Mary Jane Seacole was born on 23rd November 1805 and died on 14th May 1881. She was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up the "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. She provided care for wounded service men on the battlefield, nursing many of them back to health. Mary showed compassion, skills and bravery while nursing soldiers during the Crimean War through the use of herbal remedies.
She was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004, she was voted the greatest black Briton in a survey conducted in 2003 by the black heritage website Every Generation.
It has been argued that Seacole was the first nurse practitioner, Hoping to assist with nursing the wounded on the outbreak of the Crimean War, Seacole applied to the War Office to be included among the nursing contingent but was refused, so she travelled independently and set up her hotel and tended to the battlefield wounded. She became popular, and people raised money for her when she faced destitution after the war. In 1857 a four-day fundraising gala took place in London to honour Seacole. About 40,000 attended, including veterans.
After her death she was largely forgotten for almost a century, but then began to be recognised for her accomplishments. Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857), is one of the earliest autobiographies of an Afro-Caribbean woman, although some aspects of its accuracy have been questioned. A statue of her was erected at St Thomas' Hospital, London, on 30 June 2016, describing her as a "pioneer".
Hello and welcome to our class page!
Mary Seacole class is part of Reception in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Mrs Norton is the main class teacher and also the EYFS Lead. Mrs Norton will teach on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then Miss Martin will cover the class on a Thursday and a Friday. The first day back will be slightly different with Mrs Norton teaching so that the children are familiar with her and settle in well. We also have Mrs Hardy who is our teaching assistant.
On our webpage, you will find updates on our learning each term and useful information. You will also find our chosen ‘Star of the Week’, who will get to take our lovely class mascot home for some weekend adventures.
Alongside our webpage, please see our class ‘Dojo’ for our regularly updated class stories and any new messages. Through Dojo, we will continually update yourselves on any key dates, events, reminders, or important information, therefore, please check daily. You will also be able to access observations of your child’s learning on Dojo.
Please also keep visiting the 'Parents' tab regularly on our website, to view Mrs Houseman’s new updates and information.
If you have any questions or any concerns, you are very welcome to email myself on the email below.
mnorton@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk
We can not wait to start our journey together.
SEPTEMBER 2022
Autumn 1
Friday 2nd September - BACK TO SCHOOL
Wednesday 19th October - Parent's evening
Friday 21st October - Break up for half-term
Monday 31st October - Inset Day
Tuesday 1st November - Back to school
January 2023
Spring Term
Friday 27th January - Interim Reports out
Friday 17th February - BREAK UP HALF TERM
Monday 27th February - RETURN TO SCHOOL
Thursday 9th February - Expert groups afternoon
Tuesday 28th March - PARENTS EVENING
Friday 31st March - BREAK UP EASTER
Monday 17th April - RETURN TO SCHOOL
Summer 2
Friday 23rd June - Inset day
Friday 7th July - Sports day
Tuesday 11th July - Whole school Class swap
Wednesday 12th July - Meet the teacher
Friday 14th July - Reports out to parents
Wednesday 19th July - Drop in's (optional) regarding reports
Friday 21st July - Last day of school
Each child who receives 'Star of the week' will have their name added here.
Aleah Edie Brooke Leo Darcie
Jos Oskar Oliver Piper Tyler
Scarlett A Scarlett S Seth
Jayana Amelia Archie Camden
Candace Eliza Georgia Hattie
Izzy-Mae Miller Sofia Zita
Summer 2 - Paddington's Great Adventure
We hope you had a lovely half-term!
In Literacy, this half term we will be exploring different parts of the world through 'Paddington's Great Adventure'. We will be discovering facts about India, Egypt and other places and also looking at Ellen McArthur and where she travelled to on her boat. Paddington will introduce us to new stories from places he has visited.
In Maths, we will continue to develop our addition and subtraction skills and practise recalling number bond facts quickly. We will also be exploring patterns within numbers up to 10 which will include doubling, sharing quantities equally and finding which numbers are odd or even.
