Newbold School

Monday, 20 April 2015

Tuesday 21st April 2015

Dear Parents / Carers,

I hope you enjoyed your Easter break. I certainly did!

We look forward to the start of our final term and hope that the sunshine and warmer weather continues so we can learn and play outside as much as possible. I would like to continue the weekly walks to Newbold College Grounds to observe changes, insects and growth that the warmer climate will bring.

We will also be doing as much PE outside as we can. Our plan for this term is to focus on team-work, along with some competitive activities to prepare the children for our Sports Day later in the term. During the second half of this term, as well as our sports day, we will be celebrating international day and have our school trip to Bird World on 23^rd June. More details to follow….

Early Years Worship

Last term we looked at Jesus as a teacher .We talked about what Jesus wants us to learn to do in order to bring others to him.

This term we will be exploring Jesus as a healer. The children will develop their understanding that Jesus gives us the gift of healing.

Stay and Play

We look forward to welcoming as many parents as possible to our ‘stay-and-play’ session this Friday at 11.30am – 12.30pm. This will give you an insight as to what your child enjoys doing at school and an opportunity to ask us any questions you may have.

Phonics

We will continue to have our daily ability phonic groups and will be focusing on encouraging each child to write their name using the correct tripod grip. Please encourage this at home too. We will do our best to help prepare your child’s holistic development for their move to F2/reception (if applicable).

On a personal note

I will be doing a charity ‘tough mudder’ event. This is a 12 mile obstacle course involving mud, more mud, electric shocks, fire, iced muddy water; all testing my stamina, upper body strength and endurance. If you would like to sponsor me I have a sponsor form in my classroom and in reception. I will be very grateful as all money is going to MND-a degenerative terminal disease that affects my brother-in-law and many others. Thank you in advance. I will be extremely grateful for every donation, even if it’s a pound.

As always, we welcome your feedback and enjoy working in partnership with you. Thank you for your continued support.

God Bless

Best Regards

Mrs Jennings and the F1 team.

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

A reflective account - April 2015

A REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT

FOUNDATION ONE – SPRING TERM (Jan-Apr 2015)

This term seems have flown by!

Our new children who started this term have now all settled. We have enjoyed the many dry and sunny days recently; resulting in more children spending time in the great outdoors. Every week, this half term, we have enjoyed Spring walks in Newbold college grounds. We have been focusing on change and growth and have enjoyed watching the daffodils and crocuses change and grow each week from buds to fully open flowers, and taking photos at every visit.

We have continued with our learning weeks and enjoyed a range of interests and activities each week. We really value input from you and your child into their learning. We want to thank every single one of you for taking time to sit with us to share your child’s progress and development. We feel very blessed to be working in partnership with such committed parents. Thank you for your continued support.

The different phonic groups are working well. They ensure that your child is working to their own full potential. This half term we have enjoyed Easter activities, Mother’s Day celebrations and zoo lab, as well as all the wonderful and fun learning opportunities that occur on a normal school day.

We wish you a wonderful and peaceful Easter. See you on the 21^st April.

Mrs Jennings and the F1 team.

Monday, 23 February 2015

February 23rd

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back after the half term. I hope you enjoyed the rest and kept warm!

This half term, we say good-bye to Catarina who has moved back to Brazil with her family, and a big hello to Emil who joins our class.

Over the break, Mrs Dye and I came in and improved our outside provision. We have made a mud kitchen area, a literacy area, a water play area and a creative arts area. We hope the children will enjoy playing and learning more outside this half term. I plan to take them on many spring walks in Sylvia's Garden; looking at growth, change and patterns/shapes.

Please provide a pair of NAMED wellies for your child to keep at school. This will help keep your child's school shoes clean when they play in the mud kitchen, when it's wet/snowy weather and when we go for weekly walks around muddy areas. Thank you.

This week, the children will be learning more about Chinese New Year and partake in related activities, if they choose. Phonic groups remain unchanged this half term. All children are doing so well in their perspective groups.

Next week, the learning weeks start again. Please remember to return your completed feedback forms by Friday, AT THE LATEST. It is really important to gain your perspectives and your child's interests into their learning week. Please also remember to add 3-4 objects in the chatter boxes; preferably including a couple of books and photos.

