As we start the last week of term, we just wanted to update you with a couple of items and send out important information regarding next half-term.

Book Fortnight - Protecting our earth and environment
Monday 23rd February- Friday 6th March 2026

Please see Mrs Adnett’s previous email about book fortnight on the newsletter section of our website.

Home Learning- Story Stones
For home learning we would like the children to create their own story stones or pebbles to represent their favourite stories. Once these are completed, we will then display these in school, and we will award prizes for each class. They will then be used as part of our OPAL project and be used in the school grounds. We would like the children to complete their creation and bring it into school for the week beginning Monday 2nd March where they will be shared and discussed in class and prizes will be given for creativity.
Dressing up day- Wednesday 4th March

Read Dating
The children will also be asked to bring in their favourite book. This is so that the children can participate in an activity where they share these books with each other, promoting them to their classmates. The children need to be able to discuss their book and why they really enjoyed it. The idea is that during this session the children will hear about at least 30 different books that they might also potentially enjoy.

• Year 1- Thursday 5th March
• Year 2- Friday 6th March

 
OPAL
We would like to thank all the parents and carers who have so generously donated items and their time to our Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) project. Your contributions, have been greatly received and are already sparking excitement across the school grounds! These resources are more than just "stuff"—they are the building blocks for creativity, teamwork, and adventure. This will directly help us transform our playtimes and lunchtimes, turning every break into a high-quality opportunity for children to explore, problem-solve, and most importantly, have fun. We truly couldn't do this without your incredible support.
The OPAL project will launch after the half term holiday so please make sure your child has an appropriate waterproof coat and wellies so that they can access all areas! During book fortnight, children will have play sessions in each of the new areas, where teachers will model how to safely use the different zones. 

RSE
Please see Mrs Matthews previous email regarding the teaching of RSE lessons during next half term and the summer term. Any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in contact with your child’s class teacher.

P.E Spring  
Just a reminder to ask that children bring the correct PE kit back to school after the half term break.
In Year 1, we are very fortunate to be working with Junior Sports Stars on Wednesday mornings and receiving football training sessions. 

Parent Teacher Meetings Year 1 and 2
Meetings will take place on Tuesday 24th February and Thursday 26th February.

Best wishes,
The Year 1 and 2 Team

Spring Term: ‘Are You Ready to Travel the World?'

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back! We hope you all had an enjoyable and restful break! Last half term, we worked incredibly hard across the curriculum and the children worked hard to develop their science knowledge! Our clever clogs have continued to work their socks off and we are so pleased with the work they’re producing and the enthusiasm they are showing in their own learning. We really appreciate your support and kinds words throughout last term, thank you for all your continued support.

 Are You Ready to Travel the World?

To launch our new Quest, which is titled, ‘Are You Ready to Travel the World,’ the children were presented with a variety of suitcases, back packs and chests, during a whole school assembly. The children were shown and discussed various items found in their special bags and have started to investigate who they belong to and where they have come from. This term there is a geography and history focus right across school.

In Year 1, the children will be making links with a school in Ghana and learning about the similarities, differences and changes in schools. This will then move to looking at the similarities, differences and changes between homes. Throughout this, the children will be investigating how to travel from the UK to Ghana and learning about the world around them, including the continents and oceans.
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In Year 2, the children will be investigating and learning about the similarities, differences and changes between The UK and China, (Shanghai). The children will discover a suitcase which has been left on a train in Shanghai. The children will investigate and plan a route to return the suitcase back to its owner, looking at the geography and how to travel from the UK to Shanghai. The children will also be looking at the similarities, differences and changes between transport, with a particular focus on trains.

OPAL reminder

The OPAL project is starting to take shape.  The Working Party has met with our school mentor three times across this term.  We plan to introduce new areas for play after the February half term holiday.  Mrs Adnett and Miss Garrett have written to you to explain some next steps including a bingo style collection event after Christmas and a working party day where we would appreciate parental help to help us get organised for our February launch.  Please find below a reminder of the bingo items which would really appreciate being donated by EYFS, Year 1 and 2. The working party team day is Friday 23rd January, where we would appreciate any volunteers to offer help to come into school to build and prepare items for the project. The date for any donated items to be brought into school is Wednesday 28th January. Thank you again for your continued support.

The PA plan to run the following events in the spring term

Thursday 22nd January – Movie Night for EY and KS1
Thursday 5th February – School Disco

General Information reminder
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With the colder weather on its way, please can we request that children bring a coat with them each day. A pair of wellies or extra shoes is useful for our weekly, outdoor learning activities. It would be useful, as with all items, that they are clearly labelled.

Autumn Term: ‘What Makes Our World Work?’
Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Years 1 and 2! We hope you have all had a great summer break and are enjoying seeing your children settle into the new term. In the first few weeks, we have enjoyed getting to know the children, talking with them and seeing their personalities shine. We have been working hard across the school and have been impressed with the children’s attitude towards their learning.

What Makes Our World Work?
The children have been working hard and have already produced some fantastic work. This term there is a science focus right across school. With the title of our new quest being ‘What Makes Our World Work’ We are stepping into the shoes of scientists, inventors and explorers to bring our learning to life and are discovering how to think scientifically, questioning the world around us.

Reading
As always, reading is a very important part of learning at Norbury Hall. We encourage children to develop their reading skills and want to inspire their own reading for pleasure. Every classroom has a reading area for our children to enjoy and an adult in school will hear them read each week. To benefit your child, we are asking children to read at home at least three times a week and for this to be recorded in their reading   records. This will be checked daily, during the school day. We are also encouraging the use of our online reading platform, Bug Club for the children to read a range of books and develop their understanding of what they have read.

Each class also has an author box which allows them to explore a range of books from chosen authors. The author boxes will then we swapped between year groups after the half term break.

General Information
With the colder weather on its way, please can we request that children bring a coat with them each day. A pair of wellies is useful for our weekly, outdoor learning activities. It would be useful, as with all items, that they are clearly labelled. Can we also request that children bring water to school, rather than juice for their classroom drink. All Key Stage 1 children are still entitled to the free fruit and veg scheme and do not need bring in any snacks for break.

Scooters and Bikes
As a school we encourage children to come to school on their bikes and scooters, but can we kindly ask they dismount their bike or scooter at the gate and then walk it into school. We do have a large bike shed in the junior playground which is available to use. Our school site is extremely busy in the mornings and at the end of the day and we want to keep everyone safe. Many thanks for your support with this.

The phonics screening check has 40 words. 20 real word and 20 nonsense words. 
 
Nonsense words are words that are phonetically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb. Nonsense words (sometimes called pseudo words) are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using their phonics skills and not their memory.
 
It is important that children practise reading nonsense words and identify that they are a nonsense word. The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of an alien and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of alien it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent from any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it. Children generally find nonsense words amusing so they will probably enjoy reading these words.
As with all reading of words out of context (ie in a book) it is important to look for known digraphs (sh, th, ng etc) and trigraphs (igh, ure, air etc).

Your child will bring home a set of words and activities today along with this letter to practise.

Phonics Play, is a really useful and free online site which offers lots of interactive games which can be played on iphones, ipads and computers.

We will be administering the Phonics Screening the week beginning the 9th June, so please, is possible, use the Whit Holiday to continue to rehearse, read and complete the activities sent home. As a reminder, Monday 9th June is an INSET day.
 
Thank you for your continued support.
The Year One Team