St Giles Spencer Academy

Latest News

Owl Babies Class

Class Staff

 Teacher(s)

Michelle Smith

Teaching Assistants

  • Tracey Stephenson
  • Joanna Jeffries
  • Kelly-Maria Webster

Class Overview

Welcome to Owl babies class, we have 9 children who are taught by Michelle Smith and supported by 3 teaching assistants. We operate as an early years class, and all children are working on the discovery pathway. During our day in school the children explore learning environments indoors and outdoors following a sensory based curriculum. All of the children encounter targeted interventions to support their communication and independence, these consist of attention autism. TAC PAC and intensive interaction.

Topic Summary

Welcome back to school, we hope you have had a wonderful week. It is our last half term before the summer.

Our topic this half term is ‘People of the Past’

Here are some of our areas of learning which we will be exploring this half term, we encourage you to become involved in your child’s learning. Please add any photos or videos to your child’s portfolio on ClassDojo.

We will be linking our ‘People of the Past’ topic to the big questions ‘What roles did people do in the past?’ and ‘Who was important in the Victorian times?’. We will be looking and listening to the stories ‘The Old Steam Train’, ‘Circus Train’ and ‘You see a circus’. We will be exploring the books through sensory stories and props. We will be handling old objects, artefacts and photographs. We will also be looking at old photographs from the start of the year. As we are learning about Victorians we will be tasting food from the past and dressing up in Victorian clothes. In our role play areas we will be making a train station and a circus. In Maths we will be exploring number in our environment, through songs and handling props to support our understanding of number, including number recognition and ordering. In PE we will have a focus on using athletics, getting ready for our sports day. This half term you will also receive your child’s school report. It is a very busy half term and we have lots of exciting things coming up so please keep an eye on Class Dojo.

Outdoor learning

School will have a continued focus on ‘Outside Learning in all Weathers’ this year, with this in mind if possible please ensure that on each day your child has a suitable coat for the weather conditions.

Could you please send in a bottle of sun cream to keep in school and a hat for your child as we use the outdoors each day and the weather will probably be getting warmer soon.

General Notices

Could you please ensure that your child has a change of clothing in school as a lot of our activities are sensory based. 

Please communicate via DOJO, messages will be read between 8.15 and 8.45 and 3pm until 4.30pm.

Please send social fund contribution (£6) into school as soon as possible to enable us to cook and provide daily snack.

We always participate in outdoor learning, whatever the weather, so can you please send a pair of wellington boots your child can keep at school.  As well as a hat and gloves when necessary, or indeed sun-cream and a hat.

Dates for your diary:

Upcoming events this half term include:

  • 22nd June- Family Homework
  • 29th June- Tea Party
  •  7th July- Sports Day
  •  21st July- INSET Day- Break up for Summer

Home / School Communication

Class Dojo

As part of our Covid-secure procedures, we are unable to issue home-school diaries this year.  Government guidance say's that schools must quarantine any books that come into school from home for up to 72 hours.  All home-school communication will therefore need to move over to Class Dojo.  You should expect to receive home-school communication from your child's class team approximately three times per week.  This will provide a fine balance between staff workload and their well-being whilst ensuring you are kept regularly up-to-date on your child's experience in school.  We must however politely remind parents/carers that staff will not be expected to read and/or respond to any Class Dojo messages in the evenings, at weekends or during the school holidays. 

Thank you to those parents who have already signed up for this - your child's class team will be in touch if you have not yet logged in.

Telephone

There is normally member of the class team available to speak to between 8:15 - 8:40 am or 3:00 - 3:30 pm, please phone the school office and ask for a member of staff from the class if you wish to speak to us.