We have 30 children in Great Britain Class.
Our class teacher is Mrs Robinson who teaches in class from Monday to Thursday. On a Friday Miss Roberts will be teaching us.
We also have two teaching assistants: Miss Haywood who will be in class from Monday to Thursday; and Miss Mercer who will be in class on a Friday.
Our PE day will always be on a Wednesday. This will include alternating indoor and outdoor PE. Children's PE kits will be stored on their child's peg. We will send this home every half term for a wash.
Our Welly Walk day is Monday, also known as 'Muddy Monday'. Children must have a pair of wellies and rain coat in school to assist with this exciting experience.
This section of the class page is where a new learning plan and activities will be uploaded in order for the children’s learning to continue to develop at home whilst the school is closed.
Every Sunday, a new flower will appear which will hold the new weeks learning to be undertaken each day which I hope the children will enjoy and be engaged with.
Please complete the learning on the day set and in order as it has been planned to progress the children’s knowledge, understanding and skills through sequential learning and to prevent the children feeling overwhelmed.
The learning will consist of phonics, alternate literacy and maths and a choice of different activities. These activities may consist completion in their pink learning journal, completing different online games or resources or taking a photo or video where possible. Please note that learning is planned to be viewed online and doesn’t need printing off unless you wanted to.
Additionally, I also ask that the children continue to undertake the following, everyday, where possible:
Reading – Reading their school book by applying their phonic knowledge and skills, with the support of an adult. Please continue to write in their school reading diary when this takes place. I understand that their school books will be finished in the next week or so, therefore, I am going to try and find free books online or take photos of school books to support the continuation of reading appropriate to their phonic phase.
Additionally, please continue to enjoy a range of home books together to engage children in the pleasure of reading.
Name Formation – Practising their full name using the name card provided in their pink learning journal. As the children develop their confidence, please hide the card and use it just to support letters the children are unsure of.
Letter and number formation – Practising letters and number formation will continue to support their writing and number work. Please see the formation sheets provided in their pink learning journal that was sent home.
I completely understand that this may seem a huge ask when so many of you are trying to continue working from home. I am grateful for any support you can give in these difficult circumstances. Please don’t hesitate to contact myself if any further guidance or support is needed through my following email: bkeating@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk. I'm afraid I can't send any emails to yourselves until I receive an email from you, as I don't have any of your email addresses.
Additionally, on France class page, Miss Hutchinson has set up a link where a range of free resources will be continually uploaded to support the children’s learning at home and to provide a range of ideas and engaging activities to keep the children active and engaged. Miss Hutchinson will keep adding to this as we keep researching new resources, so please keep checking!
I want to say a big thank you for all your kind messages and support. It has truly meant a lot and I hope to see TEAM GB back in school very soon. I wish everyone my best wishes and to keep safe and well.
Kind Regards, Mrs Robinson.
Spring Term 2
Our topic is...
Our topic questions we hope to answer are:
How do I travel?
Which vehicles help us?
How many different types of transport travel on the road?
How do aeroplanes, helicopters and hot air balloons fly?
What different types of train are there?
How does a boat float?
This topic will focus on lots of different transport including vehicles that help us. Our main book focus this term is ‘The Train Ride’ by June Crebbin.
In Literacy, the children will be developing their prediction skills by thinking what might happen at the end of the story by making connections to the events through the story and their own experiences. The children will become storytellers, by retelling the story through the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach and then, deepen their sequencing skills using their knowledge about the story. The children will additionally be applying their research skills using both information books and technology to find out about transport now and from the past. Also, we will be exploring poetry and finding out the similarities and differences compared to stories.
In Maths, the children will be deepening their understanding and knowledge about 2D and 3D shapes to create and describe a variety of patterns in addition to understanding the properties of shapes. The children will be beginning subtraction to 10 and solving subtraction problems using both the 10 frame and the part-part whole model. Also, we will developing our positional language such as: above, below, next to and beginning to learn about money! We will be applying our knowledge and skills of money with a visit to the shops!
Additionally, we will be learning more about the Christian faith, including Shrove Tuesday and the Easter story, with a visit from Reverend Elaine Jones. We will be developing our understanding about safety around different transport and learning about music around the world. We will continue to build our art skills using ‘printing’ with shapes and developing our understanding about pattern and materials.
PE will now be on a Wednesday due to timetable changes. Please ensure your child has their full kit during school term.
Key dates:
Monday 24th February – Inset Day – School Closed.
Tuesday 25th February – Back to School and visit from Reverend Elaine Jones.,
Thursday 5th March – World Book Day – wear PJ’s or dress as a character from a book.
Friday 3rd April – Break up for Easter holidays.
Spring Term 1
Our second topic for the last three weeks is...
Fantasy
Our topic questions we hope to answer are:
Who do the magical objects belong to?
How can the Princess and Knight help the King?
What magical powers does the unicorn have?
How can we help the mermaid save her home?
This topic will focus on Fantasy and the story of ‘Zog and the Flying Doctors’ written by Julia Donaldson.
