Wow! What an incredible year it’s been in Skipper Foundation 2024/25!
We’ve shared so many special and memorable moments together at school, and it has been an absolute joy to spend the year with your wonderful children.

As they move on to Year 1, we wish them all the very best. We know they’ll continue to thrive and have a fantastic time—we’re looking forward to seeing their smiling faces around the school and on the playground!

Thank you so much for your kind farewell wishes, thoughtful gifts, and lovely cards. We are truly grateful for your support and generosity. Wednesday morning was very heartful and we are very 

Wishing you all a relaxing and joyful summer! Let's hope for sunshine!
School returns on Tuesday, 2nd September 2025.

With warmest regards,
Mrs Holdsworth & Miss Goodridge

Skipper had a great time today finding all of their Easter eggs from The Skipper Teaching Team this afternoon.

In bookbags you will find a tricky word pirate game and a reminder of all our tricky words on the back. 

Shape Patterns Here is a link to pattern train game we often play in class which the children love! 

Thank you for all your offers of help on the Trip to Gore Farm next half term. More details will follow soon. 

Have a lovely half term in the sunshine! 

Wb 7 / 03/25 

We had a fantastic day on Thursday celebrating World Book Day. The children loved parading their costumes and words for the other children in Foundation. We hope lots of families had fun participating in the sponsored read too. Don’t forget to check bookbags for the World Book Day Tokens. Thank you for your continued support with the events we hold at Damers. 

In Maths we have been learning about AB and ABC patterns. Children have been using lots of different resources to create patterns. I wonder if you could create some at home? Feel free to send them into the foundation email - we’d love to see them! 

You could use large and small objects, teddy bears and books or even pans and plates! 

Heres a video all about patterns… 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp2t8d/numberblocks-series-3-pattern-palace

Don’t forget about our Stay and…. Session next Wednesday afternoon, we look forward to seeing you. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

w/b 3.02.25

Number Day! What super costumes and numbers we have seen today! The children took part in a number parade with the rest of Foundation and loved to see everyones amazing numbers! We also made some number hats showing many different number representations including some of our recent addition learning! Thank you for all the generous donations towards the NSPCC Charity. 

In Literacy we have begun our book called Super Milly and the Super School Day! We have talked about our own superpowers and how these can be things like super brave, super kind and super helpful!

In Literacy we have reenacted the party scene from the The Magic Paintbrush book. The children had so much fun! They danced, ate moon shaped cookies, played some drums and danced some more! They are very knowledgeable about China and the story behind Luna New Year.

This week in Phonics we have reached the end of our phoneme journey. All children have been taught the Reception phonemes and graphemes. Your child’s Letters and Sounds booklet is now complete! Please use the booklets to consolidate their learning at home. 

During our daily Phonics lesson we will now focus on filling gaps, reading longer words and strategies to support this alongside developing fluency and prosody. 

Phonics home learning er, air

Reminders 

Parents evening - Wednesday 5th February and Thursday 6th February. Please book through School Cloud. 

NSPCC Number Day - Friday 7th February 2025

Over the past 2 weeks we have begun handwriting lessons. The children have been so grown up and sat at the tables, trying their best to form their letters correctly! 

They have also been amazing with their segmenting to spell and remembering our new digraphs for their Magic Paintbrush story writing. The children have loved using their imaginations to create their very own magic story all about themselves! 

In phonics we have been learning ur, ow, oi and ear as well as tricky words my, by and all. Please look in book bags for tricky word sheets, continue with the phoneme books and enjoy reading the library books plus listening to your child read their phonic reader book to you! Please can you write in your child's Reading Record when you have heard their fantastic reading. 

Phonics home learning ear, ow, ok, ur

Merry Christmas Skipper Foundation!

I can’t quite believe we’ve been in school for a whole term already! We’ve already achieved so much with our phonics, reading and writing, number work, two trips, a Christmas performance, a snow day, making new friends and so much more. 

