The class teacher for the Infants is Mrs Moore who is supported by Miss Lameche in a morning. Mrs Moore teaches the core subjects of English (including phonics), maths and science as well as the other curriculum subjects of history, geography, art, DT and religious education. Other subjects are taught by different members of our team:

• Music and singing - Mrs Newton (Music specialist) 
• French - Madame Hatch (French Specialist)
• P.E. - Kanga and the swimming teachers at Craven Leisure Pool
• Forest Schools - Mrs Ross (Qualified Forest School Teacher) 
• PSHE - Mrs Turner (HLTA)
• Computing - Mrs Jenkinson

Homework

In the Infants, homework is intended to build upon the key skills and knowlegde which is being taught in class. We want the children to enjoy all kinds of experiences outside of school so homework is intended to be manageable and purposeful.

At certain times in the year, we may give additional homework relating to specific events- such as learning lines for performances etc. 

Here is an overview of weekly homework:

Spellings:

Spelling folders should return to school each Monday so that new spellings can be given out after their test that morning. We recommend practising these spellings little and often: 5 minutes on at least 5 separate occasions.

The spellings will be chosen carefully in line with the phonics they have been learning in class that week. The particular grapheme (letter or letters) which make one phoneme (sound) will be highlighted in red so that the children can identify them clearly. Any high frequency words (which may have an unusual spelling but are commonly used) will be written in blue. It is recommened that spellings are always practised in the context of a sentence so that the children understand the meaning of the word alongside how it is spelt. 

Maths:

All children have access to Numbots. Like with spelling practice, the aim of this homework is to help build the children's mathematical fluency and embed number facts into the long-term memory.

Therefore, we recommend children should practise on Numbots, for at least 5 minutes on at least 5 different occasions each week. We will be tracking their participation with the teacher analysis tools. 

The children also have a helpful number bonds mat in their reading folders with representations and calculations of all the number bonds from 3-10 inclusive. We practise a selection of these at the start of every maths lesson but extra practise at home will give greater opportunity for the children to commit these to memory.

Reading:

Children should read at home as often as possible and will get one school book per week. They will be sent home with a familiar book that they have already started at school. To ensure we are able to listen to everyone before a new book is sent home, Year 1 folders will remain in school on a Monday and Tuesday with a new book sent home each Wednesday, and Year 2 folders will be kept in school on a Wednesday and Thursday with a new book sent home each Friday. We aim to listen to children read as often as possible so it is essential that, on the days your child brings their reading folder home, they bring it back to school the following day.

The book they bring home should not be challenging and the children should be able to read most of the words fluently. Re-reading a book is also hugely beneficial for comprehension skills so this should be encouraged if your child has already finished their book at school. Please make a note in their reading record book to show each time your child has read at home so that we can keep track of where they are up to.

Whilst the book that your child brings home will help them to learn to read, we also want to foster a love of reading. Please read to your children as often as you can and if they are reading a book at home alongside their school book, please make a note of this in the reverse of their reading record book so that we can discuss this and celebrate their achievements in school.

Our Week in the infants

In addition to the timetable (below) this section aims to give you useful information about what happens in the Infants every week. 

Mondays: Remember to bring in spelling folders for the weekly spelling tests.

Thursdays: Remember Swimming/ Forest Schools kit; SATS Club (Year 6 only, Sep-May)

Fridays: Remember to come to school in P.E. kit. Also remember to bring in evidence of any out of school achievements for personal development time and celebration assembly. 

Everyday: Remember to bring : reading books; reading records; friendliness; ambition; bravery and smiles!