happy Loom band to wear and keep.
St Gemma’s are also encouraging all walkers to wear what makes them Happy on the walk – whether that’s a silly hat, fluffy socks or a brightly coloured t-shirt.
We hope you are able to join in with the St Gemma’s Happy Walk.
New SEAL theme
As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on new beginnings.
‘I make someone feel welcome’ is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme.
New Beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.
During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.
Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.
New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.