I will update this page with any new and important information that you need to know as parents in Year One. I will be updating this page regularly please ensure that you check this page frequently to find out everything you need to know. Thank you for your co-operation.

strose1@olstrose.bham.sch.uk

Please find my personal school email above.

At Parents Evening Phone Consultations I spoke to all of you about my school email which parents can contact me on if they have any queries, problems or need advice regarding their child and their learning. It is also for if you have any questions or issues with logins, homework, uploading to the blog etc. Please email me using the address above if you have any concerns or worries and I will aim to respond to you as quickly as I can and get your query sorted.

Can I also say how lovely it was to speak to all of you and to check in with you about your children. They are all doing so well and I am immensely proud of all of them. I want to thankyou for all your time and co-operation with the parent phone calls. There were a few parents who did not schedule an appointment and who I could not get hold of. Please do not panic as Mr Carroll will be sending out another link with an alternative date for you to book in on. This will be one of the evenings after school.  Once I know that the link has been sent out I will let you know when your time and appointment is.  

Many Thanks,

Miss Murphy

Forest School Reminder

Year One Key Worker Bubble Only

There are only a very small handful of Year One children in school at the moment- only Year One key worker children are in class and are now in a special bubble. From now on, every Wednesday afternoon for 1 hour the children in the Year One Bubble will be having a  'Forest School' session as part of their enrichment timetable. This will involve being outside and working in whatever weathers so the children need to be dressed appropriately for the environment they will be working in and the changing weather conditions. 

Therefore, for these key worker Year One children, every Wednesday they must come to school NOT wearing their school uniform. They need to wear the following:

• Old, warm clothes that you do not mind your child getting dirty e.g. an old pair of tracksuit bottoms, warm jumper or sweatshirt, woolly hat, gloves and a scarf.

• Old, warm waterproof coat

• WARM clothes e.g hat, scarf, gloves, jumper, thermals, trouser bottoms, tights, warm woolly socks, boots or wellies etc

Please also ensure that your child comes into school with a labelled plastic carrier bag containing a pair of wellington boots and a pair of warm long socks.  These can be kept in school if you would prefer.

REMEMBER: This is just for the handful of Year One children who are in school and in the bubble. If you are working from home this does not apply to you but don't panic- you won't be missing out! All of Year One will be doing a Forest School/ Spade to Fork Session every week as soon as school is fully open and we return to a full class.

18.12.2020

Merry Christmas Everyone-

Schools Out!

We would like to wish everyone in Year One a safe, restful and faith filled Christmas. We have had a truly wonderful term and Mrs Lynch and I are so proud of all of Year One. We want to say thankyou for the beautiful Christmas gifts and cards we have received over the last week- your generosity never fails to amaze or surprise us and the gifts we have had have been truly lovely. We realise that we are living in very hard times at the moment, and this token is truly appreciated. 

Please remember that I will not be replying to any blogs over the holidays and that you do not need to post any homework online or on the blog over the festive period. I have given out a wallet with Spring Term Spellings and Homework in but this does not need to be completed until the end of Spring 1 so you have lots of time! You do not need to complete any of it until we begin school in January- I have just given it to you early in case any of you keen beans want to take a look at it!  It is now time for us to break up and go and enjoy our Christmas holidays... SCHOOL IS OFFICIALLY OUT! It is time for you all to have a break, as you have all been working so hard- I would like everyone to take some time out from homework and school activities and use the holiday to spend lots of well- earned time with your family and loved one, where it is safe to do so. 

I know this will be a strange Christmas for us all, but however or wherever you choose to spend your holiday season, I hope that it is filled with Peace, Love and Hope. We wish for a better year in 2021 and hope that we will be able to return to normality very soon. Please stay safe and we look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday 5th January at 8.55am.

Spade to Fork - Spring Term 2021

In Spring Term something very exciting is going to be happening! Every Wednesday afternoon Year 1 will be having a  'Spade to Fork' session as part of their enrichment timetable.  This will involve being outside and working in whatever weathers so the children need to be dressed appropriately for the environment they will be working in and the changing weather conditions. 

