WELCOME TO RECEPTION CLASS
21.12.24
(Blog Post)
Good afternoon all,
It’ssssssss CHRISTMAS! (nearly!) Just like that the Christmas holidays have arrived and you are all thinking how that has gone so fast! I must gush to you all as it seems to be a theme over the last couple of weeks. Thank you so much for all the cards, presents, sweet treats and kind words. They are never expected but Miss McCrone and I are massively appreciative of it – THANK YOU! I have tried revisiting the Seesaw journals today and from the reactions it seems to have gone down very well. I have seen how the journal works from the perspective of a ‘parent’ and everything seems to be running as it does. At the moment you cannot upload home learning to your journal, if this changes we will let you know. If you need any support accessing your journal let me know. Now to the pressing matter, what are the highlights of this busy week. Today looked at some complex phase 3 sounds in our phonics disco, applying them in word writing and then inserting that word into a sentence we have made ourselves, which you should be able to see with your very won eyes and be amazed! Children worked in Christmas groups with Parlick class and completed a plethora of mini Christmas themed activities, from painting, letter writing, coding, building and role playing. Our P.E was uniquely brilliant as we tested our dance moves, listening ears and a brilliant demonstration of the hokey-pokey by yours truly, a real gift for the world. I am so overwhelmingly proud of the incredible milestones the children have achieved in our first full term together. Bring on 2025 where we shall accomplish even more! Thank you as always for all your support during our first term together. A special thank you to Miss McCrone for all her love and support too. I hope you all have a peaceful Christmas together and can spend as much of it together as a family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
With love,
Mr McGill
13.12.24
(Blog Post)
Good afternoon all,
What should we talk about, the weather? Darker and darker evenings? OR 1 FAB NATIVITY – perhaps the latter! I must begin with thanks to my incredible colleagues. Mrs Davies, Miss McCrone and Mrs Devine. The effort from them all has been truly above and beyond and they are the overwhelming reason why your children have done so well and preformed to such a high standard. Thank you to everyone at home for working on the songs, lines and actions. A final and most important thank you to Pendle and Parlick class! Standing at the front in a very busy hall is never an easy task let alone preforming and singing! I sincerely hope you enjoyed our show, well done everyone. In our phonics we are targeting a range of sounds within phase 3. I did promise all the children an incredible present at the end of this term, a sound mat to take home! You will be proud and slightly surprised by how keen they are over this, so save money this Christmas and do some phonics. In mathematics we have plotted out shapes and gave reasoning for a guess (when the shape is hidden) and then key identifying properties of a shape when we see it. For a wonderful art masterpiece we worked with our buddy friends in Beacon Class! As a team we tried to recreate the famous Van Gogh ‘Starry Night’ painting. Our buddies showed us some interesting techniques, one was a ‘splatter’ which sounds very messy but if done carefully looks incredible and showers the canvas with colour. I would like to remind you all that the Christmas Fair will be this evening afterschool. I shall see you all then. Please remember that the school trip to the Lowther is Tuesday 17th December. Any questions, please ask. Thank you all for a very special week we are all going to remember and see you all Monday. Pictures and clips of the Nativity will be with you ASAP!
With love,
Mr McGill
Born in a Barn Lyrics (Please click the link for lyrics.)
1.Shh, Dont wake the Baby
2. Its a long way on a donkey
3. Don’t worry Mary
4. No Room, No Room
5. Wake up Shepherds
6. We are camels
7. He’s the king
8. Born in a barn
6.12.124
(Blog Post)
Good afternoon all,
Cheeky elves! Christmas cows! Quadgraph! What on earth is happening this week! The children have told Miss McCrone and I many strange and hilarious tales of cheeky elves. Some have pinched Nutella, made terrible messes, snow angels in flour and my personal favorite story, pinched one of our students trousers before school – THE CHEEK! I hope these elves do not hang about much longer as Santa will need all hands on deck! Lights are twinkling, baubles aplenty and a festive looking trees are inside the classroom. It would be false to say children are ‘now’ in the Christmas spirit (as they definitely already were) but it has stepped up a gear. The children are ready for the Nativity next week. Please triple check all the details handed out via Seesaw and if you have any questions, big or small please ask. It is a day to celebrate your incredible children and the birth of Jesus Christ as a school. Children have reached a special milestone this week with our phonics reaching the end of phase 3 sounds. As mentioned we will constantly review these sounds and identify key sounds to work on. In our phonics we did come across something incredible a ‘quadgraph’ which simply is 4 letters that makes one sound! The children were excited to learn a very sophisticated word and share that with friends. Children have pattern made with shapes, creates pictures, hunted for shapes and created our very own snowflakes. We all discussed the properties of shapes as we advance throughout. In our literacy we have made observations about the world around us changing, create phoneme frames and turned into little segmenting and blending robots to be exposed to a plethora of sounds. We are also working on a top secret Christmas project. With many crafts, messages of love and Christmas cheer to share with you all. This will be shared with you before you know it. Thank you to the incredible Glee Club for showcasing incredible singing and preforming talent and thank you for the PTFA for the design a mug festive idea. All the designs were great and they ranged for the classic Christmas tree, pudding, Santa, elves and even a cow festively adorned with tinsel, hats and festive colours – who knew that was a thing! I will like to remind you all our Nativity is on Wednesday, please come to school in normal school uniform. On the Friday is the Christmas Fair. On an emotional note we say a temporary goodbye to the incredible Mrs Devine from Parlick Class as she leaves to have a baby. Rather selfishly she is not providing her baby for the school Nativity for a role he/she is seemingly is born to play, but my protests have fallen on deaf ears. I know as a school and community we wish her all the best of luck, a speedy recovery and a huge congratulations to her and her partner. You will be sorely missed and the children thank you for your love, support and smiling face every day! Rest up team, it is show time next week. Thank you and see you Monday!
