Smith | R

Class Teacher: Mr Ewen

Phase Support Team: Mrs Andrews, Mrs Midford, Mrs Cheeseman, Miss Sparks, Mrs Challis, Miss Brooks.

Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer-songwriter. He rose to fame in October 2012 when he was featured on Disclosure’s breakthrough single “Latch”, which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. His subsequent feature—on Naughty Boy’s “La La La”—earned him his first number one single in May 2013. In December 2013, he was nominated for the 2014 Brit Critics’ Choice Award and the BBC’s Sound of 2014 poll, both of which he won.

He released his debut studio album, In the Lonely Hour, in May 2014 on Capitol Records UK. The lead single, “Lay Me Down”, was released prior to “La La La”. The second single, “Money on My Mind”, became his second number one single in the UK. The album’s third single, “Stay with Me”, was an international success, reaching number one in the UK and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the fourth single “I’m Not the Only One” reached the top five in both countries. The fifth single, “Like I Can”, reached number nine in the United Kingdom. He made his United States debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, followed by a performance on Saturday Night Live in March 2014.

Welcome to Smith Class. Your child’s class teacher’s name is Mr Ewen and the Ta is Miss Sparks. Our class has been named after the famous singer Sam Smith

Within our class we have friendship groups for your children, which are named after types of pets: fish, cats, dogs, hamsters and rabbits. As the year progresses your child will also be put in to special maths and literacy groups and we will let you know these once they have been put in place.

This year is going to have some great topics. The children will be learning about ‘Ubuntu‘, and ‘Why do you love me so much?’ in their first term of Reception.

We support the whole school positive behaviour policy, using the ‘Good to be Green’ system. All of the children start on the green lily pad at the start of the day and if they continue to show positive behaviour such as; taking care of everyone and everything; using kind hands, kind words and kind feet; trying their best; keeping safe within the classroom; and showing good listening when an other is talking, the child will move onto the next lily pad which are silver and gold.

We are going to be putting on ‘Stay and Play’ sessions where you can come and be with your child and see what they learn during Child Initiated session. It will give you the opportunity to see children they are building strong friendships with and also what things they like to play with at school. The session dates will be put out on a board so that you can sign up for a session date that suits you. This will start after the half term, once we know your children have fully settled into the full-time timetable. We look forward to having lots of you come and join in with these sessions.

Important things for you to remember

• We change the reading books once a week on a Monday, when your child will be given two books to share across the week.
• Your child needs to bring their reading books in every day to ensure they have it for when we listen to them read.
• Your child has a ‘My Learning Journey from Home’, which can have photos of them doing different things, a piece of writing about what they have done, or they can draw their own pictures. We send the book home on a Wednesday and it needs to be returned the following Monday.
• PE kits need to be brought in by Monday 11th September (every item in the PE bag needs to be named please)
• If your child wears earrings please can they be removed or covered with tape for the Thursday PE lesson, otherwise they will not be able to take part.
• Can we remind you that ALL of your children’s clothing should be labelled with their name. The children’s coats are all the same so we suggest placing a key ring on the zip that your child can identify. Can you also ensure all book bags are named to prevent loss. Book bags must be brought into school everyday.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage is a play-based curriculum that is very much centred on the child and the child’s interests.

It is made up of six areas of learning that the children will be assessed on throughout the year:

• Personal, social and emotional development – social skills, level of involvement and so on.
• Communication and language and literacy – English
• Maths- number, counting and shapes
• Understanding of the world – Science, ICT, geography & history.
• Physical development – P.E., fine motor skills
• Expressive Arts and Design. – Music, art, D&T, dancing and singing.

Our planning is very cross-curricular and follows the children’s interests. Whilst we do participate in whole school themes we like to plan our lessons around what the children have been enjoying.

During child initiated time children are able to plan an activity they are going to do, do the activity and then review it at the end.

Assessment

Assessment in the foundation stage are made up of:

• Observations
• Post-it notes
• Photographs/video’s
• Children’s work including any work they have done at home
• Importantly comments from parents – we value contributions from parents and will give opportunities for parents to share these comments, especially on the parent observation sheets provided. We want parents to be involved in their child’s learning.

We hope that your child enjoys their time at school and has fun with learning lots of new and exciting things!

Please feel free to speak with us at the end of your child’s day if you have any questions for us, however if there is something urgent do not hesitate to speak to us in the morning if it is likely to affect your child’s ability to learn.

Mr Ewen and Miss Sparks.