Embedded Files
Learning This Week
EYFS
EYFS
This week in Early Years the children went on a welly walk to identify signs of Spring. They saw blossom in the trees, daffodils and heard birds singing. They were then encouraged to draw or paint what they had found.
Year 1
Year 1
In Year 1 this week to kick start their learning for this half term about The Great Fire of London the children took part in a Tudor day. The children looked tu-tastic in their Tudor costumes! The children took part in various activities such as making salt-dough bread for their Pudding Lane Bakery role play, a Tudor house, learning how to draw a Tudor rose and exploring and finding out about the Tudors. The children were in awe and wonder about what life was like as a Tudor!
Year 2
Year 2
This week, the children have loved exploring different settings, and discovering how expanded noun phrases can paint vivid pictures in a reader's mind. After selecting their own adjectives, they used Canva's AI image generator to bring their descriptive phrases to life, seeing whether their words matched the images created!
In Geography, the fun continued as the children sketched maps of our school and the local area. Well done for a fantastic week!
ELSA News
Mrs Humphry, the school's Emotional Literacy Support Assistant will be retiring at the beginning of May after working at Freegrounds Infants for 4 Years. At present we do not have anyone trained as an ELSA practitioner and therefore ELSA programmes will not be able to run over the summer term. Miss Holmes has a lot of plans in place to ensure a smooth transition for the children moving on to Year 3 in September and the Senior Leadership Team and class teachers continue to support children with strategies through the Empowerment Approach along with Thrive strategies supported by Mrs Harris who is a qualified Thrive Practitioner. Plans are in place to recruit a member of staff to support our pupils with their social and emotional development from September. We are sure you will join us in wishing Mrs Humphry all the best in her retirement.
FISHES News
We can't believe we are entering the last term of the school year already! We have lots of fun things planned starting with our Quiz Night on 9 May. This is always a fun evening, as well as the quiz there will be a couple of games and a raffle - one of the prizes being a family ticket to the laser show in October! Tickets can be purchased here: https://buytickets.at/fishes tickets are £5 and you can have a team of up to 8 people. Doors open at 6.30 and quiz will start at 7.00, please bring your own snacks and drink as well your sense or humour and maybe a bit of knowledge!
World Baking Day Bake Sale - 19 May
We will be doing another bake sale in honour of World Baking Day. Please bring your bakes in on this morning, either homemade or shop brought is fine. These will be sold in the playground after school.
Summer Fayre - 28 June
The Summer Fayre is fast approaching. More information will follow on this but if you are able to donate a raffle prize, sponsor a stall or would like to have a stall please do get in contact with us.
Legoland - 20 June
We have managed to get discounted tickets to Legoland on the inset day 20th June. Tickets are £20 per person (adults and children) if you would like to purchase tickets at this price you have until 31 May to complete this form and make payment https://forms.gle/HxGf5i9Cw1FMJEgg8 Thank you to everyone that has already purchased tickets.
Marathon
The marathon was successfully complete by Bebe, Sam and Carly and the half marathon by Gemma before the Easter holidays. Thank you to everyone that came along to support on the day and joined in on the training runs and to everyone that sponsered us in aid of FISHES. You helped to us to raise an incredible £1311 plus gift aid. A massive shout out to the Nickerson Family, we are not sure who you are, but thank you for your very generous donation which got us to our target amount.
Also attached to this is an update on how much we raised in the spring term and the FISHES newsletter.
Ice Creams - The weather is looking amazing next week! We will be selling ice creams after school on Wednesday and Friday.
Executive Function Skills
Executive Functioning Skills.pdfTo link with our teaching the children about executive function skills, we would be very grateful for donations of a cuddly donkey, lemur, cat, dolphin, elephant, gorilla, swan and cheetah.
If you have one or more of these animals that you would be happy to part with, please drop them off to the school office.
Parent Questionnaire Feedback
Following on from the Parent Survey that was sent out last half term, we will post the results of each question and one response to feedback each week. Thank you again to those who took the time to leave their feedback.
You said
Don’t like the clean plate award stickers as this encourages my son to just have pasta whenever available as he doesn't eat potatoes and most other meals include some form of potato, plus he's not keen on veg! If he wasn't pushing for the stickers I think he would try some of the other meals (as he used to before he clocked onto the stickers). Stickers for trying something new would be better?
and
We love Freegrounds infant school and so does our daughter. The only bit of feedback I have for improvement is removing the use of stickers for when pupils clear their plate at lunch. This will likely lead to longer term eating issues and whilst I am aware that some children will need some extra prompting with food, for a majority making them clear their plates and giving them rewards for this is unhealthy and has been shown to be linked with unhealthy eating habits in later life.
We did
Thank you for sharing your feedback regarding the "clean plate" award stickers. We appreciate your insights and understand your concerns about the current practice.
