Croeso i Taff Fawr!

Meet The Teachers

Mrs Hughes          Mrs Stone          Mr Hanlon

Class Teacher          Class LSA          Class LSA  

Important Dates

Autumn 2023

 4th, 5th & 6th September– INSET Days, school closed for pupils

7th September– Children return to school

7th September – Generosity Values day

13th September– Meet the Teacher 3.30 pm and 4:00pm

25th September - Spectrum Wellbeing day years R, 2, 4, 6

26th September– European Languages Day Celebration

28th September – Harvest Eucharist with Mother Rose 9.30am

Food Bank Collection

Mad Science Assembly Whole School

29th September - Macmillan Coffee Morning 9.15am

2nd October – Judaism Day - Whole School Celebration

3rd October – Black History Month commences

6th October – Rags to Riches Collection

23rd – 27th October – Scholastic Book Fayre

23rd October – Parents Evening

24th October – Parents Evening

23rd October – Hinduism Celebration Day

24th October – Autumn Disco PS1 & 2- 3.30-4.30pm, PS3 4.45-5.45pm

26th October – Individual and Sibling Photos

27th October – Last Day of term

30th October – 3rd November – Half Term 

6th November - Return to school

Compassion Values Day

Flu nurses on the yard to promote Immunisation

10th November – Remembrance Day worship & activities

13th November - Road Safety Week

14th November - Mother Rose Remembrance Service 9.30am

17th November – Christmas Shoe Box Collection for Operation Christmas Child

17th November – Children in Need Day

20th November – Anti Bullying Week

24th November – Parents coffee morning & SLT open forum 9.15- 10.30am

25th November – Bath (Adult only) Christmas Shopping Trip - Fundraising activity.

11th December – PS1 (Nursery and Reception) Concert 9.30am Grandparents 

12th December - PS1 (Nursery and Reception) Concert 9.30am Parents 

15th December - Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Fair 1-3.30pm

18th December - Whole School Eucharist 9.30am

20th December - Messy Christmas and Christmas Dinner

22nd December - INSET -school closed for pupils

25th December – 5th January – Christmas Holidays

Communication

Schoop: The school ID is 17699

Twitter: @StDavidsCiWPrm

Email: reception@stdavidsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Google Classroom code: fqkxo3n

Weekly Routine

Please bring your book bag to school every day, containing your reading book, sound sheets or key words.

Snack

Please bring a bottle of water to school daily, clearly labelled with your name.

Healthy snacks can be purchased from the snack trolley or brought in from home. Children will be offered milk at snack time.

Uniform

We encourage the children to become more independent in Reception and take care of their own belongings. Please ensure that all items of clothing are clearly labelled with your child's name.

Cold Weather

Please ensure that your child has a warm and waterproof coat during the Autumn and Spring terms. We will be using the outside area everyday. Hat, scarves and gloves can be brought to school - please ensure everything is clearly labelled with your child's name. 

Hot Weather

Please apply sun cream before school and provide your child with a hat and a large bottle of water.

Meet the teacher

Our topic for this half term:

Me and My Family tree!

In our first topic of the Year we will be exploring our own family tree, talking about

our families, and how we are all different and yet have many similarities. We will talk 

about our bodies and look at our skeletons and how we grow. We will begin to learn all of 

the letter sounds in RWI sessions and will learn how to hold our pencil and form letters

correctly. In maths we will be exploring numbers and number value. Playing lots of games 

to reinforce recognition of numbers to 10 and beyond, and learning to write numbers up to 10

using the correct formation. We will also be learning the skills of measuring, using non

standard units and making estimates and comparisons with a variety of objects. We will look at

the season of Autumn and talk about the changes that occur and how we can stay safe as the

nights draw in, with our 'Be bright, Be seen' campaign. We will also have lots of fun being

creative, learning new languages and new skills! 

Planning

In the unlikely event of a school closure, weekly planning can be found on Google Classroom.

All planning is guided by the Four Core Purposes.

101 Experiences

Congratulations to this week's VIP in Taff Fawr:

Alexandra Webster

For setting wonderful examples to others!

Homework

Homework will be set every Friday on Google Classroom.

The homework grid below offers some suggestions for practical activities that your child may like to complete independently. These are linked to our current topic and your child may like to show the class what they have completed at the end of the half term.

 Hwb and Google Classroom 

Your child will need to be a member of our Google Classroom in order to access learning resources.

When your child starts in our school they will receive a Hwb log in. Once they have received

these details they will be invited to join the classroom. You will then need to enter the 

following code for the reception class ; fqkxo3n

Homework will be set on the Google Classroom every Friday.

In the unexpected event of a school closure, planning and activities can be found on Google Classroom and on this class web page.

Christian Values

Our Christian Value for this term is Generosity.

Literacy

We use a scheme called Read Write Inc to teach your children to read and write. Above are

the letter sounds and a short rhyme which help the children to remember the correct letter

formation to use. It is extremely important that the children form letters correctly from the

start as habits are very difficult to change. Learning the correct letter formation is imperative

for 'joining' writing in later years. 

Please visit this link for parents, regarding the RWI scheme;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q

Please remember to use letter sounds when reading, rather than their names. This will help

the children to blend sounds when reading words such as cat, dog etc. For example, say 'c', 'a', 't'-

cat. You may wish to encourage your child to learn their sounds through play.

At St. David's we also use 'Phonics Play' to also reinforce learning. To access the website please use the following:

Username: march2020

Password: home

We also use the Oxford reading scheme. There are many free resources which you can access using the Oxford Owl website;

Username: stdavidsreception

Password: Reception123

Useful resources to support Literacy

Welsh

The children will have opportunities to speak Welsh daily in school. We encourage the children to ask and answer questions using our 'Helper Heddiw'. We will begin by learning about our feelings and asking 'Sut wyt ti?'

Here is a link to a video which will help your child learn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGozXPt9M-Y

International Languages

As part of International Languages, Taff Fawr will be learning Italian. We will learn colours, numbers and animals.

www.languagenut.com

Languagenut is a wonderful online tool where children can access resources to support the development of their new language (Italian). Each child will have their own log in details where they can gain points for activities completed. Languagenut will also give you the correct pronunciation of words and phrases. You can learn alongside your child! These points will show a class ranking, school ranking, and even our school ranking compared to all schools around the world. Taff Fawr will have access to Italian and Welsh! At St David's we love multilingual children. Have fun!! 

We will be learning our different colours in Italian:

Other Activities:

Snap Game: This could be used with colours.

Feely Bag: Put different colours in a bag and pull different things out to name them. (Can you beat your last score?)

Numeracy

As with writing, forming numbers correctly is extremely important. Above are some short rhymes which will help your child remember the correct number formation in a fun way!

You can help your child at home by getting them to recognise and form numbers up to 10  and by asking them to sort and count groups of objects up to 10. Look for numbers in your environment, on doors, car reg etc. Have fun!

We often use the 'Topmarks' website to reinforce learning in school. There are lots of fun and interactive resources for the children to explore easily.

As with Literacy, Oxford Owl has many wonderful resources to help support mathematics.

PE

Our PE day is on Monday. Your child may wear their PE clothes to school on this day.  They will need to wear their house coloured T-shirt, black shorts and trainers. On hot days please ensure that your child also brings a hat to school and a large water bottle. In the colder months the children may wear black tracksuit bottoms and a black hoody. 

Real PE

Real PE is a unique, child centred approach that transforms how we teach PE to include, challenge and support EVERY child. Jasmine - your real learning platform, provides 1000s of hours of fun activities and challenges that will help you to keep your children and family fit and healthy.

Healthy Schools Initiative / Snack

St David's is a healthy school and we encourage all children to eat healthy food in their  lunchboxes and at snack time. We provide snack for your children in school daily at a cost of £2 per week / £14 per term. Please pay via parent pay. You are able to bring your own healthy snacks to school. However using the snack trolley encourages the children to try new, healthy foods and they will often choose to try new things, when seeing their friends doing the same. 

Please ensure that your child has a labelled bottle in school daily, containing water only. We have fresh drinking water fountains, where the children can refill their bottles. 

Please - NO sweets, chocolate and sugary drinks in lunchboxes.

Active Travel

WOW is a pupil led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using our interactive WOW tracker. If pupils travel sustainably (walk, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they are rewarded with a WOW badge at the end of the month. 

Please support our mission by encouraging your child to travel sustainably to school or use our Park & Stride arrangement and park at Pentwyn Leisure Centre.

Rights Respecting Schools

St David's CIW Primary School is proud to be a Rights Respecting School, which means we are a community where children's rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

Internet Safety

Children have regular access to computers and devices at home and in school. To keep them safe, whilst using the internet,  we teach them the 'SMART' rules. You may wish to reinforce these at home too. Have fun, stay safe!

Useful web links to support learning in Taff Fawr: