THE
GILES NURSERY
AND
INFANTS’
SCHOOL
Head Teacher : Mrs Rouane Mendel
Assistant Head Teacher : Mrs Judith Garley
Durham Road, Stevenage, Herts. SG1 4JQ
Telephone : 01438 359747
Fax : 01438 359747
Email : admin@gilesinfants.herts.sch.uk
27.11.2015
School Aims: our school is a place where we aim to develop:
► Positive attitudes to learning
► Creativity and a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem
► Equality of opportunity, independence, individuality, tolerance, sensitivity and
cooperation
► Good relations, respect for others and the environment
► A broad and balanced creative curriculum
► Pupil achievement by providing quality experiences
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a busy and enjoyable week. Children celebrated Guru Nanak’s birthday on
Wednesday with a special assembly led by Mrs Dacombe, our RE leader. Parents of Tiger class
children came in for a special afternoon to meet the Speech and Language team and this was a
lovely opportunity for those involved.
The school has decided to create a pond area (securely fenced in!) to support science in the
school and the School Council will be working with Mrs McPartland to support this initiative and
link it to our eco-programme.
Our Hertfordshire Improvement Partner, Mrs Liz Neville, came in for her annual Standards Visit
and again graded the school Outstanding. We are all particularly pleased as with the New Ofsted
Framework this has become more difficult to achieve. I will give you more details when she
writes her report but in the meantime would like to thank everyone for completing the Ofsted
questionnaires. Those and also the incredibly positive endorsement by parents of the school in
Parentview really impressed Liz and I am sure supported the final judgment. Thank you
everyone. As always, thanks go to our hard-working and tremendously committed staff without
whom this would have been impossible.
Please do take a special look at our Stars of the Week awards, as we have introduced a new
‘Value of the Month’ award. Our value for November is ‘Peace’; for December our value is
‘Resilience’. Children given the award will take part in a ceremony in which they will place oak
leaves scribed with their name onto a tree. If you would like to find out more about how we
promote both our values and British Values please visit the ‘About Us’ page on our website:
www.gilesnurseryandinfants.co.uk .
PTA Christmas Fete: This will take place next Wednesday December 2nd from 3.30-5.00. Don’t
miss it!
Year 1 Christmas Assemblies: Thursday December 3rd 1.30 Red Fox (Miss O’Regan); 2.30 Big
Cat (Mrs Edwards) and Friday 4th 2.30 Big Cats (Mrs Dacombe).
Year Two Summer Concert Date change for your diaries: these will change from Tuesday July
5th to Wednesday July 6th, Puffin 1.30 and Penguin 2.30.
PTA Quiz: Thank you so much to our fabulous, hard-working PTA. The evening was so fun and
everyone had enjoyed themselves.
Nursery: This week the children have been listening to the story ‘The Gingerbread Man’. They
have learnt a song and acted out the story using puppets. In mathematics they ordered the
gingerbread men by size. All the children took part in a cooking activity to make a delicious
gingerbread man. The Bakery role-play has been very popular with all the children.
Next week the children will be listening to the Nativity story and thinking about getting ready for
the Christmas celebration.
Please remember that Nursery is closed on the morning of Thursday 17th December 2015. The
children will attend Nursery in the afternoon on that day for the Christmas Party.
Reception: This week the children have enjoyed listening to and joining in with the story ‘The
Mitten’. They have been trying to remember the different animals that go inside the mitten and
have been drawing story maps to demonstrate each stage of the story. They have been drawing
animals on the inside of mittens and writing sentences about ‘The Mitten’ story. In mathematics,
the children have started learning the skills needed for subtracting and have been taking 1 away
from a group of animals inside the mitten to see how many they are left with.
Next week the children will be learning about shape and repeating patterns. They will print their
own patterns on a giant mitten and explore using different shapes. The children will begin
listening to Christmas stories and will discuss the journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem.
They will also take part in a variety of cutting activities and practise handwriting patterns to help
improve their fine motor skills. The children will begin learning winter songs for their class
assemblies.
Year 1: This week the children have continued to learn about toys past and present and have
written an explanation of how a toy moves. They have focused on using capital letters, finger
spaces and full stops and edited their writing before copying it into best.
In mathematics, the children have been taking part in a work-wheel linked to money. They have
enjoyed being a shopkeeper or a customer in the toyshop, coin rubbing and using magnifying
glasses to look at the detail of real coins.
In history, the children have looked at toys from the Victorian period and travelled back in time
with Magic Grandad to 1870. They have looked carefully at toys from this time and investigated
what materials they were made from and compared them with toys of today. The children have
also compared teddy bears from the past with teddy bears of today.
In music, the children have been busy learning their songs ready for their class celebration of
work. The children have listened to the story ‘Little Robin Red Vest’ by Jan Fearnley and have
begun to act it out using character voices.
