Autumn Term 2023

Who Am I?

This will be our first topic this year.

Within this theme, we will be looking at who we are, our likes and dislikes, our families, our senses, parts of the body, our favourite food, portraits and birthdays.

There will also be a mini topic on Maweni Primary (introducing our sister school in Tanzania) and of course CHRISTMAS!

We also like to consider the children’s interests; therefore, we will also cover several mini-topics developed by the children. Keep an eye on the 'This week' page for more information.

Reception (Class 1) is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. We work from the same framework as your child’s nursery or preschool. If you are unsure about this or would like information about the end-of-year expectations, then please take a look at the ‘Supporting your child in class 1’ page.

The Early Years curriculum has a Government baseline assessment to be completed in the first few weeks. The baseline assessment is a literacy and numeracy activity that will be completed one-on-one with me once the children are settled. If you would like more information about this, then please do ask.

Every day we will be learning a new sound. At Hanley Swan, we follow the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ scheme (Please see the ‘Read, Write, Inc information page). It is multi-sensory and particularly suitable for young children. It also means that the children are being taught the main 42 sounds of English, not just the alphabet sounds. With this knowledge, they are taken through stages of blending sounds to form words and then to reading. At the same time, they are taught to write by identifying the sound and relating the letter symbol to those sounds. To help you understand a little bit more about phonics I will send home an information booklet for you to read.

Reinforcement of the sounds is very important and each week I post on the 'This Week' page the letters that we will be covering. Please spend a few minutes each evening going over the sounds with your child and helping them to learn them. You can read them, spot them around the house, spot them in magazines & newspapers and find them in reading/story books. Most important of all is to have fun with them.

At Hanley Swan Primary School we use the pre-cursive script for writing. The children are taught pre-cursive handwriting right from the start of class 1. If you ask your child to do any writing at home, make sure they are trying to do pre-cursive writing.  All letters start and finish on the line, if you are unsure about the letters there is a printable alphabet on the ‘Supporting your child in class 1’ page.

Activities in maths will involve sorting, matching, counting and shape/pattern work. Initially, these will be largely practical and include the playing of number games and singing and acting out number songs and rhymes, followed by the undertaking of simple recording activities. We follow White Rose Maths and there will be links to the daily activities on the 'What are we doing this week?' page.

We will be starting Forest School in a couple of weeks. The children will need wellies (and these are best kept in school). I will let you know on the ‘This week’ page when it is due to start.

PE will take place each week. Please make sure they have their PE kit (named) in school every day. When it gets dirty and/or at the end of each half-term they will bring it home for a wash.

Things to bring to school

PE Kit – Stays in school and sent home to wash if dirty and/or at the end of each half term.

Wellington boots– Stay in school.

Water bottle - returned each day with water in.

Packed Lunch or Lunch ordered through Black Pepper

Coat and if needed cold weather clothes.
When hot – a hat and suncream

In Bookbag – every day:
Reading Folder & Home school liaison book.

(Details about these will follow on the ‘What are we doing this week?’ page)

If you have any queries about school, please do not hesitate to pop in and ask.

11.12.23

Over the next two weeks, we will be having a lot of Christmas fun. We will be exploring the story of Christmas, making Christmas decorations, playing games and enjoying this exciting time of year. 

4.12.23

The countdown to Christmas...

This week, we will be finishing off our work on Toy Stories and starting to understand the story behind Christmas.

We will also be using the story of Stickman to inspire some storytelling and natural toy creations.

On Thursday, we have our trip to Hanley High, please do not forget to be in school at 8:45 am.

On Friday, it is the school disco after school - don't forget the party clothes!

27.11.23

Toy Stories...

This week, we will be exploring the theme of toys.

We will be talking about toys, what makes a good toy and how we play with different toys.

If it is possible, it would be great if you could take a photo of your child's favourite toy and email it to class1@hanleyswanps.org.uk. We will use these photos as show and tell each day.

On Friday, we will be enjoying another online author session. This week, it is the AMAZING Nick Sharrat! He will be telling us all about his new book - You Choose at Christmas'. During the session, he will also be teaching us how to be an illustrator. 

