Meet The Teachers

Mrs Hughes          Mrs Stone          Mr Hanlon

Class Teacher          Class LSA          Class LSA  

Communication

Schoop: The school ID is 17699

Twitter: @StDavidsCiWPrm

Email: reception@stdavidsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Google Classroom code: fqkxo3n

Overview of the school day

8.45: Children arrive and settle down to complete their Morning Activity / Register

9.15 – 9.30: Collective Worship 

9.30 – 10.15: Numeracy

10.15 – 10.30: Snack

10.30 - 10.45: Break Time

10:30 – 12.00: Literacy

12.00 – 1.00: Lunch

1.00 – 1.30: Phonics

1.30 – 2.45: Topic

2.45: Welsh / Italian

3.15: Home Time

Important Dates

Summer 1 2024

8th April – Return to School Christian Value Celebration Day Trust 

15th April – Year 6 Cycle Proficiency Week 

25th April – Mother Rose Assembly Trust 

26th April - Children’s Race for Life 

2nd May – Rags to Riches 

3rd May – INSET Day School Closed to Pupils

6th May – Bank Holiday 

13th - 17th May – Christian Aid Week 

13th – 22nd May – Welsh Government National Tests Block 

23rd May – Eucharist Pentecost 9.30am 

22nd May – Nursery and Reception Family Worship 9.30am & coffee morning 

24th May – End of term 

27th May – 31st May – Half Term

Classroom 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.

PE

PE day is Monday PM. Please wear your PE kit to school on that day. PE may take place inside or outside so please dress for the appropriate weather. Your child should wear their house colour t-shirt and then black shorts / joggers, black hoodie and trainers.

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. Please ensure children wear their uniform everyday, apart from PE day.

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.

Current Learning

At the Beach in Wales

This term we will be focusing on the topic of the beach which will include a visit to Barry Island in May. We will look at the beach habitat and what animals may chose to make this their home and compare to the woodland habitat that we studied last term. We will be thinking about the Christian Value of 'Trust' and link this to staying safe (particularly when at the beach) We will visit the RNLI and talk about how they keep us safe and what rules we need to follow, in order to stay safe when playing near the sea. In maths we will continue to add and subtract within 20 and learn to use a number line. We will also be counting forward in 10's on the decade and will learn to count in 2's and 5's. We will continue to use the strategies learnt in our RWI sessions to become independent writers and we will write short stories based on our experiences of the beach. We will continue to learn songs and rhymes in English, Welsh and Italian linked to our topic and will be focusing on learning to play percussion instruments during our music sessions. We will have a beach hut, sand and an 'ice cream parlour' in our role-play area and will be using 1p,2p,5p and 10p coins to buy items at the role-play beach shop. 

Pupil Voice;

Some pupil voice questions we have received so far linked to our topic; 

"How is sand made?"How can we make the best sandcastle?""What creatures live at the beach?""How can we stay safe at the beach?""What kind of creatures live in the sea?""How can we keep our bodies safe from the sun?"

At St.David's we value our Pupil's voice. If you have any further questions that your child would like to explore please email Mrs Hughes.

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.

Medium Term Planning

Homework

Homework will be set every Friday on Google Classroom and will alternate every week between literacy and numeracy. 

Please read with your child daily and return books in book bags to school every day.

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.

Four Core Purposes

The four purposes are that all children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.

Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.

Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

In Taff Fawr, we will support ourselves and each other in becoming Ambitious, Capable Learners; Enterprising, Creative Contributors; Ethical, informed citizens and Healthy, Confident Individuals. This will be achieved through collaboration and independent work both inside and outside our classroom.

Christian Values

Our Christian Value for this term is Trust

Trust is a really important value.

It must be earned. If we do not

trust someone it is very hard to

build a good friendship with them.

Talk together about:

• people who you know that are

trustworthy

• practical ways that we can show

others that we are trustworthy

• why it is important to be able to

trust others when working together as a team.

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

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.

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

We will also learn about parts of the body and role play 'Beth sy'n bod?' in our role play hospital.

Modern Foreign 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 being multilingual. 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?)

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!

Jigsaw and PSHE

What is Jigsaw, the mindful approach to Health and Well-being, and how does it work?

Jigsaw is a whole-school approach and embodies a positive philosophy and creative teaching and learning activities to nurture children’s development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings as well as building their capacity to learn. Jigsaw is a comprehensive and completely original PSE programme for the whole primary school from ages 3-11.  The Jigsaw Programme also delivers Relationships and Sexuality Education. Ensuring it meets the requirements set out in the RSE Code for Phases 1 and 2. Life cycles and human reproduction will be taught in a sensitive manner, age related in all schools in Wales. This means that all learners must receive this education. There is no right to withdraw from RSE in the new curriculum.

Jigsaw has two main aims for all children:

• To build their capacity for learning

• To equip them for life

Jigsaw brings together PSE, Relationships and Sexuality Education, emotional literacy, mindfulness, social skills and spiritual development. It is designed to support a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time at their own stage of learning. There are six Puzzles (half-term units of work) and each year group is taught one lesson per week. All lessons are delivered in an age- and stage-appropriate way so that they meet children’s needs.

The Curriculum for Wales is now statutory requirement since September 2022 for all schools in Wales. It has a key role to play in helping children and young people navigate the world safely. Welsh Government wants education to help our children to develop as healthy, confident individuals, ready for the next chapter in their life after school. Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) encompasses the knowledge, skills, dispositions and values that will empower learners to:

• support their health and well-being

• develop healthy, safe and fulfilling relationships of all kinds, including those with family and friends, and in time, romantic and sexual relationships

• navigate and make sense of how relationships, sex, gender and sexuality shape their own and other people’s identities and lives

• understand and support their rights and those of others to enjoy equitable, safe, healthy and fulfilling relationships throughout their lives.

For more information, on the content and nature of these statutory lessons, please click the file below:

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.

Children will earn a point for their class for bringing in a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable for snack. These points will be added up each week and the class with the most points will be rewarded with extra playtime at the end of the week. Children can also earn an extra 5 points by bringing in a healthy lunchbox or eating all of their healthy school lunch, and stickers will be given out by Year 6 monitors. Please help to support us in our campaign to encourage children to eat healthily in school. 

We also provide healthy snacks 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 and nothing that contains NUTS due to some children having severe allergic reactions. Thank you.

101 Experiences

We would like you to take part in our 101 Experiences challenge - 101 things for your child to experience during their time at St David’s C.I.W. Primary School. We would be delighted to see our children doing these activities outside of school, so please send in any evidence of each experience to reception@stdavidsciwprm.cardiff.sch.uk 

Each time a child achieves 5 experiences from the same category, they will get a sticker which shows the religious character which symbolises the associated purpose from the Four Purposes of the new curriculum. 

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.

This term we will be focussing on Articles 24, 25, 27, 33, 34, 35 and 36 from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Picture News

During our worship time on Mondays, we have been learning about current news, topics and events. Then we have been exploring the key questions linked to these further in class. Here are some of the questions we have been discussing.

When discussing the Picture News, we have been challenging ourselves to use new, ambitious vocabulary to describe our feelings and opinions.

Clubs

After school clubs run on a Monday afternoon 3:30-4:30.

Our current club for Taff Fawr is Kinetic Dance.

All clubs will run for a term and will change every term. If your child would like to take part in our after school club or be added to the waiting list please send an e-mail to clubs@stdavidsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Useful Links