We will keep you informed on the upcoming events, such as Mother's Day, book day and a 'stay and play' parents session! More on all that soon.....

Thanks, as always, for your continued help and support

Kind Regards

Mrs Jennings

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Tuesday 6^th Jan 2015

Dear Parents / Carers,

Firstly, may I wish you a very happy new year! I hope you enjoyed your Christmas break. I certainly did! Thank you for all your cards and gifts. Your kindness and generosity were very much appreciated.

We look forward to another great term. We will continue to incorporate your ideas for planning for your child’s development. Please watch out for the form to complete. This week is a settling-in week, so the rota starts again next week. PLEASE remember to return your completed form before or on the Friday. We cannot plan accordingly otherwise.

We would like to welcome 3 new starters: Jamie, Liam and Lily who all join Foundation One this week. We say a partial ‘good-bye’ to Ryan who moves into F2. We will continue to combine F1 and F2 in the afternoons and for an hour on Friday mornings as this has many benefits and means we will still play and learn with Ryan and the F2 children.

We have made a slight change to the timetable. On Tuesday mornings, we will now have an Early Years structured music session following the ‘jolly music’ program. The afternoon sessions will also incorporate a short structured time for phonics. We are splitting our daily phonic session into 2 ability groups (red and green groups). Our class will consist of new children and children who have a secure understanding of phonics so this will ensure we cater for everyone’s needs. Please remember to check the notice board to see what the phonic sound(s) for the week is/are. That way you can help secure your child’s knowledge at home too.

I will be holding a short presentation for parents/carers very soon (the date will be communicated later this week). I will be discussing the classroom procedures and phonics, so if you are a new parent please make a special effort to attend. It will be a great opportunity to ask any questions.

As always, we welcome your feedback and enjoy working in partnership with you.

Best Regards

Mrs Jennings

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Christmas fun !!!

Newsletter - December 2014

December 2014

Dear Parents / Carers,

Well, we have nearly come to the end of the first term in this academic year. What a busy and exciting term it has been. These last few weeks have been especially exciting as we have been doing lots of Christmas activities. We’ve also been practicing being ‘twinkling stars’ for the Newbold Christmas play. We hope you enjoy watching it on Monday morning and/or Tuesday evening.

Wednesday was the Christmas party afternoon. It was an enjoyable (and slightly hectic) afternoon of fun, eating lots of delicious food, party games and dancing.

As always, we continually reflect on how the practice works and look for ways to improve it. We feel that working closely with you to discuss ideas for your child’s learning week as well as the chatter box is going really well. The children benefit from this, as do you and us. It helps us keep a better track of your child’s progress and development. Please remember to bring in the completed form for your child’s learning week, by the FRIDAY. We will continue to discuss your child’s development every time their learning week is over. There is a rolling rota that we work with. As always, please remember we are here to chat to you at any time. My email work address is a great way to confidentially contact me.

I have noticed that many children are not arriving for school on time, despite living within close proximity of the school. Please make every effort to arrive on time. It is less stressful for your child to arrive along with everyone else and less disruptive for us. I thank you in advance for your support.

We have been most impressed with every single child in Foundation One this term. They have all had a great term. They have settled into the class routine very well, worked extremely hard in learning all the phonic sounds and display all the Christian attributes that we at Newbold School are proud of. They are a blessing and you should feel very proud of your child.

All that’s left to say, is we wish you a very merry and peaceful Christmas and new year. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to January 2013. We will welcome 3 new starters in the New year.

Best Wishes,

Mrs Jennings and the Foundation team.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Dear Parents / Carers,

We want to welcome you all back after half term.

This is an exciting half term leading up to Christmas. We will continue to use your ideas to incorporate into your child’s planning and will meet with you to discuss your child’s progress. Nearer to Christmas we will enjoy Christmas related activities. Of course, we will also be learning songs for our annual nativity play.

This last half term was a busy one. Our new short daily phonic sessions have proven extremely effective. Most children have learnt all the phonics that have been covered so far. Please keep looking at the notice board outside the classroom for the weekly phonic sounds so you can support your child at home too.

We enjoyed learning all about Harvest and Diwali last half term. We also learnt more about ourselves; how we are different and about friendship. This week, we will learn about fireworks and safety.

We want to thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Jennings and Mrs Elliott.

Here are some photos take this last half term. Enjoy!