On Thursday 7th December we are going on another class trip - this time to Hanley High School. The children will need to be in school for 8:45am and we will be back for lunch. I will be sending a letter home this week about this wonderful opportunity.

On Tuesday 19th December (6:00 pm) it is our school Carol Service. Class 1 play an important role in creating the tableaux throughout the service. If your child is unable to make this service, please let me know asap. More information will follow this week.

20.11.23

Let's get recycling

We had a fantastic visit last week to Envirosort. Your children were amazing!

They were impeccably behaved and fully engaged, and it was a pleasure to watch their excited faces enjoying every moment. Well done class 1!

I hope that they are able to help out with a little bit of recycling at home from now on. I have put some photos of the trip on the 'Photos' page.

This week, we will be continuing the theme of recycling and looking after our planet. We will be reading a story about the problems with plastic bags and the harm plastic does to our oceans. We will also be learning about Road Safety and how to cross a road safely!

13.11.23

A mixed bag!

This week is going to be a rollercoaster of learning opportunities. At the start of the week, we will be finding out about the Hindu Festival of Diwali and learning a little bit about the Hindu religion and the story behind this festival. We will finish the week with a trip to Envirosort on Thursday, and Children in Need and a virtual author visit on Friday.

For our tip to Envirosort, the children will need to be in full school uniform with a coat. We will be back in time for lunch.

On Friday, the children can wear their own clothes in exchange for a donation towards Children in Need.

The virtual author visit is a beautiful, moving book about body positivity and self-acceptance, from the award-winning author and illustrator Vashti Harrison. We will be listening to Vashti tell the story and then joining her in a drawing activity.

6.11.23

I hope that you have all had a lovely half-term.

We will be starting this half-term with a BANG! We will be learning about the history behind Bonfire Night and doing some fun firework art and DT activities.

Towards the end of the week, we will be learning about Remembrance Day and why this is such an important day.

We will be starting specific letter formation activities this week. We do this in a particular order, the order is sets of letters that all have the same basic movement.  Please do not forget that we introduce the children to pre-cursive letters straight away. For more information on writing, see the Learning to Write page  We will be starting with the long ladder letters (l,I,t,u,y & j), followed by curly caterpillar letters (c,a,d,e,s,o,g,f & q), one-armed robots (r,n,h,b,m,k&p) and ziz zag letters (x,w,v & z).

23.10.23

Our 5 Super Powers!
This week, we will be looking a little deeper at who we are and what we can do. We will explore our 5 senses, how our body is made up and what we can do to develop our superpowers.

On Wednesday, we have our very special trip to the Malvern Festival of Stories. Please make sure your child has a coat in school that day.

Do not forget parents' meetings this week. I very much look forward to chatting with you all.

Half Term

I will send home 2 reading books on Thursday. Please take some time to enjoy them together over the holiday. Most importantly, let the children have a well deserved break and enjoy your time together. They have had an amazing first half-term, and I look forward to hearing all about their holiday when we return.

16.10.23

Dem Bones dem bones dem dry bones!

This week, we will look inside our bodies and find out about how our body works and what holds us up - our bones. Our key text throughout the week will be Funny Bones. We will also find out about the other parts of the body and the important role they play in helping us live.

Reading at home

• Reading at home presentation

9.10.23

Autumn and The Oak Tree

This week we will continue to explore Autumn and use the new Julia Donaldson book ' The Oak Tree' as inspiration. We will be out and about searching for acorns and using them in a variety of learning opportunities, exploring our oak trees and enjoying the changing seasons.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning in Class 1

When we think of ‘teaching and learning’ it is easy to think about being taught to read, write and understand mathematical strategies. But it’s easy to overlook that there are skills and knowledge that it’s vital to develop and practice alongside more academic skills. These are the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ and another way of looking at them is to call them the skills we need for life. They are an integral part of Early Years teaching (Birth to 5) and are the foundations for academic success.

The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning are divided into three sections. They’re all interconnected and overlap with one another, and hopefully, you’ll already recognise a lot of these characteristics in your children. All children can develop these skills over time  – provided they’re given the opportunities to do so. 

