Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Thursday 20th July 2023

 Happy Friday, everybody, and welcome to the last blog for this academic year! It seems incredible that we are already at the end of the year - it has flown by! We have all absolutely loved working with all your children this year and it has been a privilege to watch them grow, learn and flourish as the year has progressed. We are all sure that they will continue to be just as fabulous as they move on to being Year 2's and 3's!

UNICEF Shoeshare Appeal

Just a reminder that on the last day of term we are collecting shoes in partnership with Unicef and Clarks, who will cleverly turn our old shoes into money that will help fulfill the rights of children around the world. You can send your child with a spare pair of shoes on the final day of this term so they can place their unwanted school shoes into our collection box. If you have any other unwanted pairs, you can send these in too. Staff will be in on Friday so you can still drop them off to the box in reception on that day too!

Article 28 & 29: Every child has the right to an education.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER HOLIDAY!!!

We will be available on our Key Stage 1 email up until lunchtime on Friday 21st July and then again from Monday 4th September.

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Remember: children return to school on Tuesday 5th September.

When we come back in September we will be back in three Year 1/2 classes which is system we have run very successfully for many years aside from the last 2 years where we had single year group. We are looking forward to Miss Smith joining our team in Emerald Class along with Mrs Yuille in Diamond Class and Mr Jude in Amethyst Class.

All that remains is for everyone here in Key Stage 1 to wish you an amazing summer holiday. We would also like to give our heartfelt thanks for all your support and kind words over the year - it means so much to all of us!

Much love

Mrs Yuille, Mr Jude & Miss Smith

Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Friday 14th July 2023

 Happy Friday, everybody! We hope you all had a lovely time at Sports Day last Friday! It was so lovely seeing all the mums, dads, grandparents and other family members out together on the field for a picnic lunch and watching the children compete together! 

It is amazing to think that we are about to head into our last 4 days! In school this half term, the children have very much enjoyed using Chrome Music Labs to explore digital music in our computing lessons. Here is the link if you would like to further explore this learning platform at home:

Chrome Music Labs

UNICEF Shoeshare Appeal

We are once again holding a collection for Shoeshare so now is the time to start rummaging around in your cupboards for old shoes that don't fit or you no longer wear! Shoeshare is a collaboration between UNICEF and Clarks Shoes which works towards improving Children's Right around the world. More than 1.6 million pounds has been raised by Shoeshare to help ensure that children all around the world have access to quality education.

You can read more about the scheme here.

It's hard to believe that together we can make such a huge difference by the very simple act of sorting out our shoes but really we can. Shoes need to be in pairs and if possible held together with an elastic band. There will be a drop off point at the office or you can just send shoes in with your child at any point during the last week of term.

Thanks in advance for your continued support in helping our children to learn about sustainability, the wider world that we live in and how to care for others.

RRS: Every child has the right to an education and a clean and healthy environment.

Book Collection

All children have had their reading books collected in this week. We will pass these on to their next class teacher so they are ready to be re-issued in September. We have let the children keep hold of their reading diaries as there are lots of useful logins inside these. Please bring these reading diaries back to school on the first day back.

The children's school work books are all handed up also - current book and most recent completed book. These completed books are sent home after the October half term.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day - we would love to see you!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille

Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Friday 7th July 2023

 Happy Friday, everybody! It was lovely to see so many of you all at our Open School Evening on Tuesday and, of course, visitors from lower years who will be in Key Stage 1 next year!

Spelling Frame

Hopefully your child will have come home this week with their login details for Spelling Frame - check their bags or they may well be stuck in their reading diary.

Spelling Frame is a similar learning platform to Sumdog but uses games to support the learning of spelling patterns and rules. When you have logged in, you can select a Year group and then select a spelling rule or phoneme to explore. In the future, the spelling rule being covered in class will be added to the blog to further support homework tasks but we wanted to share this with you before the summer holidays so you could use the site in this time.

Visit the Spelling Frame website using the link below to login and start exploring different games to support your child's spelling!

Spelling Frame

Homework

We would like to thank you all for your hard work in supporting your child with their homework this year. We are returning the children's homework books to them today but we are not asking for them to be returned again this year.

If there are some pages left, please work through them at your own pace. The maths homework book is also a useful tool for looking back over the ideas we have covered this year as a reminder during the summer holidays so your child does not get too rusty over the 6 weeks off.

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home in order to maintain the great progress made this year. It will make a huge impact on your child's reading development. Keep using the range of questions we have discussed previously as well!

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day - we would love to see you!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille