03.10.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hi everyone, 

Today the children have brought home their reading folders and diaries. They were excited to pick their first "Core Books" to bring home. We would love to know how you get on at home sharing these books, so please, please do let us know by writing any comments in your child's reading diary. As mentioned in the diary these books will be changed on a weekly basis, but not necessarily on the same day each week, so please can they be in books bags every day.

We have 2 whole school messages this week to share this week: 

Harvest Collection

This year we will continue to support Rochford Extended Services with our Harvest collection. Donations will be boxed up and distributed by them to the children and families that need them most within our own local community. 

As a Gold Level Rights Respecting School, we do our best to advocate for Children's Rights and for sustainability. Articles 24 and 27 state that:

“Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living”

If you can send in any non-perishable items (the children can bring them in) before Wednesday 19th October that would be fabulous and you can find a full list of suggested items here.  In school we will celebrate Harvest during the week of 17th October with some learning in class and by singing our favourite Harvest song in assembly.  Please enjoy having a go at the Harvest Samba here and thanks for any contributions you feel able to make.

NSPCC’s Speak Out Stay Safe Programme

RRS Article 19: Children have the right to be safe

As a Rights Respecting School we are committed to keeping children safe and we are happy to be taking part in the NSPCC's safeguarding programme in school. This programme helps children to recognise abuse in a child friendly way and encourages them to speak out to a trusted Duty Bearer.

In school, children will watch an assembly delivered by Ant and Dec and then take part in follow up discussions in class. Please read the full details on the NSPCC letter here where you will find further links and resources that you can use at home to educate and support your child. We urge you to take a look at these.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to pop in and see us.

On to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Reading another story about the Ten in the Bed characters, this time they are playing Hide and Seek.
• Using our teddy bear puppets that we made last week to play "Where's the Bear?" game in our Maths sessions.
• Welcoming our families into our classrooms after school, for our first drop in session on MONDAY.
• Starting to create our Christmas card designs, these will come home over the half term holiday for you to see and order (should you decide to).
• Changing our Core Books and picking another one to share this with our families.
• Learning how to play some Circle Time games together.

The following week we will be looking at how we have changed since being a baby. It would be lovely if the children could either bring in a baby photo OR for 1 to be emailed in for us to print out in school. Please email them to earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. We need them by Monday 10th October, ready to use that week. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

26.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have been enjoying the sunny weather this week and having fun exploring our learning garden. The sand pit has been a great place for lots of fun so apologies for the very sandy children we have been sending home! Our second swimming sessions went well with Mr Attfield commenting on how confident many of the children are becoming. 

Many thanks for all of the lovely keyrings we are now spotting on the children's book bags, this has definitely made life simpler for everyone. We are also enjoying sharing the different WOWs that have been coming in, so many thanks for those too.

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Learning about the different parts of a book during our story sessions.
• Reading and sharing the story "Ten in the Bed" and singing the number rhyme with the same name.
• Playing some Circle Time games.
• Using the scissors to cut carefully along different types of lines.
• Creating some lolly stick teddy bear puppets which we will need for some upcoming learning.
• Bringing home a "Core Book" to share with our families. 

Finally, a message from our amazing PTA:

The circus is coming to Down Hall NEXT WEEK on Wednesday 28th!  This was a huge hit when it visited last time and we cannot wait to welcome it back.  Happy's Circus is a professional, all human, touring circus. They bring the Big Top and fill it with magic, acrobatics, aerialists and so much more!  Plus, there will be hot food and refreshments on the night too, with both alcoholic and soft beverages available.  So why not get there early and make a whole evening of it (it will save you cooking dinner!)?!

By attending the circus, not only will you be getting an evening of entertainment for the whole family, you will also be helping to raise funds for your child's school. 

Tickets available on the door or in advance from the PTA.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

19.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

WOW! What a busy week! The children are probably very tired today, as are we, but we are so proud of how they have coped during their first full week! 😊 

Swimming went very well on Wednesday, but please can we ask that clothing is NAMED. It proved a little tricky trying to identify everyone's clothing, so apologies if you have ended up with the wrong things. We believe that there is a pink swimming hat that is missing and a pair of Crocs, but hope that they will return next week! Please note that the children do not need to wear a tie on Wednesdays, whilst we have swimming sessions, as this will help us when helping the children get dressed again.

As we mentioned in the meeting today, it would be really helpful if the children could all have a keyring on their book bag. This will help them to find it as at the moment there are quite a number of bags that all look exactly the same! (It will also help us as we will learn which keyrings go with which child).

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Sharing some more stories together and talking about what happens in them, including the story "Titch".
• Thinking about the members of Titch's family and then drawing pictures of our families.
• Playing some games with our namecards.
• Taking some special photographs, on Tuesday and Thursday, to send to the Echo newspaper for their New Intake supplement.
• Continuing to sing our "How Many Days" song and finding out what happens when we get to 10 days.
• Singing number rhymes, including the silly one about the monkeys and the crocodile!

Don't forget school is closed on Monday due to the State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, we will see you all on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

12.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely first 2 days in Early Years, getting to know all of the children and having fun together. The children have enjoyed their first PE session today, although the rain did mean a quick dash to the hall!! 

It was lovely to meet so many of you earlier this week for our parent/teacher meetings, if you did not manage to come to one of these, then please do ask and we can always see you one day after school.

We are excited for our first full week with the children, so on to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "Starting School" and thinking about all the things that we have done in our new classes.
• Finding out about different areas around school - exploring the ladybird garden, field and adventure playground.
• Drawing pictures of ourselves for our classroom display.
• Talking about how we can work together to make our classes a happy place to work and play. (RRS Article 31)
• Taking class photos for the Echo New Starters supplement. If you do not want your child in this photograph please let us know.
• Enjoying our first swimming session on WEDNESDAY.

Don't forget it is the Parent Overview meeting on FRIDAY at 2.30pm. Please come in via the school office. (Brooklyn Drive).

Please remember we are only ever an email away, there is no such thing as a silly question and we will always do our best to answer any queries. Please use the email address earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley