Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Next week all Year 1 children across England will take part in the phonics screening check. Within the screening check the children will be asked to read 40 words, some of which will be real words and some will be pseudo words. The children may also refer to pseudo words as ‘alien’ words. This screening check will take place on a 1:1 basis with either myself or Miss Cox. There is no time limit to the phonics screening check but it should take no longer than 10 minutes. The children are taught phonics daily and so preparation for this is already in place so please don’t worry about this. Here is a link to phonics play PhonicsPlay – Resources (www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources) where you can play Dragons Den, Buried treasure and Picnic on Pluto without subscribing. These games focus on real and pseudo words and will be a good way to practise at home in the run up to next week.

Please do get in contact with us if you have any questions as we will be happy to help.

Kind regards

Mrs Young

KS1 and Reading Leader

Art Exhibition

Our latest gallery exhibition is being displayed. Can you believe that this is art work from our Year 1 pupils?These garden abstracts are inspired by Mondrian.  We particularly love the grey swirly one which depicts a dog spinning round in the garden 🐕😀

Ukulele Parent Showcase

Year 1 have been learning to play the Ukulele this year with Music Teacher Mrs Porrett and today they performed a mini showcase to their parents.  It’s great that our youngest children can all learn to play an instrument, it improves their dexterity which helps little hands with writing, co-ordination and the lovely singing that goes with it brightens up the day.  Well done Year 1 for persevering and perfecting their Ukulele skills.

Yr 1 Balanceability

VYear 1 have all been practising their bike riding skills and balance with Balanceability this week! Thank you to our trainers.

Science Week 2024

Thank you to Miss Harris for organising the best Science Week!  This year we explored the theme of ‘time’ in outer space with a visiting Planetarium and through a dinosaur and fossil workshop.  We kicked the week off with a fun assembly from Supersonic Sue who runs Science Cub.  Year 3 learnt all about bees and honey with Shrewsbury School Beekeeping Society students, Year 5 delved into colour experiments with Priory School Science Teacher Tamara and Year 6 had Rory and Dr Nichola visit from Lascell’s Science Manufacturing.

Lascells showcased sound waves using a Rubens Tube, looked at radioactivity with a cloud chamber, demonstrated how stars form using a gravity well and the whoosh bottle was perhaps the most exciting of all.

It is great for Year 6 to dip into some KS3 Science and hear from people in the industry ready for their next steps to Secondary School and future careers.

Overall, we’ve had a brilliant TIME!  See the highlights in our showcase video.

 

Yr 1 @ Blists Hill

Year 1 have been learning about life in the Victorian times and comparing it to how we live today. They had a brilliant day out at Blists Hill Victorian village, they washed clothes in the laundry, saw the candle dipping, visited all of the shops and school and learnt about printmaking.

Storyteller Visit

For World Book Week local Storyteller Sal Tongue visited all our EYFS, Yr 1 and Yr 2 classes. With a medley of stories, drawing and singing the children followed the key to unlock the story.  There was even a Goldilocks and the three bears rap song.  Thank you Sal for your imagination and energy! A lovely way to end our special week dedicated to reading.

Victorian Museum

Year 1 are comparing the lives of Victorian children to their own lives and looking at Victorian schools, homes and toys. What better place to learn than our own Victorian Museum in our listed Coach House! This is located in the Coachmasters old living quarters and is set up around his kitchen and living area.  It displays real artefacts from the era including class photographs and registers from Coleham School archives.

 

 

Judaism Visitor

The lovely Sue, a member of Shropshire Inter-faith group visited Year 1 to talk about being Jewish.  The children learnt that inside a synagogue, men wear a special hat called a kippah and a prayer shawl called a tallit where the tassels represent all the different rules in the Torah. Sue even spoke some Hebrew!

Year 1 Trip – Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum

Dear Parent/Guardians,

Year 1 Trip – Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum

As part of this term’s cross-curriculum work we have arranged for Year 1 to visit Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum, Coalbrookdale on Wednesday 13th March. We will be leaving school at 9.15am and returning approximately 3.00pm, in time for normal home time.

