The children have enjoyed learning phonics, and it is lovely to see them beginning to recognise the letters and blend some words. If you have any questions about supporting your child at home with their learning, please do not hesitate to ask. Keep an eye out for phonics Parent Cafés where we provide support towards phonics at home. A simple home learning activity is to play I-Spy with sounds on your way to and from school, which can help their understanding!

Please ensure that all items brought into school are clearly labelled, including shoes, coats, and jumpers. Don't forget to send in, or email us, a family photo if you haven't already done so.

Thank you for your continued support!

The children thoroughly enjoyed their first trip to Tesco. We will be visiting for the next three Tuesday's. We are short on helpers for the last three sessions so if you are able to spare an hour between 9:30-10:30am on 18/11, 25/11 and 2/12 please do get in contact with Mrs Badger as soon as possible. sbadger@greenlanes.herts.sch.uk

In English we have started a new instructions unit. We have been using the book Gruffalo's Crumble as a base. We will be learning how to write instructions and then using them to make / bake our own creations. 

In Maths we have introduced numbers to 20. The children have been very excited to complete our first Computing Unit - Computers and networks. We have identified lots of different types of technology that exist around us then moved onto mouse and typing skills for the end of the unit.  

This week in Year 2, we went on a walk to the local shops as part of our English lessons. During our walk, we looked carefully at things we would not normally notice, such as signs, shopfronts, and objects in the environment. Back in class, we used verbs and adjectives to describe what we had seen, thinking about how to make our sentences more interesting and detailed.

In Maths, we have been exploring money by learning to recognise and name different coins and understanding their values. The children have enjoyed using coins in practical activities and taking part in our class shop, where they had the opportunity to apply their learning in a fun and hands-on way.

In English the children have been learning about all the features required to write an engaging and informative explanatory text. They have used fronted adverbials and prepositional phrases to extend their writing and considered the impact of using precise, technical vocabulary.

We have started a new book in our Reading Practice sessions – the Girl Who Stole an Elephant, which tells the story of Chaya, a young girl living in a Sri Lankan village. Chaya is driven by a deep sense of fairness and the desire to help the most needy, but her methods often get her and those around her into trouble. Will she be able to restore a fairer and kinder way of life to the community?

In maths this week, the children are discovering how repeated addition, arrays, and multiplication are linked. They’ll also explore different regrouping strategies—like the distributive law—to see how these help us build towards formal written methods.

Finally, it’s great to see everyone back in the water for swimming lessons!

We hope the children are also enjoying using their practice books at home to build on their learning. Fantastic effort, Year 4!

We hope you all had an enjoyable and restful half term break. The second half of the Autumn term has started well and everybody has returned focussed and ready to learn!

In Maths we have been exploring divisibility rules to help us quickly identify when numbers can be divided without a remainder. The children practised using these rules to check their work and make division more efficient. We also focused on regrouping to support division, using place value understanding to partition numbers in ways that make division easier to handle. The children showed great reasoning when choosing the most appropriate strategies for different problems.

In Geography lessons, we have been exploring the countries and continents of the world. The children located major capital cities on world maps. We have also been learning about the biomes of the world and how climate, plants and animals adapt to their environments. The children particularly enjoyed comparing different biomes and discussing how human activity can impact these delicate ecosystems.

In English our focus has been poetry. The children have been exploring a range of poems, including war poetry and cinquains. We were very impressed by their creativity and sensitivity when responding to the themes in war poetry. The focus text was Where the Poppies Now Grow by Hilary Robinson.

Thank you for your continued support in helping your children develop their curiosity and confidence in learning.

In year 6, we have been learning all about the area of shapes in maths such as composite shapes, triangles and parallelograms.

In English we have started our second narrative topic, this time based upon the book Wisp (about a refugee child and his experience of Hope). We have felt very inspired by the book and cannot wait to get writing on our own narrative in the same style.

In the afternoon we have had a mixture of Food Technology and Computing. In food technology we have been looking at a variety of cutting skills while making nutritious foods. In computing we are making websites about something we are passionate about. 

Thank you to our SEND parents who attended sub-reviews

A big thank you to all SEND parents who booked into our recent sub-reviews – we've had an excellent turnout and it's been wonderful to see so many families engaged in supporting their children's progress.

Our current focus: Executive functioning

During these reviews, we're focusing specifically on executive functioning skills, particularly helping children with task initiation – the ability to get started on activities independently.

The key question we're exploring together is: "What are you going to do first?"

This simple but powerful prompt helps children:

• Break down tasks into manageable steps
• Develop planning skills
• Build confidence in starting activities independently
• Reduce overwhelm when facing new or complex tasks

How you can support at home

You can reinforce this approach at home by:

• Using the same question when your child faces a task: "What are you going to do first?"
• Helping them identify the very first small step
• Praising them when they initiate tasks independently
• Being patient as they develop this skill – it takes time and practice

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For more information about SEN support at our school, please see our SEN information report on the school website or contact our SENCO.

Our talented pupils' artwork is now on display at H'arts in Mind at The Galleria in Hatfield.  The team at the shop were incredibly impressed by the creativity and skill our children have demonstrated, and we couldn't be prouder of their achievements.

We'd love for you to visit the exhibition and see your child's work being celebrated in our local community. It's a fantastic opportunity to show them how much we value their artistic talents.

Please keep sending us photos of your child standing next to their artwork. We look forward to sharing these special moments and celebrating their success!

Lizzie, Year 4