Next week in English, the children will be completing their non-fiction books on toys and
designing a front cover and writing a contents page. In mathematics the children will be
estimating a number of objects. They will be estimating whether a group of objects are larger
than or smaller than a set number. In design and technology the children will be investigating
ways to join and fasten paper in preparation for their Christmas card design.
Year 2: This week the children began to practise for their Christmas concerts and completed a
range of activities about the Nativity story. In Mathematics the children were measuring using
non-standard and standard measures. They also made predictions about whether or not items in
the classroom would measure more or less than a metre. The children continued to learn about
the Christian church and had the opportunity to look at a range of artefacts. They also thought
about the traditional marriage ceremony and examined a number of items from Mrs
McPartland’s wedding. They then worked together to plan and act out a marriage ceremony.
Photos of this can be seen on the school website.
Next week the children will begin to learn about Christmas traditions from the Victorian era and
will make some Victorian decorations. They will continue to practise for their Christmas concerts.
In English they will listen to the story of ‘The Snow Lambs’ by Debi Gliori and compete a range
of activities based on this story. In mathematics, the children will be solving a range of word
problems using skills they have learned this term.
STARS of the WEEK!
Ladybird Nursery Classes
Owl Classes
Muhammad Ali and
Maria Vaitekunaite
For joining our nursery and
settling so well.
Mila Andrews
For listening and joining in well
during circle time.
Ella Priest
For thoroughly enjoying the
Teddies party and participating so
well in all the related activities.
Tawny Owl
Layla Newton
Christian Ventour
Snowy Owl
Ethan Hudson
Maja Slaczalek
Barn Owl
Millie Johnson and
Bianna Dwamena
Big Cat Class
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Millie Bartlett
Humam Alsultan
Riley Cook
Yasmin Fabling Pathan
Amelia Eggleton-Sheehan
Destiny Burlingham
Harrison Homewood
Alexa Worrell
Arthur Clark
Natalia Sliwinska
Cerise Angell
Red Fox Class
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Lea Valentine and
Ryan Dimov
Thomas Congerton
Fanni Foglein
Darci-Rae Culling
Walker Bear Class
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Kennadi Lacy-Breckenridge
Ryan Arbon
Reid Sampson
Toby Froude
Jack Hammond
For making excellent progress
with her reading.
For coming into school with a big
smile on his face everyday.
For excellent subtraction work in
mathematics.
For fantastic segmenting and
blending of words in her reading
book.
For super work in mathematics.
For working really hard in her
English writing about how to make
a bike move.
For super phonics in Letters and
Sounds.
For fantastic drawing and
labelling of Victorian toys.
For fantastic drawing and
labelling of Victorian toys.
For writing a lovely explanation of
how to ride a bike.
For super recognition of coins
from 1p to £2.
Penguin Class
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Lorenzo Zanelli and
Phoebe Kiss
Libby Millward
Kamia Hunte
For trying hard in all her lessons.
For trying hard to join her writing.
Emily Dolling
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Shreeya Panchal
Alex Ostrowski
Ammon Zahra
Puffin Class
Tommy Bonney
For always working hard, listening
and trying his best.
Alyssa Alupay
For excellent sequencing of the
Christmas story.
Value of the Month - Peace
Awarded to:
Archie-Jo Fletcher
Rebecca Suleman-Kosoko
Harris Channoufi
TROPHY-BEARING CLASS WITH THE BEST ATTENDANCE FOR THE WEEK
PENGUINS CLASS
FANTASTIC ATTENDANCE – WELL DONE!!
Please see previous newsletters for dates for the full year, which are also posted on our website.
Dates for your diary for the term ahead are:
Thursday December 3rd Year 1 Christmas Concerts: 1.30 pm Red Foxes (Miss O’Regan)
and 2.30 pm Big Cats (Mrs Edwards)
Friday December 4th Year 1 Christmas Concert 2pm Walker Bears (Mrs Dacombe)
Monday December 7th Hanukkah Assembly in school, children only
Thursday December 10th Year 2 Christmas Concerts: 1.30 pm Puffins (Mrs McPartland)
and 2.30 pm Penguins (Mrs Garley)
Friday December 11th Nursery Christmas Concerts: 11 am and 2.45 pm
Monday 14th December Chair of Governors – Christmas Assembly, children only
Tuesday December 15th 9.30 am Year 1 Nativity at All Saints’ Church - all welcome
Tuesday December 15th Reception Christmas Concerts: 1.30 pm Tawny Owls (Miss
Moore) and 2.30 pm Snowy Owls (Mrs Clark)
Wednesday December 16th Reception Christmas Concert: 9.15 am Barn Owls (Mrs Dear
and Miss Pritchett)
Wednesday December 16th Christmas Dinner
Thursday December 17th Christmas Parties and Entertainer
FRIDAY DECEMBER 18th LAST DAY OF TERM. SCHOOL CLOSES AT 2PM
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Rouane Mendel
Head Teacher