porters grange weekly newsletter week ending 10th JANUARY 2025

Nursery

We have had a fabulous first week back. Everyone has settled quickly back into the nursery routines and rules and have enjoyed seeing their friends. This week we have welcomed some new friends and have been showing them around Nursery. We have enjoyed talking about what we did in the holiday and making some collages and drawing about it.

Reception

We enjoyed sharing our holiday news and settling back into our school routine. For maths we are looking at one more and one less when working with numbers to 5 and matched the correct numerals.

We are beginning to learn new sounds in our phonic lessons and learning how to share our guided reading books.

In Art we have begun a ‘snail’ project and have started to use a visual alphabet to draw one. Our music lessons required us to listen carefully and hear the beat.

REMINDER: Don’t forget to read at home regularly.

Year 1

Year 1 loved their winter walk this week. We have been reading ‘Winter Sleep’. This story has helped us to understand what hibernation means and why some animals do it.

In English, we have been practising how to write question marks and what they are for.

In maths the children have been using tens and ones columns to write numbers correctly.

REMINDER: Please remember to bring your child’s PE kit into school. PE days are still Thursday.

Year 2

We hope you had a wonderful break. The children seemed refreshed and ready to go! In English, we have explored a new text ‘Princess and the Pea’ and an adapted version so the children can compare them both. In maths, the children have been learning about 2D shapes and how to draw them accurately with a ruler. It was fun identifying the properties of materials in science, the children learned new key vocabulary to describe certain properties like ‘flexible’, ‘absorbent’ and ‘fragile’ to name a few!

Controlling a ruler to draw a specific shape is tricky so please help your child to draw 2D shapes at home. Maybe they can show you how we practised in class!

Please read regularly with your child at home and make a note of how they read in their records.

Year 3

We hope you had a lovely, restful break. All the children have returned ready to learn and we have started our new topics in science and geography. In science we have started to learn about different types of forces and in geography we have learned about the water cycle. In English we have been looking at a poem called Spells by John Foster and looked at different grammatical features. In maths we have been continuing our learning about multiplication and division and looked at the relationship between them.

REMINDER: Please ensure that all PE kits are returned to school, and children are reading every day.

Year 4

This week we have been learning about factors in our maths lessons. The children have been using their valuable times table knowledge to find facts about numbers. In English we have been comparing stories from different cultures and in Layered reading we have begun learning about The Ancient Mayans.

REMINDER: PE kits should have been brought back into school by now, please remember these are important so your child can join in with PE properly.

Children should be changing their own books regularly, it has been great to see them bringing in books from home too!

Year 5

It has been a busy first week back in Year 5! In English, we looked at reports and wrote a shared one about human’s impact on the environment. Next week, the children will write their own report about fossil fuels.

In PE, we have completed various fitness activities and had a go at making different shapes in gymnastics.

REMINDER: Please ensure that children are learning their weekly spellings at home and that they read daily.

Year 6

Everyone has settled very quickly this half term. In English, our focus is the Greek myth Persus and the Gorgon Slayer and we are thinking about using different punctuation to link ideas and add detail to our descriptions of character and settings. Our English links well to our history topic this half term, which is about the Ancient Greeks. We have started looking at where Greece and the Ancient Greek colonies were located.

In maths, we have started comparing amounts and answering questions about ratios. We have also started revising some of the arithmetic skills that have been taught previously.

Our PE this half term is gymnastics and hockey.

REMINDER: We have outdoor PE (hockey) so please remind your children to bring in jogging bottoms to keep them warm. Thank you.

Letters sent home

• Year 6 - National Child Measurement Programme - 06.01.2025
• Year 6 - National Child Measurement Parent Portal Guide - 06.01.2025

French

This week year two have been learning about the month of January in French; year five have been studying the topic of independence; year four have been brushing up their dictionary skills on the topic of where people live.

Music

Instrumental Tuition

• Tuesday am Guitar – Mr Brown
• Wednesday am Guitar – Mr Elliot
• Wednesday am Keyboard – Mr Hockey
• Wednesday am Drums – Mr Peters

Keyboard lessons resumed this week, drum and guitar will resume next week. All pupils will receive their 10 lessons before the Easter break.

Community

Cost of Living Advice

Click here to access cost of living advice from Southend City Council. It contains information on housing support, energy cost advice and benefits and support for those with children.