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Snow business

So far this year, we’ve had no problems caused by snow – but this week might change that!

You’ll know that more snow is forecast this week. If we do encounter severe snowy weather in the next few weeks, you should make every effort to get your child to attend school. If he / she can’t attend even when we’re open, we record this as an unauthorised absence – this is in-line with government requirements.

Occasionally, we have to make the decision to close school due to snow – it’s not an easy decision and the main reason for doing this will always be for the safety of everyone – pupils, parents, staff. U

Up-to-date information about a school closure can be found by using ParentMail (ask at the office for this free service) and by following us on Twitter.

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Attendance matters

We know there have been quite a few bugs going around and this had had a detrimental effect on attendance. Sadly, the school attendance figure for autumn is at 94.5%, below our target. Here’s the breakdown:

• Reception: 93.0%
• Year 1: 94.8%
• Year 2: 96.7%
• Year 3: 97.5%
• Year 4: 94.4%
• Year 5: 94.6%
• Year 6: 94.2%

The Department for Education monitors attendance of children across England in order to raise attendance nationally.

Studies show good attendance and punctuality lead to better life chances in the future. Children who are often absent make less progress due to the amount of schoolwork being missed, and the absences may also affect their social and emotional development. It’s our policy that parents / carers who have children with particularly low attendance must provide us with a medical certificate or show us the medication and required dosage that their child is receiving.

For most of the year so far, we’ve been above our attendance target – let’s get back up to 96% or more soon!

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Try this tasty dip

Year 6 have been developing their food technology skills by making hummus:

Have a try at making hummus!  It is a great source of protein and fibre and makes a healthy alternative to meat if you’re a vegetarian.  To make this tasty dip even more delicious, spread it in pitta bread for a light lunch or dip veg into it for a scrumptious snack.  Try it in your lunchbox – you won’t be disappointed!

Here’s the recipe:

• 410g can of chickpeas
• juice of one lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Whizz the chickpeas, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor or using a hand blender until just smooth.

Loosen with a little warm water if needed.

Phonics phase 3

Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words, both tricky and decodable, is the ultimate goal!  We’ve begun Phase 3 of our phonics programme.  The purpose of this phase is to:

• teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat and float
• practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC (consonant – vowel – consonant) words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
• learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
• read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
• read and write words in phrases and sentences.

The following phonemes will be taught during Phase 3.

1. v, w
2. x, y, z, zz, qu
3. sh, ch, th, ng
4. ai, ee, igh, oa
5. oo, oo, or, ar
6. er, oi, ir, ur
7. air, ear, ure

Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.

The number of tricky words is growing.  This term we will learn: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all.

How you can help at home

• Sing an alphabet song together.
• Play ‘I spy’, using letter names as well as sounds.
• Continue to play with magnetic letters, using some of the two grapheme (letter) combinations:

r-ai-n = rain blending for reading | rain = r-ai-n – segmenting for spelling

b-oa-t = boat blending for reading | boat = b-oa-t – segmenting for spelling

h-ur-t = hurt blending for reading | hurt = h-ur-t – segmenting for spelling

• Praise your child for trying out words.
• Set a timer; call out one word at a time and get your child to spell it on a magic board or a small whiteboard, against the timer – remember, they can use magnetic letters.
• Play ‘Pairs’, turning over two words at a time trying to find a matching pair – this is especially helpful with the tricky words: the the, to to no no, go go.  Don’t worry if they get some wrong! These are hard to remember – they need plenty of practice.

11 January 2013

This week, we’re learning to spell words with the ‘ful’ suffix.
Children have been given the following words to investigate and find those that would have the ‘ful’ suffix and learn their spellings. Remember- not all of the words on the list work with the ‘ful’ suffix.

• proud
• like
• sick
• quiet
• mind
• glad
• hope
• kind
• arm
• room
• thought
• cold
• nice
• child
• friend
• doubt
• sure
• tune
• home
• care
• fruit
• life
• lone
• cheer
• mist
• time
• hurt
• rich
• pain
• shame
• thirst
• king
• near
• free
• use

Spellings will be tested on Friday 18 January.

11 January 2013

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to learn more about plurals.  This week, all our spellings simply require s at the end of the route word to make it a plural.

Can you spot what other rule is being used in some of the spellings as well?

Making complete circuits

11 January 2013

All the spellings this week contain a long i sound which is spelt igh. Children could also think of other words which contain igh or make other words from one of the spellings. For example: fright, frightening, frightened, frightful.

Children will be tested on all eight words on Friday 18 January.

11 January 2013

Your homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 16 January.

I can express my opinion about the book The Switch.

We’ve just finished our class novel, The Switch. Homework is to produce a piece of work that tells me your opinion of the book. The homework also has to relate to our learning about different text types so the children need to produce a piece of written work about The Switch.

This piece of work could be:

• An advert persuading people to buy the book and promoting the book
• A script of one of the most exciting parts of the story
• A narrative continuing the story
• An explanation showing what the book is about
• A discussion praising the book
• A debate or balanced argument showing two points of view about the book or a character, or…
• Your own idea choosing a different text type.

11 January 2013

The home work this week is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 16 January.

I know how I am going to take reponsibility for my learning this year.

Our SEAL statement this week has been about taking reponsibility for our learning. As it’s the start of the year and a time for new starts and new year resolutions, we thought it would be a good time to think about how we can take responsility for our learning and set some targets for ourselves for the new year.

Examples could be:

• Making sure that I read at home with an adult every day.
• Reducing the number of warnings I get.
• Giving out 3 friendship tokens every day.
• Pushing myself harder in literacy lessons. 

For talk time homeworks, children don’t have to write anything in their homework books but many find that writing down some ideas and prompts helps them to contribute during the discussion we have as a class.