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
13.11.2015
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,
Thank you to all those who attended the Open Evening on Tuesday. It was lovely to see so many
of you. Children enjoyed showing their families round their classrooms and visiting old and new
teachers and staff. Many of you told me how impressed you were with the children’s work and all
the improvements throughout the school. These included works done over half-term including
new Touchscreen Interactive Whiteboards in all the Year 1 classes and the new Nursery canopy.
The Nursery staff are delighted with this as it provides a large all-weather outdoor play area for
the children.
Thank you also for your contributions to today’s Children-in-Need event. The children look
terrific in their PJs and will have an exciting, busy day as they will also be taking part in Diwali
workshops and Year 1 in a Pudsey Sporting Event organised by Sporting Futures especially for
today.
Parent/Teacher Consultations take place every afternoon next week.
‘Flu Vaccinations’: These will given on November 20th to all Year 1 and Year 2 children who
returned their consent forms.
ParentMail: Please remember to sign up to this. If you add your mobile phone that would be
useful as this is the quickest method in case of emergency, school closure or last-minute
reminders. You can sign up by going on: www.parentmail.co.uk.
PTA Quiz: This will take place next Friday November 20th, 7.30pm for an 8.00pm start. It is
great fun and there are lots of raffle prizes. Nibbles are provided, but do come and bring a few
extra treats and perhaps a bottle of wine for a very enjoyable evening.
Nursery: This week in Nursery the children celebrated Diwali, which is a Hindu festival. They
learnt how to put on a sari and enjoyed playing in the Diwali house. The children used coloured
rice and paints to create rangoli patterns. They made diva lamps from saltdough and decorated
them with sequins and glitter. All the children made a card and learnt a Diwali song. During Stay
and Play the children made lanterns with their parents. The children were also all very excited
about coming to Nursery dressed in their pyjamas and decorating biscuits to raise money for
Children in Need.
Next week the Nursery teddy bear will be celebrating his fourth birthday. The children will be
writing a reply to his invitation, making cards, hats and sandwiches. His party will be on Friday
20th and the children are invited to wear party clothes.
Reception: This week the children have been listening to the story ‘We All Go Travelling By’ and
have enjoyed joining in with the song for the story. They explored all the different types of
vehicles that appeared along the journey to school in the story and made the different sounds for
each type of vehicle. They have also painted a vehicle of their choice from the story or thought of
an interesting type of transport that is not in the story, such as a hot air balloon or a helicopter.
The children then wrote a sentence for their painting following the style of the story ‘We All Go
Travelling By’, for example, ‘The big green car went vroom vroom vroom’ or ‘A sparkly pink bike
goes ring ring ring’. In mathematics the children enjoyed playing number track games, which
prepares them for using number lines to count on. Well done to all the children for performing so
well in their class concerts. We are very proud of them!
Next week the children will be reading ‘The Train Ride’ and playing memory games to remember
the things that people saw on the train ride. They will also talk about where they might go on a
train, if this is a hot or cold place and what they would take with them. They will draw what they
would put in their suitcase and write postcards. The children will practise their cutting skills by
cutting out numbered carriages to make a train in number order. In circle time, the children will
be discussing how to get on with people and what to do if they have fallen out with another child.
Year 1: This week the children have continued their research on animals. The children have
continued to make fact files on animals and used the internet safely to research their answers to
their questions. They have classified animals into groups and sorted animals into sets which can
fly, walk, slither or swim. The children have learnt about alphabetical order and made a class
animal dictionary. In mathematics the children have used coins and place value cards to show
the tens and ones in 2-digit numbers. They have practised counting on from a tens number.
In art the children have painted an animal of their choice. They used non-fiction books and
iPads to observe the features of the different animals and looked carefully at the colour of fur,
scales and other details when painting.
On Friday the children enjoyed the Diwali workshop. They made rangoli patterns, diva cards,
Diwali puppets, mendhi hand patterns and designed an outfit to celebrate Diwali. The children
enjoyed the Diwali assembly and especially enjoyed seeing Miss O’Regan dressed up in a
beautiful pink sari.
Next week the children will begin their cross-curricular topic on old and new toys. They will be
investigating how toys operate and writing an explanation of how a particular toy moves. The
children will be learning about the Victorian period and focusing on the life of Queen Victoria.
In mathematics the children will be focusing on measuring length and participating in a work
wheel of activities.
Pupil Voice: When some Year 2 children came to visit the Walker Bear class at lunchtime, they
observed the model of the fox. Ronnie Watson said, “The fox was alive but now it is dead, but it is
still natural.”
Year 2: This week in English the children have written explanation texts about the life cycle of
an oak tree. In these they were encouraged to use vocabulary for time, such as first, next and
then, as well as descriptive words. Melvin said, “I was really proud of my explanation text
because I did my best.” In mathematics the children have been adding and subtracting 10. They
then used this skill to add and subtract numbers near 10, such as 11 and 21. In topic work the
children learned about Remembrance Day and the reasons people buy poppies. They also began a
unit on the Christian faith by looking at the features of a church. On Friday they had an exciting
Diwali workshop. As part of this they made rangoli patterns, puppets and designed clothing.
Next week the children have an exciting activity as they will be walking to St Nicholas church to
look at artefacts and learn about the Christian faith. Please make sure you send your child with
suitable footwear and a waterproof coat.
In mathematics they will be adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. In English the children will
be reading poems and looking for patterns in the language. They will write a poem about rain
using onomatopoeia - words that are spelt the way they sound, for example, ‘splish’, ‘splash’. The
will also use alliteration - words that begin with the same sound.
STARS of the WEEK!
Ladybird Nursery Classes
Owl Classes
Big Cat Class
Red Fox Class
Walker Bear Class
Blake Wells and
Ralphy Tyrer
For wonderful rangoli patterns.
Lexi Leaver
For dressing up in traditional
clothes.
Jack Paternoster
All the reception children
Scarlet Lamacraft
For a lovely Diwali card.
For doing so well in their concerts!
For excellent independent addition
work with single digit numbers.
Leo Painter
Reece Davies
For super place value work in
mathematics.
For completing a lovely owl fact file.
Teon Bourne-Bell
For always working hard in Letters
and Sounds.
Florence Wallbank
Eduard Lupu
Penguin Class
Roisin Dack
Puffin Class
Torance
Neugebauer-Tooley
Moyin Fasoto
For beautiful science work on how
animals move in different ways.
For trying really hard to count on
from ten when learning about teen
numbers.
For writing a wonderful explanation
text about the life cycle of a tree.
For concentrating really hard and
being very focused during learning
times.
For fantastic adding of 10, 11 and 21
to two digit numbers.
Holly Hurst
For always listening and being ready
to learn.
TROPHY-BEARING CLASS WITH THE BEST ATTENDANCE FOR THE WEEK
WALKER BEARS 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:
PARENT-TEACHER CONSULTATIONS NOVEMBER 16TH - 20TH
Wednesday November 25th Guru Nanak’s Birthday Assembly in school, children only
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