2019 - 2020

Stay and Play for Nursery Transition 

 The children who are on our Nursery waiting list and are due to start Nursery in September have been invited to attend a number of Stay and Play sessions at school. During these sessions the children are encourgaed to engage in a number of activites that support their communication and language, social development, fine motor skills and interest in stories. During these sessions parents/carers are able to talk with Nursery staff, meet other parents and get ideas of how they can support their child at home in preparation for starting Nursery. We also visit the local park where we retell the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' as well as the local library to show parents what is on offer in the local community. Here are some comments from those who have attended these sessions: 

Since attending the sessions...

“He wants to show and tell more about things he has done/made. He continues to develop his imaginative play – he loved the bear hunt.”

“More interested in drawing different shapes. Wanted to listen to story at bed time. Started counting.”

“She has learnt some new words and plays – she is excited to come.”

 “Brilliant session. * very much enjoyed herself. It’s also great to meet other parents. Thank you."

“Staff co-operated well. Kids and parents are comfortable.”

Year 1 Maths Workshop

On Friday 13th March we held a Year 1 Maths workshop for parents/carers. The workshop gave those who attended the opportunity to work alongside their child to complete a number of activities including ordering numbers, counting in 2's, 5's and 10's, playing 'guess my number' and recalling number bonds to 10 and 20. 17 parents/carers attended the event, here are some comments from those who attended the workshop:
I enjoyed...

"The chance to work with my child. To see the kind of activities that my child does."

"Interaction with my son."

"Good to see what they do and how we can help at home.".

Reception Stay and Learn

During Spring 2 the focus of Stay and Learn in Reception was the Early Learning Goals. These were shared with parents/carers before they were given the opportunity to engage in a number of play based activities with their child. Each activity was linked to at least one of the Early Learning Goals. 

KS1 Shared Learning 

During Spring 2 the focus of Shared Learning in KS1 was CLIC.

During this event the 4 different parts of the CLIC lesson were explained to parents/carers. Following this, the children played active and interactive games with their visitors including 'around the world' in which parents took on the roles of question masters!  At the end of the session parents/carers were given a flier to help them understand what is covered in the different parts of CLIC.

Year 1 Phonics Workshop 

Parents/carers were invited to a workshop in which the Year 1 teachers explained how phonics is taught in school. Those who attended were able to engage in a number of activities which their children do in school and were given ways to support their child's learning at home. This workshop was well attended. 

LKS2 Shared Learning 

During Spring 2 the focus of Shared Learning in LKS2 was science. 

In Year 4 they introduced their new science unit of Sound. Parents/carers worked with their children to play with a range of percussion instruments like tambourines, drums, chime bars and guiros and explored using their hands to make different sounds, for example; tapping, scraping and hitting. They then made instruments out of junk materials with a challenge of making two sounds with one instrument, showing how sound can be amplified and tuned. All of this culminated in using tuning forks and a gathering drum to show vibration and discuss how vibrations travel through the air to reach our ears.

Come Dine with Me

On Monday 11th and 18th November, Reception parents/relatives were invited to eat a school lunch with their children. 19 parents/relatives attended the event over the 2 days. The experience was enjoyed by all, here are some comments:

“Lovely seeing my son in school time and get a better understanding of his life here.”

“Getting a feel for the lunchtime experience and how the meal times works. Seeing my child being independent.”

“Lovely atmosphere. Eating with * and knowing how much she eats and what she enjoys.”

“Nice food, good atmosphere.”

“Having lunch together and seeing the whole process of what’s involved and how it’s organised.”

Following the success of this, we held another Come Dine with Me event on Monday 9th March for our Nursery parents. Here are some comments from those who attended:

"Really nice, lovley to see dinner time in action."

"Spending time with * during school and watching him enjoy himself while learning new independance." 

"Being part of their daily routine, especially as one of the first questions at pick up is regarding what he had for lunch."

"Spending time with *, wathcing him eat variety of foods he wouldn't eat at home."

Parent Learning Event:

During the week beginning 4th November 2019, we held a parent learning event as part of our Writing for Pleasure: Dinosaur themed week. Throughout the week the pupils made a number of exciting discoveries. They discovered a big, white dinosaur egg in the willow den, following this they interviewed Mr Litchfield and Mr Webster with questions about how the egg got there. Pupils also watched CCTV footage of the dinosaur entering the school premises and experienced a dinosaur fossil hunting workshop.

During the parent learning event, pupils and their parents/carers were able to complete a number of dinosaur themed activities which included; making a fossil, making dinosaur poo, building a dinosaur trap, matching footprints to dinosaurs, writing about how the dinosaur might have felt and creating a dinosaur from junk materials.
Over 100 pupils attended the event and those who completed 6 or more activities received a certificate and dinosaur themed prize.