Buckstone Primary School

Over the first few weeks we are working on class/school routines. All children have settled well into school. It is lovely to see how new friendships are developing and to hear all the chat from the children. We are happy to be moving back to our new classroom over the weekend and are looking forward to exploring our new environment next week.

Literacy

We continue to practise our listening and talking skills through sharing our memory boxes – only a few left to share.
We have enjoyed listening to and discussing a range of fictional books about bears.
We have introduced the characters from the Oxford Reading Tree Programme (our reading programme).
We have continued to practice rhyming words.
We designed Thank you cards to say thank you to the people at St Fillan’s church for our Buckstone Bears.
We created letters and cards using the lovely envelopes kindly donated by Waitrose.

Home learning ideas

Share a storybook about a bear
Find words that rhyme with a given word.
Play a game of ‘ I spy with my little eye, something that rhymes with…..’
Encourage your child to make their name in different ways: in the sand, with flour, play dough, etc.
The names that we would like children to identify are: Kipper, Chip, Biff, Floppy, Mum and Dad.
Please encourage your child to use a tripod grasp when holding a pencil.

Numeracy

We have been exploring numbers to 10 with matching activities.
We have been working on recognising numbers and dot patterns (to 10).
We have explored numbers to 10 (and beyond for some)
We have worked on sequencing numbers.
We have worked on counting forwards and backwards from different starting points.
We are working on number formation. – this week’s numbers were 0, 1, 3 and 4
Counting and number recognition

Home learning ideas

Number hunt: ask your child to look for specific numbers in the street: buses, house numbers and ask your child to say the number that goes after and before that number.
Practice number formation numbers 0 to 10 (or more if your child is confident with this already)
Count items: ask your child to give an X number of things: leaves, stones, sticks.
You may choose to play this game. Please choose from sequencing or ordering (forwards) from 1- 10 or 1-20

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE – we have been focusing on developing our travelling skills – walking, running, jumpoing with two deef together, hopping, skipping and ‘toe to heel tightrope walking’

Bears – we have been learning about different types of bears – black bears, brown bears, polar bear, Pandas and recognising that Koala’s are NOT in fact bears. You can listen to this song for more information.

Outdoor learning:

On Monday we were able to access our outdoor loose parts shed. We had great fun developing a wide range of physical, co-operative, creative and investigative skills.

Independent learning:

These are some photos of the learning through play that we had the opportunity to experience this week:

and more……….

Other Information

PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We ask that the children bring shoes which they are able to put on and take off independently.
It would be really helpful if all your child’s items could be labelled (packed lunches and water bottles too)
Please be mindful when choosing a snack for your child: make sure your child can open it independently. We are also a nut-free school
We politely ask that you give your child only water in their bottles.

We are very proud of our Terrific Tigers!

Thank you for your continued support in your child’s learning.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Cross and Mrs de Bonrostro

Reading Homework- Literacy Circle Update

Sep 2, 2020 Staff..965

The children have reading homework to complete at home between now and next Wednesday. We will introduce and practise the accompanying Literacy Circle activities in class between now and the October holidays. On return to school, after the October break, children will also complete these activities at home.

Literacy

Supporting your Child with Writing at Home

Sep 19, 2019 Staff..112

Formation of Letters
Cursive Writing
Comprehension
Literacy and other areas of the Curriculum
Handwriting
Learning through Play

Early writing activities

Encourage children to look for print in their environment –road signs, food packets, shops, catalogues etc.
Try activities to develop fine motor skills e.g. cutting, using playdough, using tweezers, using clothes pegs, tracing.
Use a chalkboard to write family messages on.
Make labels for things around the house.
Write a shopping list – real or imaginary! Or any other sort of list.
Letter formation – practise forming letters using paint, in sand, using playdough or pastry.
Let your child write their own Christmas cards or birthday cards to people.
Use magnetic letters – your child can leave a message on the fridge.
Encourage and praise early squiggles and marks which show your child is beginning to understand writing.

Improving Writers

Write party invitations.
Encourage children to write thank you letters after birthdays and Christmas.
Write postcards when on holiday.
Write menu for a family meal or party.
Email a family member or friend.
Make a scrap book with labels and captions – maybe after a holiday or special event.
Write short stories involving the adventures of their favourite toys.
Write an information leaflet about something they find interesting eg. dinosaurs, sports etc.
Write a letter to a favourite author.
Invent and write rules for the house, bedroom etc. and put on a poster
Draw, label and explain their own inventions. Make up silly sentences and tongue twisters.

More confident writers

Write a secret diary.
Make up song lyrics.
Plan their own party.
Write a story for a younger family member, in the style of their favourite book.
Write a holiday journal.
Write instructions for an X-box game, Minecraft or similar.
Write a recipe.
Write instructions for a more mature member of the family (eg . grandparent) for a piece of modern technology they can’t get to grips with!
Produce their own comic (www.comicmaster.org.uk)
Channel their passions – RSPCA, WWF, ActionAid etc. all have ideas for getting children involved in raising awareness of campaigns.
Write to the local newspaper about a local issue they feel strongly about or even to the local MP.
Talk to different generations of family about their life and compile a family history.
Make up jokes.
Look out for writing competitions eg. Radio 2’s annual 500 Word Competition. (A prize is always an incentive to write!)

