Payhembury Primary School

Class teachers - Mrs Gill and Mrs Gingell 

Mrs Gill Teaches Monday-Wednesday and Mrs Gingell takes over Thursdays and Fridays. 

Mrs Vincent is our Teaching Assistant and Mr Burchell works with us on Wednesdays. 

Reading: 

Listening to your child read allows you to check their progress, understanding and check for any misconceptions. Your child’s Reading Journal will be checked and sent home daily and is a place to record and evidence what they have read and how they got on. Take note of any specific sounds that were a struggle and if they require a new book. Please share any reading WOW moments and any interesting book talk that came as a result of your reading time. Year 2 children are expected to write at least one journal entry themselves per week – an example of what this looks like can be found in the back of their Reading Journals. 

Year 1: 

Each week your child will have new books and games allocated on Bug Club. This is their Phonics book to decode with you at home and apply the sounds we have been working on at school. It is important that these eBooks are accessed at least twice a week. You can find your child’s Bug Club log in details written in the front of their Reading Journal.  

Year 2: 

Year 2 children will have a banded book matched to their reading level. Children will progress through the bands only after they have been assessed on their fluency and understanding. They must bring these books in each day and are expected to complete at least one journal entry themselves per week. 

Library Book and Shared Readers 

In addition to the above, your child will also have a weekly library book or shared reader of their own choosing. These are books to share with you at home and encourage a love of reading for pleasure. The focus here is not on their fluency, phonics or decoding skills but they can certainly practice – but you could read it to them instead and enjoy some time talking about what you have found out, asking questions or simply looking at the illustrations.  

Spellings:  

Spellings will be sent home on a Friday. You will find them in your child’s Reading Journal. Their weekly spellings will relate to the phonics pattern or spelling rules being focused on in class that week. There will also be a list of Tricky Words for all children to revise. We will spend time each day looking at these spelling patterns in our Phonics and Spelling lessons but please spend some time going over these at home. 

The spelling test will take place on Fridays. Year 1 will just be tested on their phonics/spelling rule words for that week but we encourage you to check that your child can sight read the Tricky Words set for the week. Year 2 will be tested on their phonics/spelling rule words plus the Tricky Words set for the week. 

Maths 

Times Table Rock Stars – Year 2 

Your child’s log in details for their Times Tables Rock Stars account will be written in the inside cover of their Reading Journal. Please encourage your child to access this amazing resource regularly – the children make excellent progress when accessing it consistently. We will start weekly times tables tests after Christmas. 

P.E 

Our P.E days are Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Wednesday – Outdoor P.E with Mrs Gill and Mrs Moran 

Thursday – Indoor P.E with Mrs Gingell. 

Children are asked to come into school wearing their P.E kit. 

General information 

Please ensure your child has their Reading journal and any reading books in school with them each day – children will need them daily for regular reading, spellings and changing books. 

We will be making regular trips to the wild area to support our work and the field at break time is often wet; all children must have a pair of wellies in school at all times. 

Fresh fruit is available at break time everyday but you may provide a healthy snack if you prefer – please ensure this does not contain nuts. 
 

Please send in a clearly named old t-shirt, shirt or apron for your child to use as an art apron.