Therefore, each Wednesday in Spring 1 and Spring 2 Term your child should come to school NOT wearing their school uniform. They need to wear the following:

• Old, warm clothes that you do not mind your child getting dirty e.g. an old pair of tracksuit bottoms, warm jumper or sweatshirt, woolly hat, gloves and a scarf.
• Old, warm waterproof coat

Please also ensure that your child comes into school with a labelled plastic carrier bag containing a pair of wellington boots and a pair of warm long socks.  These can be kept in school if you would prefer.

St Rose Christmas Carol Performance 2020

I am very pleased to announce that The ST Rose  Christmas Carol Service/Nativity video is now ready to be watched and enjoyed. There is a link below to watch the video and the children will also be watching it in school this week too! We would all like to say a huge thankyou to all the children for working so hard to practise their songs, reading and prayers. It is such  a wonderful celebration of our school and so much hard work went to into it! We we all want to say a big thank you to you all and enjoy- there is even a special performance from the teachers!

https://our-lady-and-st-rose-of-lima-catholic-primary-school.primarysite.media/media/christmas-nativity-2020

Christmas Bits and Bobs

Christmas Cards and Presents

If your child wants to give a card to someone it MUST be bought in by Friday 11th December ad posted into the class post box. After the quarantine period, the cards will be delivered to each class and will be sent home on Tuesday 15th December. Similarly, if you would like to give a gift to your child's teacher/ TA please could you sent it on or before Monday 14th December. It will then be quarantined so that the teachers can safely open it and take it home. Of course there is no obligation to give a gift and nor do the teachers expect one.

Christmas Meal

This year, the whole school Christmas Dinner will take place on Wednesday 16th December. If you would like your child to have a cooked Christmas Dinner, the cost for each child is £2.40 and this needs to be paid by Wednesday 9th December at the latest. You can order your Christmas meal and pay for it via the SQUID online system and your own account.

Christmas Carol Service

In the final week, the whole school will watch our own online Nativity and Christmas Carol Service. Each class has learnt a different song and  contribute to this wonderful performance. The service will be put up in the final week and I will send the link and the details when they are confirmed. Remember to keep practising the song at home- Year One are doing Silent Night as their song and you can find the lyrics and backing track if you scroll down below.

Important Dates for Your Diary

Please find below a list of useful and  important dates for your diary and or/ calendars for the upcoming weeks and months.

PE Advent Calendar December 2020

Miss Arnold has kindly asked us to share this fantastic PE Advent Calendar with you all. It is would be a fantastic activity to do over Christmas- there is one PE activity for every day and it will keep you fit and healthy. I will be giving 50 house points for every child that completes a PE advent calendar challenge and posts it on their blog. You could put pictures or videos of your activity or write about what you have done. That means you can get an extra 20 house points every day by doing a daily challenge- come on Year One! let's do this! I have put a downloadable PDF of the candle document below which you download, print and use at home. 

ADVENT WORSHIP WITH DAN AND EMILY DECEMBER 2020

On 4th December 2020 Emily and Dan will be leading an Advent Preparation themed worship session. This is out of school hours but I really encourage you to join in this at home- their meditations are always so spiritual and relaxing and will really help you to prepare for Advent and the upcoming birth of Jesus.

Please see the picture below for details on when the event is and how to access it. Make sure you post you joining in the worship on your class blogs for extra house points!

CAFOD ONLINE ADVENT CALENDAR 2020

CAFOD has created a daily Advent reflection for everyday during Advent which you may wan to use at home as part of your Advent preparations. It is an interactive online Advent calendar specifically for Catholic primary schools, with daily reflections and Christmas activities. This year's online Advent calendar includes stories and activities to help children learn about and pray for people around the world. It is suitable for children in both KS1 and KS2.

We will be using it everyday in class as part of our collective worship but it would be wonderful if you could join in at home too! I have attached the website link to the calendar PPT and resources below and I will be giving 50 house points for any child who posts about using the CAFOD online advent calendar on their blog. Let's make this Advent 2020 a special time of true preparation and reflection.

https://cafod.org.uk/Education/Primary-teaching-resources/Advent-calendar-for-children

Mrs Lynch and I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the Year One children and parents who bought in donations for the food bank today. We were extremely touched by the fantastic support and generosity we had from everyone-  there was such a wide variety of donations from tins of food to tea bags to lots of delicious cereals and pastas! The local food banks around Birmingham and the West Midlands will be so grateful to you all and it will truly make a difference to people in need during these challenging and unusual times. Have a look below at Year One in their own clothes and all the fantastic donations they bought in! WELL DONE YEAR ONE!