It has come to our attention that the stickers may be encouraging children, to choose certain foods, such as pasta, over others, which might not provide a balanced diet. We understand your suggestion that stickers for trying new foods is a much better approach to encourage a more varied and healthy eating habit.
We are also aware that making children clear their plates and rewarding them for it could lead to longer-term eating issues. While the intention behind the stickers was to encourage children to finish their meals, we agree that it is important to promote a healthy relationship with food and avoid any practices that could potentially lead to unhealthy eating habits.
We have reviewed our current policy on "clean plate" stickers and we will be implementing a new system that rewards children for trying different foods, as you suggested. Our goal is to support healthy eating habits and ensure that all children feel encouraged and motivated in a positive way.
Walk with Wheels Week
In a change from the normal Walk to School Week, Walk with Wheels Week is from the 19th - 23rd May.
Welborne Garden Village
Dear Families,
Although not in close proximity to our school, the M27 Junction 10 improvements scheme to facilitate the development of Welborne Garden Village, may be on route for some of you. The scheme will progress over the coming year so you might like to take note of the following information:
Hampshire County Council is delivering the M27 Junction 10 improvements scheme to facilitate the development of Welborne Garden Village. The project includes new and improved links in all directions from the M27 to the A32 and the surrounding local highway network. The County Council is working closely with National Highways and has appointed VolkerFitzpatrick as the main contractor.
Sign up now to receive regular updates on the M27 Junction 10 improvement scheme for scheme progress and traffic management. Click here to subscribe to our e-newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Please visit the scheme web page for more information; M27 Junction 10 improvements | Transport and roads | Hampshire County Council
Nut Free School
We would like to remind parents that we are a nut free school. We have members of both the staff and student community who are anaphylactic to nuts of all varieties. This includes obvious things like hazelnut spread in sandwiches, but also many types of cereal bars and biscuits also contain nuts. Please check the ingredients list of all food items that you send into school.
Year Group Home Learning Newsletters
Attendance This Week
If you are struggling to get your child/ren to school on time each day, please do get in touch so we can try to help.
Blue Class - 96.74% attendance with 1 episode of lateness
Red Class - 98.81% attendance with 0 episodes of lateness
Yellow Class - 95.45% attendance with 1 episode of lateness
Green Class - 98.15% attendance with 0 episodes of lateness
Orange Class - 95.98% attendance with 3 episodes of lateness
Purple Class - 95.54% attendance with 2 episodes of lateness
Scarlet Class - 96.98% attendance with 0 episodes of lateness
Turquoise Class - 99.17% attendance with 1 episode of lateness
Attendance Guide for Parents / Carers
What YOU must do:
Try to telephone the school before 8.30am each day of your child’s absence.
Tell the school in advance, of any medical appointments and bring in appointment cards/letters.
If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, send them in anyway as they often perk up on arrival.
If you and your child are experiencing difficulties with school attendance then talk to us as a first step so we can help!
What WE will do:
Check your child’s attendance every day.
Phone home to discuss your child’s attendance with you.
Invite you into school for attendance meetings if we are concerned.
If we cannot establish a reason for absence, then we may make a welfare home visit.
Dates for Your Diary
Tuesday 29th April - Year 1 to Tudor House
Thursday 8th May - VE Day Dress Up (Red, White & Blue) *This is a change from the original date*
Thursday 15th May - Aspen's Theme Menu "Dive into the Deep Blue"
Monday 19th - Friday 23rd May - Walk With Wheels Week
Wednesday 21st May - Class Photos
Wednesday 18th June - Sports Day (AM) *This is a change from the original date*
Thursday 26th June - Whole School Transition Day
Thursday 17th July - Parent's Book Look (3.15-4.30pm)
Friday 18th July - Year 2 Leaver's Assembly (9am)
Monday 21st July - Freeground's Got Talent (1.15pm)
Tuesday 22nd July - Class Parties (PM)
FISHES Dates
Friday 9th May - Quiz Night
Monday 19th May - World Baking Day Bake Sale
Thursday 19th June - Non-Uniform Day
Saturday 28th June - Summer Fayre
Friday 11th July - Disco
Family Assemblies
Red Class - Friday 9th May
Blue Class - Friday 16th May
Yellow Class - Tuesday 20th May
--Family assemblies will be in the hall from 9am--
INSET Days 2024/2025
Friday 20th June 2025
Head Teacher Awards
Blue Class - Evelyn for Independence, Romeo for Thinking
Red Class - Daisy for Independence, Abigail for Thinking & Creativity
Yellow Class - Isabel for Respect, Ted for Thinking
Green Class - Oliver for Teamwork, Tommy L for Independence & Teamwork
Orange Class - Mia for Independence, Rosa for Thinking
Purple Class - Arlo for Creativity, Belle for Independence
Scarlet Class - Finley O for Resilience, Rory for Independence & Thinking
Turquoise Class - Freddie for Creativity, Philippa for Independence & Resilience
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