porters grange weekly newsletter week ending 8TH march 2024

Nursery

This week we have loved celebrating world book day in our pyjamas!! We have enjoyed talking about our favourite books both at school and at home. We have enjoyed drawing pictures about our favourite stories. We have also enjoyed working together and taking turns with our new games.

REMINDERS: Please continue to bring in your child’s favourite stories from home.

Reception

This week we have enjoyed celebrating world book day and book week. It was great to see so many adults coming into school to help us celebrate and enjoy the love of reading. Thank you for sending in and sharing your favourite books with us! We loved listening to what you like best about these books and why you love them. In maths we have been learning all about numbers 9 & 10. We have been learning to count out the correct amount and how to add numbers together.

REMINDER: Please don’t forget to read at home regularly and sign your childs reading record.

Year 1

This week we have had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day; we loved all of the activities and reading our books from home. In English we have been learning to write facts about buildings, schools and cities focusing on extending our sentences using connective conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘so’. In maths we have been learning to estimate where numbers belong on a number line to 50. We have continued to practise counting in 10s too.

REMINDER: It will be great if you could reflect on the time spent in school with your child. Ask them whether they enjoyed the World Book Day activities and what was their favourite thing to do?

Year 2

This week in English, our focus was on instructions. We engaged in a delightful biscuit-making project, carefully following the given instructions. Furthermore, we worked on creating our own set of instructions for making biscuits, using our understanding of imperative verbs and adverbials. In our math sessions, we continued with multiplication and expanded our knowledge of division. During history we expanded our understanding of dinosaurs and learned more about where they lived – their habitats.

REMINDER: Please remember your child’s PE kit on Tuesdays and to enjoy nightly reading sessions with your child.

Year 3

Thus week in English we have been exploring a narrative text ‘The Water Princess". We have been retelling the story and embellishing the plot by adding extra descriptive language. In maths we continue to explore fractions; we have been learning that when the denominator becomes smaller the fraction/ equal part becomes greater. In the build-up up for World Book Day we have been having daily discussions about stories we like and why.

REMINDER: Have you any stories at home? Read with someone at home and try to find interesting places you can read…it might be fun to read somewhere you haven’t before i.e. the dining table, snuggled on the sofa or in you comfy clothes!

Year 4

This week in English children have been using rich vocabulary in their writing to describe their character and setting for their story. In maths year 4 have been using their knowledge of number bonds to add fractions. We have had an exciting week of DT and Food, where children have been learning about the foods of The Americas. Our first stop was Mexico where the salsa dish originates from. Using their precise cutting skills, children then went onto make a delicious, spicy salsa, which they all devoured with some tortilla crisps!

REMINDER: Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school on Monday and Wednesday.

Please encourage your child to read at least 15 minutes every night and to keep practising spellings and times tables.

Year 5

This week year 5 have been busy in English as we constructed and wrote our own narrative! We took great care to craft an imaginary world for the reader, whilst adding empathy for the main protagonists and jeopardy that they may not survive! Ultimately, our heroes prevailed, and the children all wrote some excellent, creative stories. In science, we have been looking at properties of materials – specifically how materials retain heat (a process called insulation). In P.E we have been getting to ‘tackle’ football, learning key skills such as passing and dribbling.

REMINDER: Please ensure your child has a suitable PE kit within school to reflect the changing weather.

Please strive to read for 20 minutes each night and remember to keep practising times tables.

Year 6

This week, Year 6 have written a diary entry from the grandad’s point of view about the story ‘The Long Walk.’ We considered the author’s use of informal speech to show how close the grandad and grandson are in the story. In our history lessons, we have continued to learn about the Ancient Greeks and evaluated the legacy of Alexander the Great. The children have enjoyed taking part in all the wonderful activities that have been arranged for World Book Day and enjoyed reading their own way in class!

REMINDER: Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school on Wednesday and Friday.

French

This week in French, Year 1 have been learning more on how to talk about things in the sky; Year 6 have been describing themselves in more depth and fluency; and Year 4 have been learning more expressions to talk about how people have been feeling recently.

Music

Music Clubs

• Tuesday 12.00: Band
• Tuesday 12.45: Year 2 Music Club
• Tuesday 3.30: Music Making for Year 1 and 2
• Wednesday 12.45: Choir for Years 3-6
• Thursday 3.30: Choir for Years 3 - 6

Instrumental Lessons

We do have a few vacancies, please contact Mrs Baines if your child would like to learn an instrument.

• Tuesday am: Drums (Mr Fletcher)
• Tuesday am: Guitar (Mr Brown)
• Wednesday am: Keyboard (Mr Hockey)
• Wednesday am: Guitar (Mr Elliot)

Future Events

• 15th March Southend Makes Music – KS2 Choir
• 19th March Infant Music Festival - 1pm (those involved have been notified by letter)
• 13th June Junior Music Fesitval - KS2 Choir

Healthy Schools

How to find an NHS dentist

You can find a dental surgery that's convenient for you, whether it's near your home or work, and phone them to see if there are any NHS appointments available.

You can search for an NHS dentist near you on the following website Find a dentist - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Dental surgeries will not always have the capacity to take on new NHS patients. You may have to join a waiting list, look for a different dentist who is taking on new NHS patients, or be seen privately.

Once you find a dental surgery, you may have to fill in a registration form at your first visit, which is just to add you to their patient database. But that does not mean you have guaranteed access to an NHS dental appointment in the future.

Did you know? Advice on how to find an NHS dentist from the NHS advises that dentist practices do not have a catchment area and patients do not need to “register” with a dentist in the same way as with a GP (though practices may have their own registers to store personal details and waiting lists).