Wallace Fields Infant School & Nursery

WALLACE FIELDS INFANT SCHOOL & NURSERY

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Dear Parents,

At our school, we use many special terms to help the children remember daily and weekly routines. We hope you will find this glossary useful to understand the many activities and rewards your children mention when they come home from school!

Enrichment This takes place every Friday afternoon and, no doubt, your child will tell you all about it! Each Enrichment group is comprised of Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children; they benefit from working together in mixed groups. The Enrichment groups are all named after precious stones and in these groups the children rotate through several creative activities over the year, furthering the children’s skills in cooking, dancing, music, construction and more!

Library Time Reception, Year 1 and year 2 classes spend time in our well-stocked library fortnightly. Children choose one library book at a time home to share with you. Additionally, children may attend Library Club on Thursday lunchtime to exchange their library book, read with a friend, research or assist with library monitoring.

Guided A small group of children read a text together and the teacher’s Reading questioning guides them to understand and discuss it in more depth. This takes place between 2:45 and 3:10 daily, while the remainder of the class enjoy reading activities or story time with the teaching

D:\Docs\2017-12-14\0d340f777d1d344fbd758314998a48b5.docx assistant. A stamp in children’s reading records shows you when they have taken part in guided reading. REWARDS

Time to Shine Two children in each class are chosen weekly to receive Time to Shine Certificates certificates in a special assembly. Certificates are awarded for good learning and being a good citizen.

Golden Tea One child in each class is chosen weekly to receive a Golden Ticket certificate in assembly. Tickets are awarded for a range of reasons, including demonstrating a growth mindset, our school values or British values. Immediately after assembly, the golden ticket winners join Miss Mann and Mrs Mackie for a tea party of juice and biscuits served on a golden tablecloth. What a treat!

Headteacher’s These certificates (designed by the children) are awarded for Award significant achievements, including high standards of behaviour.

Superstar Children are sent to Miss Mann to be given superstar stickers for Stickers excellent work, behaviour or attitudes. Superstars are also awarded for confident speaking and singing in class assemblies!

Values Tokens Milk bottle lids are given a new lease of life as our school values tokens! Children earn tokens to fill their Enrichment group’s jar – for demonstrating our school values which are: Effort, Friendship, Determination, Respect, Good Manners and Reflection. School council members regularly count the tokens and the winning Enrichment group decide their reward with Miss Mann.

Table of the When eating their lunch in the school hall children work together as a Day table to earn a trophy and stickers for behaviour such as polite table manners, careful serving, good eating, quiet voices and other positive lunchtime behaviours.

Go for Gold We believe that children learn best when engaged and focussed. and Strive for Children are prompted to be good learners by attractive gold and Silver Stickers silver posters displayed in each classroom. Children ‘go for gold…’ during carpet time by being ready to learn, asking learning questions and sharing ideas. They ‘strive for silver…’ during independent and guided learning by being resilient, resourceful, respectful and reflective.

Pencil Topper Five children in each class are chosen weekly to use a decorative Award pencil topper as a reward for neat handwriting or increased effort with presentation.

LESSON TIME

Next Steps Children may talk to you about the teacher or TA giving them “next steps” in their work. These are personalised activities or questions children must complete to move forward in their learning and deepen their thinking. These are shown by a step symbol. The children draw a person at the top to show when they have met the next step.

Tickled Pink Children understand that work highlighted by the teacher in pink is and Green for complete and they are ready to move on. Children recognise that work Growth highlighted in green needs to be practised further, checked or corrected. We use the term ‘green for growth’ in line with the school’s growth mindset and encourage children to persevere with challenging work. Pink and green marking helps children decide whether they are ready to try another chilli.

Chillis Teachers set activities at increasing levels of difficulty – from mild chilli, spicy chilli, extra spicy chilli to challenge chilli. This system ensures all children in the class work at a level which meets their needs and challenges them.

Polishing Pen Children love using pink-inked pens to edit and improve their work! PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL

Happy Reading Parents are welcome to come and read with their children in class every Monday from 2:50 – 3:10. For parents of Reception children, this starts in January.

Open Mornings Open morning sessions happen once a term from 9:00-9:25 a.m. These provide parents with the wonderful opportunity to come in and watch children learning in class. This helps you to better understand teaching and learning at our school. Places are limited so you will be

D:\Docs\2017-12-14\0d340f777d1d344fbd758314998a48b5.docx asked to sign up in advance. However, there is more than one open morning session each year so please don’t worry if there isn’t space on the first one!

Class Puppet Children take turns to take the class puppet home and write about Books what they have done together. As well as developing as writers, children grow in confidence as they share their photographs and entries in front of their classmates.

Lobby the The adventures of our toy lobster, Lobby, motivate children to take Lobster an interest in Geography. They enjoy Lobby’s assemblies about our amazing world! Lobby loves to visit new places with the children and their families; if you would like to take Lobby with you on holiday and record his adventures, please speak to our Geography Lead Mrs Young.

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