Welcome to our school family, Elf Owls!

Our Topic for Term One is 'What Makes Me Amazing?'

September 2026

Dear Elf Owl Families,

We hope you all had a lovely summer! Here we are at the start of the new school year with lots of exciting learning to look forward to. This is your page to come to now that your children are officially in school as' Elf Owls' rather than 'Owlets!' Our topic for the term ahead will be 'What makes me amazing?' and it will be a great opportunity for us all to get to know one another. The topic encompasses themes such as; our families, our homes, where we belong, our feelings, staying healthy and class rules and responsibilities. 

Monster Phonics

We will start teaching daily phonics from Monday 7^th September. This term we will be learning to read and write different graphemes (the letters that represent sounds or 'phonemes'). As we learn an increasing number of sounds the children will learn to blend them together to read words; e.g. s-a-t= sat and segment words for spelling; pin= p-i-n. The children will also learn to read and spell high frequency words. Below is a week by week list of the graphemes and words we will be learning in class up until the October break.

W.b: 7th September: Graphemes: satp/ High frequency words: a at as

W.b: 14th September: Graphemes: i and n/ High frequency words: in it is I an

W.b: 21st September: Graphemes: m, d, g/ High frequency words: and, dad, am

W.b: 28th September: Graphemes: o, c, k and ck/ High frequency words: to, into, go, no, the

W.b: 5th October: Graphemes: e, u and r/ High frequency words: get, can, got, on, dog, not, cat

W.b: 12th October: Graphemes: h and b/ High frequency words: up, mum, put, has, had, him, his, oh, big

W.b: 19th October: Graphemes: ff, l, ll and ss/High frequency words: he, she, me, we, be, of

Reading

To link with our learning in daily phonics lessons, we will read with the children in school 2-3 times weekly using the Monster Phonics books.  At the end of each week, your child will come home with a Monster Phonics book; please read and enjoy this with your child as it helps them to practise and consolidate their learning. In addition to the Monster Phonics books, we will send home other books to share and enjoy. Please spend 10 minutes each day reading with your child. Ideally, they will read to you, but if they are particularly tired one day, you can read to them! 

Book Bags

It really helps us if the children bring a book bag to school each day (rather than keeping their books in a backpack on their peg). This is because the children put their slim book bags into a central box in the classroom where we can easily find and open the book bags to change books/ write in reading records. Please speak to a member of the office staff or find the link on the school website under 'uniform' if you need to order one. We will give each child a yellow reading record; we will write in these each time we read with a group or individual and ask families to do the same at home. A short comment or a smiley face and your initials is fine.

Maths

Over the coming weeks, we will gently start to introduce short maths lessons. These will sometimes be as a whole class or we may break into our smaller focus groups for maths games and activities. This term we will teach matching, sorting, comparing, shapes, patterns, measuring and number work.

P.E

Elf Owls will have a weekly P.E session in the hall with Mrs Ray on Wednesday mornings. P.E lessons will start on Wednesday 16^th September to give the children time to settle in. The children will participate in a variety of exercises to explore balance and managing their bodies, such as stretching, reaching and extending their bodies into a variety of positions. Please ensure your child wears full P.E kit to school on Wednesdays this term.

Forest School with Buddies!

We are excited to say that The Elf Owls will have Forest School on Friday afternoons with their Year 6 ‘Hawk Owl’ buddies! We will give the children a bit of time to settle in and send a Parent Mail home to inform you before the first session. On Forest School days, please send your child to school wearing school uniform, but make sure they have a set of old clothes, waterproofs and wellies in school to get changed into. (As the weather turns colder, extra layers, hats, gloves and base layers would be a good idea). Be prepared for the children to get muddy!

Uniform and Clothing

Please make sure your child comes to school in full school uniform (see 'Our Parents' page on the school website for more details). As the children have access to the outdoors in all weathers, it is very important that the children have some spare clothes, waterproofs and wellies in the cloakroom at all times. Please label everything!

Snacks, water and milk

We will provide a fruit snack every morning and an optional drink of milk in the afternoon. If you would like to send in an additional healthy snack (fruit, vegetables, rice cakes, breadsticks- no nuts please) for the afternoon, then you are welcome to do so. We have found that the children benefit from a snack mid-afternoon as it is a long time between lunch and going home-time. (Though we usually have spare fruit left over from the morning if needed). We will also be welcoming our volunteer Mrs Stevens into school on a weekly basis for ‘Toast Café!’ Please send your child to school with a labelled water bottle daily. We will remind the children to drink throughout the school day.

We are really looking forward to a fantastic term ahead. In the meantime, please come and chat to us at the end of the school day or call the school office if you have any questions or queries and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

With our warmest wishes

The Elf Owl Team

Mrs Laura Ray: Teacher (Mon-Wed)

Miss Sarah Taylor: Teacher (Thurs-Fri)

Mrs Lucy Quartermain: Teaching Assistant

Miss Livvy John: Teaching Assistant