Playing and exploring – Engagement

There are three strands under this characteristic. They are:

• Finding out and exploring
• Showing curiosity about objects, events and people
• Using their senses to explore the world around them
• Engaging in open-ended activity
• Showing particular interests
  ‍
• Playing with what they know
• Pretending objects are things from their experience
• Representing their experiences in play
• Taking on a role in their play
• Acting out experiences with other people
  ‍
• Being willing to ‘have a go’
• Initiating activities
• Seeking challenge
• Showing a ‘can do’ attitude
• Taking a risk, engaging in new experiences, and learning by
  trial and error

Active learning – Motivation

Once again we have three strands that explain this characteristic. They are:

• Being involved and concentrating
• Maintaining focus on their activity for a period of time
• Showing high levels of energy, fascination
• Not easily distracted
• Paying attention to details

• Keeping on trying
• Persisting with activity when challenges occur
• Showing a belief that more effort or a different approach will pay off
• Bouncing back after difficulties

• Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
• Showing satisfaction in meeting their own goals
• Being proud of how they accomplished something – not just the end result
• Enjoying meeting challenges for their own sake rather than external rewards or praise

Critical thinking

Making links

• Making links and noticing patterns in their experience
• Making predictions
• Testing their ideas
• Developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect

Choosing ways to do things

• Planning, making decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and reach a goal
• Checking how well their activities are going
• Changing strategy as needed
• Reviewing how well the approach worked

2.10.23

Autumn leaves are falling down...

What a wonderful week last week was! Your children were AMAZING! I could not have been prouder of them at the Harvest Festival, and they worked so hard in class. Well done all of them!

Autumn is here and this week we will be celebrating this. We will be going on an ‘autumn adventure’ finding evidence for the new season and using the things we find for art and design activities.

Reading Books

I am very pleased to say, that on Monday your child will be bringing home two reading books to read at home during the week.

You will keep these books for the duration of the week and then return them to school on a Friday.

This will happen each week - Receive the books on a Monday, and return the books on a Friday.

Please make sure you share a book every night. Start to get into a routine and make this time together very special, it will help you in the long run. It is very important to re-read the books to develop their phonetic memory, awareness, ability and confidence. If they get to a point when they have memorized the book (which is good), ask them to point to the words as they read, ask them to identify certain words on the page, and cover words up and ask them to tell you what words are under your thumb. In other words, have fun with the book and turn reading into a game!

You only need to share a book for a few minutes each night and this will help your child develop a positive routine for reading. Regular reading also has a huge impact on children's academic progress.

If you need help with reading at home, please see the 'Learning to Read' page  https://www.hanleyswanprimaryschool.co.uk/learning-to-read/ 

To help with reading, I will also send home an information letter and the letters that we have covered in class. Use these letters to play with at home.

I will also host a reading information session for parents in school on Wednesday 11th October at 2:30 pm. I will go through some useful hints and tips, how we read with them at school and answer any questions that you have.

25.9.23

Harvest

This week, we will be finishing our Harvest topic by finding out why this celebration is important for Christians. We will also be finishing off the story of the Little Red Hen.

On Thursday, we will be enjoying our annual Harvest Festival at Church (do not forget to bring the children to church with a food donation).

On Friday, we have our very special sponsored run for Maweni. Please raise as much as you can for this very special school in Tanzania. For more information about Maweni, please have a look at this page: Maweni | Hanley Swan St Gabriel's with St Mary's CofE Primary School (hanleyswanprimaryschool.co.uk)

18.9.23

The Little Red Hen

This week we will be learning all about harvest time and using the story of the Little Red Hen to help us. We will be exploring where our food comes from and the variety of fruits and vegetables we have.
 We will also be talking about healthy eating and the importance of eating fruit and veg.

The children had a good go at changing for PE on Wednesday. It would be great if they could try and do as much as possible independently at home.

 Digital Learning

There are many websites and apps that support children's learning. Here are a few that I recommend using at home (when it is a rainy day):

CBeebies Apps (Playtime, Explore, Get Creative & Storytime) - Brilliant for everything!

Teach Your Monster to Read  - excellent phonics & learning to read app 

Teach your Monster Number Skills - excellent counting app

Cbeebies Website - we use Numberblocks and Alphablocks daily.

Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at home & school - it is as important as stranger danger! Children can accidentally be exposed to unwanted or unpleasant content and they can easily become addicted or develop bad habits with technology. Understanding online issues and developing positive rules around technology should start as soon as they begin to access technology. For more information, please see our school page - Internet Safety | Hanley Swan St Gabriel's with St Mary's CofE Primary School (hanleyswanprimaryschool.co.uk)

The two simplest rules for primary-aged children are:

1. Only use technology in communal rooms of the house. 

2. Never let your child access online content in their bedroom.

More information... Under 5s

If you have any further questions about this, please come and talk to me. It is a very important and ever growing issue.

11.9.23

Look at me!

What a fabulous first week the children had last week - they were brilliant. They sailed through each day and enjoyed everything we did, we are very proud of them. I am looking forward to seeing them again this week.

Please remember, if your child does get upset in the morning, leave them with us as they are always fine. If there are any problems, we will give you a ring.

The children are enjoying their snacks and drinks in class. Do not forget that we only have water in the water bottles, flavoured water and squash attract flies and wasps into the classroom and can also cause unpleasant sticky stains when they are accidentally spilt.

Lunches have gone well and they are all enjoying eating together in the hall. Once again, if there are any problems we will let you know.

I hope that you have enjoyed the library book over the weekend. The library book will need to be returned on Monday.

This week will be all about ‘showing off’. Every day the children will have the chance to show off their skills to the rest of the class. These skills could be anything from things they already know to newly acquired skills. Hopefully, this will develop their self-confidence, promote a positive attitude to learning and give everyone a chance to see who they are sharing their class with. We will be exploring what we are all very good at and some of the things we are not so good at.

We will start to learn our letters this week. We will be covering m, a, s & t and using them to read some simple CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words like sat and mat. There will be a ‘Write dance’ session (pre-writing movement activities), where we will begin to attempt to draw patterns and the letters in our names. Please remember that we use pre-cursive handwriting at Hanley Swan.

PE will start on Wednesday; please make sure they have their labelled PE kits in school by then.

Forest school will start on Thursday; please could the children have their old wellington boots in by Thursday.

6.9.23

Welcome to Hanley Swan

This week we will be settling in and exploring the classroom and outdoor facilities. We will be looking at the classroom and where everything goes! There will be a few opportunities to have a look around the school and pop into Forest School, the library, the hall and the playground. We will also be letting the children get to know each other through several games and play-based activities. 

The main focus will be fun!

There will be no specific literacy and maths activities (these will start next week).

Please make sure that you bring in their PE kit and labelled Wellington boots this week.

For your interest... 

School set-up:

Hanley Swan is a small school with four classes and 7 year groups. This can be a little confusing, so to help you out here is the school setup:

Class 1 (1 Year group) - Reception or Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Class 2 (2 Year groups) - Year 1 and Year 2 (Key stage 1)

Class 3 (2 Year Groups) - Year 3 and Year 4 (Lower key stage 2)

Class 4 (2 Year Groups) - Year 5 and Year 6 (Upper key stage 2)

Secondary school - Year 7 +

Home Liaison Book:

This week your child will bring home the 'Home liaison book' in a plastic wallet. This book needs to be in their book bag every day.

The ‘Home liaison book’ is for communication between home and school. It can be used in any way that is useful for individual parents. Here is a rough guide to get you started:

When your child brings home a reading book/library book we will write the title in the ‘Title’ box. This helps us keep a record of what your child has read. If your child reads other books with you at home (please please please make sure you do!!) you are more than welcome to write them in as well, but that is up to you.

The ‘Pages read and comments’ box is for you to note down how far you have got in a book if you have not read it all. You can also add information about things you have noticed whilst sharing the book, e.g. likes, dislikes, letters/words they have struggled with, etc.

In class 1, we have no specific use for the ‘spellings’ box, but if you would like to use it to record words that they are reading / writing (later in the year) you are welcome to.

The ‘Home/school message’ box is for you to write any important information in. Changes to who is picking your child up, questions or any other information about your child that you think will be important to us in school. I will also use this box to write information in if I do not get a chance to speak to you.

The blank box can be used for anything you like…doodle, draw, scribble, colour…

If you have limited time in the evening I would rather you spend an extra 2 minutes cuddling, reading or talking to your child than filling the book in. I hope this helps.