In Understanding the world we will be looking at how our surroundings are similar and different to those in other countries and looking at the different oceans around the world. We will be looking at materials and which material will make the best coat for Paddington, as well as finding toys that our parents used to play with and sharing them with Paddington and the class. We will also be looking at special stories that are our favourite stories and those from other religions.
For our Expressive Arts and Design, we will be continuing to follow Charanga for our Music lessons and also be looking at the Pop Artist Roy Lichenstein to practise creating pop art inspired penguins using our colour mixing skills. We will continue to develop our learned skills independently and create pieces of artwork collaboratively.
In PE, we will continue our TLG PE programme where we will be learning a Spanish Dance and continue to practice our throwing skills. We will also be preparing for Sport's Day by practising how to compete in races and team races.
It is a busy half term and we can't wait to learn all about the world around us!
Hello and welcome to Summer term 1. This half term we will be learning about the question 'Land or sea, where will the animal be?'. This will look at a variety of animal habitats and use these as a focus to learning about the world around us. We will start by using the story 'What the Ladybird heard' to look at animals on the farm, linking this to map reading and the stages of animal growth and their babies.
We will then continue our learning into the sea where we will read 'Commotion in the ocean' and 'The Rainbow fish' to discover sea creatures. This will then lead on to animals in cold and hot places whilst reading the books 'Jungle' and 'Lost and found'
We will be looking at transport across the water from now and the past and also look at people who explored the Antarctic. In maths we will be learning about number bonds and doubles to 10, as well as beginning to extend our knowledge of ways to create numbers beyond 10.
For music we will continue on our Charanga journey and we will also be using a variety of techniques to create animal patterns, silhouettes and textures, as well as work collaboratively with our peers.
This half term we are looking at the knowledge block 'Get Set Grow'. We will be exploring the growth of seeds and looking into the lifecycle of caterpillars along with other animals such as frogs and chicks. We will be looking at creating images using textures in photographs and learning about Yayoi Kusama and trying to create flowers using techniques we have learnt from them.
In our Understanding of the world - People and communities lessons we will be learning about religious special places, then learning about the Christian story of Easter.
We will be continuing our knowledge of music by following charanga and moving on to looking at tuned instruments with more than one note to play.
We are also continuing to follow our 1Decision PSHCE lessons each week.
Books we will be reading this half term are...
Our knowledge block this half term is Dinosaurs and Fantasy!
This is a huge interest of the children in our cohort, where we will be looking to extend their current knowledge to discover about Mary Anning and also have WOW experiences such as hatching an egg to see which dinosaur is inside. We will then write instructions on how to hatch the egg.
We will continue to look at fantasy stories with Zog and the FLying Doctors and The girl the Bear and the Magic shoes. This will begin to look at people who help us before learning about this later in the the year.
In Maths we will be following the White Rose scheme looking at Alive in 5 where we will concentrate on introducing 0, comparing numbers to 5, composition of 4 and 5 and revisiting comparing mass and capacity.
Throughout our understanding of the world sessions we will be looking at baptism, special places and people, then looking at materials to keep our dinosaurs out of the rain. We will also continue our map skills by looking at where the dinosaurs are in our school grounds. We will continue to look at the seasons and also develop our knowledge of art skills and creativity by creating fossils from saltdough and creating kandinsky art.
Our knowledge block for this half term is
'In a Land far away...'
This half term we will be focussing on traditional tales. We will start with The Gingerbread Man, then continue with The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears, The Little Red Hen and The Elves and the shoemaker.
This will then lead on to Nativity activities.
We will be holding an art gallery in school on Thursday 24th November therefore the children will be producing a piece of art based on the artist Jackson Pollock.
In Maths we are looking at representing numbers following White Rose and we will also be recapping 'Flashback' on shapes and their properties, number and quantity and pattern.
In Understanding of the world we will begin to look at materials and their properties as well as look at structures and buildings and how these can be the same or different.
We will continue with our 1decision 'Colour drop' sessions for PSHCE which are evidenced in our floor books and we will also begin looking at what Christian's believe and how we celebrate Christmas.