The season of Advent is upon us and as a school we begin to prepare for the all important birth of Jesus. We will also be using this time to help those around us in our community. Therefore, each Friday in Advent we will be having a charity Friday to raise money for those around us in need. For each Friday the children will bee allowed to wear their own clothes in exchange for a small donation. 

Below I have added a link which takes you straight to the Year One Advent page. On here you can see the dates of our Advent fund raising, what wonderful charities we are supporting and how you can help. The first own clothes day and fund raising event starts on Friday 27th November 2020. It would be wonderful if we could all get involved in this special time of Advent to help those less fortunate than us and who may be struggling in present and difficult circumstances.

https://www.olstrose.bham.sch.uk/advent-1/

One of the charities we have chosen to support during Advent is CAFOD which  is a fantastic charity that offers aid and support to all those around the world. As a class, we  have decided to use our money to help a llama and buy emergency water. with the money that is donated on this day. We chose the gift ourselves and the children in Year One are very excited to be paying for this gift! We will be raising money for CAFODF and asking for donation of £1 on Friday 4th December.

Video Help with Accessing Website and Blogs

After Parent Consultations and speaking to some parents I am aware that there are still some parents and children struggling to access the school website or class blogs. I wanted to help and therefore I have made a loom step by step video showing you how to access them. It shows a split screen and step by step instructions so you can see exactly what you need to do at home to get to them, including how to log on to the blog, find the website etc.  It is mainly aimed at parents of Year One but is useful for all year groups.  Paul has also texted the parents of all year groups with the link also so you should hopefully have it on your  phones too.  Please find the link below which will take you straight to the video. If you have any questions please just email me and ask.

https://tinyurl.com/y332x8rd

Video Sharing Platform

As part of our website we now have a video sharing platform section where we can put up videos of the children in school. Photos are fantastic and we use them a lot on the website but sometimes a video can be even more beneficial. I have made a playlist section called Year 1 2020-2021 where I will be uploading videos regularly of the children's work and learning in school.  This could include PE, singing, collective worship and so much more. We will be uploading lots more videos of our learning in the future so keep your eyes peeled on the website! The first video I have added is Year One's beautiful singing as part of their collective worship- they so enjoyed singing the hymn ' Lord you have my heart'  and I wanted to share you with you their hard work and beautiful voices .By clicking on the link below you can watch the children's beautiful singing and I will be using this video sharing platform more in the future.

https://tinyurl.com/y2tm5ezu

CHRISTMAS CAROL- 'SILENT NIGHT'

DECEMBER 2020

We have started learning a Christmas carol in Year One in preparation for our St Rose Christmas Carol Service. This will be done virtually this year- all classes will be learning a carol and the staff will even be doing one too! We will then compilate these into a big video and put it on the website for all of you to view and enjoy. We will be recording and videoing our carol on Friday 4th December 2020 so only have a few weeks to go!

Year One are learning 'Silent Night' as their carol and I have given you some resources below to help you learn and practise the song. We will be be doing three verses for the performance. You can find the words  below  and I have also put the link to the piece of music backing track we will be using for the performance. 

It would be wonderful if you could practise the song at home and I would love to see videos of you practising uploaded to your blog- there will be 50 house points as a reward for any practises I see on there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBQUP4bB6HQ

Completing Homework at Home- Using The Blog

I know that there are still a few parents who are struggling with how to get on the blog so I have laid out a little reminder note below. there is also a document with shot by shot instructions for how to get on the blog.

