Willow Room

The Willow Room children have now settled into their nurture class, learning the routines and expectations of our Willow Room.  The children are now familiar with check in, taking turns to share their news and discuss how they are feeling.  This continues during our snack times, where we eat together and chat about school and home life.

The academic focus has very much been on number and spelling/sounds.  Primary 1 have been working on numbers to 10 and will continue to familiarise themselves with forming each number figure and matching quantities.  We will begin to look at addition in the coming weeks too.  Our older children have been working on numbers to 20 and number stories, looking for pattern and relationships within the numbers.  The focus will be addition and subtraction within 20.

In literacy, active literacy activities have been used to help children retain and recall their new sounds.  The focus again for primary 1, has been initial sounds and letter formation whilst introducing their first common words and reading books.  Our older children have been recapping previous learning and have been introduced to joint phonemes and common words linked to Bug Club and Active Literacy.  This will continue to be our focus over the coming weeks.

Every Wednesday we take part in Welly Wednesday.  The children are encouraged to explore and discuss nature around us.  It involves outdoor learning opportunities and a chance to explore their local environment.  So far we have visited ‘The Foxes’, the basketball cages, the local swing park and a nature walk to Dean Park to look for signs of Autumn.  We will continue to explore our local area and have opportunities to visit play/learning facilities to further enhance the children’s learning.

Oak Room

The Oak Room children are settling into their new nurture classroom and are beginning to get to know each other better.  The children have discussed how they feel they would benefit from the Transition Nurture Group and have shared some of their worries or concerns about the transition to the academy.  The Oak group will also be supported by Julie and Nicola, home-link workers based at St. Joseph’s, who will be able to help organise regular visits and any questions the children may have.

The focus for the Oak room as we move forward will be researching and working on individual tasks, opportunities to work in a small group organising resources/activities to raise money for charity.  There will be tasks and activities which will allow the children to develop their organisational skills, transferring these skills to the process of preparing for academy.  We will also look at timetabling, managing our time and thinking of the tools and equipment we may require to be fully prepared to begin our journey at St. Joseph’s.  Pupils will also have the opportunity to develop their study and homework skills as we discuss strategies which may be useful when juggling different subjects and different tasks/challenges associated with academy life.

There will be opportunities for parents of both the Willow and the Oak room children to attend parent/carer drop in sessions.  The children will plan and invite parents/carers to visit Oak/Willow rooms and we hope to have 2 sessions per term, to allow parents to see what the children have been working on.

Any questions, as always, please feel free to get in touch.

Many Thanks

Mrs Travers