With love,
Mr McGill
22.11.24
(Blog Post)
Good afternoon all,
After that PUNFUL start last week I shall begin swiftly. This week is UK Parliament Week. We had a virtual guide around Westminster Palace. We noticed the incredible history, symbols and sculptures. The children tried to think of what this incredible building was. Some suggested a castle, church and interestingly a palace! When we explored the grounds and discovered the ministers’ chamber where our country is safeguarded for future generations. I do like to think, if we have the St Francis children safeguarding our future in the years to come, we would truly be in safe hands. We then explored a core value of democracy – voting! We discussed what a ‘healthy’ debate is and how we share our values, thoughts and get people to see our way of thinking respectfully. Another set of phase 3 sounds have been encountered and knocked out of the park. Please note that we are still in the early days of our phonics journey and these core skills simply take time and need to be constantly revisited. You will really start seeing a jump in the length of books and breadth of language used. Home and school will always be different places so if you need any adjustments to the home reading, please let me know. In mathematics the sound of pins getting struck by ‘super’ strikes have rung out. Children have applied number knowledge, subitising, addition and subtraction in this fast paced task. We have compared quantities used STEM sentences using key language more/greater, less/fewer and same/even. Some children took this even further by then combining irregular amounts! We were inspired with our painting this week and tired our hand at painting a robin. We looked at the variety of colour on a simple robin. When we went outside to paint, we were watching the world go by and looking at our stunning environment. Unbelievably! The robins around us clearly love to do some modelling work, as when we were painting a pair fluttered and scampered around us – truly magical. I must finish with a great moment of the week. The first test with costumes on, I will attach pictures below! Costumes will be tweaked slightly so we shine like we should. As a class we wanted to reflect upon our roles in the Nativity and the feelings that may have come up. A big well done to Parlick Class for the exceptional example they set! Thank you all for an incredible week and see you all Monday.
With love,
Mr McGill
15.11.24
You all better keep your eyes peeled! We are BAKED in business this week! You can really PEEL it in your bones! That this week has been a special one and if you want the puns to stop, you’re in for a ROOT awakening. The children and I have been ever vigilant for the evil pea. Luckily for us, Supertato was keeping an eye out too. It was a real treat seeing that Supertato made an appearance at some of your homes too! Trigraph! What on earth is a trigraph you may ask. Luckily for us Pendle Class worked extremely hard (as always) on a very tricky new concept. A trigraph simply put is 3 letters that makes one sound e.g. ‘igh’ l-igh-t = light. We did have a range of vowel sounds to work through. This will grow our writing/reading repertoire exponentially. In our phoneme frames and sentence writing, we implemented these sound in words and sentences. Children were even pushed to create their own sentence! Please give your little stars a big well done from me! In mathematics number composition was looked at, we gathered natural materials to match number and amount. Children then looked at irregular ways to count to given numbers. For example, 4 sticks and 3 cows. Individually we have 4 and 3, but instilling this number knowledge in us will allow us to make quick combined links for addition and subtraction. Number truly is all around us! Speaking of which, Christmas magic! I have emailed each of you roles and if needed, additional bits for costumes. If you have not received this, please contact me. Children made reflective pictures for the birth of Jesus Christ and an ‘I Wonder’ statement. This allows children to express a deeper thought about the story and discuss it with an adult or friend. We had 2 very special/ important events this week. Anti-bullying week and Pennies for Pudsey. As a class we looked at why these causes are important and how we can do a little bit of good in the world. Something that is very common, not just in the classroom, but at St. Francis! We will continue to look at these key themes and honour them not just for a day or week – but a lifetime! Thank you all for your love and support for the home learning. I hope you all have a lovely weekend together as a family and see you all Monday! I will see you TATER!
8.11.24
Good afternoon all, Superheroes assemble! Hold on to your seat folks. We had our very own superhero in school today! It was not a bird or a plane. It was ‘FIREMAN DAVE!’ He came into school to explain his role, how he helps others and helped us learn some fire safety tips. He did give us a little bit of homework. As a family, do you have a fire safety plan? Can you remember the first line of your address? Dave explained how these were important to know. I hope you can discuss it calmly as a family over the weekend. Another week, another brilliant set of digraphs have been accomplished, children are now implementing these in words and even sentences. In very exciting news we will begin our vowel digraph sounds next week! When appropriate, books with these sounds will be sent home. In mathematics number composition is key and children have been building towers, using comparative language and combining the towers to make numbers sentences – sounds supeerrr to me! Children recorded this information in ways that were appropriate to them. In our topic work, we had a recap and celebration of Diwali. Children made rangoli patterns outside to welcome you all to school and mehndi art to accompany the celebration. Mrs Davies and I are just in the process of attaching the sounds to the website for you to work on at home. As you may imagine the Nativity swing is in full effect. Children are super excited and I hope you are all seeing that at home. I shall send out roles next week. It will be Christmas before you know it. On a somber note, the children wrote lovely prayers for our Remembrance Day. You could really see children demonstrate great values, love and respect into our world. We then made a poppy for our remembrance class display. Well done team. I am so proud of you all. I hope you all have a lovely weekend as a family. With love, Mr McGill
