Welcome to Willow Class!

My name is Mrs Potter and I am the teacher of the reception class with our lovely teaching assistants Mrs Wiater and Miss Camp.

The reception class or EYFS as it can be known, encourages the children to become explorers and investigators; and to develop their creative minds through child-initiated learning and adult led activities.

When the children begin school in September we allow them the chance to settle in and make new friends, and then we gradually introduce short inputs such as Phonics and Maths.  At the end of this term we will be looking at the people who help us in our community and learn about their different roles. 

There are many ways to support your children’s learning, at Newtown we recognise the importance of reading.  As a celebration of the children’s reading at home we have the 100 Club, where the children will receive certificates and prizes for the times they have read at home.  Who will get to the milestone first?

When the children are in full-time they will have P.E. lessons weekly. Please ensure their P.E. kit is in school every day.

We are very excited to meet all of you and get started on another exciting school year.  Please come back and visit this page throughout the year to see what your child has been up to.

Mrs Potter 

Newtown Norman Trail

This week the children in Willow, Sycamore and Maple class have been out and about showing off their geography fieldwork skills. On Tuesday 30^th April the children went on a trail around Trowbridge town on the hunt for our school teddy, Newtown Norman. Each group of children had a series of photographs from his after-school adventures and a map of our town centre with areas Norman had visited marked on the map. The children had to use their maps to navigate around town and identify the key landmarks that Norman had visited. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather for our trip which meant we were able to have a lovely picnic all together before having a play in the park. As always, the behaviour of the children was outstanding and was noticed by many members of the public around town. We are very lucky to have such amazing children that are a real credit to our school and our community.

Term 4

This term in Willow class we have been learning about ‘Our Wonderful World’. As part of our topic, we have been learning about recycling, seasons, and plants and flowers. The children have been really engaged in this topic and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different ways we can help take care of our planet. I have been so impressed with the AMAZING writing that the children have been doing linked to our topic, especially their writing about the seasons. The have been working so hard on their use of capital letters, full stops and finger spaces when having a go at writing sentences.

This term we also managed to get out and about with our trip to the theatre in bath and a visit to our local library. As always the children have been a real credit to the school with their fantastic behaviour and their engagement with activities both inside and outside the classroom.

Trip to the Egg Theatre Bath

This week Willow class went on a trip to the Egg Theatre in Bath to watch a play called ‘Boxed in’. On Friday morning we caught the train from Trowbridge to Bath where we visited Bath abbey, had a picnic, and went to the theatre. On our train journey we were able to spot many different geographical landmarks including rivers, hills, fields, and a city. When we arrived in Bath, we visited Bath abbey to look at the carvings on the building and we had a picnic sat outside the abbey. At the theatre we watched ‘Boxed in’ a funny show about misunderstanding the rules in our world. The children had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed their trip!

Term 3 - Traditional tales

This term in Willow class we have been basing our learning around traditional tales. We have had a wonderful time retelling stories and re-enacting them with our friends. Over the course of this term we have read Little Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs, Jack and the beanstalk, Goldilocks and the three bears and the Gingerbread man. The children have loved retelling/ sequencing stories with their friends, creating their own gingerbread men, making porridge and dressing up as different characters from our stories. Take a look at our super photos!  

Elf Week in Willow Class

The Christmas season has definitely begun in Willow class this week, as we have had a special visit from two of Father Christmas’s elves from the North Pole. This week the Willow class children have been EXTREMELY excited to see the mischief that these elves have been up to every night whilst we are all at home fast asleep in our beds. Feeling inspired, the children have been drawing pictures and writing about the adventures of our class elves. The writing that the children have produced this week has been incredible, especially when you consider that they have only been in school for a very short time. Fingers crossed the elves report back to Father Christmas about their wonderful visit to Newtown Primary School!

Term 2 in Willow

Celebrations dinner:

Last week in Willow class we had an AMAZING time preparing and cooking a three-course meal. Across the week the children in Willow class learnt about a balanced meal, planned their own dinner, wrote shopping lists and went to Aldi to purchase the food we needed. On Friday we then cooked the courses of our meal in groups. Whilst we were waiting for the food to cook we laid the tables with our cutlery and the name cards/ party hats we had made in the week. Take a look at our wonderful photos! 😊

Term 1 in Willow

Wow! What an amazing first term the children in Willow class have had. We have been busy learning about the different people within our community who help us as well as getting to know each other and our school. Over the course of the term the children have been building relationships and getting to know each other. We have seen some fantastic teamwork when building models, creating small world areas and telling stories. We have also been learning set 1 sounds, practicing writing these in lots of different ways and trying to match the initial sound to a picture. We have had a amazing term and look forward to seeing what comes in term 2!

Dentist visitor

This week Willow class were visited by a dentist who taught us all about how to look after our teeth! We learnt to brush our teeth twice a day and make sure we do a circular motion when brushing. We even had the opportunity to see real teeth and dentures and even got to take home some toothpaste.