The cost for this trip is £13.00, which includes transport costs, entrance fees, workshops and insurance. Payment should be made via your child’s Arbor account prior to the date of the trip please.

As Year 1 pupils are provided with free school meals as part of the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme, a packed lunch will be provided for all pupils. Please click on the link below to select from the various menu options available. All packed lunches come with a piece of fruit, biscuit, packet of crisps.  Your child should bring their own water bottle.  If we haven’t received a completed packed lunch form for your child by close of play, Monday 11th March, we will assume they will be bringing one from home.

https://forms.office.com/e/cHPte7wus7

Children should wear their school uniform and sensible walking shoes for this trip and, as Blists Hill is an open air museum and the majority of our time will be spent outdoors, bring along a waterproof coat for possible cold/inclement weather.  No spending money is required.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Consent Form for Trips/visits & Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Chinese New Year Celebration Day

 

 

The children have been learning about the upcoming celebration of Chinese New Year.    Years 1, 4 and 6 were involved in the Chinese New Year workshop, where they learnt about the story of Chinese New Year, experienced listening to traditional instruments and took part in a dragon dance!  2024 is the year of the Dragon!

The rest of the school have been busy celebrating too, through activities and lessons planned by teachers and for lunch we had a special menu.

Fact:  Did you know many people now use the term ‘Lunar New Year’?  This is because festivals in other countries take place at the same time and with many of the same traditions as in China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Food Market

We like to try new events and we were so pleased to see the turn out for our International Food Market with tasters from Spain, Greece, Germany, China, India, Italy and Poland.  It was lovely to see so many children excited about trying new foods with their families.  Thank you to everybody for coming along and donating items and especially those families who spent time preparing home-made dishes.  Sharing food with the people we love is one of life’s greatest joys and we would love to hear your feedback so we can do more food based events together.

Christmas Panto!

It was with great organisation that we took the whole school (450 adults and children) to watch Jack and the Beanstalk.  Just the office ladies left back at school manning the fort and eating all the Christmas chocolates!

It was an incredible performance from Brad Fitt and the cast, fabulous scenery and spectacular costumes! The children were all dancing in the rows for finale song.  A real treat for the children to visit the theatre!

Merry Christmas to you all

Christmas wouldn’t be complete for us without our Staff Christmas Video!  This started during Covid so we could connect with our families and children at home but has become a much loved Coleham tradition for us all.  It’s our special gift to the children and a way to say Merry Christmas to the many people in our community that help us make our school what it is, to our parents, volunteers, local shop keepers, club leaders, pre-schools, resident artists and musicians and all the organisations we partner with.

Watching the children’s reaction on Monday was priceless.  We are always teaching our children to be creative, try something new and give it a go, so it’s great for them to see our staff be a little silly and push themselves outside of their comfort zone (of course some of us love the limelight, mentioning no names!)

This year’s video backing scenes have been created using the children’s art work.  The children thought they were entering into a Christmas card competition.

We really hope you enjoy this year’s production and it goes without saying that this film would not be possible without the incredibly talented, legendary Mr Williams who directs and edits us all to perfection.  Always smiling, keeping us calm and on a very tight filming schedule!  Bravo Mr Williams!

 

Coleham Christmas Parade 2023

Well it didn’t rain on our Parade! Thank you to the special folk in our community for dressing up as the nativity cast, to the musicians and of course our furry, four legged friends for entertaining us.  It was great to see so many parents spectate.  The real Santa came to visit with our very own Mrs Claus.  Did you spot our favourite Caretaker from Boogie Wonderland?

Read the Shropshire Star Article

 

EYFS & KS1 Nativity

EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 put on a beautiful nativity performance for us all this week. Performing three shows is impressive at any age so well done to our youngest children!  It left us feeling all Christmassy and very proud of you.  A massive thank you to Holy Trinity for their hospitality and letting us perform in their beautiful church. It is such a special place to perform.

