Headteacher: Anna Moss

26.06.21

Hello Red Class,

It was a busy and creative week with the opening of our school art gallery. We used our collage skills to create a space themed picture inspired by ‘Whatever Next!’ Although, we covered the same basic skills of cutting, sticking and overlapping, each piece of artwork looked unique and showed great imagination. It was wonderful to see the children’s work hanging alongside the work of their friends from across the school. We also enjoyed voting for our favourite pictures.  

As well as creating artwork for the gallery, we designed and made cheese puffs for our special event. The children selected their own cheese and herbs after a taste testing session and evaluated their work. There were some great ideas for changes including the shape of the puffs, adding herbs to the pastry and even trying some chocolate too.

After our visit to the art gallery, we were transported around the world through music as we listened to the wonderful sounds of a string ensemble from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The children were captivated by the sights and sounds of live music.

As we’re nearing the end of the year, we’re starting to see some tired little ones in school. Please try to rest over the weekend and remember 1.40pm is an option throughout the week. We need to keep going for one more topic, ‘Deep in the Jungle’, where we’ll be creating a class assembly video for our You Tube channel.

Finally, it’s the Summer Fair today. We’ll be selling the children’s lavender pillows on our stall, between 12pm and 2pm, on St Catherine’s Road.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

P.S. You’ll find ‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’ and ‘z’ in your handwriting book.

18.06.21

Hello Red Class,

Thank you for a lovely week where we continued our exciting topic, ‘Fantasy Worlds’. We performed events from ‘Whatever Next!’ deciding what Baby Bear and Mr and Mrs Bear would say during the story. This encouraged imagination, developed our confidence to speak in front of others and prepared us to write speech bubbles.

In Phonics, we continued to read and spell words with adjacent consonants including ‘bright’, ‘blink’ and ‘sleep’. We also discovered two new keywords ‘were’ and ‘there’. We read our keywords every day but any games you can play at home, even if you stick your keywords to the fridge, will support your reading progress. Keywords can be found on previous class newsletters. The following words are always useful to revisit: was, you, my, are, all, they, said.

We used the bar model approach, in Maths, to help solve simple word problems. We used the comparison bar model and found the difference between two groups of objects. Our subitising and counting skills helped. In Reception, we use objects and picture cards to create bar models. You can find bar model videos for Year 4 on our You Tube channel just in case you want to see what the children are working towards.

This week, we were great scientists as we used our senses to explore forces and the impact of forces. We investigated how different objects move or change shape by pushing and pulling them. We conducted a science experiment by coating pieces of guttering in honey, shaving foam and baby oil to see how far each toy car would travel. We made some great predictions, posed questions and explained our thinking. We even started to talk about friction.

Our focus letters in handwriting were ‘s’, ‘p’ and ‘j’. We used our handwriting skills to decorate rockets. It was lovely to see the children practising these letters during their play and explore time and including them within their own pictures. Keep writing in your handwriting books as it really makes a difference to your confidence and presentation in school.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Miss Barber, Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

P.S. We're running very low on spare socks. If you would like to donate some socks, please pop them in a bag labelled 'spare socks'. If you've borrowed socks, please return them to school. Thank you, as always, for your support. 

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Hello Red Class Families,

What a lovely week starting our new topic, ‘Fantasy Worlds’. The children enjoyed listening to our story, ‘Whatever Next!’ Over the next two weeks, we will work hard to role play, retell and write our own versions of the story about a little bear who travels to space in his cardboard box rocket.

As part of the story is set in space, we’ve started to find out about space too. For example, developing collage skills (cutting, sticking and arranging materials) to create planets for our new display. Listening to a piece of music about Mercury by Gustav Holst. Using handwriting patterns to draw our very own planets. Considering interesting questions about space in Philosophy for Children.

Is it ever right to travel into space? Is it ever right to visit the moon?

In Phonics, we continued to focus on words with adjacent consonants, such as ‘land’ and ‘lamp’. Although phonics is our prime approach to reading, to improve fluency we encourage the children to say words straight away if they know them, particularly words they see frequently e.g. ‘and’. Spotting keywords in the text, before reading, will also support confidence and fluency.

Counting in 5s was the focus in Maths.The children were great at chanting in 5s with their friends and used their new learning to count large sets of objects in an efficient way and to solve problems. We practised doubles, halves and number bonds throughout the week. Today, we played a number bond tennis game. The children ‘blew my socks off’ with their recall. We used a song about Farmer Pete and his 10 sheep and the visual of pink and white sheep on the board really helped. Try recalling number bonds at home and, if it’s tricky, draw 2 rows of 5 sheep and colour a sheep each time to see the pattern e.g. (0 and 10, 1 and 9, 2 and 8 etc.)

