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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:

12 September 2014

The first piece of homework has been sent home with Year 1 children this week.  There is a homework guide in the front of their homework book and there is more information on the website.

There are three different types of homework:

Creative homework – this is when the children can use their imagination as much as possible and be as creative as they want.  There will be a statement or question and this is can be responded to through pictures, writing, photos, videos, presentations or anything else that grabs their interest.  The only restriction is that they can only use one side of A4.

Practice makes Perfect – this homework is used to reinforce something that we have done in lessons or it might be that your child is finding something particularly hard and it is an opportunity for them to have more practice.

Talk time homework – this is when the children and you are encouraged to talk about a question or a statement and then the children feed back to the rest of the class.  There does not have to be anything recorded in their book for talk time homework.

Homework is sent home on Friday and it must be sent back to school by the following Wednesday.

This week’s homework is “creative” homework and concludes our “Where in the World?” topic:

I can show where I live.

As always, if you have any questions or would like some support then please come and see us.

12 September 2014

We have started as we mean to go on in Year 1 with some spellings to learn.  Every week, apart from holidays, your child will bring some spellings home to learn.  There are many fun ways to help your child learn them but the essential thing is to do spend a short time on them every day;  5 or 10 minutes every day will make a difference and will make your child confident with the new words.  If you would like any support with helping your child then please come and ask.

Year 2 parents:  you are familiar with the concept of spellings coming home but this is also a reminder to you that time spent daily is the best way to help your child learn their spellings.

There are 3 different groups for spellings and phonics; your child should know their group or there will be a sticker on their learning list book.  They only need to learn the spellings for their group even though all the lists are shown above.

Spelling Test – there will be a spelling test every Friday where the children will need to know how to write their spellings.  However, please note that the spelling test will be on Thursday this week as we have a theatre workshop all day on Friday.

These are the spellings for this week; if you have any questions then please come and ask one of us.

12 September 2014

Now your child is in Year 5, he or she will be given two pieces of homework every week – this additional homeowrk is in response to parents’ feedback. Every week, your child will get a Practice Makes Perfect homework which will usually be extra practice in English or Maths. He / she will also receive a Creative or Talk Time homework. Both pieces should be handed by Wednesday.

This week, the Practice Makes Perfect homework is a maths activity which will test and reinforce the learning we’ve been doing on doubling and/or halving.

The second homework is Creative and is an opportunity for children to show what they have learned in our first mini-topic of the year, Where in the world?

Here are a few ideas we came up with as a class:

12 September 2014

This week, the spellings are all adverbs which end in ‘ly’. This suffix is added to an adjective to form an adverb. For example, sad becomes sadly. 

Children will be tested on the ten adverbs on Friday 19 September.

12 September 2014

This week’s homework is creative and is due on Wednesday 17 September.

I can show what I have learnt about the world.

Remember, creative homework involves a creative piece of open-ended work based around the ‘I can …’ statement above. The only rule is not to use more than one page of A4.

You could

• create an information leaflet
• label a map of the world
• create a quiz
• do a mind map

A great start

Now that we’ve all settled into Year 2, it’s time to say welcome back to everybody and well done for such a great start to the year.

Already, we’ve been exploring our use of adjectives by working together to make sentences more interesting…

A dog walked down the street.

• Add an adjective – An angry dog walked down the narrow street.
• Choose a more interesting verb – A dog scurried down the street.
• Use a conjunction to add information – A dog walked down the street so he could get back home.
• Use an adverb – A dog walked hurriedly down the street.
• Of course, you could use all of these to really improve your writing.

An angry dog scurried hurriedly down the narrow street so he could get back home.

We’ve also got lots of facts to remember for our Where in the world? topic. Here are some things we need to know. Maybe you could test us at home…

• Seven continents – Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Australasia, Antarctica and Asia.
• Five oceans – Arctic, Indian, Atlantic, Southern, Pacific
• United Kingdom – England (London), Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) and Northern Ireland (Belfast).

Keep up the hard work, Year 2.

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.

KS2 fruit tuck shop

The KS2 fruit tuck shop returns next Tuesday 16 September with prices remaining at 20p per item.  Open to Years 3 – 6, children can come to the tuck shop at playtime to purchase items from a selection of fresh and dried fruits.  There is an option to pre-pay so your child doesn’t have to remember to bring money to school.  As an extra incentive, you get one week free if you pre-pay for this term.  Please return the letter to the office or ask in the office for more information.  The Year 5 class will be receiving their training this week to run the tuck shop and look forward to lots of new and regular customers next Tuesday.

Teaching as a career

Are you thinking about becoming a teacher?

Know someone who is considering a career in teaching?

Are you (or someone you know) looking for a work-based route into primary teaching? If so, School Direct may be what you are looking for. Come and find out more at an information evening for the Leeds Bradford School Direct (LBSD), held at:

• Pudsey Primrose Hill, Leeds (LS286AB) , on Tuesday 07 October from 6pm – 7.30pm
• Westbourne Primary School, Bradford (BD8 7PL) on Thursday 09 October from 4pm – 6pm.

Please confirm your attendance by ringing the school office on:

• 0113 257 4129 (Pudsey Primrose Hill)
•  01274 483138 (Westbourne Primary School)