Year 1 - Florence Nightingale

Phew! Another fun-packed and learning rich half term has finished and we are all ready for a lovely week off to rest and re-charge, ready for the last half term of this academic year. We have been incredibly impressed by the children’s hard work recently, despite the appearance of an unwelcome sickness bug.

In maths, we have been consolidating our learning in multiplication and division, using known facts to explain our reasoning. This week, we have applied this to measure, and have described, compared and recorded lengths and heights. We have even been using our bodies to measure the length of the playground!

The discovery of a mystery trunk in our classrooms hooked the children into learning all about Florence Nightingale. We have been revisiting our grammar learning (‘ed’ to mark the regular past tense, ‘s’ and ‘es’ to mark plural nouns), and used this to plan and write a diary entry written as if we were Florence in Scutari Hospital. We are extremely proud of the writing produced which shows their understanding of what has been taught as well as improved handwriting and presentation.

We continue to work hard on learning our phonics, which we practice using a variety of table top and interactive games. The children continue to use these skills when reading to segment and blend words.

We are speeding up with logging in during ICT lessons and are getting more familiar with ‘Purple Mash. We have been sorting shapes into categories and learning to create pictograms.

We are looking forward to finishing our time capsules as part of our ‘When I grow up’ topic, and will be sending these home in the latter part of the summer term. A huge ‘thank you’ to the children and their families for the wonderful home learning ‘feeley’ bags that we have received. We are very much enjoying hearing the children talk confidently about the research that they have carried out.

We wish you a relaxing (and sunny) half term!

Friends of Stanmore - Cake sale makes £185

Despite the rain, Thursday's Cake and Uniform Sale was a great success. We raised £185 so thank you to those who volunteered their time to set up and run the stall, to those who donated tasty bakes and to those who bought them! 

We also want to thank Maggi and Kim, two ladies representing Kings School, who joined us at the sale and were able to answer questions regarding Kings School uniform. They will be attending our next sale which will be on Thursday June 13th so please use this opportunity to come and speak to them about any concerns you have regarding your child's transition. 

Our next event is the FoS Hawaiian Disco on Wednesday 5th June. Details and consent forms will be arriving in book bags soon! Thanks, Rachel, Jen, Hayley, Jo and Ali.

Year 1 - comparatives, superlatives and senses

Phew – what a week we have had! 

We hope that you have enjoyed the bagels; they seem to have been a success in Year 1 so far. The children have come in quietly and sat sensibly on the carpet to eat and getting on with their early morning work when they have finished. We serve bagels at 8.40am to 8.45am to allow the children time to finish and get ready for their day of learning.

In maths, we have been using the ‘part part whole’model for addition and subtraction. The children have used equipment to help their understanding and have recorded the related addition and subtraction number sentences. We are looking forward to revisiting multiplication and division next week. 

In English, we have been learning to use comparatives (longer, shorter) and superlatives (longest, shortest) in our writing. The children used their skills to write a ‘Guess Who’ information sheet for their friends to play. We have also been learning about the third person singular (he runs, she washes), and the appropriate suffix (‘s’ or ‘es’ ) to use. This forms the English homework this week.

We explored our senses in science, naming the sense, body part, and how it helps us to understand the world around us. Yesterday, we created some ‘sensory mats’ from items round outside and in the classroom, and thought about how animals use their senses to survive.

Both Juniper and Maple classes loved their first ukulele lesson – we are looking forward to performing to you all at the end of the summer term (date to be advised). 

We continue with our reading and phonics work daily. 

Thank you to everyone who has practised their computer login typing at home. Juniper class were all logged in within 5 minutes, which is excellent! We were then able to spend additional quality time in our ICT lesson. 

We hope that you have an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend!

A little bit of Hollywood comes to Stanmore

Our vision says that we are committed to purposeful and irresistible learning where our children are inspired to thrive and be the best that they can be.

This week we really went the extra mile to achieve this, inviting a Hollywood production designer into school. He is working on some incredibly well known films that I know your KS2 children will be excited to share with you. Theo even got to try on one of the costumes.

He shared his experiences with the children – growing up and attending school in Hampshire and using his hobby and skill of drawing to gradually build an amazing career for himself which takes him all over the world. He described his own resilience, one of our keys for success, coping when a drawing that he is particularly proud of doesn’t make the final cut. His message to the children was: ‘follow your dreams because you really can achieve anything.’ I was really proud of our KS2 children who showed respect by listening intently and asking some really interesting questions.

Easter message from Mrs Taylor

This term has been one of many changes and improvements. We have continued to build momentum, re-establishing Stanmore as a school where your children enjoy purposeful learning. I enjoy hearing children talking about their learning and sharing their outcomes. The corridors proudly display some high quality writing, artwork and 3D models. In the classrooms, the learning journeys that children are working on in English and mathematics are also displayed. This helps children see how a problem in maths is broken down and rebuilt, or how writing is constructed. We have a consistent approach to teaching through our ‘Stanmore Lesson.’ We know that a more consistent approach to homework is still needed.  

In the summer term, we will continue strengthening the curriculum so that we are ready for new topics to be launched in September. I would like to thank all of the teaching and support staff in supporting the new initiatives. 

Our Leadership team is strengthening. Parents Evenings were well attended; I would like to thank parents for your support. One of the members of the leadership team: Mrs Taylor, Miss Norris, Mrs Fenton, Mr Read, and Mrs Ruddick-Smith, are always available to meet with you and discuss concerns or ideas. We have been able to offer more support to children who are on the SEND register. Mrs Fenton (SENCO) has met with every family this term. We have a more comprehensive reporting and feedback process with parents and external agencies.

