Class News

Mastering Number for Key Stage 2 – Multiplication sessions

Year 4 have been working hard this week to represent maths stories using gestures, pictures and expressions.

Help at home: Challenge your child to teach you how to use the gestures and pictures we use in our Mastering Number sessions.

Year 4’s Book Club

This week’s book club in Year 4 has been a busy one! There was much excitement exploring Mrs Poole’s recommended reads and the “Mystery books” were snapped up within minutes. We are looking forward to some new titles entering our shelves with some of our budding authors creating their own books for other children to borrow.

Help at home: Sharing a book with your child is the best way to develop reading fluency and a love of reading. Do let us know what you have reading using the Reading Records and if you need help finding a book to get lost in do come and see me at drop off / pick up for a recommendation.

Reading and Writing: Little Red

In English, we have been having lots of fun exploring the story Little Red by Bethan Woollvin! The children have enjoyed comparing this modern version to the original Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. We’ve had lots of great discussions about the differences in characters and storylines.

We have also started learning about nouns. A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. For example, in Little Red, the girl is a person, the woods are a place, and the basket is a thing. The children have been looking at different pictures and practicing identifying nouns in them. They are really getting the hang of it!

Soon, we will be using these nouns to create sentences!

Welcome back everyone!

It’s been lovely to welcome back our returning nursery children and also to introduce our new starters!

We’ve had a wonderful settling in week, exploring our provision and becoming familair with our nursery routine.

Here’s a sneak peak of some of the activities we’ve been enjoying

During snack time this week the children have enjoyed listening to the nursery rhyme ‘Wheels on the bus’.

Help at home: Can you child recall some of the actions from the ‘Wheels on the bus’ nursery rhyme?

Next week, we will be starting our first focus story ‘ The Gruffalo’ By Julia Donaldson.

•  In the coming weeks, we will be talking about our families. Please could parents/carers email some photos of their families to- stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org

Have a happy and healthy weekend!

Miss Ward and Miss Harvey

Our learning journey this week

Year 3 have set off on lots of different learning paths this week. Here’s an overview of our learning:

Writing

We have started to recap our knowledge of nouns, proper nouns and verbs. This week, the children have done some sentence-based learning, making sure we can identify nouns and verbs correctly. We’ve been really careful to remember that proper nouns need capital letters! Here’s some learning below (and their creators!).

Our new language has been revealed…

Latin!

This year, our class will follow the story of Minimus the mouse, his family and their lives in Vindolanda. We’re learning Latin to understand the roots of our British language, to help us improve in our grammar skills, and to support other lessons, too (such as our current Ancient Greece history unit).

So far, we’ve learnt how to say hello and goodbye in Latin! Practice these with your child at home – the children were all super excited to learn!

hello (to one person) = salve (sal-way)

hello (to more than one person) = salvete (sal-way-tay)

goodbye (to one person) = vale (wa-lay)

goodbye (to more than one person) = valete (wa-lay-tay)

Reading

We have continued our Greek myth theme this week and done lots of learning around Pandora’s Box. The children had to use their inference skills to draw what they thought flew out the box when Pandora mischievously opened it! Here are some fantastic creations along with their illustrators.

Help at home:

Thanks so much for helping your child read at home and complete their reading records – we had such a good return this first week. Keep practising our three key areas as much as possible: spelling, reading and times tables.

Starting School

We have welcomed all the children into class this week and we are so proud of how everyone is settling in, getting to know their new classroom and making new friends.

PE Day

PE will start on Monday 16th September. Please send your child to school in their PE kit every Monday. ( plain white t-shirt, navy blue shorts, school jumper and trainers they can fasten themselves.)

Bags, Wellies and Spare Clothes

Don’t forget to bring in your school wellies and a draw string or small bag of spare cloths/underwear to keep in school. Thank you to the parents and carers who have already provided these.

Family Photo

We will soon be talking and learning about different families. Next week we will introduce out first focus book The Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith. To support our learning, please send in a photo of your child with their family. You can in a copy  of your photo or email it to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Dates for your diary

This year we will be offering various opportunities for you to find out more about Early Years at school.

There will be after school meetings with your child’s teacher.

There’ll be stay and learn sessions where you can come into school and be part of a lesson and then find out how you can help at home.

Then, opportunities to pop into school to share your child’s learning journey book with them.

We hope that you can join us for as many of these sessions as possible.

Welcome to Reception

An invitation to this event was emailed to you back in July but here is a reminder.

Come into school to find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception.

18.09.24 – 6pm – 6.30pm

 Stay and learn sessions

This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.

Phonics Phase 2 and coffee morning – 09.10.24 9am-10am

Number 1 – 13.11.24 2.20-3pm

Phonics Phase 3 – 14.01.25 2.20-3pm

Fine Motor and coffee morning – 03.02.25 9am-10am

World Book Day- 06.03.24 9am-10am

Number 2 – 18.03.25 2.20-3pm

 Learning Journey Drop In’s

An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.

Learning Journey Drop in 1 – 03.12.24 and 05.12.24 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am   and   3.15pm-3.45pm

Learning Journey drop in 2 – 28.03.25 and 01.04.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am   and   3.15pm-3.45pm

Learning Journey drop in 3– 08.07.25 and 10.07.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am   and   3.15pm-3.45pm

Please note that a paper copy of these dates will also be sent home this week.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith

We Are Scientists!

PE

In PE this week, we have focussed on teambuilding and working together. The children really impressed with their communication and patience – it was really good to see. They had to move across the ‘lava’ only using limited resources to step on.

We have also been introduced to hockey. We have talked about where our hands go on the hockey stick. Where the left hand goes and where the right hand goes.

Help at home – Ask your child about what makes a good team player. Why is important to work as a team? Where should your hands go on a hockey stick. What do we call the lefthand? What do we call the right hand?

Living and Learning

8 Rs for learning

In our classroom this week, we have thought about how we use the 8 Rs to help us become better learners.

• risk-taking – I can ask questions and give my opinion in a group/class situation.
• reflecting – I look for feedback from my teachers and peers and think about how I can use this to improve.
• ready – I always want to learn new things.
• remembering – I find links between what I am learning and what I already know.
• responsible – I am respectful with everything (presentation, resources etc.).
• resourceful – I know where to find information and use it in my work (word walls, support sheet etc.).
• responsive – I can respond appropriately to peers and adults.
• resilient – I stick at things even when they are difficult and do not give up; I stay positive.

Children were able to give ways that they could use the 8 Rs in their daily school life and challenge themselves to display an attribute that they feel they do not show enough of.

Help at home – Can your child remember the 8 Rs at home? Can they give examples of how they would display each?

Living and Learning – I follow the school rules

Our first Living and Learning statement of the year was:

I follow the school rules.

We established that rules are instructions that we’re asked to follow. They help to keep us safe and make sure we’re all treated fairly. Rules help to bring order.

We discussed our 3 school rules; how they look and sound in the classroom and around school.

The children gave some great examples of how we might have different rules at home, at school or in the community and there was some interesting discussion about how the world might look different if we didn’t have rules…

Help at home by discussing rules with your child.

• What are our school rules? Is one important than the others?
• What are some of your rules at home and why do you have them?
• What are some of the rules in the community? Are there consequences if we don’t follow them?