The children will explore and develop understanding about new characters and settings and how these relate to each other. We will be sequencing the story, building on the children’s knowledge and understanding about story structure and events. The children will become storytellers, by retelling the story through the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach.
In maths, we will continue to develop our understanding in addition by exploring number bonds to 10. We will develop our 10 frame understanding and progress to using the part-part whole model.
Additionally, we will focus on the Creation story in RE and we will be thinking about different ways we can help our planet and save the sea, by making small changes in both the school and at home. We will continue to develop our art skills by focusing on the skill of ‘scrunching’ and how to create Transient art.
Key dates:
3rd – 7th February - Mental Health Week - 'Well-being Wake and Shake' for both parents and children. On the playground, every morning, at 8.40am - 8.50am.
7th February - Wear yellow (or bright colours) to bring awareness to Mental Health.
14th February – Break up from school.
Our topic for the first three weeks is:
The topic questions we hope to answer are:
Who does the egg belong to?
What are the different species of dinosaurs?
How did the Dinosaurs live?
What features did a Dinosaur have?
This topic will focus on the children becoming Paleontologists and Researchers, to find out about the different species of dinosaurs and create fact files to share their knowledge. It will develop the skill of prediction and create descriptive writing based on their ideas. This topic will continue to build on the children's knowledge and understanding about story structure, settings, characters, events and problems through a range of dinosaur stories.
Key dates:
6th January – Back to school
9th and 16th January – Balance Bike sessions in school
14th February – Break up from school.
Autumn Term 2
Our new topic is:
The topic questions we hope to answer are:
How can we help the Gingerbread Man?
What material makes the strongest house for the three little pigs?
When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears what did her blue eyes see?
Should Cinderella go to the ball?
The topic will focus heavily on developing children's knowledge of story telling following the 'Talk for Writing' initiative. This will include how a story is structured (beginning, middle and end), key story language as well as learning that all stories have characters, settings an problems that may need solving.
Autumn Term 1
Our first topic was:
The topic questions we hope to answer are:
What makes a SUPERHERO?
What makes me SUPER?
Why is my friend SUPER?
The topic will focus on learning about different superheroes and what their super powers are, understanding that not all superheroes wear capes and that there are people in our world whom are real life superheroes such as doctors, nurses, police officers, fire fighters and even teachers! We are learning about each other and that there are things that make us unique from others and that’s what makes us SUPER.
We know the children will love this topic as many of them have a huge interest in Superheroes.
REWARDS AT DOVEDALE
At Dovedale we have a positive approach to behaviours management and use many different strategies to reward positive behaviour. They are as follows:-
- Smiley Chart- Both classrooms have a smiley chart. Each child starts on the green smiley face every morning and throughout the day if they show progress towards our REACH Rules they have the opportunity to move up the chart to the silver or gold smiley. The gold smiley is highly regarded and only 1 or 2 children achieve this each day. If they achieve the gold smiley they will receive a reward which may include a golden ticket or prize. Alternatively children who struggle to follow our REACH Rules may have to move down on the smiley chart but will always have the opportunity to move back up the chart before the end of the day. If your child comes home with a smiley sticker this shows they have had a good day at school.
- Sticker Charts-Children receive stickers for a wide range of reasons within the school day. As they gather stickers on their chart they will gradually be getting closer to achieving a bronze, silver and gold award. You will receive a letter of invitation to come into school to watch your child collect their award in assembly. These letters are usually sent home in advance to enable time to make any necessary work arrangements. Children need to achieve 25 stickers to achieve each award. The sticker chart scheme is separate to the class smiley chart stickers given at the end of each day.
- House Points- Children across school are allocated a place in either the Gold, Sapphire, Emerald or Ruby House Team. Throughout the school day children achieve house points for their team which are calculated at the end of every week. At the end of each half term the winning house team receives a small prize and an additional play time.
WATER BOTTLES
We encourage the children to bring their own water bottles into the classroom. Please ensure that only water is put in them and not juice. There are baskets for the children to keep their water bottles in, enabling them to have easy access to them throughout the day. We ask that the water bottles are clearly labelled with their name. If the children forget their water bottle there are water fountains in the corridor that the children have access to at all times.
VOLUNTEERS
We are always very grateful for any extra help and support in school from parent helpers, grandparents, aunties and uncles, or anyone else you know who may be interested. The jobs we tend to ask people to help out with range from hearing the children read, craft activities and working with small groups of children to help them with their work. To help in school you are required to have an up to date DBS check. This can be arranged via the school office. If you, or if you know of anyone who would like to help out in school please come and see Mrs Wilson who will arrange the necessary paper work for you.
JEWELLERY / HAIR
To ensure the safety of your child our school policy regarding jewellery, hair and nails is as follows:-
- Jewellery can only be worn for religious purposes.
- Any recently pierced ears need to be kept covered for the advised time of six weeks.
- 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.
- Nail varnish should be removed for the school week.