Our focus letters in handwriting were ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘k’. You can find these letters in your handwriting book. As well as a guide to writing the letter, I always include a link to a You Tube video too. We’re still presenting certificates to two children, each week, for their handwriting homework. If you haven’t had one yet, keep going, as I can see you’re trying really hard and it will be your turn soon.

We’re making something very special at Forest School. Let’s just say there might be a treat to buy at the Summer Fair. Each year, we hold a Christmas and Summer Fair to help raise money for the school. Due to Covid-19, the fair might look different this year, but we will still work together to create some fantastic stalls. Mrs Flynn helped the children to think about the texture of leaves today and she modelled leaf rubbing as an activity for the children to choose at Forest School. If you visit a woodland this weekend, you might like to try some leaf or bark rubbings and see what you can find.

Finally, the children have started to use the new shop on the front playground to buy their snack. Don’t worry if your child forgets to buy a snack. We will always remind them. If your child would like to buy a snack at school, just send 30p in a purse or wallet.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

21.05.21

Hello Red Class,

Today was the last day of our ‘Africa’ topic. The children worked hard to find out about the beautiful continent of Africa and particularly the country of Kenya. At the heart of our learning was the decision to raise money for African Promise. Your donations will help to rebuild schools, buy resources and contribute to daily meals. I’m really proud of your effort Red Class. We make a good team! Thank you to our families who donated this week. Mrs Moss will be popping our school total in a newsletter very soon.

As always, it’s been a busy week inside the classroom. During RE (Religious Education) lessons, we used role play, songs, photographs and paintings to find out how stories help us to learn lessons, for example, to be kind and helpful. We shared stories from different religions including the Christian story of ‘The Good Samaritan’ and the Buddhist story of ‘Siddhartha and The Swan and The Monkey King’. We talked about how to help other people and how sometimes people can be unhelpful, for example, dropping litter.

Handwriting sessions focused on ‘u’ and ‘y’ which you will find in your handwriting books. Remember your handwriting books must be in school on Thursdays to receive new letters. During Phonics, we tried hard to read and spell CCVC words e.g. stop, swim, trip, frog. The second letter in these words is a little tricky to hear. Children will often spell ‘stop’ as ‘sop’. When you read or write CCVC words at home, make sure you say the second sound a little louder.

In Maths, we solved real life problems using our sharing skills, for example, sharing sweets into party bags for the teddies at school. We used some handwriting sessions to concentrate on number formation too. Try to practise at home and remember to start from the top. Write 0 through to 9 and see if they’re all facing the right way.

After register, each morning, we enjoy ‘Show and Tell’ before Mrs Moss appears for Zoom assembly. If your child would like to share a photo, please send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Next week, we begin our new topic, ‘British Sport’. We’ll spend the week keeping fit and trying a range of sporting activities. It would be lovely to see some photos of you enjoying sports at home and at clubs.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

14.05.21

This morning, Red Class posed for their Reception Class photograph. Looking across the rows of little ones, I couldn’t help but feel like a proud mother hen looking over her chicks. The children have come a long way since September, including through a nationwide lockdown. Now, fingers crossed we were all looking in the right direction and smiling!

Earlier in the week, the children wrote postcards to describe what they could see and hear in Kenya. I could see cursive letters starting from the line and children writing super sentences. Although, I think their favourite part of the activity was using the school stamp for the address.

This week, we started our last phase of phonics teaching for the year. The children worked hard to read and spell CVCC (consonant/vowel/consonant/consonant) words like tent, jump, bend. When reading CVCC words, we often forget the third phoneme. For example, writing ‘tent’ as ‘tet’ or ‘jump’ as ‘jup’. By highlighting the third letter in a different colour and emphasising this sound, the children found it easier to read and spell CVCC words.

It was all about money in Maths. The children explored the colour, shape and value of coins and enjoyed matching, sorting and problem-solving activities. When I set the problem of buying two items from the market for 20p, I was amazed to hear the children’s answers:

“You will need four 5p coins, Mrs Webb.”

“Try two 10p coins because double 10 is 20.”

“We could use twenty 1p coins.”

