Welcome to...

Staffing:

Class teachers:

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday - Miss Begum.

Thursday & Friday - Mrs Murray.

Support staff:

Mrs May, Mrs Richards & Mrs Dempsey (1:1 support).

General Reminders:

• PE days - Tuesday and Wednesday.
  • Children must come into school wearing their PE kit. This consists of a white t-shirt, navy shorts/tracksuit bottoms, trainers/pumps. No football kits.
• Library visits - Thursday.
• Please ensure that all items of clothing (especially jumpers, cardigans and coats!) are labelled.
• Water bottles are to be in school daily.
• Birthdays! - Your child can wear their own clothes to school on their birthday. If their birthday falls on a weekend or during the school holidays, you can pick the school day that falls before/after. They can also bring in sweets or treats to share with their friends, if they would like.
• If you have any questions or concerns, you can speak to Miss Begum or Mrs Murray after school (once all children have been dismissed) or call/email the school office, who will pass the message on to us.

Our Learning:

Each half-term we base our learning around a topic.

• Autumn 1 - Marvellous Me
• Autumn 2 - Off We Go!
• Spring - Roar!
• Spring 2 - Helping Hands
• Summer 1 - It's a Bug's Life!
• Summer 2 - Far Far Away!

As a Catholic school, we follow the Birmingham Diocese Curriculum ‘Learning & Growing as People of God”. We also use the Ten Ten Life to the Full Curriculum for the teaching of RSE. For children identified as having SEND, class teachers work closely with the school’s SENCO and external agencies to support their learning in school.

Learning to Read (Phonics)

At St Mary's, we follow a reading scheme called Read Write Inc to get children off to a flying start with their English. The children will learn how to say and write letters, and then they will begin to blend the letters to read words. This is taught daily. The children are assessed regularly and grouped according to their ability. They will work with a RWI trained teacher or teaching assistant.

• Help your child to say the pure sounds ('m' not 'muh', 's' not 'suh' etc.) as quickly as they can, and then blend the sounds together to say the whole word. Click the link to hear the true sounds. https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/find-a-book/read-write-inc-phonics--1/phonics-pure-sounds-video

• Don't worry if your child is struggling at first with their sounds and words - they will get there in their own time! If you have time at home, we would urge you to read stories to your child. This will help them to develop a wider vocabulary, which makes a vast difference to their quality of writing. It will also encourage them to enjoy a good story and foster a love for reading! Stories form a clear part of the curriculum, and in Reception, good quality stories and topic books are regularly changed in class reading corners.