It has been truly wonderful to have the children back in nursery. The children have returned showing they have great listening skills and can share toys in the nursery. The children have been learning about where they live, as well as learning about planet Earth, the land and the sea.

Outdoors the children have enjoyed using the binoculars to look for monsters and to look at plants and insects in the wild garden. The digging pit has been really popular and the children are enjoying mixing water with the soil to make mud. They are learning new words too such as squidgy, sloppy, gloopy, slippery, sticky, wet, opaque and solid. One day, the mud got so sticky that the children had to be careful not to lose their wellies in it! Last week the children got a big surprise when Alfie found a toad sleeping in a tyre. The toad was and it now has a new home in the school pond.

Year 1 and Year 1/2 have been reading at The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The 'hook' has really got the children wanting to be writing their own story, which is wonderful to see. I look forward to reading some of your work in the next few weeks!

This week Year 2 were great at acting out the story 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book' in English. They came up with some brilliant actions and had lots of fun retelling the story.

The children in Reception have enjoyed learning the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and retelling it. They have also enjoyed continuing to explore the Reception areas.

Year 4 started their new science topic, electricity. They were exploring and investigating with different electrical equipment to see what they found. Children were able to make a circuit to create light, a fan and a buzzer.

Year 6 have written alternative lyrics to ‘What a Wonderful World’ based on the positive impact of lockdown. It was lovely to see them identify positive outcomes and create fantastic songs.

PE Kits

P.E lessons starting this week, please can you make sure that PE kits are in on a Monday and they will go home on a Friday. Please make sure that they are named so that we know which items of clothing belong to which child if it is not put back in their bag.

School uniform

It is wonderful to see all of the children start this yer looking smart and proud to be wearing the Galley Hill uniform. Could I ask that you please ensure that each item of clothing has their name on. With the hot weather over the past couple of days, children have been taking jumpers off, putting them down and then not knowing which is there jumper, as there has been no name inside for staff to help return the jumper to the correct child. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

I have received a few questions around children bringing bags in. Book bags or carrier bags with items needed for the day (water bottle/reading book/ packed lunch) are both allowed. Children are keeping all belongings in the class at present and large bags take up a lot of room in classrooms and become a tripping hazard. As some of the cloakrooms are in communal spaces, it is currently not possible to use the cloakrooms and pegs for many of the year groups as we previously did. I will review this for when we return after half term.

Drop off and pick up

Thank you again for what is becoming a much smoother start and end to the day. Your cooperation with this is greatly appreciated.

If you child is feeling anxious about walking from the gate, please do let me know and we can discuss alternative arrangements.

All timings will remain the same.

wraparound - breakfast and afterschool club

Monday sees the doors open for the Breakfast club and Afterschool club. We are excited for this new venture. If you would like more details or would like to book a place, please see the details and e-mail address below. Please do check your Parentmail if you have booked as payments will now be showing. Drop off and Pick up is through the gate where the chickens are. There will be a signage there on Monday.

contacting teachers

Whilst you may not see the teachers on a morning during these current times, please do phone school, contact them via Teams or e-mail office@galleyhillprimary.co.uk

Celebration Assembly

Well done to everyone this week. You have all been working extremely hard. Even though we can not all meet together in the hall like we used to, it doesn't stop us from meeting all together.

It was great to have out first Celebration Assembly of the year and a big well done to all the stars!

'Settling in' parents' evening

Whilst it is not possible to meet face to face currently, we will be holding a 'settling in' parents' evening. This will be on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th September between 3:30pm and 6pm. A parentmail will go out on Monday for you to book your 5 minute slot with the class teacher. The purpose of this is to discuss how the children have settled in to their new class and for you to speak to their class teacher. As the year progresses, we will continue to develop communication through Microsoft Teams and will be able to video call through that as well.

School dinners

School dinner menu for next week:

If you would like to be on a packed lunch one day and dinners the next, that is absolutely fine. We are on a limited menu still at the moment and are looking at what we can do to offer more in the near future.

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