A few weeks ago I gave each child a plastic wallet with all of the children’s logins that they will need for the upcoming year. One of the logins was a BGFL QR code which allows the children to go onto the BGFL launchpad and blog about their homework. With the BGFL website I encourage you to go onto j2blog and use it to upload photos of any homework you do off the home learning grid. You can find a copy of this on  Homework link page on the Year One class  website. Below I have attached a set of instructions with how to go online and blog which you can use to help you and your child. This online  resource is essential for the children’s learning and we encourage you to use them regularly as they are great resources for helping your child. You can upload photos of the children completing their homework, attachments of their work or they can even write about it themselves! The link to get to the  BGFL blog is below.

https://our-lady-and-st-rose.j2bloggy.com/home

Try and look after your BGFL login but if you lose it just come and let me know as I have then all saved and can easily print  off new ones .Any questions or queries just come and find myself  (Miss Murphy) or email the office.

This Friday 15th November 2020 , we will have an 'Own Clothes Day' on Friday to raise some much-needed funds for Children in Need.  It will be a £1 donation for the children to come in their own clothes. In normal circumstances, we would be celebrating this as a whole school but sadly, things are a little different this year.  Whilst we might not be able to get together as a whole school for the day, it is still important that we try to do our bit as the charities need our support, now more than ever!

In addition to this, we will also be completing Joe Wick's final 20 minutes of his 24 hour PE challenge for Radio 2. The Children in Need team would love all schools to complete the final 20 minutes of his PE marathon with him.  I'm sure our children would love to take part in this and it would help them feel part of the big day.  We will be joining him at 9.05am this Friday. Pease remember to bring you £1 on Friday if you want to come in your own clothes and support this fantastic charity with a great cause.

Next week Anti-Bullying Week will take place in England from November 16th to the 20th. This nationwide event is organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and is intended to raise awareness of the issue of bullying among children, especially in schools. Children of all ages as well as parents and children are encouraged to get involved in the event and take part in activities that will help to shine a light on the problem of bullying and ways to help resolve the issue. 

The theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2020 is: United Against Bullying. Anti-Bullying Week will happen from Monday 16th – Friday 20th November. To celebrate and reflect on Anti Bullying Week I have set up a page on the class website with lots of resources for you to use at home to get involved. You can go straight to the anti bullying page by clicking the green link below. There are lots of fun activities to do, resources to find out about anti-bullying, videos to watch and lots to discuss. For every anti- bullying activity that a child posts on their class blog over the next 2 weeks I will be awarding them 100 j2stars and a special sticker from my stash! Come on Year One- let's get involved with this great cause and be united in ending bullying. Don't forget to post your work on the blog! You and your parents can also get involved by following the events on social media using the hashtags #antibullyingweek and #abw20. 

https://www.olstrose.bham.sch.uk/anti-bullying-week-november-2020/

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This week marks Maths Week and there are lots of fantastic online resources for you to use to mark the occasion and celebrate it at home. If you click on the following link below it will take you to Maths Week section of the website where you can find lots of different resources including games, activities, challenges and quizzes to keep you busy this week all Maths based. Each day this week I will be setting a fun challenge from the Maths Resources Week Website- it would be fantastic if you could complete this challenge but there are plenty more you can find, explore and try at home too from the website! The challenges for the week are on the link below if you click on it. For every Maths challenge a child completes and posts on their blog this week I will be giving 100 j2stars and one of my special stickers! This is part of your homework so make sure you post it on your homework blog so I can see it and give you the house points and special awards. Have fun Year One!

https://www.olstrose.bham.sch.uk/maths-week-november-2020/

Year OneRemembrance Service-

Wednesday 11th November

This week we will be learning all about the meaning of Remembrance as part of our Collective Worship sessions. The children will be learning about War and Peace, the people who fight for our country and how we can strive to live in harmony. They will also be focusing on the Children's Rights for War and what it says about children and refuges in war- torn countries. We will be having our minutes silence on Wednesday 11th November and to find out more about what we are doing in class go to our collective worship link page. You can find this by clicking the link below. It would be great if you could support your child's learning of this at home and ask them about Remembrance. See what they have learnt and what they can tell you! You could also look at the collective worship from our page and do it with your child at home- I will be giving 100 housepoints for every child who works on Remembrance at home.

https://www.olstrose.bham.sch.uk/year-one-collective-worship/

Year One Spellings

Each week the children are tested on their Band Word Spellings and their Friday Spellings. These are two different sets of spellings and it is evident that some children are not practising them at home. There are two sets of spellings to learn each week- the Band words which we test every day and the Friday Spellings which are tested weekly. It is really important that the children practise the spellings, especially the Band Words- we still have a lot of children on Band 1 and it would be great if some of them could move up! We are also finding that a lot of children are getting their b's and d's the wrong way round so please practise and support them with this at home. Below I have given a list of the Friday Spellings for this half term and you can find the Band 1-10 words on both the Homework and Spelling link pages. Your child should know what band they are in.

