Happy Christmas!

Hello everyone, 

We hope you all enjoyed our Nativity performance this morning, we are SO proud of the children and how hard they have worked to put it all together. 

We also wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your support this term and for the lovely Christmas cards and gifts we have received. You have been very kind and we are very appreciative.  

After Christmas we will start our new project "Dinosaurs". There is a project letter which will give you a little more information and there is also a sheet for the children to complete, to give us their ideas for this project. These were sent home yesterday and can be found in your child's homework folder. We would be very grateful if you would complete this with your child as we use the children's ideas to inform our future planning. The letters have also been added to the Early Years part of the website, under the "Our Projects" tab.

Finally, we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year! We look forward to seeing you all on Monday 8th January 2024, ready to start our next learning adventures!
With love
The Early Years Team

18.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children had a very busy and exciting day on Friday, with visits to see Father Christmas and Christmas shopping for our families. We were so lucky that Father Christmas even came to our assembly and gave the certificates to the children who were Pupil of the Week!

We have spent this week getting everything ready for our Nativity next week. Homework folders will come out next week and we will also change the children's books ready for the holiday.

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

• Performing our Nativity to the rest of the school on Tuesday.
• Performing our Nativity to our families on Wednesday.
• Finishing off our Christmas mathematics activities from this week, counting objects and creating repeating patterns.
• Taking our Christmas cards and calendars home to share with our families.

For the performance on Wednesday, please make your way round to the front of the school as we will be unable to open all the gates. You will be able to enter the hall via the double doors in the car park. The PTA will be offering teas and coffees and there will be a collection for the school charity at the end of the performance. 

We hope you have all had a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

11.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely week in Early Years. We have decorated our Home Corner and have our tree back from the Christmas Tree Festival. We have had a few visits from the Elf, who has been up to a little mischief in our classrooms! 

Upcoming Events

• Monday 11th December - Non-uniform Day (Chocolate donation for the PTA Bazaar)
• Friday 15th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Wednesday 20th December - Our Nativity (at 9.30am)

Christmas Jumper Day

The children looked fantabulous in their Christmas Jumpers and we have raised enough money to continue to sponsor Thoko and her local community in Malawi. 

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

• Watching the Key Stage 1 children perform their Christmas production on Tuesday.
• Finishing our Christmas cards and calendars ready to take them home to our families.
• Playing the different games on Phonics Play.
• Creating our own Fairy Light patterns and completing some Christmas counting activities in our Mathematics sessions.
• Listening to Mrs Morgan, who will be visiting on Thursday, play some of her instruments.
• Enjoying the PTA's Christmas Bazaar and Santa's Grotto on Friday.

The last drop in for this year will be on THURSDAY.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

04.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

What a way to begin December! The children loved seeing the heavy frost and then the snow this morning! We put their wellies to great use and they ran around on the field and our garden. We had some warm chocolate milk to warm ourselves back up during snack time too. 

The children have now picked their parts for our Nativity and we will be working hard on that next week. The costumes are all sorted and from next week some of the children will be bringing home some words to learn and we would be very grateful if you could support them with this.

Upcoming Events

• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Jumper Day
• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Dinner
• Friday 8th December - PTA Movie Night
• Monday 11th December - Non-uniform Day (Chocolate donation for the PTA Bazaar)
• Friday 15th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Wednesday 20th December - Our Nativity (at 9.30am)

Christmas Jumper Day - Thursday 7th December

On this day, the children can wear their fabulous festive jumpers and make a £1 donation which goes to our continued sponsorship of Thoko in Malawi. The charity Action Aid use this money to ensure that Thoko and the other children in her community enjoy their right to an education, just like all of us at Down Hall! (Articles 28 & 29)

SO, to clarify, on Thursday, the children need to wear their normal uniform but with their Christmas jumper (instead of their Down Hall jumper/cardigan).

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

• Practising our Nativity, singing the songs and learning our words.
• Starting to make our own Christmas cards and calendars for our families.
• Working on our blending and segmenting of 3 phoneme words. 
• Learning more about 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and talking about the different shapes in a Christmas picture.
• Wearing our Christmas jumpers for Christmas Jumper day on Thursday and talking about Thoko and enjoying Christmas Dinner together.

Finally, if you are in Rayleigh over the weekend and have the time, please pop and vote for our Christmas tree in the Holy Trinity Christmas Tree Festival. All of the children in Pearl and Quartz have made a decoration - the tree will return to school on Monday and you will also be able to see it at our drop in on TUESDAY.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

27.11.23 - This coming week in Early Years

 Hello everyone!

This week, we have reached the milestone of 50 days in school! It has been a very busy 50 days and we are very proud of all of the children in Pearl and Quartz and how much they have learnt in this short amount of time.

Upcoming Events

As we approach a busy time of year there is an increasing number of events coming up. We thought it might be helpful if we added them to the blog each week. Further information is always in the newsletter.

• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Jumper Day
• Friday 8th December - PTA Movie Night

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

• Learning some tricky sounds in our Phonics sessions this week.
• Finding 1 more and 1 less than a number in our Mathematics sessions.
• Talking about the start of Advent and our Advent calendar.
• Talking about different Christmas customs from around the world with our interactive Advent calendar.
• Finishing our decorations for our Christmas tree for the Holy Trinity Christmas Tree Festival.
• Decorating our classroom and putting up our Christmas tree in our Home Corner.
• Learning some of the songs for our Nativity.

Drop in this week will be on FRIDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

20.11.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

This week we started Phase 3 in our Phonics sessions and learnt our 4th Rainbow Word. The children will have brought the 4 Rainbow Words home with them yesterday. These words are sight words that the children need to learn as they cannot be sounded out. The children have also brought home a coloured band reading book this week. These will be changed on a weekly basis, but not always on the same day. We would therefore be really grateful if reading books and reading diaries could be in the children's bags each day. 

Upcoming Events

As we approach a busy time of year there is an increasing number of events coming up. We thought it might be helpful if we added them to the blog each week. Further information is always in the newsletter.

• Tuesday 21st November - Flu Immunisations.
• Thursday 23rd November - School photographs - individual and sibling photographs will be taken, you do not need to ask for the sibling photo to be taken, this will be done automatically.

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

• Reading the story "Each Peach Pear Plum" and trying to identify all the different nursery rhyme and story book characters.
• Identifying the rhyming words in our story and making a list of rhyming words.
• Thinking about the numbers 4 and 5 in our Mathematics sessions; finding ways to make them, recognising the numerals and finding 1 more or 1 less than them.
• Trying to learn the rhyme in the book, working on our memory skills!
• Learning how to use our lightboxes to help us write our names during our Start-Bee sessions.
• Starting to make the decorations for our Christmas Tree, in readiness for the Christmas Tree Festival at Holy Trinity Church the following week.

This week's drop in will be on TUESDAY.

We hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

13.11.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello! 

Apologies for the lateness in posting this blog.

This week we have finished the last of our Phase 2 sounds. The children will be moving on to completing the remainder of the alphabet as part of Phase 3. The Phonics section of the website contains all the sounds so far. The songs that we sing for each letter can be found by clicking here. 

We were very proud of all of the children on Friday when we all sat for the 2 minute silence as part of our work about Remembrance.

Now on to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Reading different versions of the story "Little Red Riding Hood" and talking about the different characters.
• Discussing whether Red Riding Hood did the right thing during our Circle Time.
• Starting to learn the sounds in Phase 3 in our Phonics sessions.
• Working with 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and going on a shape hunt around our class.
• Using our sounds to write a shopping list for Red Riding Hood.
• Carefully weaving paper strips, remembering the pattern of over, under, over, under, to create a basket effect.

Drop in this week will be on TUESDAY.

Please remember there is an INSET day on Friday, so school will be closed that day to the children. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

06.11.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

WOW! What a very busy week, including yesterday where the children completed 3 "must-do" jobs!! We have been really impressed with how well they have returned from the half term break.

Just a few things to mention before we talk about the learning for this coming week. 

Dinners

Please remember to pre-book your child's lunch on the new system. We are able to alter it should your child want something different that morning. We can also cancel any order if your child is unwell. It would be great if you could also tell your child what you have ordered for them as there has been a little bit of confusion this week. Any worries, problems, questions etc. please just email or ask one of us at the gate.

Poppies

Next week, the children will have the opportunity to purchase poppies within class. As well as the poppies, there are some other Royal British Legion merchandise (such as key rings, wrist bands and slap bands) which can be purchased. The suggested donation for these items are 50p for a poppy and £1 for other items. If you wish your child to get any of these, then please send them in with their money any day next week.

