We started by thinking about the people at Russell House who help make our school such a great place to be. The children were excited to go on a tour of the school and find out more about the different roles that people have and what they do. 

We met Mr McCarthy in his study and the children were fascinated by all the books, artwork and photographs that they spotted around the room. The children thought of great questions to ask and they discovered that Mr McCarthy's job is to not only help the children, but also the adults at school! The children really enjoyed sitting on the big sofa and finding out more about our headmaster. 

Next, we visited the catering team and the children had a peek into the kitchen where they saw huge ovens, mixers, dishwashers and other equipment that is used to prepare their yummy lunches. Again, lots of great questions from the children helped them learn more about how the food we eat is prepared and the people who do this for us. 

We also visited Mrs Tickner and learnt about first aid, Mrs Yearly spoke about how she helps with all the finances and how much she loves numbers and Mrs Parker explained that she helps Mr McCarthy with all his meetings. We also visited Mr Phil in his workshop and the children saw all the lawnmowers and tools that he uses to keep the school looking smart and tidy. We even saw Mr John arriving back on the ride-on lawnmower (which we found out is his favourite part of his job!). The children all said a BIG thank you to all these people who help us and we made thank you cards that afternoon to give to these special people.

In maths this week, we have been learning about addition and the children have continued to think about this using tens frames. However, this week we have moved on to how this can be represented in a more abstract way in a number sentence. The children have been solving addition problems by adding 2 amounts together and then writing the total at the end of the sentence. A fun maths invitation was taken up by lots of the children as they worked hard to solve addition problems that were attached to little keys. By matching the addition problem to the correct numbered padlock they were then about to unlock it. This was also a fiddly fine motor challenge!

Later in the week we learnt about how other people in our wider community help us. We have looked at the police, firefighters, doctors, teachers, vets and dentists. The children have watched short video clips and read stories about these jobs to learn more. The children loved the Police Station roleplay in the classroom and had fun roleplaying being firefighters and putting out ‘fires’ using water in squirty bottles outside. They have looked at their fingerprints using white paint on black paper and tried to make little ladders using art straws and lollipop sticks to help the firefighters reach the fires. 

In literacy, the children have been learning to write simple sentences, focusing on recognising a tricky word, I, and segmenting other words to hear the sounds, recording them in the correct sequence. We wrote I am a firefighter in a speech bubble to match a firefighter or I am a vet to match the vet. They are becoming more confident to write and put their phonic skills into action.

The children put on a fantastic performance at our Harvest Celebration and they loved singing the songs to all their families and friends. I think they did brilliantly and enjoyed being on stage very much, thank you for celebrating with us and for all your kind donations.

In art, the children have painted some great portraits of people who help us, thinking about their uniforms and the equipment that they might need. 

Another fantastic week in Form 1!