9.12.24

It is Christmas!

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. 

There will be a Christmas postbox set up in school this week. If you are sending in Christmas cards for your child's friends, please put their name and class on the front of the envelope. If you are unsure about the class, let me know and I will add that on. If you are sending cards to the whole class and are unsure of all the names, send them in blank and I will write the names on. 

Do not forget...

Tuesday 17th December - Carol Service 5 pm (Please let me know asap if your child is not coming)

Thursday 19th December - Christmas Jumper Day.

Friday 20th December - No school.

Finally, your children have been amazing this term. They have settled in well, made good progress, and been a delight to teach. 

Holiday Homework:

1. Have a wonderful Christmas break with lots of fun, laughter, and cuddles!

2. I will send home 2 books to enjoy together in between the fun, laughter and cuddles.

3. If they are writing cards over Christmas, remember we do pre-cursive writing (every letter starts on the line). There is a sheet and more information on this page - Learning to write | Hanley Swan St Gabriel's with St Mary's CofE Primary School (hanleyswanprimaryschool.co.uk)

2.12.24 

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, we will be leaving at 9:00 am.

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

25.11.24

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 possible, please 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. Our key text for the week will be 'Dogger', a classic story about a lost toy by Shirly Hughes.

On Tuesday, we will learn about Maweni Primary School and will find out about Tanzania. Do not forget that it is a non-uniform day - dress in Tanzanian flag colours - for a donation towards Maweni.

On Thursday 5th December, we are going on another class trip - this time to Hanley High School. The children will need to be in school for 8:45 am and we will be back for lunch. I will be sending a letter home this week about this wonderful opportunity. 

On Tuesday 17th December (5:00 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. 

18.11.24

Let's help save the planet!

It was really lovely to chat to you all last week. Please do not forget - I am always happy to talk about your children. If you see me on the gate, pop across and chat.

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.

Thank you to all the parents that came to the reading meeting last week. I have put the Powerpoint presentation on the 'Learning to Read' page.

11.11.24

Let's get recycling 

We had a fantastic visit to Envirosort last week. 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 exploring Remeberance Day and joining in with Children in Need on Friday - wear something yellow or spotty.

I hope that you are enjoying sharing books with your child. Do not forget the reading meeting on Monday afternoon if you are interested, or check out the 'reading at home' page on the website.

Next week is also parent meetings, I am very much looking forward to catching up with you all about your wonderful children.

4.11.24

Mixed bag...

I hope that you have all had a lovely half-term. I am very pleased to be back with the class this week after my (unexpected) time in Tanzania. For those new to the school, we have a strong link with Maweni Primary School in Tanzania. For more information, please see the webpage - School Partnerships - Maweni | Hanley Swan St Gabriel's with St Mary's CofE Primary School

This week is going to be a rollercoaster of learning opportunities. At the start of the week, we will learn about the Hindu Festival of Diwali and the Hindu religion. This will be followed by activities based on the story behind bonfire night and fireworks. We will finish the week with a trip to Envirosort on Thursday.

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). 

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 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/  

Do not forget to sign the home liaison book each time they read with you.

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 Monday 11th November 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. 

14.10.24

Autumn leaves are falling down

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. 

7.10.24

What Makes Me Special?

The children were AMAZING at the Harvest Festival last week! We are all very proud of them.

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. We will also be combining our work on senses with the story of The Little Red Hen and making some bread!

Our focus text will be 'This is Me' by George Webster. Through this book we will explore how unique and special we all are.

Over the past few weeks, we have noticed a number of items of clothes without names. Please label everything; it makes it so much easier for us and your children. Please also remember that the drink bottles must have water in them. This reduces the problem of sticky spillages and stops the flies and wasps from being attracted into the classroom. Many thanks.

30.9.24

Harvest

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. 

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). 

23.9.24

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. 

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 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 

16.9.24

My Body

This week we will be learning all about the parts of our body. We will be naming the body parts and discussing what they can do and how we use them.

Digital Learning

There are many websites and apps that support children's learning. Here are a few that I recommend using at home (for short periods and it is raining):

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

Teach Your Monster to Read  - excellent phonics & learning to read app (wait for the free sign-up periods)

Teach your Monster Number Skills - excellent counting app (wait for the free sign-up periods)

Cbeebies Website - we use Numberblocks and Alphablocks daily.

Please use it sparingly. The negative impacts can be huge!

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 and supervise what they are doing. 

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. Online safety is a very important and ever growing issue.

9.9.24

Look at Me!

What a fabulous first week the children had - 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 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 learning attitude and allow everyone to see who they are sharing their class with. We will explore what we are all very good at and some of the things we are not.

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.

Finally, I would like to welcome you all to visit the classroom/school on Wednesday. This is a lovely opportunity for the children to show you around and show you THEIR classroom!

Welcome to Hanley Swan

This week, we will be getting acquainted with 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.