We were so proud of the children's Christmas performance of We're Going on a Star Hunt last week and thank you all for coming and watching, it means a lot to the children. It's a real benchmark for them on their journey through school and often a favourite memory for years. You will be emailed a link to a recorded performance soon so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

We thank you all for your support over the last term and look forward to welcoming you back in the New Year on Tuesday 7th January 2025. Enjoy your Christmases together, have fun, eat plenty and make memories. 

Now December is here, Christmas is creeping into the classrooms. The tree is  up and has been decorated and redecorated several times in the home corner!

This week we’ve been excited to have a visit from the postmaster from The Buttermarket Post Office. The children loved buying their own stamps to stick on their envelopes and had lots of questions to ask about the postal  service! We are busy making and writing Christmas or winter cards in class. If you’re doing any at home this is a great opportunity for your child to practise writing their name with a real purpose to it. We will be going to the post box on Monday 16th and will need plenty of adults to walk with us. If you can spare a bit of time that afternoon please let us know at the gate. We really appreciate your support.

We have now continued on our Phonics journey. Please continue to cpmplete their sounds books and watch the videos to help consolidate their learning. 

Now December is here, Christmas is creeping into the classrooms. The tree is  up and has been decorated and redecorated several times in the home corner! 

Home learning phonics z, qu, ch - YouTube 

Here is our week in pictures!

Please continue to revise all taught phonemes and tricky words using your child's Letters & Sounds book. 

Reminders 

Please return envelopes with 85p for the children to send their Christmas card to a loved one by Monday 2nd December. As the post office will be visiting the school next week. 

Please bring costumes into school in a named bag by Monday 9th December. If you have any problems or need help with costumes please let us know as soon as possible. 

We had a great time this afternoon exploring snow both in the classroom and outside! 

We made snow people, we drew pictures, we watched it melt and we made foot prints! 

What a wonderfully chilly but magical day we have had! 

In Phonics this week we have looked at the phonemes z, t,n,d . Please continue to practise these with your children and the tricky words that will come home tomorrow. 

The Children had a wonderful time parading their bikes/scooters to the rest of the school. It was a very festive morning. Congratulations to Arlo for creating a wonderful Christmas inspired blingy bike in the class! 

At Damers we want to encourage as many children to cycle and scooter to school as possible. Cycling to school is healthy, good for the environment and cheaper than car travel. It means there will be fewer cars at the school gates and above all, it’s great fun! Thank you to everyone for your participation in this. 

Towards the end of last half term we introduced ‘Tricky Words’ in our Little Wandle (Phonics) Sessions. Tricky words are words that can not be decoded easily. We use many of these tricky words often and they are used early on in decodable books, so its important for children to be able to read them fluently. We teach tricky words by identifying the ‘tricky part’ and the sounds it makes, then sound out and blending the word as normal. Please practice these with your child at home. Each week on a Friday your child will come home with a sheet of the tricky words taught that week - PLEASE CHECK BOOK BAGS! 

This week in Phonics we have learnt the new phonemes v,w,x and y. There will be no new phonemes or digraphs taught next week as we will be consolidating a few that we are finding tricky in class therefore there will be no pages to complete in their Letters and Sounds book. Please support your child by looking back through their book. 

Thank you for continuing to support your child at home with their phonics learning - Here is this week’s video - have fun. 

Phonics home learning v, w, x, y

This week we have been looking at the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice sendak. 

To immerse the children into this story on Monday the children found some evidence that some kind of creature had been in our classroom! He left a sack with lots of items that begin with s. I wonder if the children can remember any? We will continue to build on this story over the coming weeks! 

Wednesday was a fantastic day at Thorncombe Woods! The children became nature detectives looking for a range of autumn and winter treasures. The sun was shining through the trees as the children enjoyed exploring in the forest. We would like to thank all the parent and carer volunteers for supporting us on this trip. 