In the afternoons, we performed 3 songs to each class wearing our special Samburu tribe necklaces. As well as raising money for African Promise, we shared our new way of singing using the Kodály method. Our performances were also a great opportunity to introduce members of staff who the children see less frequently, for example, Miss Phipps in Yellow Class. Thank you to all our friends across the school for supporting our project.

Miss Coyle will be working with Red Class for the next few weeks. Miss Coyle is a trainee teacher based in Purple Class (Year 2). Miss Barber will be joining us again after half term. She is currently gaining some experience in Year 2.

I know many of you have started new clubs. So, whether you’re playing cricket or football, biking across muddy tracks or singing and dancing this weekend, have fun. We would also like to say ‘Eid Mubarak’ to our families who have celebrated Eid al-Fitr this week.

Lots of love.

Mrs Webb and Red Class Team xxx

Hello Red Class,

Another busy week in Red Class filled with wonderful writing. Our class easel was covered with super sentences. The children tried hard to use their robot arms to sound out words and write them independently. To use robot arms at home, just say the word you want to write e.g. ‘cat’, then say each sound (c-a-t) and move one arm each time (Peter Crouch robot style). To write ‘rain’, you would segment the word to r-ai-n. I felt very proud to see the children using sound mats in the classroom to support their writing. I think we must be getting closer to Year 1.

In Phonics, we revisited ‘ure’ (sure), ‘ear’ (hear) and ‘air’ (fair) and played games to read ‘have’. We read our keywords every day at school. We need to read our keywords by sight to become fluent readers. When reading at home, look for keywords in the text and read them together. Here are the words we read every day at school:

Handwriting sessions focused on the curly caterpillar family: c, o, a, d, g and q. You will find 4 new letters in your handwriting book. Please leave handwriting books in your book bag. They will be collected every Thursday and new letters added. When writing, please check your child is using their tripod grip. Please also encourage your child to use cursive letters to write their name as I’ve noticed some children have reverted to print.

In Maths, we concentrated on doubles and halves. We looked at representations of doubles and halves in different ways (fingers, Numicon, dice, spots) and solved practical and word problems. We even started to find some tricky doubles beyond 5+5 using our class fabacus. We’re also working hard to count in 10s using the fabacus and hundred-square. We chant in 10s forward and back and solve problems using this knowledge. For example, we count in 10s to find our daily dinner number.

At Forest School, we listened to ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and planted some beans. Over the next few weeks, we will look after our little beanstalks. Hopefully, they’ll be ready to go home in time for the half term holiday.

A BIG thank you to our families who have contributed to our African Promise appeal. Donations will support rural primary schools in Kenya helping to provide meals and clean water for children, funding teacher’s salaries and rebuilding schools. Next week, we’re using our music skills to raise money for the charity by busking for other classes in the school.

Finally, we’ve noticed quite a few toys in book bags. Please keep toys and teddies safe at home. Some of the children are struggling to collect their book bags from the crates because their friends have quite bulky bags with teddies and toys. If you’re missing a school water bottle, we have one bottle in school without a name. Just email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you think it might belong to your child.

Hopefully, the sun will shine for us this weekend. I am always optimistic!

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

30.04.21

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, Red Class walked for an hour around Blackwell village. This is the same amount of time it takes Okeyo to walk to school. Although we didn’t spot any elephants, we did spot Elephant Alley and St Catherine’s Church and all the little ones from our Forest Friends group waved us off on our adventure. When we arrived back at school, the children were pleased to find out it was time for lunch.

By walking for an hour, we’re hoping to raise money for African Promise who support rural primary schools in Kenya. If you would like to make a donation to our chosen charity, please pop your donation in an envelope marked ‘Red Class – African Promise’. Thank you for the donations we’ve received so far.

You will find a new handwriting book in your child’s book bag tonight. I’m starting slowly with two letters (c and o from the curly caterpillar family) so the children can take their time and produce their best work. Some children might prefer to work in a different way, for example, using shaving foam or marker pens on old rolls of wallpaper. If this is the case, just write a brief comment in the handwriting book. Remember, when writing curly caterpillar letters, you need to start from the line and move your pencil round and back. I’ve left a page between each letter sheet so you can revisit your learning during the week. Each letter sheet has a step by step guide and a You Tube link to support your work at home. Handwriting books will be collected every Thursday and returned on Friday. I will award two homework certificates, each week. Try your best and work hard.

New reading books will be sent home on Tuesday due to the Bank Holiday.

Wishing you all a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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