Parents’ Welcome Meeting September 2015 Years 1 & 2

A Timetable for the week Numeracy and Literacy every day in some form, though lessons are sometimes blocked. P.E. twice a week Fit for learning daily PPA – French with Ms Brand, music with Mr Iles and games and activities with Onside Coaching.

Literacy Literacy is taught in weekly blocks and includes Speaking and listening, reading and writing. Letters and sounds is a daily phonic programme. Just before half term we will start to send home weekly spellings. These are linked to the letters and sounds teaching that week. Handwriting is practised with a focus on correct letter formation and moving onto joining letters.

PHASE 3 TRICKY WORDS he she we me be was you they all are my her

PHASE 4 TRICKY WORDS said have like so do some come were there little one when out what Phase 4 – No New Sounds Consolidation of phases 1-3 (especially spelling)

PHASE 5 TRICKY WORDS oh their people Mr Mrs looked called asked could

Phonics for Early Readers

Choosing a Book: Best fit Books Choosing a Book: The Five Finger Rule Will you like it? Read the blurb and cover. Is it a good fit? Try the five finger rule. Will it help?Check the contents/ Index pages

The Reading Record DateBook and Page Number Comments and Signature 09/09/15The Ghost Ship – Page 1Read well with expression. Struggled with the o_e phoneme. Questions: Why did Ernie sneak through the fence? Because he was late for school. How do you thin he was feeling? Scared that he might get in trouble. Reading assemblies this term: Tuesday 6th October Tuesday 24th November Your child will have their school reading scheme book changed weekly. You are welcome to (and we would encourage you to!) supplement this with books from home, from our library and/or the local library. Please let your child’s class teacher know the titles of any books you borrow until we have our librarians* in place.

Write a short story or a rhyme using all of your words. Use each of your words in a silly sentence. Underline the word used. Illustrate your words with alternate meanings. e.g. Earwig! Play hangman with a partner using your words. Write a mnemonic for each of your words. Play ‘Guess the Word’ Make your spellings out of pipe cleaners or cubes. Write your spelling words into a rap/song/ cheerleading chant to perform. Play a vocabulary challenge.

Use giant alphabet letters. Read a word aloud while your partner spells it out by stepping on the letters in the correct order. Swap over. Play word Tennis using your spellings. Play countdown – practise making words. games.com/countdown.html Write out your spelling words, graffiti style. Make the tricky parts stand out. Create anagrams of your spelling words for a partner to solve. Play letter blocks – how many words can you find? word_games/spelling-games/spelling- letter-blocks.html Have a game of scrabble S/scrabbleGame.cfm Eat your words!Practise using look, cover, write, check.

Good spelling websites to try 5 levels – spell the word spoken – time limit like Countdown - how many words can you make - like Boggle ngman adding prefixes and suffixes Parents’ Workshop: Wednesday 30 th September 2015

Maths We follow the National Curriculum which we plan in weekly units. Practical learning Problem solving and applying their learning is a focus for our teaching and is immensely important. There will not be written evidence in books of all the learning that takes place in class; sometimes activities are evidenced through photographs. Parental involvement aids learning. CALCULATION WORKSHOP 22 ND OCTOBER

Other subjects Your child will be taught skills and knowledge in science, art, design technology, ICT, history, geography, R.E, music, PE and PSHE. Wherever possible we link the learning covered in these subjects to our topic. Our topics this term are ‘Troll Trouble’ and ‘Celebrations’.

Home Learning Home learning books are sent home on Thursday and should be returned to school on Tuesday. Home learning activities are linked to curriculum learning the children have been doing at school Home Learning tasks are not designed to cause stress and have an negative impact on family home life – if this is happening please speak to your child’s teacher. At the bottom of each piece of homelearning will be a ‘parents’ feedback box’ – please do use this for communications regarding weekly tasks.

Photograph permission slip will be sent home 11 th September

Talk to your child about what they’re up to online. Be a part of their online life; involve the whole family and show an interest. Find out what sites they visit and what they love about them, if they know you understand they are more likely to come to you if they have any problems. Watch Thinkuknow films and cartoons with your child. The Thinkuknow site has films, games and advice for child from five all the way to 16.Thinkuknow site Encourage your child to go online and explore with you! There is a wealth of age-appropriate sites online for your children. Encourage them to use sites which are fun, educational and that will help them to develop online skills. Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online. Children grow up fast and they will be growing in confidence and learning new skills daily. It’s important that as your child learns more, so do you.

Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world. Think about what they might see, what they share, who they talk to and how long they spend online. It is important to discuss boundaries at a young age to develop the tools and skills children need to enjoy their time online. Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space. For children of this age, it is important to keep internet use in family areas so you can see the sites your child is using and be there for them if they stumble across something they don’t want to see. Know what connects to the internet and how. Nowadays even the TV connects to the internet. Make sure you’re aware of which devices that your child uses connect to the internet, such as their phone or games console. Also, find out how they are accessing the internet – is it your connection, or a neighbour’s wifi? This will affect whether the safety setting you set are being applied.

Use parental controls on devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones. Parental controls are not just about locking and blocking, they are a tool to help you set appropriate boundaries as your child grows and develops. They are not the answer to your child’s online safety, but they are a good start and they are not as difficult to install as you might think. Service providers are working hard to make them simple, effective and user friendly. Find your service provider and learn how to set your controls

Relationships and Sex Education Year 1 and 2 In recent years the RSE policy, planning, teaching and learning has been reviewed by Milverton Teachers, Parents and Governors based on government recommendations. We have made lots of positive changes which include:- - Specific RSE resource boxes -Cross curricular linked work -Additional safety learning included -Taking Care Project has been introduced and will be taught this term.

Relationships and Sex Education Within year 1 and 2 RSE is taught completely cross-curricular as apposed to separate lessons RSE is taught within the science topics; Health and Growth Variations Ourselves Plants and Animals (including Humans) in the Living Environment. RSE is taught in all PSHE topics

The Taking Care Project A Countywide wide programme for children learning about protective behaviours to help prevent abuse and harm. There are two themes in Protective Behaviours: We all have right to feel safe all the time There is nothing so awful we can’t talk about it with someone. Children will be engaged in a series of planned lessons in which they complete structured activities involving discussion, role play and creative work. You will be informed when we are completing this work.

Year 1 and 2 Year1/2 PSHE based learning Year 1/2 Science based learning Family - Who is in my family? How are other families similar or different to mine? Myself and others and body awareness - changes to our body from baby to now Everybody needs caring for - What does my family do for me? What can other people do to make me feel good? Who do I look after? Body awareness and n aming body parts Friendships - What do I like about my friend? What does my friend like about me? Why shouldn't I tease other people? Differences between males and females Choices - Who can I ask if I need to know something? Who can I go to if I am worried about something? Looking after the body and hygiene Safety – what do I do I am worried about something? Safe touches Differences between boys and girls - Stereotyping

PTA Class Parent Representatives We have set up a network of class parent representatives through the school Each class will have one (or more!!) named parent reps who will be an important link between other parents in the class and the PTA and Parents Forum

Water in School Children have access to filtered water throughout the school. We encourage children to have a water bottle in school which they can fill up and access during lessons (this must contain water and not squash)

Home School Agreement We are required to have a home school agreement that details expectations of how home and school work together. 2 copies of the Home School Agreements will be sent home on Friday 18th September – please sign both copies and return one to school

Other Reminders….. Please make sure all items of clothing are NAMED! Please make sure that you child has arrived on the school playground by the time the bell goes at 8.55am. We welcome parents getting involved in ‘school life’ in many different ways – you must have an up to date DBS check through the school If you wish to speak to your child’s teacher about something that is not urgent please do so at the end of the school day.

Additional support Teachers are regularly assessing how best to meet your child’s needs. Some children learn well in a small group guided by an adult, we call this an intervention group. If we have selected your child to receive some support in this way you will receive a letter.

The New Curriculum represents a change for all schools – there will be no more levels as of this September! Why? Because success will be measured in terms of how well you can do something not how quickly you can achieve it.

Getting a level was like climbing a ladder with the aim being to get up as quickly as possible. The new curriculum is like a tour with the aim being to see and experience as much as you can along the way!

This year we will not be reporting levels, instead you will learn whether your child is working below, in line with or above the ‘standard’ for his/her year group. Year 1 Reading Master at the year group standard Above the year group standard Met the year group standard Working Towards the year group standard Below the year group standard Year 1 Maths Master at the year group standard Above the year group standard Met the year group standard Working Towards the year group standard Below the year group standard Year 1 Writing Master at the year group standard Above the year group standard Met the year group standard Working Towards the year group standard Below the year group standard

Children will stay within their year group targets and most will move up each year. When the children have met the standard, they will be challenged to become a ‘master’ at that standard. This will involve applying skills to a full range of contexts and purposes. For example: applying reading skills to more complex texts; applying Maths skills to larger numbers and harder problem solving challenges; and applying writing skills to a full range of genres and purposes.

SATs will still happen at the end of key stages 1 & 2 KS1 *Teacher assessments will be informed by the following tests: *Two reading tests (one short extracts and one complete text booklet) *Two maths tests (arithmetic and mathematical fluency, problem solving and reasoning) *One grammar paper comprising of contextual grammar questions, a short writing task and a spelling test *There will be new performance descriptors for maths, reading, writing and speaking and listening. The overall outcome will be reported in terms of achieving the National Standard and will use terminology such as: below, working towards, met, mastery. *Science will be reported as met the standard or has not met the standard. KS2 *Children will sit the following tests: *One reading test (covering all elements of the standard) *Three maths tests (one arithmetic and two papers covering mathematical fluency, problem solving and reasoning) *One grammar paper comprising of contextual grammar questions and a spelling test *There will be new performance descriptors for writing. The overall outcome will be reported in terms of achieving the National Standard and will use terminology such as: below, working towards, met, above, mastery. *Science (TA), maths and reading will be reported as met the standard or has not met the standard. *Children will receive a scale score converted from their raw test score – parents will receive a copy of their child's scale score, the school, LA & National average score. curriculum-assessments-2016-sample-materialswww.gov.uk/government/collections/national- curriculum-assessments-2016-sample-materials

This year, individual target sheets will be replaced by classroom learning walls. If you would like to find out what your child is currently learning, just pop in and have a look! The walls will have examples and resources that will support learning and will be updated every time the learning changes!

Many clubs taking place this term and through the year – grid sent home in last week’s newsletter. Mrs Ryan, Clubs Co-ordinator, available in the school office from 2.30pm. Letters relating to clubs are available from the school office if children have not brought them home Parents need to have returned a permission slip (and payment) to the office before a child starts a club. Please try and ensure that your child is signed up to the club before the first session Please contact the office if your child is signed up for a club and is in school but will not be attending the club eg attending another activity on the day Make sure you know on what days the club is running and when the last session of the term is – this can vary with different clubs Extra Curricular Clubs and Music Lessons