Leopards | Marcham C of E Primary School

Welcome to Leopards Class

Class teachers

Miss Mimi Williams

(Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

Miss Rebecca Wagstaff

(Thursday, Friday)

Teaching Assistant

Mrs Gillian Ferryman

(Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)

Welcome back to Marcham and welcome to your new Leopards class. We have already been impressed with how everyone has settled and started the year so confidently and we’re looking forward to getting to know you all and working together so that we can have an exciting and productive year. We hope that you enjoy everything that leopards class have to offer!

Transition.

Our aim is to ensure that the children experience a smooth transition from Foundation to KS1 even more so this year than previous. Our Year 1 curriculum builds upon and extends the experiences that children have had in Pandas and learning through play continues to be an important part of our school day. The children will gradually ease into more formal learning as the year goes on and their learning styles and needs change. We will be operating with: adult focused activities (learning with an adult), adult initiated activities (learning set by an adult but independently) and child initiated activities (learning developed independently by the child).

Topic

This terms topic is ‘Dinosaurs’ please see our topic web for information.

What to bring

Due to the current climate we are asking that as little as possible is being transferred from home to school.

Things which will stay in school are a pair of wellies, spare clothes in a plastic bag (if needed) and PE kits.

Children should bring their water bottles with them each morning and place them in the boxes. Snack will be provided at break time but if your child wishes to bring their own fruit or veg they may (please bring only fresh fruit or veg anything packaged will not be allowed). Reading books should only be brought in on Mondays and Fridays and therefore book-bags are only needed on these days also. Although a general letter from the office went out stating you can bring backpacks we politely ask that you do not bring these in as our cloakroom hooks are very small and we do not have enough space to accommodate them. Finally, a waterproof coat will be needed as all our playtimes are on the field with no shelter and children will need time outside, even on wet days.

Reading / Homework

Initially homework will be set through reading. We encourage reading with your child to take place as often as possible (at least 4-5 times per week) to further develop their phonic knowledge and understanding of different texts. The same reading book should be shared several times during the week to embed fluency and understanding for example you could follow this pattern:

1^st : Read

2^nd : Recount

3^rd : Ask questions

4^th : Reread

Due to Covid-19, children will change their books twice a week only, on a Monday and a Friday. Children will place their books into the ‘quarantine basket’ and they will be wiped down and left for three days before being added back into our reading system.

Although we can only give you access to two physical books a week you can access more reading materials at https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page and its always fun to have a go at reading your own ‘real’ books at home. We would also like to encourage you to read to your child as this is a beautiful bonding time and a prime opportunity for book talk and great adult modelling.

We will soon be moving on to setting weekly phonics and maths homework, information on this will follow soon.

Tapestry

We are fortunate enough to have tapestry carried on into year 1. However, it is used differently to how it was used within Pandas as less ’learning’ will be shared with parents. In Year 1 we will still be using it as an evidence bank however we will now only share work which your child is proud of or a piece of work we think practically need celebrating. It will also be used as a platform of communication due to the current climate.

PE will continue to be on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Please ensure your child has the correct, named kit in school. Children should not wear jewelry to school; although a single pair of stud earrings and watches are permitted (these should be removed on PE days).

Finally, we’d like to say many thanks for your support so far it has been a very different beginning to the year.

Best Wishes

Miss Williams, Miss Wagstaff and Mrs Ferryman.

Leopards Topic Web - Autumn 2020