It’s also an incentive to write if there is a range of exciting writing materials available – pencils, crayons, felt tips, sparkly pens , writing icings, writing soaps for bathtime, coloured papers, different shape and sizes of paper etc. Most of these things are available quite cheaply these days in places like Poundland.

Try to remember to focus on and praise the content of any writing your child shares with you, rather than dwelling on any mistakes they may have made. Hopefully the variety of activities listed here have provided you with plenty of ideas to help and encourage your child to have a go at doing some writing at home.

Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?

Sep 19, 2019 Staff..112

The formal definition of dyslexia is:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

But what does that mean exactly?

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills, such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. Dyslexia affects individuals throughout their lives; however, its impact can change at different stages in a person’s life. It is referred to as a learning disability because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed academically in the typical instructional environment, and in its more severe forms, will qualify a student for special education, special accommodations, and/ or extra support services.

What causes dyslexia?

The exact causes of dyslexia are still not completely clear, but anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way the brain of a person with dyslexia develops and functions. Moreover, most people with dyslexia have been found to have problems with identifying the separate speech sounds within a word and/or learning how letters represent those sounds, a key factor in their reading difficulties. Dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or desire to learn; with appropriate teaching methods, students with dyslexia can learn successfully. Dyslexia occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels. People with dyslexia can be very bright. They are often capable or even gifted in areas such as art, computer science, design, drama, electronics, math, mechanics, music, physics, sales, and sports. In addition, dyslexia runs in families; having a parent or sibling with dyslexia increases the probability that you will also have dyslexia. For some people, their dyslexia is identified early in their lives, but for others, their dyslexia goes unidentified until they get older.

What are the effects of dyslexia?

The impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the timeliness and effectiveness of instruction or remediation. The core difficulty involves word recognition and reading fluency, spelling, and writing. Some individuals with dyslexia manage to learn early reading and spelling tasks, especially with excellent instruction, but later experience their most debilitating problems when more complex language skills are required, such as grammar, understanding textbook material, and writing essays. People with dyslexia can also have problems with spoken language, even after they have been exposed to excellent language models in their homes and high quality language instruction in school. They may find it difficult to express themselves clearly, or to fully comprehend what others mean when they speak. Such language problems are often difficult to recognise, but they can lead to major problems in school, in the workplace, and in relating to other people. The effects of dyslexia reach well beyond the classroom.

What misconceptions exist regarding dyslexia?

It is equally important to understand what dyslexia isn’t. There are great misconceptions and myths about dyslexia which make it that much more difficult for someone with dyslexia to receive help and generally be understood. It is a myth that individuals with dyslexia “read backwards.” Their spelling can look quite jumbled at times not because they read or see words backwards, but because students have trouble remembering letter symbols for sounds and letter patterns in words. Dyslexia is not a disease and, therefore, there is no cure. With proper diagnosis, appropriate and timely instruction, hard work, and support from family, teachers, friends, and others, individuals who have dyslexia can succeed in school and later as adults. Individuals with dyslexia do not have a lower level of intelligence. In fact, more often than not, the complete opposite is true.

dyslexia-how-i-can-help-at-home-primary-leaflet-1-1 Download

dyslexia-info-for-learners-primary-leaflet-1 Download

dyslexia-info-for-parents-and-carers-primary-leaflet-1 Download

information-for-parents-2 Download

Templates-Help-Setup

Yearly-Set-Up of Website (Annual Maintenance)

Jan 29, 2019Feb 21, 2019 buckstoneprimary

WordPress – Annual Maintenance

These activities require to be undertaken at the end/beginning of each academic year, so that old posts (blogs) are deleted or archived, old classes removed and the new class configuration set up.

Also there is a chance for general maintenance to remove “bad” incorrect data.

Deletion/General Tidy/Move

Access the WordPress Dashboard via:

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/

From the dashboard you can access all the maintenance activities described.

Review Posts (Blogs)

If you plan to delete ALL class posts/blogs for the year the steps below can be skipped, go to DELETE Class Posts

Select “All Posts” from the left menu or use the link https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php

All Posts flagged as ‘uncategorised’ (use the drop down menu ‘All Categories’ to find ‘uncategorised’ followed by the Filter button) to be:

Deleted if no other category – BE CAREFUL – there may be a few recent post/blogs which have recently been created awaiting to be allocated.
Or ‘uncategorised’ flag removed. (quickest option would appear to be the “Quick Edit” option – then amend the category.

All Posts flagged as ‘Draft’ (they have not been published) to be deleted. (Again be careful if there is a recent post/blog which is waiting to be published). The following link will find them.

