Welcome to Hazel Class!

Welcome to Hazel Class! We are very excited to welcome our new members to our class and to see our returning Year 1s. We are looking forward to an excellent term full of fun, exploring our new environments and building new relationships.  The class will be taught by Mrs Keeble (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), Miss Rivera (Thursday and Friday) alongside our fantastic teaching assistants Miss Butler, Mrs O'Connell and Mrs Abbott supporting the children in their learning.

In EYFS (Reception) we follow the Early Excellence model of learning. This means that we have an exciting learning environment that grows and develops in response to the children's interests, meeting the needs of all children through a mixture of continuous and enhanced provision alongside more formal, traditional adult-led teaching.

A typical day will start with registration before moving on to Phonics, Drawing Club then play time. After play, we are back in the classroom for Maths. We finish our morning at 11.45 to get ready for lunchtime which is at 11.50am. In the afternoons we explore science, P.E. and all of the other foundation subjects. Reception will have lots of time given to independently play linking to areas of the EYFS curriculum. 

On Wednesday afternoons, we have yoga with our wonderful 'Yoga Jo'. On Thursday afternoons we have Forest School to look forward to, this will be taught by Mrs Kinnair. 

Our P.E days are Mondays and Fridays.

Children will need to wear their P.E. kits to school on Mondays and Fridays and will stay in their kit all day. They do not need plimsoles for indoor P.E. but they will need trainers (not plimsoles) for all outdoor P.E.  Yoga is done in school uniform with bare feet. 

Children in Hazel class have constant access to fruit, milk and water and serve themselves their own snacks and drinks when they need them.  We do also monitor this and ensure children have had a drink throughout the day, reminding them to drink at regular intervals. We encourage children to bring a water bottle too so that when we go out for P.E. or at lunchtime, on hot days especially, children can have constant access to it.  

Please send your children in with a coat everyday, as well as hats/gloves/scarves as the weather gets colder.  The children have constant access to our outside area, as well as time outside at play time and lunch time, so it is especially important that they have the right outerwear to keep warm. 

If you ever have any questions, we will be outside in the playground during morning drop off so do catch us then.

We look forward to working with you during this term and encourage you to pop in and see us after school each Friday so that the children can share their learning with you each week.

Mrs Keeble and Miss Rivera

DT Extravaganza!

We had a super day completing our DT project, where the children recapped their knowledge of fruits and vegetables then tasted and selected ingredients before planning their own smoothie recipe.  They then used their cutting skills to safely prepare their ingredients to blend into (mostly!) delicious smoothies!  We were impressed that some of them chose to select less familiar ingredients and were pleasantly surprised by the results!

More information about the Early Years

Below is a link for you to follow. This is a good comprehensive parents guide 

about EYFS and what to expect. Its has lots of useful information about how to help your child throughout their early years. 

What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS-complete-FINAL-16.09-compressed (foundationyears.org.uk)

There are 7 areas of learning, the prime areas are called this because they underpin the other 4 areas. 

Each area of learning has up to 12 statements for assessment purposes. We assess these as to what we see in school but we value your input from what you see at home .Please share anything with us that you feel we may not have seen in school, particularly 'Physical development' at this time. 

All Aboard Phonics

In Hazel class we use a Phonics scheme called All Aboard Phonics. This is a really exciting time and the resources are funny and engaging. I can't wait to share it all with the children when they start! 

Generally children complete phase 2, 3 and 4 during their Reception Year and Phase 5 during the Year 1 year. We understand though that some children will need a little extra support though and others will need a bit more of a push so this 'timetable' isn't set in stone! 

Phase 2 phonic sounds are;

s, a, t, p, i,n,n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

Phase 3 phonic sounds are;

j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Phase 4 is consolidation of the sounds learnt, some new high frequency words and when children learn to blend consonant clusters such as 'cr' in crab or 'lt' in belt. 

Phase 5 sounds are alternative sounds for phonemes (sounds) that they have already learnt. These are a-e, o-e, i-e, e-e, u-e, au, aw, ea, ew, ey, ir, oe, ou, oy, ue, wh. 

The sounds are taught in this particular order so that your child can quickly blend words from learning just a few sounds. eg when they learn s,a,t,p,i,n, they can sound out simple words like, pin, sat, tip, at, in, nit, tap etc. 

We will learn the letter names at the same time, but our focus at the start is the sounds the graphemes (written letters) make. 

You will be amazed how quickly they can begin to read simple words.

Reception Phonics

Children in reception will bring home a phonics practise book, this will be worksheets aimed at practising phonemes, graphemes, sentences and reading at home based on what I think the children have found particularly tricky that week! 

Year 1 Spellings 

Below you will see the Year 1 list. These are words set by the government via the national curriculum that children are expected to be able to spell independently by the end of Year 2. We will work on some of these via phonics and others as part of our spelling learning. The expectation is that they can spell them all by the end of Year 2 so most children should  be able to spell around half by the end of year 1 and make attempts at the others! Any practise you can do of these at home will help your child no end! 

The children in Year 1 will receive weekly spellings to practise at home. These will be sent home on a Monday and tested on a Friday. Children will also have opportunities to practise their spellings at school. This practice can be done either through the worksheets provided, through the Spelling Shed app or in your own way.

 If you are finding it tricky to practise with your child at home please let us know and we can figure something out together. 

The link below has some good games on it that are free. Always choose games appropriate to your child's ability, it is best that they practice what they know rather than learning a new skill. 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/