The year 3/4 girls went to their first (very wet) football tournament at the AT7 centre, playing against Southfields, St Laurence’s, Christ the king, All Souls and Allesley Hall primary.
This was the girls’ first time playing together as a team, they were a little nervous to begin with. However, their confidence grew throughout the competition along with their performance.
Out of the five matches, they won 2 and drew 3.
Mr Bordley and Miss Valentine were so proud of all the children, well done!
Thanks to Coventry School Games, and our wonderful School Games Officer for providing us with these opportunities, Coundon’s first sporting events of the autumn term were a fantastic start to this academic year!
Year 3 and 4
Ten children chosen form Years 3 & 4 attended a tag rugby festival at Broad Street Rugby Club. They played 4 matches, in the highest group stage, over the morning. Winning 1, drawing 2, and losing 1. The games were all 6 aside with 3 girls and 3 boys playing at all times, and the children all played so well.
Mr Bordley and Miss Valentine were really impressed with the understanding of the rules and the way they played together as a team. They were the best passing team at the event.
Year 5 and 6
In the afternoon, Mr Bordley and Miss Valentine took ten Year 5 & 6 children to the same festival, they did equally as well as the morning group. Winning 1 and drawing 3, finishing undefeated. Some teachers from other schools even came over to comment on a couple of our players, saying how good they were!
The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and the children represented Coundon extremely well!
This week we will be learning all about Bonfire Night. We will be taking about how people celebrate Bonfire Night, sharing the children’s own experiences. We will talk all about how to keep ourselves safe on Bonfire Night. The children will learn about why Bonfire Night is celebrated, learning all about Guy Fawkes and the story of the Gunpowder Plot. The children will read stories about Bonfire Night and will create lots of artwork about fireworks too.
The children have all now been assessed on the first 16 sounds taught. These have been sent home with your child. If you have misplaced the cards then please speak to a member of the team. Alternatively if you would like to buy a more durable set of cards with all of the sounds, these can be purchased on Amazon for approximately £6 https://amzn.eu/d/4oH8i9z
This week we will continue to recap the sounds and work on blending the sounds to make simple words. Pease watch the videos below with your child for extra practice. The children will start in their new phonic groups after the half term break.
https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/KwvR3N2X/evjYPDhn
This week, the children will explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, begin to investigate the composition of 3 and 4. Composing and de-composing numbers involves children investigating part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. The children will learn from practical experience that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts.
The children have experience of subitising small quantities and will use their skills to identify the numbers within 3 and 4. They will begin to recognise that 3 and 4 can be made by combining sets in different ways. When children are able to compose and flexibly de-compose numbers mentally, they will become more fluent in their knowledge of number bonds, and be able to use these efficiently when calculating in KS1 and KS2.
We break up for the Autumn Half Term on Friday for a well deserved rest. The children have had a wonderful first half term in school and have already learned so much. Please continue to encourage your child to develop their independence by dressing themselves, wiping themself when they go to the toilet and walking rather than being carried or in a pushchair. Half term is an ideal opportunity to get out to a park and encourage your child to hang, swing and climb on equipment which will help to develop their shoulder strength, which in turn will help them with their core strength and fine motor control. This is essential for writing. Try to allow your child to take risks and not always lift them or hold them on equipment.
Enjoy the break and we will see you when we return on Monday 2nd November
Reception Team 🙂
In Reception this week, we are beginning a topic all about dinosaurs. We will be looking at both fiction and non-fiction texts, and the children will help to write a class dinosaur fact file. We will be learning about dinosaurs being alive a very long time ago and will look at our class timeline to see where dinosaurs belong. We will also earn about the terms herbivore, omnivore and carnivore and what these mean. The children will have the opportunity to try a range of different crafts and activities linked to dinosaurs such as collaging, painting, developing fine motor skills and playing games.
At home, make sure you encourage your child to practice the sounds they have learnt each week. This will help your child become confident with their letter sounds, and make blending words easier. This week the children will be introduced to four more letter sounds i,n,p and g. They will also start to put the sounds taught so far together to blend and read simple words such as mat, sad, sit etc.
In Math’s this week we are looking at comparisons. In this small step, children will build on their previous skills of sorting. They will learn that sets can be compared and ordered. Children will use the language ‘more’ and ‘fewer’ when comparing sets of objects. The focus of this small step is on comparing sets of objects specifically. It is easier for children to make comparisons when the difference between the sets is greater. You could do this at home by asking your child to compare sets of 5 and 2 objects rather than sets of 5 and 6 objects.
With only one week of Forest School remaining, it has been wonderful to see the children still so enthusiastic and engaged. This week, they explored their creativity by using a range of natural materials, alongside some recycled items, to design and build small homes or shelters for an animal of their choice, an activity they have been eagerly anticipating for several weeks. As they worked, the children carefully considered what their chosen animal would need to feel safe and comfortable, as well as where the best place might be to position their shelter.
Alongside this, Mrs Gray worked with small groups to develop practical tool skills. The children were introduced to using a hammer safely, learning how to tap nails into wood to create a Forest School keepsake featuring their first initial. They thoroughly enjoyed this hands-on experience and continue to show great excitement when given the opportunity to use real tools.
Another fantastic Children’s Mile event took place on Sunday 14th June, with 36 pupils from Coundon Primary proudly taking part, alongside enthusiastic parents and staff members.
As always, the event brought together several Coventry schools, with hundreds of children, families and staff creating a brilliant atmosphere. It is always such a lively and uplifting occasion, full of energy, encouragement, and a strong sense of community.
It was wonderful to see children of all ages give the run their very best effort and truly embrace the experience. Although the event is not a competitive one, it is always nice to celebrate those that excel. A huge well done to:
Archie, year 4, for being our first boy back,
Lewis, , year 5, for being our 2nd boy back, and
Scarlett, year 5, for being our 1st girl back. Incredible running!
While the event raises money for a local charity, it also provides a valuable opportunity for children to engage with the running community, promoting lifelong fitness, as well as supporting positive mental health and wellbeing.
We hope everyone who took part enjoyed the day, and we look forward to welcoming even more participants next year!
We were so lucky this week that the rain held off to allow us to have our campfire!
The children learnt about the safety expectations when fires are made in Forest School, and they also learnt about the ‘fire triangle’. We discussed the varying thicknesses of sticks needed to build up the fire, too. They really enjoyed watching it come together and having a turn at using a flint and steel to create sparks.
The children used their ‘pointy sticks’ that they whittled in the previous session, to hold and toast their marshmallows. A lovely treat after their half term break.
As requested, we shared a story round the campfire and the children helped to make sure that the campfire was extinguished safely.
On Wednesday, Mrs Gray took a small group of children from Year 4 to Rough Close for a Coventry School Games Orienteering Evening. There were around 20 schools taking part, so it was a busy event but in a lovely open setting.
The children absolutely loved the freedom to go off and find as many of the checkpoints as possible in the 40 minutes, they worked hard in their teams to secure as many answers as they could. Mrs Gray got a tad competitive when she found both teams towards the end, making sure they found the last of their checkpoints!
We are now eagerly awaiting the results of this Level 2 competition to see if we have done well enough to be invited back to partake in the Level 3 event.
A drizzly day gave us the perfect reason to get some shelters up! Mrs Gray tried to demonstrate what she thought was a quick and easy tent-shape shelter, that required fewer trees… it didn’t go quite to plan, and the children struggled again to create shelters. Luckily the drizzle stopped… but more practise is definitely needed!
Using a hand knife, group 2 also learnt how to safely whittle, today. They sharpened a point on their sticks ready for toasting marshmallows. All of the children worked really hard on these skills and created fantastic pokey sticks. Well done!
Group 2 were back at Forest School this week, the weather was a little cooler and the skies were looking a little rainy but that didn’t put anyone off.
We had a lesson on how to create a lark’s head and a timber hitch, so that they could attempt to erect some group shelters. This is definitely something the group need to work on! Once they had assembled something that looked as though it could be sat underneath, they enjoyed a biscuit for their efforts.
After that the children busied themselves hunting for bugs! They really enjoyed themselves and managed to find slugs, snails, ladybirds, spiders, beetles, woodlice and more. They were very careful when handling what they found and made sure they but them back where they found them!
