‘Be The Best You Can Be’

25.4.22             

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome back. I hope you have had a wonderful and relaxing Easter and are ready for a busy half term.

We are excited to announce that we will be having a new wall sticker around the walls of our hall which is a celebration of our topics and learning at ‘The Ellis’ throughout the children’s school journeys. We are proud to be able to share all the fascinating teaching and learning we cover in all our subjects and areas of interest.

This half term is very important for Year 1 as we will be commencing the statutory testing of Phonics in early June. The tests are designed to test your child’s knowledge of phonics and is a mixture of real word and alien words (non-real). The test is done individually and based on the Read, Write inc programme your child is learning in school. The testing is very informal and the children have practised with past papers. The threshold for passing the test has historically been around the 32 mark (out of 40) but this could be higher this year. Please feel free to contact me if you have any concerns about the testing or would like further information about how your child is doing.

We are very lucky to be having another round of Forest school’s this half term. Please can you ensure your child has a pair of wellies and a waterproof jacket in case of bad weather. Their session is on a Friday afternoon.

Here are some quick reminders for the coming weeks ahead:

• Please read with your child at least 3 times a week and record this in their reading diary. We ask that book bags are brought to school every day with their reading diary in it. 
• Spellings will be given out on a Monday (please ensure their pirate spelling book is in their book bag on a Monday) and will also be on Twitter and Spelling Shed. We will have our weekly spelling test every Friday. 
• Please ensure your child has a pair of pumps in school which fit.
• Our PE days are Monday and Tuesday so please ensure they have their PE kit in school on these days and earrings are removed as children are not able to do PE with earrings in. Our Monday PE lesson is outside so we ask that children have a pair of trainers and would suggest jogging bottoms or tracksuit and a jumper or jacket, as it is a bit cold in shorts and t-shirt, just in case it’s a bit chilly still.
• A quick reminder that toys should not be brought to school please as we do not want them to get lost or broken and that watches with cameras are not allowed in school.
• Please feel free to put home learning on ‘Seesaw’. We will try to share this as often as possible. Please email queries or comments to Mrs Fiddes rather than Seesaw as this platform is for the celebration of work.
• Children will be continued to be praised on the Silver and Gold star system. Gold and Silver treats are given in Year 1 at the discretion of the Year 1 team.
• Gold awards will be continued to be given in Special Assembly with the expectation of receiving between 1-2 per year.

If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to ask. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Kindest Regards

Y1 team

January 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year! We do hope you managed to have a peaceful and restful Christmas and enjoyed some family time together. Thank you so much for the lovely Christmas wishes, cards and gifts. We have been spoilt. Thank you.

Thank you also for all your support (time and money wise) in the run up to the nativity and the actual performances themselves. We were so proud of each and every child – shining superstars! We raised a wonderful amount of money and have already ordered a new reading tunnel for outside, writing table and new reading books for the children to take home on some of our book banded levels. These will be arriving hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

The children have come back to school beautifully and are very settled and enjoying our new topic ‘What a Hero!’ We have lots to cover this half term and we hope the newsletter attached will explain what we are learning about as well as giving you some ideas for your home learning projects. Please remember that we do ask children to complete some home learning each half term and to bring / send it into school. This could be one longer piece or a few shorter pieces. We look forward to seeing what they get up to!

Here are some quick reminders for the coming weeks ahead:

• Please read with your child at least 3 times a week and record this in their reading diary. We ask that book bags are brought to school every day with their reading diary in it.
• Spellings will be given out on a Monday (please ensure their pirate spelling book is in their book bag on a Monday). We will have our weekly spelling test every Friday.
• Please ensure your child has a pair of wellies and pumps in school which fit as weather is turning a bit wet and their feet keep growing!
• We recommend that your child has a warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves in school as it is cold and playing outside for the whole of lunch with cold hands isn’t as much fun as warm hands!
• Our PE days are Monday and Tuesday so please ensure they have their PE kit in school on these days and earrings are removed as children are not able to do PE with earrings in. Our Monday PE lesson is outside so we ask that children have a pair of trainers and would suggest jogging bottoms or tracksuit books and a jumper or jacket as it is a bit cold in shorts and t-shirt this time of the year!
• A quick reminder that toys should not be brought to school please as we do not want them to get lost or broken.

Kind regards

Mrs Broadbent