Welcome to Willow Class

  Classteachers: Miss J. Dandy/Mrs. L. Dhanak

2025-26

Welcome to Willow

Week Beginning 5.1.26

Wow!  The children have settled back into school amazingly well; we are very proud of them.  It was magical to come back with snow on the ground, too!  Please do make sure that your child wears warm outdoor clothing to school, including named coats and hats.  Please do try to make sure that any gloves and scarves are also named, as these are often the first things to go 'walkabout'...

This week, we have started our focus on oracy, using an oracy framework to support us in making sure our youngest learners have the strongest, most confident voices.  We are beginning this focus using the story 'Be Wild, Little One' and the children have been wondering and exploring.  We will continue the work on this text over the next fortnight.  Whenever you notice your child looking at someone when they speak to them, or turning their body to face who they are talking to...or even asking a question such as 'Do you agree?' or 'What do you think?', do praise them for this, as these are just a few of our first oracy targets.  We are very excited to develop this framework across the school, starting with our Birch and Willow superstars!

In maths, we have been exploring numbers to 5 in more depth, including zero!  I have heard from the children that they have been playing some cheeky 'zero' tricks at home...they are playing these at school, too!  It is wonderful to see them so enthusiastic about number, even if they do try to fool me into thinking there is stinky cheese hidden in the classroom for me to find!

Subitising - Why It Is Important

A video which clearly explains the concept we are instilling in Maths at school.  The KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) your child has brought home are also included in this page's attachments and run beautifully alongside the message you will hear in the video.  

Support for Phonics at home

Please CLICK HERE for videos showing the sounds we teach in Autumn and Spring terms.  There are also really handy guides to accompany what the children will be learning in school and might be useful for when the children bring home decodable reading books.