The children at Garden Village Primary Academy are continuing to make progress in their learning at a pace! The Spring Term curriculum is igniting curiosity, building on the children's prior knowledge and challenging those brain cells to think deeper. 

Thank you to the parents who attended the writing workshop. Your support and feedback is very much appreciated.

Personal Development opportunities – The Foodie Club – has been a huge success. Under the brilliant guidance of Sammie, the eighteen children who registered successfully have made a rainbow pasta bake, healthy protein snacks and a butternut squash curry. Registration for the club in Spring Term 2 has been shared.

Attendance has slightly increased to 94.1%. Thank you again for supporting your child's attendance and punctuality.

Miss Matthews and Mrs Guild are so proud of Reception Maple. This term, many children are showing greater independence in their writing, reading, mathematics and play. 

Mathematics

In maths, we have explored numbers 6, 7, 8. We’ve practised one more/less, composition and subitising.

This week, we have been learning to recognise, make and recall doubles up 6. Using counting equipment, painting butterflies and playing games, we know what a double is and can say the total securely!

We have also looked at ‘odd and even’. The children enjoyed pairing socks for Miss Matthews and investigating if there was an odd one out! The children learnt the meaning of the words odd and even, and they can use them to describe quantities and amounts. 

Phonics and Reading

We have now learnt all the Phase 3 sounds. Our blending and reading with fluency is improving every week! This week, we are reading tricky words such as pure and sure. We are blending longer words such as toffee, hidden, bigger, and kitten.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

This week in computing, the children used their Beebot skills to programme the Beetbot on the iPad using the clear - forwards and backwards commands. With a little perseverance, the children completed this challenge superbly.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Our PSHE this half-term is all about taking on challenges and becoming resilient learners. To start this off, the children helped Miss Matthews create a list of classroom rules. We discussed how rules help us and why they are important. The children practised working in teams to create complex building structures, and we are working to develop grounding techniques for when challenges arise. 

Expressive Arts and Design

This week in Expressive Arts and Design we have learnt all about transient art. We have used natural materials and loose parts to make pictures. We learnt that transient art can be moved, and it is not fixed or glued down. Whilst creating our pictures, we again used the vocabulary ‘abstract’ and ‘figurative’ and we discussed what these two words mean. We’re very proud of our creations – well done Reception Maple!

Physical Development

Every day, we are working on strengthening our fine motor skills. 

Literacy Tree

Over the last few weeks, the children have turned into budding architects, just like Iggy from our story Iggy Peck, Architect. We have designed buildings, explored famous landmarks from around the world, and even planned our very own dream homes. The children have been generating exciting adjectives to describe famous buildings and using these to write descriptive sentences. They have absolutely loved this book, and it has been wonderful to see their imaginations run wild. Even more lovely is that some children are now saying they would like to become architects when they grow up! We are all very excited about our parent competition to design a dream home – we can’t wait to see your creations. Remember, there is a prize up for grabs!

Maths

In Maths, the children have been working incredibly hard on their addition facts to 20. We have been using our secure knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us calculate larger addition facts, and our understanding of place value has really supported this learning. The children have also been learning all about doubling numbers up to 20, showing great confidence and enthusiasm. Their determination and progress have been fantastic to see.

Phonics and Reading

In Phonics and Reading, the children continue to blow away Mrs Stamp and Miss Rogers with their fantastic progress. They are becoming real experts at applying their phonic knowledge into their writing, showing growing confidence and independence. We are so proud of how hard they are working!

Art and Design

Our art lessons have been inspired by the artist Jasper Johns. The children recreated one of his famous works using primary colours only. They then used these primary colours to mix and create secondary colours, producing some vibrant and impressive artwork. The results were wonderful, and the children were very proud of their creations.

Geography

In Geography, we have been busy explorers! The children have been learning all about compasses and what they are used for. We took our learning outside into the playground to identify North, East, South and West, using our surroundings to help us. The children loved applying their learning in a practical and active way.

Physical Education

In PE, we have been getting our groove on during our dance unit. The children have been learning how to march in time to music and worked together to create their own marching routines. We danced to Golden, and the children were especially thrilled to be moving to K-Pop Demon Hunters! Their energy, creativity and teamwork have been a joy to watch.

Science

In Science, the children have been learning all about different animal groups. They began by sorting a range of animals into groups and discussing what they noticed about them. This helped us to explore what makes animals similar and different. We then focused on learning what a mammal is, identifying key features such as that they all have fur. The children showed great curiosity and enthusiasm, asking thoughtful questions and enjoying the hands-on sorting activities.

Foodies - Cookery Club

Thank you for your continued support with parking respectfully during the morning drop-off and afternoon collection. It is much appreciated.

This week, Mrs Burke had the privilege of working with other SENCO's across the Fierte Trust, sharing knowledge to ensure the children on the SEND register have the best support.

For further information about the Trust, please use this link: Fierté Multi-Academy Trust - Home

Telephone: 01827 214630

Office Email: office@gardenvillage.fierte.org

Headteacher / SENCO: headteacher@gardenvillage.fierte.org