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_status=draft&post_type=post

Review Categories and check for any unusual postings – this helps clean up postings

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category

OLD Process (unlikely to follow going forward). Historically rather than the posts/blogs being deleted they were Archived, by being moved to a new category, this was a long process and only of use when teachers wished to refer to previous homework).

Create new Category – Archive-15/16 and attach to parent z-Archive

Create new Tags in the format – 15/16-P?

Migrate last year’s class postings across to Archive-15/16 and add Tag. This takes a LONG TIME as need to go into each posting and edit this information – use “Quick Edit” from the Postings page.

It is useful to do a class at a time to help control the process

Delete all “Comments” (some may be spam)

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php

DELETE Class Posts

To ensure you are being selective with the posts to delete, it is best to do the following in steps, deleting a Class set of posts at a time.

From the All Posts screen, select from the ‘All Category’ drop down the class-blog you wish to delete. Then use the ‘Filter’ button to display the records

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php

You can select all the records displayed, by using the ‘tick-box’, the from the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop down select ‘Move to Trash’ , then select the ‘Apply’ button.

This will put the posts into ‘Trash’

Once all records have been moved to ‘Trash’, they can be permanently deleted.

All Trash records – https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_status=trash&post_type=post

DO NOT delete the Categories until you have amended the Menu structure (see below).

At last time to add new records – Class Structure

Create category for the new class – P?-Blog, (eg P2C-Blog, P4/5H-Blog)

Add the new Categories to the drop down menus which are displayed on the School Website. Use – Appearance/Menus/Categories – (Last years records help to show the structure to follow). and at the same time DELETE the old no longer required Categories on the Menu.

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/nav-menus.php

Note for a composite class you need to add it twice to each stage, eg P4/5, attached to both P4 & P5.

You should delete any old classes – remove from the menu structure, and then delete the category. (Naturally, check there are no postings still attached to the category).

Having removed all the Old Posts/blogs and set up the new Menu structure then the OLD Categories may be removed.

ONLY delete categories for Classes where the COUNT = 0 (and are last years classes).

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category

NOTE – If you have a class with the same name in the next academic year you do not need to delete the category as you can use it going forward.

Stage Pages

Each stage has a Page, with links to the class posts/blogs, these need to be updated to reflect the new classes.

Look for the Pages on https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page

and edit.

School-Homelink

Delete all posts prior to Easter break and the assiciated media file (pdf of the homelink news)

Users

Review the users – both Delete/Add users – https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/users.php

Process described on post – https://buckstoneprimary.com/2016/09/02/set-up-new-user/

Media

It is a good idea to remove any old media files (pictures/videos) which are no longer attached. Max capacity is 13Gb, need to delete if the system is getting FULL.

https://buckstoneprimary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/upload.php

Select from the ‘All media items’ – the option, ‘Unattached’.

DO NOT delete all the displayed records – this shows media not attached to Posts/Blogs, they may however be used in other places on the website, eg on Pages, as Widgets for quick links on the right hand menu on every page.

You need to be CAREFUL and make an educated decision, if in doubt, leave it.

WELL DONE job complete for the year.

What have we learnt

BE CAREFUL – don’t rush the process, tackle it in a logical way:

remove old posts/blogs
amend menu structure – new categories created
delete categories no longer required
update Pages fro the class stages
update users
review media

Templates-Help-Setup

Template to Embed a YouTube Video Clip

Jan 29, 2019 buckstoneprimary

Locate the video on YouTube.

Copy the URL.

Create a New Post.

Paste directly into the content box.

Make sure the link is on a new line with no other text otherwise the behind-the-scenes widget will not recognise it for embedding.

E.g.

Click Update (blue publishing button on right screen menu).

Templates-Help-Setup

Template to Create Picasa Slideshow

Jan 29, 2019 buckstoneprimary

Open Picasa then select images.

Click on Create in the top screen menu.

Choose video or you can click the Create Video Presentation icon which looks like a film strip.

(You can edit

transition style between pictures
time pictures displayed
size of the pictures – default – 640×480, making it smaller 320 x 240 will help crate a smaller file and so decrease time to upload etc)

When you are happy with the content click Create Video.

To insert into your Post you need to start a New Post then click Add Media in the top screen menu.

Click Upload Files then Select Files and search for the slideshow.

The slideshow will be saved into your My Pictures folder. You can locate it in this folder filed under Picasa then Videos.

Once uploaded it will be added to the Media Library and show a blue tick in the top right corner of the icon. You can then select Insert into Post on the bottom right of the screen e.g.

Error

This video doesn’t exist

640 x 480 Video display

Click Update (blue publishing button on right screen menu).

You can change the size of the displayed slideshow once you have loaded it without needing to create a new export from Picasa. Add ‘w=???’ eg w=320 before the ] bracket

Videos appear to automatically justify to the centre of the post.