Yesterday, Thursday 8th May we stopped to remember the events that took place in Europe 80 years ago. We discussed the impact of WW2 on ordinal people and how lucky we are to live in freedom and safety. We also celebrated as a school, remembering the great joy that swept across the country in 1945. The children all looked lovely in their red, white and blue. We had an extended playtime with KS2, we made medals and celebratory plates and looked at lots of pictures of what those celebrations looked like in 19.45. We also enjoyed listening to some 1940’s music - and had a bit of dancing too!! What a great day we had!

English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line. We are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day!

Maths - this week we have been working on number up to 50. We have used our tens and ones to make the numbers and found them on our number grids. We have done lots of counting and talked about after and before, more and less. We have also worked on counting in 10’s using or grids to help us.

RE - this week has been all about Jesus leaving His disciples and returning to His Father.

Art - this week the children have had a break from their usual work and have made commemorative plates!

Science - this week we continued our new unit all about Plants by focusing on how different plants can grow in the same place. We also did an observational drawing of our sunflowers.

Topic - this week we continued our Geography unit about the four countries that make up the UK. We have examined the four countries, looking at their flags, patron saints, flowers, animals and learning some interesting facts.

Many congratulations to this week’s winners…

Golden Award - Izzy for always showing respect to those around her, always being ready to listening, for showing a super attitude to learning and using beautiful manners and all times. Izzy you make me smile everyday.

Writing Award - Sophia for having beautiful pre-cursive handwriting style and working hard in EVERY pieces of writing you do to make it the best you can.

Maths Award - Mia for working hard to use her tens and ones to make numbers up to 50 and know what each digit represents.

General pieces of information

PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.
Trainers - if your children is wearing trainers with laces for PE they must be able to tie them by themselves. This is a health and safety issue - please ensure your child can tie their laces before sending them in lace-up trainers.
Water bottles - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have orange tops.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson.
Party Invitations - I am afraid that Miss Evans and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.
Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.
School bag - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.
Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! HOMEWORK EXPECTATIONS - YEAR 1 — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary

Thank-you for supporting our day of celebrations by sending your children in wearing red, white and blue - they looked great!! Photos at the end of the blog.

PHONICS SCREENING - Year 1 Phonics Screening will take place the week of 10th June. (First week back after our half term holiday) Please ensure your child is is school this week as each child must complete an individual phonic assessment at some point during this week. I will carry out the assessments and decide which day your child will complete the assessment based on a range of factors, such as mood that day, readiness for learning etc.

I will be holding a short Parent Meeting to discuss this further on TUESDAY 20TH MAY at 2.30pm in the school hall. Information packs will come home with the children for those of you who cannot make it.

We are delighted to be able to share with you the Good News Gospel readings for families. Please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home.

https://www.paperturn-view.com/wednesday-word/good-news?pid=MTA101634&v=163.4

May is the month of Mary. The Rosary is a meditative prayer that reflects upon the life, ministry, and death of Jesus and also on His Blessed Mother. As we repeat the familiar prayers, we allow our minds to think about the lives of Jesus and Mary here on earth – a mystery.

Fr Frank came into school on Tuesday to lead an asembly all about the Rosary which has inspired us in our prayer life.

How to pray the Rosary

As a school, we are always looking for ways to improve children’s engagement with reading and this last half term, more children in Year 5 have been reading regularly as part of our Lent challenge, so during the Summer term, the whole school will be taking part in a reading challenge.

Children will receive a golden ticket each time they read and get their reading diary signed three times in a week. At the end of each half term, during our celebration assembly, we will draw a golden ticket from each class’s box, and one winner from each class will receive a reward.

Please encourage your child to read regularly and bring in their signed reading diary so they can start collecting their golden tickets. Thank you for your support.

Miss Evans will start giving out golden tickets from MONDAY 28th APRIL - your child’s reading record will continue to be checked on their reading day, so their week will run from each reading day ie Tuesday to Tuesday, they they read and change their books on a Tuesday.