Newsletter 18 - 31st January 2025

Learning This Week

EYFS

This week the children have been enjoying learning about Chinese New Year. They have explored clothing, music, mark making and different crafts. They have even practised for Ms Riches' Chop Stick Challenge in the Home Corner.

Year 1

Year 1 have been practising their creativity and resilience skills this week as they have been working hard to use the collagraphs they made to print the backgrounds of their street scenes. The children had to be very careful with the rollers and ink to print the designs without smudging them!

Year 2

Year 2 have had a fantastic week filled with hands-on learning and creative fun! In Science, the children became brilliant investigators, testing materials to see if they could be squashed, bent, twisted or stretched. They made thoughtful predictions, conducted tests, and drew impressive conclusions like true scientists!

In Music, the children explored percussion instruments and mastered the concepts of forte (loud, quick sounds) and piano (soft, gentle sounds). They then created dynamic dragon-themed performances, choosing sounds to match their dragon’s character. The classroom was buzzing with excitement and imagination — Well done, Year 2!

Parent's Evenings

Parent's Evenings will be held in school on Thursday 27th February and Tuesday 4th March. As in November, there will be one x 10 minute appointment available per child, and so separated parents will need to share a meeting, or arrange a second one for another time at the discretion and availability of the class teacher. Green Class & Yellow Class will each see availability for both class teachers - please book one appointment, with one teacher, as any duplicates will be cancelled. Mrs McGillivray's appointments will be on Friday 7th March.

Bookings can be made through Arbor from 12noon on Monday 3rd February.

We would kindly remind you that these appointments are to discuss your child's progress in class, targets they are working towards, and what can be done at home to support this. If there is anything else you need to discuss, this should be arranged at another time with your child's class teacher, who is available all year round to help.

The appointments must be kept to 10 minutes, as going over this impacts the next family booked, as well as potentially knocking on to other class teachers who are due to see the same family. Please do not be offended should a teacher need to end the meeting promptly in order to keep to time - they will have up to 15 families to see each evening. If you are late to your meeting, the teacher will not be able to see you for your full 10 minutes.

Lastly, if you are bringing your child/ren with you, please ensure they do not disrupt school resources (such as the library), or disturb other meetings.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Parent Reminders!

Can we please remind parents again that the playground should not be used after school. This includes the use of bikes and scooters, (which should not be ridden through at any time), and also the use of the climbing equipment. There are signs around the site to this effect, but unfortunately there are still families who are not supporting us with this, which then confuses the children who are trying to follow the rules that have been explained to them in school.

Can we also ask that the children are not allowed to play on the grass, (particularly outside the year 1 classrooms,) as not only do they slip and hurt themselves, they also come in with very muddy shoes!

Before the school day starts, the teachers are busy getting the classrooms ready for learning, so it would also be appreciated if you would encourage your children to not bang on the windows and try to get into the classrooms.

One final reminder is that children should only be bringing in water to drink during the school day. Children have been coming in with squash / juice / flavoured water in their bottles, which teachers will dispose of and refill with tap water. The only exception to this is where we have medical evidence to the support the use of flavourings to increase a child's fluid intake.

Children's Mental Health Week

tips-for-families-childrens-mental-health-week-2025.pdf

Resources Needed

Thank you for the donations already received!!

We are looking at having a revamp of some of our communal areas, with a view in particular to improving our SEN provision. If you have any of the following items that you would be able to donate, please drop them into the school office. Thank you in advance for your kindness!

Blankets / throws
Fidget poppers / spinners
Complete puzzles
Smooth pebbles
Bubble wrap
Small trampoline
Pool noodle
Small paddling pool
Old CDs
Fairy lights
Simple board games
A yoga mat

Wear Your SCARF Day

This year's Wear Your SCARF Day will be taking place on Friday 7th February, during Children's Mental Health Week (3-9 February 2025). We're inviting everyone to wear a scarf on this day as a symbol of support for children's mental wellbeing, while celebrating the values of SCARF - Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. Throughout Children's Mental Health Week we will be providing activities relating to the theme 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself'.

First Aid for Babies & Children

Global Medical are holding a CPR & Choking in babies and children course at the Botleigh Grange Hotel. All information and a link to book can be found in their website. https://globalmedicaltraining.co.uk/book-online/ola/services/cpr-choking-for-babies-children

Menu Changes

Our current lunch menu is being extended until Easter, with just a few changes coming into effect after half term. Please see the updated menu below. If your child has a dietary need menu, this will be emailed to you next week.

Menu Feb 24th - April 4th.pdf

Eastleigh Active Health Programme

FISHES News

90s Disco

Tickets are selling really well for this event, get yours soon to make sure you don't miss out!! Friends and family that are not connected to the school are welcome to attend. Tickets are available via our ticket platform: https://buytickets.at/fishes

Sponsored ParkRun Event

Miss Holmes did a school assembly yesterday about the sponsored run event and explained it to the children.

A paper sponsorship form will be sent home with the children next week, the deadline for the forms and sponsor money to be handed in will be Friday 28th March. Alternatively, you can set up a Just Giving page linked to FISHES via this link: https://www.justgiving.com/freegroundsfishes

If you are going to being taking part please could we ask you to complete the following form so that we can gauge numbers. If you can also answer if you would be able to help marshal the event whilst cheering the children on that would be amazing: https://forms.gle/jJRxhZyoBzBY1fBX7

Easter Fayre

It is our annual Easter Fayre on Saturday 29th March. More information is to follow but if we are looking for people that would be happy to display a board from White & Guard advertising the event. The board will go up about 2 weeks before the event and in exchange for 20 boards they will be give us a signiant amount of sponsorship money towards the event. To register your address for a board please click the following link https://forms.gle/kiit2fCYdzdktyM86

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