We have been thrilled that the children have started the Autumn Term with so much excitement and enthusiasm. It has been great to see the children enter the building confidently in the morning and settle into the school routines. This edition of the newsletter shares some of the highlights from each year group, please make sure to also have a look over the Key Dates section to see the upcoming events as the countdown to Christmas begins.
This academic year we have again presented all of the Year 2 pupils with leadership roles in the school. These vary from feeding the fish to managing the school’s recycling. The children have taken on their roles enthusiastically and are helping to foster a positive environment for their
peers. The Year 2 pupils also have a Reception buddy, strengthening the connections among the children in different year groups. The buddy system enhances the value of the CARE Code by promoting friendships while enhancing social skills and confidence.
One of the first initiatives for the Year 2 Leaders was to vote for this year’s harvest charity. Year 2 and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for your generous donations to Hull Churches Home from Hospital Service. Your contributions will make a significant impact and will help to support those in
We have had a wonderful start to the Autumn Term in the Pre-School and were so happy to welcome new and older children back into the classroom.
We have started our new Phonics
need within our local community. The first half term has also seen two class-led assemblies, the first of these was delivered by Miss Smith and 1B. Their assembly was on National Hand Washing Day and they taught the rest of the school about the importance of personal hygiene, told us about an experiment they had carried out to see how effective soap was and taught us all a song to promote thorough hand washing. Miss Riddle and Year 1A delivered a spooky Halloween assembly on the final day of the half term teaching us about the traditions of Halloween but also ensuring that the children understood the importance of staying safe when going trick or treating and when lighting candles in pumpkins.
I hope that over the break you are able to enjoy Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations and we look forward to welcoming all of the children back refreshed and ready for the next half term!
programme, First Steps, which the children are enjoying learning with every day. It has been lovely to introduce the class to other friends from across the school during our shared morning break and it is great to see children from different ages playing together.
We have all enjoyed finding out much more about each other, learning more about where we live and who our family members are.
It has been amazing to watch the children play creatively both in the classroom and outside on the playground.
They are following the CARE Code with great kindness for each other during their sessions across the week and should be proud of themselves!
All the Reception children have settled into school well and we have really enjoyed getting to know the pupils!
This half term we have based our work around the topic All about Me. We have looked at where we live and who with, different homes around the world, discussed our families and shown pictures of them to our friends in class. We also learnt about discussing our emotions and thought about what we must do to stay healthy.
The children had a great time taking care of the teddies in the Teddy Bear
Hospital and making bones using Play Dough. Everyone is enjoying our practical Maths lessons, making patterns using our bodies, playing matching games and sorting objects using different criteria. The children have also started their Phonics lessons this term and are enjoying listening to the stories in the Big Books, learning new sounds and the Common Exception Words. We are having so much fun using the mnemonic rhymes to help us learn how to form letters correctly. It is so lovely to help the children embark on their lifelong reading journey!
Our Art skills are also developing well: We had a great time making portraits using fruit, inspired by 16th century Italian artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo, and designing Worry Monsters with paper plates. We are really looking forward to next half term and are busy preparing for our Nativity performance in December. Will we be seeing you in the audience?
YEAR 1
Wow! We have enjoyed the most fantastic start to the Autumn Term! We have been so impressed with how well the boys and girls have settled into Year 1 and they have really worked their socks off over the last eight weeks.
The children have become well-accustomed to the rules and routines of their classrooms and are demonstrating excellent independent skills, for example during their weekly swimming lessons. We have had lots of fun exploring our focus stories together, which have included The Lonely Beast and The Lion Inside We created some amazing story maps, which the children then used to re-tell the story of the Beast, who went on a journey to find friends just like himself. The children impressed us with their thoughtful insights into the characters of the lion and the mouse, and completed some wonderful character descriptions inspired by the stories.
We have thoroughly enjoyed the topics covered in other lessons, too: In Science we have been learning about animals including humans, finding out about the different animal groups, animal diets and about our own bodies. In Geography we have been looking at where we live and the local area, going out into the grounds to explore the different features of our school site.
Both Year 1 classes presented class assemblies this term covering handwashing and Halloween, although not in the same assembly!
All of the children did so well, standing up and presenting in front of the rest of the school. We were so proud of them for their confidence and courage - they have set a high standard for the other classes to follow! We are sure the children are more than ready for a well-deserved rest. It has been such a fun but busy couple of months and it is certainly time for everyone to have a break! Have a lovely half term, everyone!
It has been a really busy start to Year 2! The children have taken to being the oldest in the school very well and are enjoying the responsibility that comes with it.
They are performing their Year 2 leadership roles around school and are being extremely mature and helpful. We have had a lot of fun reading The Diary of a Killer Cat in English and the spooky stories we made up about our own killer pets were brilliant. They sounded just as good as the original! In Maths we started the term with place value of numbers up to 100. Recently we have been working on our number bonds and using these to add and subtract from tens numbers with great success. We have learned a lot in Science about life cycles, what happens as we grow up and how we can keep
ourselves healthy and safe from germs. We cannot wait for the results of our mouldy bread experiment, where we predicted which place around school would have the most germs!
Our Australia topic has introduced us to the land down under and aboriginal culture; we researched Australian animals and produced some great posters to encourage people to help save the Great Barrier Reef Year 2 are also thoroughly enjoying learning German with Frau Lawson. We are already able to count to 12 and have a short conversation! The sessions are a lot of fun and the children are approaching them with their usual enthusiasm and determination.
Finally it has been great to use the new Chromebooks in our ICT lessons and our research skills are growing by the day. It has been a great start to the year and we are excited to see how the children will progress next half term. Well done Year 2!
November
Key Dates for next half term
Wed 6 - School re-opens for the second half term
Fri 8 - Remembrance Assembly 9am (Poppies will be available in school from Wed 6)
Tue 12 - Odd Socks Day (Anti-Bullying Week)
Fri 15 - Children in Need Day (non-uniform)
Tue 19 - Year 1 Forest School Trip – Humber Forest School
Fri 22 - Be Bright Be Seen Day and Humberside Police Visit (non-uniform)
Sat 30 - Michaelmas Fair (Hymers College)
December
Mon 2 - Hull City Hall Dear Santa Theatre Trip (Whole School)
Thu 12 - Reception Nativity Performance 2pm
Fri 13 - Reception Nativity Performance 2pm
Mon 16 - Pre-School Christmas Craft Morning
Tue 17 - Reception Nativity at Tranby Park Care Home (pm)
Year 1 & Year 2 Christmas Party (pm)
Wed 18 - Pre-School and Reception Christmas Party (pm)
Thu 19 - Year 2 and Tranby Park Care Home
Resident Secret Santa Exchange (pm)
Fri 20 - Last day of term – finishing times:
Pre-School & Reception – 11:30am
Year 1 – 11:45am
Year 2 – 12:00pm
January
Tue 7 - Spring Term starts