Thank you for you co-operation.

School Trip To Think Tank Cancelation

Unfortunately, due to current COVID circumstances, our November 26th  Trip to The Think Museum in Birmingham has been cancelled. A texts has been sent out to all Year One parents to inform them of this. We are very sad to hear this but keeping the children safe is both our and the museums top priority so we feel it is the right decision for this time. The museum are willing for us to reschedule for the new year and we are hoping the trip will take place in January. Once we know more and the trip can be confirmed I will let you know dates and details and letters will be sent out.  Thankyou for your co-operation and support. 

Uploading Homework to the Year One Blog

I am a little concerned that we are now into Autumn 2 and there are still a lot of children in Year One who have not yet uploaded any homework or anything to the blog. You should all have done some of your homework and it has been made aware to me that some children and parents are a little unsure how to upload their homework to the blog . Therefore I have created a step by step guide document below to help you. ( please don't forget your BGFL QR code logins have already been sent home. )I hope you find it useful and if there are any issues or lost logins please do not hesitate to get in touch. I am looking forward to seeing your lovely homework. Thank you to those who are already uploading, I can see you are creating some fantastic work. 

October half term

Even though it seems like a short term for Year one it is nearly time for the October break where all children will be able to have a week of well earned rest before we begin our next half term of Autumn 2. We break up this Friday and the Half Term Holiday Dates are as follows:

Break up:  Friday 23rd October at 12.55pm

Return:    Tuesday 3rd November at 8.55am.

Year One  New Start and Finish Times

From Monday 19th October, there has been a chance to the Year One Start and Finish Times..  We will continute to leave the school via the gates on the main car park so please make sure you bring the children to these gates each morning and pick them up from there in the afternoon.  If your child has a younger sibling in the school, please bring them to the Main School Gate as you did before.

Start of the Day

Home time collection (Monday - Thursday)

Home time collection (Friday)

YEAR ONE SELF ISOLATION ENDS TODAY AND THE YEAR ONE CHILDREN ARE BACK IN SCHOOL THIS MONDAY (19TH OCTOBER 2020)

For the last two weeks Year One have been self isolating at home and carrying on with their learning both online, and through using the website. I want to thank all the children that have completed their work and blogged to me about it- it has been such a pleasure seeing all your beautiful and wonderful work at home and being a part of it too!  

We will be in school this Monday 19th October 2020 as normal. The day will begin at 8.55am and the children will be picked up at 3.20pm as before. This is the last week at school before half term so it is imperative that all children are in and on time so we can do lots of important work before the holidays! Mrs Lynch and are I are so excited to be back and see the children- we have missed you all so much!

Harvest Festival- Wednesday 14th October 2020

On Wednesday 14^th October we will be celebrating Harvest Festival in school. This is an exciting time where we will be talking to the children in class about different foods, where it comes from and food sources, and how we can help other countries around the world. It would be fantastic if you could begin to talk to your child about this at home so that they have some knowledge of the Harvest. On Wednesday 14^th October we will be collecting tins and packets of food etc from the children and will be giving what we receive to a local food bank. It would be wonderful if each child in the class could bring at least one tin or packet of food in which we can then donate to charities and people in need. We thankyou for your continued co-operation and support.

Technology Survey for Year One

Today the children have been sent home with a form in their bookbags which contains a survey for Home Technology that we need you to complete and send back into school ASAP. It is crucial you do this we need to have an understanding of what technology is available to you at home, so that you are able to upload your homework on the blog, or in case we need your class to work from home in the future, given the current circumstances. Please ensure your child has bought the completed survey back into school by the end of this week ( Friday 2nd October 2020.) .Thankyou for your continued co-operation.