For the first few weeks, our main priority is to ensure all the children settle happily into school routines and form good relationships and friendships within the class. The children will also be finding out about our routines and 'REACH’ superhero values: Respect, Enjoyment, Achievement, Challenge and Health. We will model how this looks within the school environment. All the children will also be completing a range of activities which enable us to identify their current knowledge and understanding which will take place through our own school Baseline and a Government Baseline.
The children will be introduced to Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics by exploring and becoming familiar with set 1 sounds and cvc words. The children will also begin exploring numbers in depth and some friendly
characters from ‘Numberblocks’ will be helping us to do this! We will also begin learning about matching and sorting shapes and exploring pattern.
We will be learning all about ourselves, our families, and our friendships through a range of quality and engaging texts which can be seen below. We will be developing our understanding about what makes us unique from others and that's what makes us SUPER! We will share the story of 'The Colour Monster' to understand our emotions and feelings in depth and strategies to help us with some emotions.
Our PE day will be every Thursday. Please see below for information regarding PE kits. The children will be developing their gross motor skills and exploring dance through the theme 'All about Me'.
On the 4th of October, World Space Week begins! So, we will get our space suits on and shoot into space in our rockets to explore the amazing solar system!
We are looking forward to continually getting to know your lovely children and yourselves further over the next few weeks!
Please keep checking Dojo to see updates and the fantastic learning your children undertake!
Our School Day
The school day starts from 9:00 am - 3:15pm with the gates opening at 8:50am.
In the morning, please drop off your child at the main gates so they can independently walk to their classroom. Familiar staff will be at the gate to support this.
On collection, if you wait outside our classroom (on the playground) and your child will be in the line to come out to you. Please give us a wave and try and stand in a similar spot each day to aid with getting the children out quickly and safely - especially in the wetter months.
Water Bottles
We encourage all children to bring their own water bottles into the classrooms everyday with their full name clearly labelled on the side. Children are provided access to their own water bottles throughout the day to ensure hydration. Please could you ensure that only water is put into them and not juice! This will be returned each day to be washed and refilled for the next school day.
Book bags
The children will be given book bags. Please could these be named clearly and brought into school each day and checked every evening for any new letters. Please could we ask these are the only bags brought into school as we have limited space in the cloakrooms.
PE day
Our PE day will be every Thursday.
Please can the children bring in their PE kit in a named small bag and this will stay on the children's pegs through the term. This will be sent home at the end of each half-term to be washed. PE will include alternating both indoors and outdoors. Please could you ensure both indoor and outdoor kit is placed in the children's PE kit bags at the beginning of each term.
Please note the PE kit should be: a plain red t-shirt with or without the school logo, plain black sports jacket/zip-up jacket, plain black or navy joggers/shorts and trainers. Please can you ensure all PE clothing and footwear is labelled with your child’s full name.
Medical
Any children who require any medical support such as inhalers, EPI pens and medication will need a form to be completed, which can be collected from the school office. This will then be signed once administered by staff. Inhalers and EPI pens if needed, should remain in school.
School Money
You will shortly receive a text message /email about joining 'School Money'. This is our system on paying for things in school as we do not handle cash. This will include things like school milk, trips wrap-around club etc. Any questions please Dojo, email or ring the school office.
Milk
While the children are 4 years old, they will receive milk for free. Once your child turns 5 years old, unfortunately they will no longer receive it. If you wish for your child to continue to have milk at school, please visit: www.coolmilk.com.
Birthdays
To celebrate this special day, the birthday boy or girl can come dressed in their own clothes for the school day. If their birthday is on the weekend, they are welcome to pick the closest day to come in non-uniform!
Jewellery and Hair
To ensure the safety of your child our school policy regarding jewellery, hair and nails is as follows:-
- No jewellery other than stud earrings and watches.
- We recommend that children who have long hair (below their shoulders) should tie their hair back for school; however, it is essential that it is tied back for PE lessons.
- Appropriate hair bobbles of size and design.
- Nail varnish should be removed for the school week.