Latest News

Home Learning Reception

Posted on March 23rd, 2020


Good morning everybody,

I hope you are all well. Today, I will be filming the weeks worth of youtube videos for phonics and maths this morning. I have planned it to be delivered as a video, but,as it’s my first one, it may need a little editing before I can upload it and send you the link. I’m hoping that it will be later today. I put whiteboards and pens into the bags of any children that were still in school on Thursday, but, if your child was not present that day, then paper and a pen/pencil will work fine. The maths is looking at doubling in the first episode (we looked at this two weeks ago so it’s a bit of a refresher) and then goes onto halving, which is a new concept for us. For this I use a paper plate divided in half by a black line, but, once again, a piece of paper divided in half will be fine. It will be a good idea to have the whiteboards/paper handy for both phonics and maths lessons, and also if an adult or older sibling remains present for the tutorial as it is a good idea to pause the video at times to allow them time to read a presented sentence, or write a word, before I carry on with the lesson. In phonics we have just completed phase 3. This covers all the new sounds that the children are taught in Reception, so this is a good place to be in this unusual circumstances that we all find ourselves in. The focus now is to use all the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (written verson of the sounds) and put them into our writing and reading. We will also focus on the common exception words taught at phase 2 and 3. These are those words that pop up regularly in sentences but do no always conform with the phonics sounds that are taught e.g. you (the y is helping us but the ou is making an irregular oo sound). We will take the phonemes and common exception words and build sentences that I will ask your child to read or write in the tutorials. We will also progress onto reading and writing two syllable words. I advise them tackling the first syllable before moving onto the second when reading or writing. Punctuation will cover full stops, question marks,capital letters and finger spaces between words. The odd exclamation mark may appear.

I will do counting together on the video clips but this doesn’t work brilliantly unless I am counting along too, so it would be good if you can use the 100 squares to count together everyday. The children are used to counting regularly to 100 in ones, in tens and in fives, so it would be excellent practice to keep this going on a daily basis. We haven’t started counting in twos yet, so this is something that you could introduce (always using the 100 square for help). We also regularly work on one/two more than a given number and one/two less than a given number (if they struggle with this, then do use the 100 square for help). Telling the time to the hour, coin recognition and discussing the properties of 2D/3D shapes will also be excellent daily activities.We also sing the days of the week song to the tune of the Adams Family (There’s Monday and there’s Tuesday, there’s Wednesday and there’s Thursday, there’s Friday and there’s Saturday and then there’s Sunday…days of the week CLAP CLAP…days of the week…CLAP CLAP)

Also, the website favoured by every teacher, Twinkl (note no e on the end) is offering one months free subscriptions for all parents at the moment. I cannot promote this enough to you. It is where the resources I have currently sent home all came from. It has resources for just about anything. Once logged in, I would suggest starting any search with EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and then what you are searching for e.g. EYFS subtraction activities, EYFS phase 3 sentences. Also,if you are reading a certain picture book with your child, then search for resources for those books on Twinkl too.

I added extra reading books to the book bags as well,so have a good read of those too.

If your child was absent during the last week, then I have asked Mrs Birrell to send out the work activities in the post to you.

Keep your eye out for my next email (hopefully today) as it will contain the link to the first youtube tutorials.

I’m missing you all already. We have the best little group in our class, so please do take care and we will hopefully all be back together as soon as possible.

Jackie Patnell



Netball News

Posted on March 12th, 2020


King’s Lynn Town Schools Hi5 Netball Competition

@ KES 10/03/20

On a sunny but windy morning the entire 5/6 netball club, 2 teams of 8, took part against 10 other teams. There were 3 pools of 4, the eventual winners of each pool played each other for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The second place teams played for 4th, 5th and 6th etc. All the matches were played over a straight 8 minutes, rotating after each match which is slightly different to our usual competitions.

Our team on court 1 played Reffley, Fairstead and Gayton , winning  all of their matches therefore finishing top which meant they went on to play both of  St Marthas’ teams who had finished top in the other pools. Our team narrowly lost 0-1 to the eventual winners but beat their other team therefore finishing in 2nd place overall.

On court 2 we took on and St Marthas, Whitefriars and Holly Meadows, winning one and drawing the other two, this left us in 2nd place to then take on Gayton and South Wootton.  In this pool we drew against Gayton and beat South Wootton which left the team in 5th place overall.

All the children played extremely well and determinedly battled throughout on a surface that was a little slippery. It was a good warm up for the Small Schools Tournament later in the month. Thank you to Mrs Moreland and Thomas Harrison for your help.

A Super Effort from all the children.

LILLY, SIENNA, CLARA, OLIVER, ELLA, CHLOE, POPPIE, ASHBY, TABBY, ELLIOTT, CAITLIN, ELLIOT, DARCIE, HENRY, ELIZABETH and LIBBY.



Celebrating Chinese New Year at Silk Road Restaurant

Posted on February 21st, 2020


We enjoyed another excellent trip to the Chinese restaurant last week. In keeping with our celebrations for Chinese New Year, the whole school hopped on the coaches and headed out to the Silk Road Restaurant in Heacham. The staff gave us a lovely warm welcome and fed us well with chow mein, sweet and sour chicken balls, rice and spring rolls. We all had a chance to win prizes by answering questions about the new year celebrations, followed by dragon dancing around the restaurant. Our Reception class had a table to themselves and made me proud with their exceptional behaviour throughout. They tried all of their food, even the things they had never tried before. Before we left, everybody was given traditional Chinese New Year gifts of money pockets, sweets and fortune cookies. What an excellent way to end our Spring half-term.


Making our Characters into Puppets

Posted on February 21st, 2020


We invited our parents into our classroom today, to help us make our characters for our stories, into puppets. They all looked absolutely amazing, which is down to all the hard work from both parents and children. Thank you for coming everyone! We hope to do something similar this coming half-term, with our new topic-Circus.


Forest School

Posted on February 21st, 2020


Forest School was excellent this week. The children had to use so many skills: safety with sticks, secateurs, climbing trees and toasting marshmallows by the fire, problem solving with their golf ball run,working together on the swings and mud kitchen, and perseverance and patience with turn taking. What a fabulous morning!


Outdoor Learning at Houghton Hall

Posted on February 21st, 2020


It was a chilly day for our first trip to Houghton Hall. Following the snow from the day before, we set off in rather cold and windy conditions. However, we had a great day, playing games in the woods, inspecting the sculptures and exploring the walled garden. We snuggled in the barn to eat our lunch, and following this, made a snowman with the last of the snow. We hope to return in April to see how the estate has changed as the weather gets warmer.


Posting our letters to Santa

Posted on February 21st, 2020


After writing our own letters to Santa, we set off to the village post box to post them in time for Christmas.


Prickly Hay

Posted on February 21st, 2020


 

Our Nativity was a huge success this year. All of the children put so much effort into the rehearsals, learning lots of dances and new songs. Everybody remembered their lines and the acting was fabulous! It will be hard to top this one next year.


Contact Details

Executive Headteacher: Catherine King

Executive Deputy Headteacher: Nichola Kerr

Secretary: Trish Birrell

Sandringham and West Newton Primary School
School Road, West Newton, Norfolk, PE31 6AXUnited Kingdom01485 540506

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