Now on to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Reading different versions of this week's story, "The Three Little Pigs".
• Building houses using different construction materials and then testing them against a big bad wolf!
• Starting our Vocabulary Ninja sessions.
• Learning about 1 more and 1 less in our Mathematics sessions. 
• Making our own Poppies for Remembrance.
• Watching the CBeebies film "Poppies" and observing the silence at 11am on Friday.

This week we will resume our drop in sessions after school. The drop in this week will be on MONDAY.

This week we have only sent home sound cards. We are aware that there has been a few worries regarding the flashcards. These have been sent home for the children to try to blend, maybe 1 or 2 a day, or to try and make with their sound cards. There is no expectation that the children need to learn to read all of these words. By practising 1 or 2 words each day you will be encouraging your child with their blending which will support their reading. Once we have completed all of the Phase 2 sounds we will start to send home our coloured banded books. These will be given to those children who can confidently blend sounds to read words, in the first instance. 

Have a lovely weekend, 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

30.10.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone! 

We hope you have all had a lovely half term. 

This week in school should have seen the start of the new dinner menu. Unfortunately it is still being finalised by our supplier, ISS. Therefore the menu for the first week back will be as detailed in the newsletter before the end of term. This can be found here. There is also a special menu on Friday - this is also detailed in the newsletter, on page 2.

So on to our learning for the coming week, we will be starting our project with the traditional tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

We will be:

• Reading different versions of the Goldilocks story.
• Creating some puppets of Goldilocks and the Bears to help us retell the story in our own words.
• Comparing objects by their size in our Mathematics sessions and deciding which character they are for.
• Continuing our Phonics sessions, learning the next 4 sounds.
• Continuing with our Start-Bee handwriting sessions, working on our patterns.
• Creating some fabulous firework pictures using different media.

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

Happy Half Term!

Hello Everyone!

We have reached the end of the children's first half term at Down Hall! We are SO proud of them all and all of their achievements and we hope you feel the same. This is just a quick blog to wish you all a lovely half term and to also explain all of the different things that have come home with the children today.

In your child's homework folder you should find:

1. The next set of sound cards and some flashcards containing those sounds. The film clips for these sounds are on our website, you can find them here.
2. Half Term homework - now that the weather has turned colder it is taking us lots of time to get ready for our outside time. We would be very grateful if you could spend a little bit of the holiday encouraging your child to put on their coat and try to do it up by themselves. We would love to see any of the children giving it a go, so please feel free to send us any photos using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.
3. Your child's Christmas card design and the letter explaining the process. The deadline for the children's art work to be returned is Monday 30th October.
4. A project letter telling you about our next project "Once Upon a Time" which we start after half term. This letter is also on our website and can be found here.
5. A letter regarding the change of system in school. We will no longer be using Scopay, instead we have moved to SchoolMoney. You should have also received an email with the links you will need to set up your child's account. 

Please can the homework folders be returned each week as we will use them to send sound cards, flashcards and homework home. 

There will be a blog on Sunday 29th October to let you know about our first week back.

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

16.10.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Another lovely week in Early Years. Mr Attfield has now finished the swimming lessons - these will return in the Summer Term. He has commented on how impressed he was with everyone and how well they did over the 4 sessions.

The children have brought home the next 4 sounds this week, along with some flashcards again. These flashcards are suggested words that the children could have a go at reading or making with their cards. We would ask that you encourage the children to use their sounds to read, rather than learn the flashcards as sight words. 

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

• Sharing the story "Pumpkin Soup" about the Cat, the Duck and the Squirrel and talking about how they behaved towards each other in the story.
• Talking about pumpkins, using our different senses.
• Seeing how many seeds there are inside a pumpkin and counting them carefully.
• Learning the next set of sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Continuing and creating repeating patterns in our Mathematics sessions.
• Electing our school councillors for Pearl and Quartz.
• Bringing home our Christmas card designs on Friday.

We are looking forward to seeing you all next week for our Parent / Teacher consultations. The meetings will take place in the school hall, you will need to enter school via the main entrance (on Brooklyn Drive), however all gates will be open. There will be no drop in next week due to these meetings, drop in sessions will continue next half term.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

09.10.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

The children have all come home with their first set of sounds and some flashcards. Mrs Fincham filmed as Miss Wakefield explained the bag to the children and you will be able to hear how brilliantly they are starting to remember our sounds. The clip is on the Phonics section of our class pages and can be found by clicking here.

There are also whole school messages again this week.

Parent/Teacher Consultations

On Tuesday 17th October & Wednesday18th October between 3.30-6.00pm we will be holding our Parent/Teacher consultations. This will be an opportunity to meet and discuss how your child has settled into school. All gates will be open, but entrance to the school is via the main entrance by the school office. All meetings take place in the hall.

Bookings can be made from today and is done via Scopay. If you are unsure of your Scopay login, please go and see the office as they will be able to issue with your details. It is important to have these details as they will be used to book trips, pay dinner money and make Parent/Teacher meeting appointments throughout your child's time at Down Hall.

World Mental Health Day
On Tuesday 10th October, we will be celebrating World Mental Health Day at Down Hall.
The theme for 2023, set by the World Foundation of Mental Health, is "Mental health is a universal human right." Down Hall Primary School see mental health and well-being as "being comfortable, healthy and/or happy."

To mark this very important day, we would like the children to come to school next Tuesday (10th) in non-school uniform wearing clothes that are comfortable and, if possible, linking to the colours of "Inside Out" which are: green, purple, yellow, blue and red. We hope this will encourage them to explore some of their own emotions. Throughout the day, the children will be taking part in class activities relating to World Mental Health Day. We aim to raise awareness of mental health and drive positive change for everyone's mental health.

Harry Potter Book Day

Thursday 12th October is Harry Potter book day and Miss Harvey is inviting any fellow Harry Potter fans to attend a special after school event full of Harry Potter activities to celebrate. This will be straight after school until 4pm and all children are welcome to attend but be quick as there are only 30 spaces.

Dressing up is encouraged so please feel free to bring something to change into for the event. 

A letter will come home with your child by owl on Monday with a reply slip.

Miss Harvey

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

• Continuing our daily Phonics sessions, learning the next 4 sounds.
• Continuing with our "Just Like Me!" work in our Mathematics sessions, this week we will be sorting and comparing objects.
• Starting our Start-Bee handwriting sessions, learning about the pencil grip song and how to use our special lightboxes. 
• Carefully drawing around a template and then cutting out some Autumn leaves using different coloured paper.
• Talking about how we have changed since we were a baby. Many thanks to everyone who has sent in a baby photo so far. PLEASE send in a photo by Monday, this can be done via email if that is easier. 

This week our drop in will take place on FRIDAY.

DON'T FORGET, the children's photographs will be in the Echo on Tuesday as part of their New Starter supplement.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

02.10.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children have had another busy week and we have been busy making scarecrows ready for our Harvest Assembly next week. Today they have all brought home a "Core Book". These are stories to share at home and the books will be changed on a weekly basis, the day may differ depending on what we have planned, so we would appreciate them being in bags each day. We hope you enjoy them.

We have 2 whole school messages to share this week: 

Harvest Collection

For Harvest this year we are collecting for The One Love Project; a soup kitchen and food bank providing support for those families and children that really need it.  We will celebrate in school with a special assembly where we will share songs that we have rehearsed for the occasion.  If you are able to send in any non-perishable items for the collection before Friday 6th October they would be most gratefully received.  We thank you for your continued support in helping our children to understand Children's Rights and learn how to look after ourselves, each other and our world. 

RSS Articles 24 and 27: Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living.

Football Skills Masterclass Day

We are excited to welcome Jamie Knight to Down Hall on Tuesday 3rd October. Each class will receive a masterclass session during the day. They will learn a number of football skills as well as attend an assembly, where Jamie will demonstrate some of his tricks.

ALL YEAR GROUPS WILL NEED TO WEAR PE KIT ON TUESDAY.

After school, Jamie will host an extra masterclass from 3:15 to 4:15. In this class, children will learn an extra 10-15 tricks. At the end of the session, Jamie will be available for photos and autographs. The cost of the after school session is £10. There are 40 spaces in the class. We expect this to be extremely popular, so please return the slip and payment (cash only please) to Miss Sharman on Monday to secure your child's place. Places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

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.
• Starting our Phonics sessions, learning the first 4 sounds. 
• Using our teddy bear puppets that we made last week to play "Where's the Bear?" game in our Maths sessions.
• 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).
• Playing some Circle Time games together.
• Singing our "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" song and sharing our scarecrows in our Harvest assembly.

