Elf Owls
Teacher – Mrs Nicola Bennett
Teaching Assistants – Mrs Nikki Howlett (am), Mrs Tracy Green, Mrs Annabel Nethercleft, Mrs Ella Sansom (pm)
Hello,
We are the Elf Owls and are the foundation class at Great Milton C of E Primary School.
We enjoy an airy spacious classroom with the addition of two outdoor areas: one under shelter and one offering a larger space to explore which also features a range of climbing equipment and role-play areas, mud kitchen, reading tent, a stage for singing and dancing along with a large sandpit and areas for growing plants and vegetables.
We enjoy exploring at school and spend time completing our learning. We are learning how to be independent and active learners. Our teacher plans our lessons and topics mostly around our interests. Our teachers record some of our learning on tablets which are shared along with our books and observations at parents evening. Our activities are based and planned around the 3 prime areas of learning and the 4 specific areas of learning from the Development Matters Curriculum.
Our parents and carers are encouraged to bring us into the classroom each day and help us start our daily school routines. They can also speak to the teachers about any concerns or share messages.
We have some daily sessions including our “funky fingers” and phonic lessons as well as some adult directed tasks. We have the opportunity each day to spend time planning what we would like to discover and take part in and then we are encouraged to review how successful we have been.
We are provided with a reading book that can be changed daily if required, along with access to an interactive program called “Bug Club”. Each Elf Owl is allocated levelled reading books suited to our individual ability and is updated as required-it also encourages us to answer questions about the book we have read.
We are very lucky to have a lovely teaching assistant who works with us full time depending on our class size-sometimes we have two if our classes are big!
We join the whole school for lunchtimes in our hall and sometimes enjoy lunchtime activities, for example Book Club, Art Club and spending time with our friendly and caring Year Six buddies and other friends. We join in with some whole school events, assemblies and worship when our teacher feels we are ready. We are part of the whole school and have two children from Elf Owls that are part of the School Council and an additional two that are our Eco Councillors. We are asked our opinions and have our voice heard and are part of a variety of school projects.
Before we start school we are able to come and meet our teachers and new friends for the afternoon. My teacher and teaching assistant also come and meet us in our homes and have the time to chat with our grown ups about what we like doing, how we enjoy learning and anything else they feel is important. My teacher also tries to visit our nurseries and pre-schools and finds out from our pre-school teachers how we enjoy learning. They do this to help us settle into school as quickly as possible.
Please remember to check Book Bags on a daily basis for any new correspondence.
Nicola Bennett