Welcome back! We hope you have all had a wonderful break with friends and family.

Wednesday is an Inset Day for the teaching staff. We look forward to welcoming you back into school on Thursday. Please wear school uniform on Thursdays and Fridays. PE uniform will need to be worn on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, starting next week.

This week is all about establishing routines and getting to know each other. We will be handing out new reading diaries, reading books and spelling diaries to go home this week. Inside the reading diaries will be a copy of your login details for the laptops, for Purple Mash and for Times Tables Rock Stars so that you can access these from home. We will also be using a new platform this year to support our learning of spellings called, 'Spelling Shed'. Your login will be given as soon as possible for you to start using at home. A copy of your logins will also be kept in your tray for school use. Please can I encourage parents to regularly check the reading diaries and make a short comment and sign when they have heard their child read. Your child will be encouraged to change their reading books regularly in school as and when they need to, with an adult supervising the first few changes. Please practice spellings for a few minutes every day using the spelling journals and complete the online tasks assigned to you on Spelling Shed. Weekly spelling tests will assess children's understanding of new patterns taught as well as a half termly spelling check of the common exception words to monitor progress across the year. 

Literacy and Maths will begin this week in our groups. The children will be given their new books with a reminder about presentation expectations and our PRIDE learning values (Perseverance, Responsibility, Independence, Determination and Effort) There will be an opportunity to work towards earning a pen license in Key Stage Two which will be explained this week. 

Thursday afternoon, we will have our first art lesson. We will be completing our baseline sketching activity to sketch our faces. The children really enjoy this activity, using the sketching pencils and other media to draw the missing half of a photo of their own face. We will then revisit this activity at the end of the year to assess the progress the children have made with their art skills.

Friday is Mrs Phillips' day. She will also do literacy and maths in the mornings, with PSHE and French in the afternoons. 

Further messages will be communicated through MCAS via the office so please do make sure you are checking this platform regularly. DoJo will be used this year as a way for teachers to share learning and celebrate achievements, as well as for posting weekly reminders and the link for the weekly blog on the website. Please do take a few minutes each week to see what's going on in school.