In Maths we have been looking at the number 5. We have looked at various ways we can represent the number 5 and what number pairs make 5. The children remembered tally marks, 5 frames, 10 frames, Numicon, the use of pictures and our fingers plus the part-part whole model. We have been challenging children to find number pairs to make the number 5 this week.  (Number pairs are two number you can add together to make another number e.g 3 and 2 make 5, 5 and 0 make 5) 

This week in Phonics we have learnt the new digraphs ss, ff, ll and the phoneme j . (Digraph - two letters that make one sound) 

Thank you for continuing to support your child at home with their phonics learning - Here is this week’s video - have fun. 

Home Learning Phonics ss,ff,ll, J

This week we have become scientists by investigating what happens when we mix together some potion ingredients! If you would like to have a go at home the recipe is here...

   Hubble bubble potions!

Half fill a cup with white vinegar

Add a few drops of food colouring

Squeeze in some washing up liquid

Mix together 

Add a teaspoon of baking powder/ Bicarbonate of soda

Optional extras: Glitter/sprinkles 

Watch your potion ooze with magic! We would love to see any photos! 

Thank you for all of your unique squares you designed over the summer. Here are our fantastically unique class Elmer displays. 

Dates for your diary... 

Wednesday 23rd October - Stay and Play session 3pm - 3.20pm. Last day of term. 

This week we have begun to talk about and observe the signs of Autumn. We have found beautiful coloured leaves, shiny conkers and acorns. I wonder what you can find whilst out and about?!

Here is this week's phonics video covering the new phonemes taught this week. ‘Ck’ is our first digraph… 2 letters making 1 sound! Have fun watching and don't forget to join in!

Phonics Home Learning CK, U, E, R 

This week in Maths we have been learning all about the number three. We have explored the number pairs 2 and 1, 3 and 0. We have also listened to traditional stories that have 3 main characters. Why not read a story at home such as The Three Little Pigs!

Skipper Foundation have loved our Rhyme this week of one, two buckle my shoe. Here's a link to sing along... 

One, Two, Buckle my Shoe 

This week we have been looking closely at our features in the mirror to help us to paint a self portrait. We have learnt that every one of us is unique. 

Here is this week's phonics video covering the new phonemes taught this week ‘g,o,c,k’. Have fun watching and don't forget to join in!

Phonics home learning, G, O, C, K

This week in Maths we have been learning all about the number two. We have discovered what a pair is and played lots of pair matching games. I wonder if you can find some things that come in pairs around your house..? Maybe a pair of sunglasses, a pair of socks or even a pair of gloves! 

This week we have learnt the new phonemes  i, n, m, d. Thank you for continuing to support your child at home with their phonics learning – Their Letters and Sounds booklets are looking fantastic! Here is this week’s video – have fun. 

I N M D - w/b 23.09.24 - Phonics Video 

We have become number detectives looking at the number 1.  We’ve looked for numbers in our learning environment, we’ve used dominoes, dice, numberlines, numicon, ten frames, cubes and peg boards to reinforce our learning and practically show number 1. 

Our first full week in Skipper Foundation has been lovely. We have enjoyed watching the children start to form new friendships and grow in confidence in their new routines.

This week we have started learning Phonics. We have looked at the phonemes s, a, t, p. All children have done super listening and fantastic remembering of these new phonemes.  We will be learning 4 new sounds most weeks apart from the last week of each half term - These are assessment weeks. Every Friday will be a consolidation day where we will review and use the sounds learnt throughout the week. (This might look slightly different some weeks depending on trips/bank holidays etc)

We really appreciate the time you are spending with your child at home going through their Letter and Sounds booklet and completing each phoneme every evening. 

In addition to the Letters and Sounds book that is sent home daily the Foundation teachers at Damers have also created some short youtube videos that you can watch at home alongside your child. There is a video for each week which we will upload every Friday. 

S A T P - W/b 16.09.24 Phonics video 

In Maths we have been looking the number zero. We’ve looked at the number formation and explored different ways to represent zero using a range of resources. 

The children have had a lovely first two weeks in Skipper Foundation. It’s been lovely getting to know the children and learning about their individual personalities. We have been focusing on making new friends, learning new routines and exploring our learning environments both in the classroom and outside.  

Reminders - Each day children need a clearly named water bottle. Please name all clothing, coats and spare clothes.