Kindness, friendliness and community links are the themes for this week’s newsletter. The weather outside might be stormy and cold, but inside Garden Village Primary Academy, there is a lot of warmth and happiness. 

Thank you to the parents who attended the Personal, Emotional and Social Development workshop. It was wonderful to share the learning that our children are progressing so well in, in this prime area of the EYFS curriculum. Remembering our school vision is 'Soaring to Excellence', we are very proud of the progress that every child is making. 

Our attendance continues to be fantastic, 96.6%. Last week, this data was shared and celebrated with the school Education Welfare Office; thank you once again for your support.

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 and kitten.

In Maths, we have been learning to recognise, make and recall doubles up to 4+4=. Using counting equipment, painting butterflies and playing games, we know what a double is and can say the total securely!

This week, we have also been comparing different heights using the following phrases: The ... is short/longer than the .... The ... is the same length as the ... X is shorter than... X is taller than... The children used cubes to measure and compare different lengths of objects. 

The themes for Character Education have been 'service in the community' and 'friendliness'. 

Last week, Mr Bill kindly drove Reception Maple to Glascote Food Bank and Elim Church. With the support from Bev and Mrs Reynolds, the children have first-hand experience packing and weighing food parcels for people and learning about the role of healing others in the community. The morning continued with a tour of Elim church and meeting people who work in the church. The children shone with kindness and had a very special morning helping people in the community.

This week, the virtue of the week was 'friendliness'. We have been learning how to say "good morning" to each other as we enter school, asking how we are and saying "goodbye" or "see you tomorrow" as we leave. Visitors to the school frequently comment about the wonderful manners the children have.

As part of the 'Paint My World' learning topic, we have continued to develop our painting skills. After exploring and recognising different emotions and feelings, whilst listening to music, we carefully chose colours to paint with to represent how the piece of music was making us feel.

Back in our wellington boots, we also went back out into the outdoor area to make a nature catcher. It was so much fun, creating art, using natural materials that we found outside our classroom. 

In music, we have progressed with our understanding of the beat, tempo and pitch. Using scarves to help children to understand the concept of pitch, we listened to a variety of different environmental sounds and signalled if it was a high or low-pitched sound. If it was a high-pitched sound, we lifted the scarf up high but if it was a low-pitched sound, we moved the scarf low. 

On Wednesday 29th September, we celebrated Chinese New Year - the year of the snake. 

This day was also extra fun because it was Pip's birthday. Showing kindness, we put on our party hats and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Pip.

Feeling inspired, Miss Matthews and Mrs Guild took us to the cookery room where we all made our vegetable stir-fry with noodles. It smelt delicious and tasted even better!

In the classroom, the provision further enhanced our knowledge about the Chinese New Year. 

Telephone: 01827 214630

Office Email: office@gardenvillage.fierte.org

Headteacher / SENCO: headteacher@gardenvillage.fierte.org