In Gems this week, we have been continuing to prepare for the Festival of Sport on July 11th. We are also very excited to take part in our first STEM week. We will be joining the Rocketship project with our friends from Reception, and we cannot wait to watch and enjoy the experiments.

This week, we were over in the mainstream building more than usual, as we have begun some joint attention bucket sessions with our other friends. It has been fun to explore different settings like the rainbow room and everyone has been listening and focusing well on their lessons. We love to have inclusive lessons and share our learning with the rest of the school. It is a highlight of our week.

We have continued with ‘Ten Tiny Dinosaurs’ as our book of the week and pupils have really enjoyed the rhythm of this book and the surprise element. Pupils can now anticipate the next lines and enjoy calling out the numbers in the right order.

Please remind all pupils that they must exit the bathroom with their underwear, trousers and dresses pulled up. Recently there has been a regression in this area and we want to ensure that our pupils are acting in the safest, age-appropriate fashion.

Please can you share some photos of Richmond Park with your children as this is where we will be doing a short whole school walk next Friday. They are familiar with the setting due to our Friday community walks, but next week we will be doing it with the Reception, which should be great fun.

        

                                   

 

Attention bucket makes up a large part of our timetable. Pupils have progressed and responded positively to the many stages of this process. It is a fairly easy process and something you could do at home should you be interested. 

https://www.kidztz.com/attention-bucket/

Please continue Phonics work at home if you can. There is no expectation to know all phonics. All pupils are on a journey, and we want them to work at the pace that suits them. 

We also recommend “reading for pleasure” as much as possible. If stories are too difficult, even just looking at the pictures and seeing what their attention is drawn to, is great for developing concentration and awareness.

We will continue to send home differentiated reading packs. Again, this is just for confidence building.

We find that LittleBig Foxes, Number Blocks and RWI songs on their websites are a great source of fun and education. 

 

Key messages

• Festival of Sport begins at 1.45 on 11th July. We would love to see you there if you can attend.

• If you are late in the morning and we have gone to OT, please bring your child to the main office and someone will help you from there.

• Please practise writing and saying the Set 1 sounds at home, using the phonics website by Ruth Miskin to help you. 

• Would families please be so kind as to donate some general cooking supplies to help with our Thursday sessions. e.g., flour, oil, eggs, butter, lifelong milk, cupcake cases. This is not compulsory. Donations welcome.

• Pick up time for Gems pupils is 3pm. Please try to be prompt so we can maximise the time we have to set up for the next day’s learning.

• Please ensure that you have notified the school if you are going to be late. Gems registers MUST be completed by 9am.