 

 

Sports Leaders

Mr Halford has been taking Year 6 through their Sports Leader Training. For todays session they had to independently run an invasion game with Year 1 pupils.  We saw some lovely interactions, teamwork and some coaching skills shining through!  Well done to Year 6 who have all achieved the Gold Playmaker Award with a small group of pupils achieving ‘Outsanding’ certificates.

Parents Evening – Booking Appointments

You are now able to book you Autumn Term Parent Consultation meeting.  Parent Consultations will be held in your child’s classroom, and the dates for all parent consultations are:

  • Wednesday 8th November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm
  • Thursday 9th November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm

To arrange your appointment, please follow the link below (which can also be found in the Parents’ Area section of our website).  Each consultation will last for 10 mins.  If you arrive a little early, you will have the opportunity to look through your children’s books while you wait for your meeting.  You are welcome to stay after the meeting to carry on looking through books if you wish.

Book an appointment here:

Click HERE to book your appointment

Where possible, we ask that you book one meeting per child.  For separated parents, we will be able to accommodate separate meetings if they are required.

Please do get in touch with the school office if you have any questions.

Yr 1 talk Careers

For Careers week Year 1 had two visitors come to talk to them Children’s book Author Katie May Green and Charlie the Vet. What a brilliant experience, the children really enjoyed learning about these jobs.

Reverend Fi’s visit to Year 1.

This afternoon we had the pleasure of welcoming Reverend Fi to year 1.  As part of our RE curriculum she explained to us all about Christenings. The children really enjoyed the visit.

Year 1’s trip around the local area.

Year 1 had a super walk around the local area today. We visited all the places that we had talked about during our geography topic. We walked all the way to the weir whilst taking in the sights of the River Severn. We visited the castle and the train station and walked through the town into the quarry. The children were fantastic and really enjoyed the walk. They may be a little tired tonight!

Cricket

This half term, several classes – Hedgehogs, Owls, Starfish, and Dolphins – have been participating in weekly cricket sessions led by Mr. Smith from the Shropshire Cricket Board. Over the course of these sessions, the children have been steadily improving and learning new cricket skills. They are now excited to showcase their progress by participating in mini games next week.

 

Yr 1 Library Trip

Year 1 visited Shrewsbury Library this week for a tour of the building and a talk from the Librarian.  We are so lucky to have such a beautiful, historic library on our doorstep.  The children really enjoyed their visit.  #we love reading

read

 

EYFS & KS1 Sports Day

What an incredible Sports Day for our youngest pupils! Well done to our Year 6 Sports Leaders for their organisation in running the event.  There was some brilliant running, egg & spoon races and everyones favourite, the House Team water race.  The sense of community from children and families and team spirit shone through! Lots of happy faces everywhere! Thank you for joining us.  Congratulations to Greyfriars for winning the House Cup for Sports Day.

 

Gallery Exhibition

We were thrilled to see Art from every year group in a real Art exhibition!  Coleham Art is displayed all week at the Belle Vue Arts Festival gallery at the Barnabas Centre in Coleham. The gallery features 50 local Artists plus the work of 420 Coleham School Artists in a range of media.  The children’s work was based on this years festival theme ‘Heroes’.  The whole school has visited the exhibition to view their work and were given guided tours by the Artists themselves, how special!  Even Batman turned up!  Thank you to Artists Sue Mann, Gisela Robinson, Clifford Hannah and Pete Fricker for showing us around.  It was really impressive and a lovely experience.

Year 1 Outdoor Artists

Year 1 took their sketch pads to The Quarry Park to look at wild and garden plants. We explored the Dingle and saw many different varieties of plants. The children sketched them beautifully too. What a super morning!

 

Year 1 Ukulele Concert

Wow, what an amazing concert! Year 1 did a super job showing off their Ukulele skills. Thank you to all the parents who attended. We hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did.

 

Our Museum

Year 1 visited our very own school Museum housed in our historic Coach House. The ex Coachman’s living quarters from long ago has been restored into a museum with Victorian artefacts and Coleham documents.  Year 1 learnt all about the history of our Coach House, school site and the Limes Estate as part of their topic on The Victorians.