13 Feb 2009 - Newsletter 13th February 2009

Year 1 - Milestones Outing Letter

HOPA Newsletter

Can we please ask you to return you emergency contact details by Monday 23rd February even if you do not want to take part.

There is another copy with this Newsletter if you have lost the original one.

On Tuesday this week it was Internet Safety Day and the children were learning even more about how to keep safe on the internet.

You may be interested in a leaflet produced to inform parents and carers how children are using ICT in school; how using ICT in the home can help children to learn; how children can use the internet safely at home and where parents may access further information.

Thank you for all the favourable comments concerning the new projects planned for the school. Eventually we will be able to complete all of the projects but to start with we have enough money, saved from our capital budget, to put up the classroom block to first fix. We are very grateful to Kevin Gill (father of Keiran Gill in Woodpecker) for drawing up the plans to enable us to apply for planning permission.

HOPA have already said that the money raised this year can go towards our building project. We will also be using any money raised through HOPA during the rest of the year to go towards this project. We are so lucky to have such supportive parents.

Through a contact of one of our parents we may be able to get matched funding for the new foundation roof area.

We are contacting different companies to see if they will provide some goods at a discounted rate if we provide advertising for them.

We are also putting in bids to different organisations to fund the sustainable developments such as the water treatment plant which will provide rain water for the toilets, underground pipes for the heating and solar panels.

If you know of any organisation that provide matched funding or could provide goods please could you let us know.

We are still looking for people to help us.

Do you think you can help our build team?

Do you work for or know of a construction company that may want to tender?

Do you know a Building Regulation draughtsman or a reusable energy consultant?

The school is participating with the Bag2School Collection and the filled bags should be returned to school on Thursday 5th March.

Thanks to more clement weather we have had a normal week at school and had the pleasure of seeing so many of you at parent's evening on Tuesday.

On Monday we finished exploring light and dark and found out how much we had learnt - just ask us! Our theme of sculpture continued this week. We wrote non-fiction pages about different sculptures and planned our own designs on paper and with blocks.

In maths we have continued with repeated addition and multiplication and are getting really good at it!

Thank you for your continued support at all times both within and outside the classroom - have a wonderful half term break!

Homework challenge:

Next week we will be assessing key word recognition and letter sounds and updating the back of the home diaries.

Playing in the snow!

Finding out about life when our grandparents were young.

Thank you to our visitors!

Using the balances to compare heavy and light objects

We were very impressed with how the children were able to recognise and order numbers.

Please help your child to look for or draw pictures of light sources e.g. sun, torch, lamp, bulb. They might even be able to bring one of the light sources in!

Practise writing these key words from memory: my, come,me.

Look for items at home that begin with o and r.

Is pleased to be able to inform you that their contract for children's NHS Dentistry has been renewed and increased from April 2009.

This means than there is limited availability to see some new child patients.

Thank you for all the parents who came during the two Parents consultation meetings. One or two parents missed their appointment. If this was you please see your child's teacher to make a new appointment as soon as possible. These meetings are very important for your child's progress.

We hope you all have a restful half term. When we come back our topic work will be focused on learning about Islam and also electricity in Science. In Literacy we will be using some exciting software to help us to describe a setting in a story. Perhaps if you go for a walk in the countryside during half term, your child can describe the setting to you. In Numeracy we will be working on shape and lines of symmetry.

Helpers are always welcome in Year Two. Please see your child's teacher if you are able to help. Thank you for your support.

Please note that the children will receive a new set of spellings for next half term on Monday 23rd February. On this first Monday back the children will be tested on a selection of the spellings from the last term and a half. Please could you help your child to recap the words they have learnt.

The Year Two Team.