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 9th October, ready to use that week. 

The Echo supplement will be out on 10th October, both classes have had a photograph submitted.

This week's drop in will be on THURSDAY.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

25.09.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

WOW! What a busy week! The children enjoyed their first swimming session this week and Mr Attfield commented on how impressed he was with all of the children. We have also taken our photographs for the Echo, these should be published in the New Starters supplement on Tuesday 10th October. It was also SO lovely to see SO many of you at our first drop in session. These will take place every week, but there is no expectation for you to come each time.

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.
• Creating some lolly stick teddy bear puppets which we will need for some upcoming learning.
• Learning a special song for the upcoming Harvest Festival assembly.
• Walking around our school grounds, looking for different signs of Autumn and talking about the colours we can find.

Our drop-in will take place on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

18.09.23 - 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 will be starting on Wednesday, so please can we ask that ALL clothing is NAMED and any earrings are removed. 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.

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 talking about our own 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.
• Starting our swimming sessions on Wednesday.
• 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!

This week will also see our first drop-in session. These take place straight after school and are an opportunity for you to come and see your child's class and some of the things we have been busy doing. Please let us see the children out first before coming into the classrooms. Our drop-in will take place on TUESDAY.

You may have seen in this week's newsletter that we now have milk in Early Years. This is free for those children who are still 4, however it can be available for those who are 5 at a subsided price. Please let us know if you DO NOT wish your child to be offered the milk.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

11.09.23 - 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 also enjoyed their first PE session today.

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. Thank you for all of the waterproofs, wellies and completed packs that have already come in. Please feel free to send any outstanding ones in next week.

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 Celebration Assembly on Friday.

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 know it says in the newsletter this week that parents should be leaving their children at the main gates, this is for children in Years 1 to 6. Please be reassured that it is fine for you to walk on to site and walk your child/children round to our Early Years gate. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

Thank you & happy holidays!

 

We would just like to thank all of our fabulous families for the lovely gifts, cards, hugs and kind words. Although we will miss the children we know that they will have a great time in Year 1. We will, as always, be also keeping an eye on them. (We can't let go and this is the advantage of us being the Early Years team - we get to watch them for 6 more years!!).

We hope you all have a fantastic summer and we look forward to seeing you in September. Please remember the children are due back on Tuesday 5th September, when the gates will be opening at 8.35am until 8.45am.

Our email account will still be checked periodically over the summer, should any of you have a query and we are happy to help if we can. However, as the children move into Year 1 there is a new email address for you all to use - ks1@downhallprimary.com. This email account will be checked from Monday 4th September and it would be helpful to Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille and Miss Smith if you could put your child's class name in the subject heading, especially until they get to know you all.

Thank you once again for your kindness and for trusting us with your lovely children this year!

With all our love,

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor, Miss Langley, Mrs Fincham, Mrs Voyce, Mrs Jimmick and Mrs Holmes xxxxxxx

17.07.23 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone! 

We have had a fantastic week in school, with a very exciting visit yesterday (Thursday) afternoon! We had 3 Police Officers and their vehicle come and talk to us. They showed us some of their different uniform and we were all able to take a turn at making the sirens and lights work on their Police Carrier! (Photos will be in the children's learning journey books).

We also enjoyed today's non-uniform day, shame that the weather wasn't so summery! 

UNICEF Shoeshare Appeal

We are once again holding a collection for Shoeshare so now is the time to start rummaging around your cupboards for old shoes that don't fit or you no longer wear!  Shoeshare is a collaboration between UNICEF and Clarks Shoes which works towards improving Children's Rights around the world.  More than £1.6 million pounds has been raised by Shoeshare to help ensure that children all around the world have access to quality education.  

You can read more about the scheme here.

It's hard to believe that together we can make such a huge difference by the very simple act of sorting out our shoes but we really can, and every contribution does help.  Shoes need to be in pairs and if possible held together with an elastic band.  There will be a drop off point at the office or you can just send shoes in with your child at any point during the last week of term.  

Thanks in advance for your continued support in helping our children to learn about sustainability, the wider world that we live in and how to care for others. 

RRS:  Every child has the right to an education and to a clean and healthy environment.