School photographs

At the start of this week ( Monday 21st September) all the children had their annual school photograph taken.  On the same day they were also sent home with a QR code in their bag which you can use online to obtain and order copies of their photos for you to keep. Follow the instructions on the back of the sheet to gain access to your photographs and if you have any problems please contact the school office by email using the following address:

enquiry@olstrose.bham.sch.uk

Thankyou for your continued co-operation.

Online Logins and Resources sent Home

I have now reset and updated all of the children’s logins for their online resources. On Friday I gave each child a plastic wallet with all of the children’s logins that they will need for the upcoming year. They have their logins for the following websites:

Big Maths ( to practise their weekly arithmetic tests)

Active Learn ( to read online books and practise Phonics)

BGFL QR Code ( to go on the online blog and upload homework).

Numbots/ Rockstars ( to practise Maths sums- the logins details for this are in the children’s reading diaries.)

Please note that with Big Maths and Active Learn logins the first column is the username, the second column is the password and the third column is the code.

All of these online resources are essential for the children’s learning and we encourage you to use them regularly as they are great resources for helping your child. Don’t forget that the children also have their username and password for numbots/ rockstars in their reading  diaries.

With the BGFL website I encourage you to go onto j2blog and use it to upload photos of any homework you do off the home learning grid. You can find a copy of this on the Year One Homework  page on the website or in your child’s homework book. If you go onto the homework page you will find a set of instructions with how to go online and blog which you can use to help you and your child. Try and look after these logins but if you lose any logins just come and let me know as I have then all saved and can easily print  off new ones. Any questions or queries just come and find myself  (Miss Murphy) or email the office.

Flu vaccination letters

A letter was sent home yesterday about giving consent for flu vaccines in school for your child. The vaccines will happen in October so the letters need to be bought back into school by no later than  Friday 2nd October. I really encourage you to think about a vaccine for your child as it is more important than ever this year with the current situation. The vaccine  is only a  quick  spray up each nostril and is completely painless. Year One are very little so  perhaps take some time to talk to your child about what the vaccine is, why they are having it and what will happen if you decide for your child to have the vaccine. Thankyou for your co-operation.

Year One Class Trip- ThinkTank Science Museum

Year One's Class Trip is all set for The ThinkTank Museum in Birmingham on Thursday 26th November. We will be going to the museum by coach and will be back for normal pickup time of 3.20pm. The children will need to be dressed in school uniform, as normal, and bring a packed lunch, Letters will be going out shortly in the children's bookbags so please keep your eyes peeled for these! If you have any  questions just come and fine either myself ( Miss Murphy) or Mrs Lynch.

Healthy Lunchboxes

Please ensure that if your child has a packed lunch they are bringing in mainly healthy snacks to eat at dinner time. We have seen a number of children who have had nothing healthy in their lunch box whatsoever and who have only eaten crisps, chocolate or sweets for dinner! We encourage all children at our school to lead a varied, healthy and balanced diet so that they can grow up to be the best that they can be! Please support us with this and motivate your children to eat a healthy lunchbox where possible. Thank you for your co-operation.

New start and finish times September 2020

On Friday 4th September 2020, your child was given a letter informing yourselves about the changes to the start and finish times at school. Please click on the document below to access and read this letter as it informs you of the new times and which gates you should be dropping and collecting your children from. The start and finish arrangements will begin from Monday 7th September 2020. We thank you for your co-operation and support during these strange and different times.

New Changes to School Uniform September 2020

This year, we are trying out a new uniform to ensure that our children can be as active and engaged in their learning as possible. The children are trying out lots of active activity through their weekly PE lesson on Monday afternoon and'The Daily Mile' and to maximise this time we need the children to be dressed appropriately at all times. I have uploaded the new School Uniform Dress Code and Hair/ Jewellery Policy Documents below and this has also been sent home to all parents. The main changes are that children should now be wearing plain black trainers and joggers (no logos) instead of trousers and skirts or dresses so that they are suited for all weathers and active activities. Children are still expected to wear a white polo shirt and a blue V Neck sweatshirt or cardigan with the school badge and gold stripe.