Oxfordshire County Council
HAILEY CE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Hailey, Witney, Oxon, OX29 9UB
Headteacher: Mrs. D. Davies Tel: 01993 703802
Fax: 01993 849 790
email:
Hailey C. of E. Primary School
8th September 2016
Infant Newsletter – Term 1, 2016
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the new school year. Mrs Ritchie, Mrs Jarrett and I hope you had a nice and relaxing break. The children are looking forward to our new topic ‘The Enchanted Woodland.’ We will spend lots of time outside in the woodland discovering different animals, flowers and trees as well as Maths activities including measuring trees and making a woodland shop.
English
The Infants will be focusing on Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. They will spend time exploring different types of punctuation, word types and conjunctions. Handwriting will be practised on a very regular basis and the new curriculum, expects children to join their handwriting by the end of year 2.
The children will take part in a guided reading session once a week, where they will develop a variety of reading strategies together with comprehension skills. Short comments will be recorded in their reading diary.
They will continue to have differentiated phonics input, where they will focus on letter sounds, developing to alternative pronunciations and alternative spellings.
Maths
In Maths children will participate in plenty of practical, interactive activities. Initially they will practise ordering numbers, estimating, finding number bonds and counting accurately in ones and multiples of tens, fives and twos. Their work will be differentiated according to ability.
RE
In RE, children will be thinking about the big question: Is everybody special? Children will think about what makes them special, explore the Bible stories: The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin and then learn about Baptism.
PE
The children will be taking part dance on Monday afternoons and games on Thursday afternoons. Please make sure that your child has a P.E. kit in school for these sessions. It would be useful to have a pair of jogging bottoms and an extralong sleeved top for colder weather.
Spelling and Maths Homework
Homework will be set on Fridays, and needs to be returned by the following Wednesday for marking. Homework will consist of spellings to learn through an activity and ActiveLearn Maths.
The children will have a spelling homework folder that will need to be returned each week (into the blue box in the cloakroom) so the next homework can be placed in it.
Maths will be assigned to the children on a weekly basis on the ActiveLearn website. Please can I remind you that you can support your child with the ICT skills e.g. inputting a number into the box, clicking on the correct shape?
Children will be tested on their spellings from their homework every Thursday. Results from Spellings and ActiveLearn will be sent home the following week.
Any child whose homework is not completed and returned by Thursday morning will need to complete it during their own time within the school day.
I will begin to set homework from next week.
Topic Homework
Topic homework has been sent home in your child’s book bag today. This homework gives you choices of activities to complete over the term of which one needs to be completed. This is due Monday 17th October, ready for the parents open morning on Tuesday 18th October at 8.40am.
Reading
Today, children have been sent home with two books to read. These books should be read twice and parent comments should be written into the new reading diaries. The diary has a page per week and the start date is recorded at the top of the page for you beginning Monday 12th September. When reading, please ask your children questions about the text. E.g. Who is the main character? What did ‘input character’s name’ do in the story? How did it make you feel when ‘input event’ happened? If you are unsure of what questions to ask please see a member of the Infant team.
If your child’s books need changing, these need to put on the side first thing where it says ‘please change my books.’
Please can I ask that only two key rings maximum on your child’s book bags?
Keep your eyes open for the reading challenge letter. I know the Infants will want to be the first class to receive their class reward.
Trip
I am very excited to announce that at the beginning of November I have organised a trip to the Harcourt Arboretum, the cost of the trip will be approximately £10 which will include a workshop and transport. I will send out more information in the next few weeks.
Developing Independence
This week parents and careers have been supporting children to put their belongings in the correct place in the cloakroom. To support children to become independent from Monday children will be expected to enter the cloakroom independently and put their belongings in the correct place. The Infant team will be on hand to support any children who are still unsure.
Change Bag
We will be spending lots of time outside this term so please can all children have a complete change of clothes (this does not need to be school uniform) including socks/ tights and underwear in a separate plastic bag on their peg. Activities will be carried out in all weathers so please can you make sure your child has a pair of wellies which stay in school?
Monday 12th September
On Monday morning we will be visiting the school woodland, please can you make sure your child has sensible clothes and shoes ready for this adventure.
One of the Infant team is available every morning for you to inform if your child is being collected by someone else or you have a question. If I am unavailable any messages will be passed on.
Yours sincerely,
Jo Purves