Friday Headlines

the weekly newsletter from EHS

This Week in Westbourne

26 January 2024

Whilst Nursery girls were learning how to prepare for a tea party, dinosaurs made quite an appearance in Kindergarten this week as the focus has been around the letter d.

In numeracy children have been encouraged to think about more and less using dinosaurs as counters to support their learning. Girls were also encouraged to use multi link cubes to measure and compare the different lengths and heights of various dinosaurs. The theme ran through PE lessons too as girls took part in some yoga which was greatly enjoyed by the teachers too.

They spent time talking about families and the girls were able to share information about their Dads and talk about experiences they have outside of school. There was a surprising range of ages as we had estimates from 10 years to 50!

The highlight of the week was definitely the girls’ first introduction to balanceability. A scheme which our children will follow to help give them the skills, coordination and confidence to be able to ride a bike! This highlight was followed closely by a taster morning spent in Reception! Kindergarten had been very excited about the planned visit and the morning did not disappoint. Time was spent listening to stories, being creative and making new friends.

Reception's week has been busier than ever! They have enjoyed having the many visitors into the classroom and welcomed new starters to Westbourne. Girls like to show visitors their work and tell them what amazing things they do!

As well as learning the weekly phonics sounds, girls listened to Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen, in their Creative Writing lesson. They used a word mat with a few prompts on, then were able to complete their version of the story themselves. They especially enjoyed this new story and learnt a new word, which was 'impatient'. The little cat certainly was very impatient about waiting for his bean to grow.

One of the Mathematics topics was learning about patterns and girls used many of the resources and models on offer to create their own patterns in the classroom. Next, they then moved onto weighing and pupils were able to demonstrate their understanding of 'lighter' and 'heavier' by using objects in the classroom as a comparison.

We take pride in celebrating different religious festivals in Reception. In our R.E. lessons pupils learnt that Guru Nanak was special to Sikhs. They wrote who was special to them and drew lovely pictures to accompany their writing.

Gymnastics lessons are always a treat as Reception girls can use the Prep Hall facilities and they have enjoyed doing gymnastics this week.

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