‘Believe you can and you are halfway there‘
Croeso i Derbynfa a Blwyddyn 1 – Dosbarth Elwy.
Mr Jones is the Reception and Year 1 class teacher and Miss Parr is the teaching assistant who also supports pupils with their learning. On a Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Johnson teaches Forest School Skills.
I hope that your year in Dosbarth Elwy will not only be a happy one, but also a huge success. We aim to ensure that your child has a happy time in school, learning through meaningful and fun experiences. Every experience your child has, from learning to hold a pencil, playing a musical instrument, counting to 20 and beyond – ensures that they are building on skills for the future. Pupils are immersed in creative, practical and physical skills to ensure they remain engaged as ambitious and capable learners.
Homework
At Ysgol Sant Dunawd, we believe in a little and often and that practice makes progress! The children will be sent home frequently with Phonics Sounds practise sheets, and when they have progressed through their initial sounds and are blending appropriately, pupils will have a reading book and diary. We encourage the children to read a few pages of their reading book each night, aloud to an adult. Adults are encouraged to sign the diary and write a brief comment.
Topic Overview – Autumn 2023
Read Write Inc Phonics
Your child will be learning to recognise letters and sounds before gradually progressing to blending sounds together to make words. Following this stage, pupils will then learn to recognise words and start to read whole sentences. It is important to note, that every pupil will progress at different times throughout the Foundation years. I have attached below a short video link for parents to be able to use the same correct sounds that we use with our Read, Write Inc scheme in school, I hope you find this useful.
Our Previous INSPIRE Topics (Dosbarth Glyder Fach 2021 -2022)
Our first topic this year is called ‘Super Duper You!’. The main areas of learning for this topic are Health & Wellbeing and Literacy, language and communication. The children will learn about eating healthily, the effect of exercise on the body and how each of these play a part in making sure we are the best versions of ourselves – super duper you! The child in the book explores different versions of herself such as sporty, creative and courageous. Opening the conversation of celebrating differences with the children and exploring all our strengths. We will also be looking at superheroes, including real life heroes. We are lucky enough to have the chance to ask questions to a real firefighter! The book we will be reading is ‘Super duper you’ by Sophie Henn.
Our second topic this year is called ‘Celebrations’. The main areas of learning for this topic are Maths and Numeracy and Humanities. The children will learn about celebrations in different cultures as well as celebrating ourselves and our locality. We will also use this topic to improve our understanding of time including seasons, days of the week and months of the year. An important part of this topic is taking part in the Christmas Nativity, developing ourselves as confident, reflective, and collaborative learners. One of the books will be reading is ‘The best Diwali ever’ by Sonali Shah.
Our third topic this year is called ‘Lost and Found’. The main areas of learning for this topic are Science and Technology and Humanities. We wanted to use this topic as an opportunity for the children to explore and experiment with different types of materials. We will be investigating capacity and measurements and discovering what materials are best for floating and sinking. The book that will be leading this topic is ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers, a story about a boy and a penguin. Using this as a starting point, we will be researching about the life of a penguin the environment in the North and South Pole.
Did you know…? The River Elwy (Afon Elwy in Welsh) is a river in Wales forming a tributary to the River Clwyd. The river can be found in North Wales, not far from our school:
