Porthenys Class

Hello and Welcome to Porthenys Class! (Porthenys is the old Cornish name for Mousehole). We are looking forward to the time ahead with your children and all of the fantastic experiences we will have together, not to mention the amazing learning that is going to take place.

I hope this page countinues to be a useful site to refer to for a general overview of what is happening this year, but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. 

Here are some helpful pointers that will help your child's journey through the year. 

Morning Routines: I will be welcoming children and settling them into class each morning, if you can get to school as close to opening time as possible, it is greatly appreciated.  There will be an activity for children to access each morning but it usually means that I don't have time to catch up with you at the door, where you drop them off as I need to be present with the children. If needed, please feel free to message me on SeeSaw with messages about pick ups or messages you think might be useful for me to know, or we can organise to meet out of school time, if necessary.

We will be having PE each week, it is useful to have PE kit and trainers in school all week. As the Cornish weather can change as quick as a flash, please ensure your child has their coat/wet weather gear in school, if possible, a pair of wellies are really helpful as we aim to be outside everyday! 

Please read with your child every day - a minimum of 10 minutes will help with their progress. We follow the Little Wandle programme and have daily phonics lessons, we will send home a Little Wandle reading book to be read every day. Your child will also have a book of their choice from the library, it might be they need you to read this one to them. Their Little Wandle book is the key one they need to read every day. This is to promote fluency, so by the end of the week, they can read with expression and undertstanding of the text. It will feel comfortable to them and by session three - they will hopefully be saying this is easy! At this point we are looking at their understanding of what they have read - not just how well they read the words.

Spellings are given out to practise at home each week, along with the tricky words we are focusing on and the graphemes from the Little Wandle programme that your child is learning that week. The more they practise reading and writing these, the easier it becomes for them to read them automatically and use them in their writing. I can't emphasis enough how important the first steps in reading are at this age. Together we really can give your child the best start for a lifelong love of reading.

We use maths.co.uk as a site for children to practise the Maths they are learning. Your child's log in details will be sent home with them in their reading diary. If you have any trouble locating them , please let me know.  There are just a few questions set each week and they help consolidate learning or help me identify where I can help them further.

We have some exciting trips coming up over the year, this term is especially important to settle the children and get them used to the year 1 curriculum. We'll be keeping to the local area this term, and build up our adventures over the year.  

Useful links to support learning:

Phonics - Little Wandle - For parents | Letters and Sounds (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk) 

Maths - Clips Numberblocks - BBC iPlayer Games Numberblocks - BBC

and maths.co.uk