As you are well aware, there have been changes to staffing. While we have taken every measure to minimise disruption, inevitably some classes have been affected by the changes. After Easter, Miss Day (Bumblebees) and Miss Evers (Rowan) are both joining us as permanent members of staff. Miss Askwith (Ladybirds) and Miss Jessup (Birch) will remain with us until the end of the year. Mrs Mason joined us in February as a permanent member of staff and ‘Ready to Learn’ Leader. I still can’t promise that there won’t be further changes or disruption. However, we are now in a more stable position than we were at the beginning of this term.  

I would like to thank Mrs McNeill for her contribution to the school, particularly in supporting small groups of children. She is leaving to spend more time with her family.  

I hope that you all enjoy a happy and peaceful Easter with your families and I look forward to seeing you for the Summer Term.

Year 1 - Happy Easter!

This half term has simply flown by and here we are – at the end of our second term together in Year 1. The children have stayed focused on their learning this week, as well as enjoying events such as the spring concert and a very entertaining Easter assembly, run by Mrs Laver. 

We have finished our ‘chick’ art project – the children were so proud of their work. They worked very hard in each of the sessions to independently create their chick and making it the best that they could. The finishing touches were added on Thursday, along with a ‘birth certificate’ for each one.

In maths, we have been working on using non-standard units to measure length and height. We had great fun drawing around a partner and seeing how many straws, felt tips and Dienes high they were! We also worked on thinking about how long some tasks might take (a clap, writing a sentence, watching a film), and sorting them into hours, minutes and seconds. We also compared time (hours, minutes and seconds), and asked questions like, ‘Is ten seconds longer or shorter than one minute?’. To end the week, we have been exploring turns (quarter, half and three-quarters), and used our knowledge to give ‘robot’ instructions to a partner. We also looked at turning ‘tiles’ into patters and describing the turns that we made. Many of the children found this quite tricky, so if you are able to have a go at home, that would be great!

We have finished our ‘Oi Frog’ poetry and enjoyed sharing it with the children in Year R. Our poems have made a super display outside Juniper Class, which many children have stopped to look at and read the poetry. Fantastic work, Year 1!

 In RE, we have been continuing our learning of Remembering- sad then happy, by learning about the Easter Story. After listening to the story, the children created a timeline of the events of Easter week, identifying when those involved would have been sad and then happy. We thought about the messages that the story gives us today, and the importance of Easter to Christians. 

The children loved performing at the Recorder concert on Tuesday; very many thanks for being a wonderful audience! Next term, we will be learning to play … that’s a surprise for after the holidays!

We continue with our phonics and guided reading daily. Many of the children have moved book bands this week – congratulations to you all! We hope that you keep reading and enjoying books over the holiday.

Next half term, our topic will be ‘When I grow up’. As part of the topic, we will need each child to have a named, empty, clean and dry 2l soft drinks bottle with the original label removed (lid needed too!). Please bring these in after the holidays.

We will also be thinking about the different jobs that people do. A letter will shortly be coming out to request parent/carers/family members to come into the classroom and talk to the children about their job. This only has to be for approx. 20 minutes or so, and if possible, we would like to hear information such as what you do, if you need any special equipment/skills/training/clothes and the best thing about your job. Very many thanks in advance if you are able to help!

We would like to wish everyone a lovely, relaxing Easter break!

Year 1 - Chick-loads of fun!

Creating feathered friends

The penultimate week of the term draws to a close, and the children have had a feathery ending! Juniper and Maple had a wonderful time this afternoon creating their feathered friends, which they will be bringing proudly home in time for Easter! 

As well as our DT activities, the children were extremely excited to wear their pyjamas and onesies to school today; happily, no-one fell asleep in class…

Investigating 3d shapes

In maths this week, we have enjoyed learning about 3D shapes. We have worked on identifying and naming 3D shapes, exploring their properties and working out how we could sort them, justifying our reasoning. Next week, we will be moving onto measure, using non-standard units to measure height and length, as well as exploring seconds, minutes and hours. We will end our unit of measure by learning about turns and using our knowledge to explore the school grounds!

We have now planned and written our animal poems, which we will be publishing on Monday. We look forward to performing them to Year R later in the week! The children have worked extremely hard on including plural nouns and prepositions in their work – we await the final results!

In RE, we have started to think about the Easter message, and exploring sad and happy feelings. We have shared a lovely book, ‘Badger’s Parting Gifts’, by Susan Varley, which stimulated conversations about when we have been sad and then happy. Next week, we look forward to hearing the Easter story and learning about it in more detail.

The children have been busy practicing for their recorder concert on Tuesday 2ndApril in the school hall. Year 1 will be performing from 2.20pm – 2.40pm approx.., and Year 2 from 2.40pm – 3.00pm approx.. The gate by the school office will be open from 2.15pm. We look forward to welcoming you.

As always, we enjoy our phonics and reading daily. 

Notes:

Recorder concert: Tuesday 2nd April in the school hall. Year 1 will be performing from 2.20pm – 2.40pm approx.., and Year 2 from 2.40pm – 3.00pm approx.. The gate by the school office will be open from 2.15pm. 

Home learning: Due on Monday 1st April please. Thank you to those who have already returned theirs. 

When I grow up topic: For this topic, each child will need a clean, dry 2l plastic soft drinks bottle with the top on and label removed (labelled with your child’s name). To be bought into school after Easter please. Thank you!

PE kits: These will be sent home this week for the holiday. Please could you check that your child’s plimsolls/trainers still fit, as several children say that theirs are too small. Many thanks.