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

• Sharing the story "One Year with Kipper" and thinking about our first year at school.
• Finishing the last of our handwriting patterns in our Start-Bee sessions.
• Thinking about our project and checking if we have answered all of the questions we asked at the start of the project.
• Discussing the story "The Worrysaurus" and "Finn's Little Fibs" in our Circle Time sessions.
• Making maps and designing mazes in our Mathematics sessions.
• Enjoying our last week in Pearl and Quartz together!

Our final drop in session for the year will be on WEDNESDAY.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all again on Monday, ready for our last week together!

Love

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

10.07.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

What a fantastic Sports Day! We hope you have all enjoyed today, it was lots of fun and so lovely to see so many of you cheering the children in their races.

Here is a rundown of the remaining events taking place this term:

Friday 14th July               Reports out

Friday 14th July               Non-uniform day for our school charity - Centre Algarve

Thursday 21st July          Last day of term

We have also been asked to share the following information regarding the Class Photos that were taken recently:

Dear Parent/Carer,
 
Your recent Group photograph is now ready to view and purchase at https://htmp.st/DownHall23
 
There will be a free “deliver to school” option open for approximately 7 days, otherwise home delivery is available for £5 postage and packing.
 
If you need assistance, please call 01736 751555 (option 5) or click on contact us on the home page www.htempest.co.uk .
 
Many thanks,
Tempest Photography   

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

• Visiting our Year 1 classes again on Monday.
• Updating our name displays in class for one final time.
• Thinking about real life superheroes and all the different ways that they can help us.
• Making patterns in our Maths sessions, using numbers, objects and colours and learning to identifying the unit of repeat.
• Sharing and discussing the story "Tilda Tries Again" in our Circle Time session.
• Having a visit from a real life superhero on Thursday afternoon.

Our drop in will be on Monday this week.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

03.07.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Well, another busy week has flown by, the children visited their new class on Thursday afternoon, spending time with Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille and Miss Smith. There are a further 2 visits planned, 1 this week and 1 next week. The children should have had a slip in their bags letting you know who their new teacher is, please ask if you have any questions or queries or if your child didn't have their slip.

Here is a rundown of the remaining events taking place this term:

Tuesday 4th July             Open School evening 4.30-6.30pm

Friday 7th July                 Sports Day

Friday 14th July               Reports out

Friday 14th July               Non-uniform day for our school charity - Centre Algarve

Thursday 21st July          Last day of term

Sports Day

A letter regarding Sports Day has been published on our website. It can also be found here. Please use the Google Form link to complete the information regarding the picnic lunch. The link for this can be found here. 

It would also be great if the children could wear a coloured t-shirt to match their team, if you don't have one, please don't worry we will find them a coloured band to wear. The colours are:

Brooklyn        Deepdene        Hambro        Teignmouth

Any queries, please do ask.

Open School

This is an opportunity to into school, you will be able to go in any of the classrooms, including visiting the children's new class. It is not an "parent/teacher consultation" evening so no need to make an appointment, just come and have a look around!

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

• Finishing our flying superheroes from last week by adding the speech bubbles.
• Sharing some "Supertato" adventure stories.
• Working on some number problems in our Mathematics sessions.
• Sharing and discussing the story "Meesha Makes Friends" in our Circle Time session.
• Creating flags ready for Sports Day on Friday!
• Enjoying our Sports Day on Friday, racing to win points for our teams.

There is no addition drop in session this week as school is open Tuesday evening for Open School. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

26.06.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a very eggciting week with 8 chicks hatching this week! We have been enjoying looking after them and watching them wander around, making lots of noise!

A reminder of some upcoming dates:

Saturday 24th June        PTA Fete 1pm-5pm

Thursday 29th June        Class photos

Thursday 29th June        Class swap during the afternoon

Tuesday 4th July            Open School 4.30pm-6.30pm

Friday 7th July                Sports Day

Sports Day

A letter regarding the arrangements for Sports Day will be coming out this week, but Early Years have their races during the afternoon.

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

• Sharing the Superhero story about Max and Pinky.
• Starting Phase 5a in our Phonics sessions, recapping some of our trickier sounds.
• Learning about odds and evens in our Mathematics sessions.
• Creating some flying Superheroes using our handprints and then writing a speech bubble for them.
• Reading and discussing the story "Perfectly Norman".
• Having our class photographs taken on Thursday morning.
• Finding out about our new classes and meeting our new teachers on Thursday afternoon.

This week there will be a drop in on THURSDAY.

We hope to see some of you at the PTA Fete tomorrow!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley