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Have a lovely Spring break, we look forward to seeing you all back in school on Tuesday 18^th April

 

April
Tuesday 4th	Spring event in school 10.30 – 12.30pm
Tuesday 18th	Children return to school
Thursday 20th	Friends Spring Fair in hall
May
Monday 1st	May Day Bank Holiday – children not in school
Tuesday 2nd	Year R trip to Tyland Barn (more details to follow)
Wednesday 10th	Year 1 trip to Dover Castle (more details to follow)
3rd, 4th & 5th & 15th & 16th	School Nurses testing Hearing & Vision for Reception classes
Thursday 25th May 6.30pm	New Reception parents ( for September) meeting
Friday 26th	Non Uniform Day – Friends fundraising Last day of term
June
Monday 5th	Children return to school

 

	Weekly school attendance	Days missed across the school this week	Best class attendance for the week	Overall attendance for the year
	96.49%	42	Starfish 98.52%	96.33%

 

	Reading award	Active award	Sunshine award	Feet on Friday	Star table
Penguin	Yiqing	Chloe & Thomas		Tia	Penguin
Polar Bear	Ellie May	Lauren & James		Rebecca	Scarlett
Snow Leopard	Elizabeth	Mia G P & Umyma		Carmen	Mia
Sea Horse	Eva	Bledion & Carson		Bledion	Ayiri
Star Fish	Jessica	Joshua & Skye		Alex	Jack
Turtle	Harry S	Tallulah & Evie		Freya	Harry
Fox	Franky	Arthur & Ileana		Oliver B	Albie
Caterpillar	Erin	Lesley & Erin		Jake	Inaaya
Owl	Phelan	Grayson & Daisy N		Amelia	Manni
Bonus card winners this week –   Owls class

 

Farewell to Mrs Oram

Today is Mrs Oram’s last day with us.  She has been a Learning Support Assistant in Starfish Class since October and is off to use her British Sign Language as a Signer at University.  We would like to thank her for her hard work whilst at Downs View and wish her well for the future.

What we’ve been up to……

This week in EYFS we have been really busy learning all about Easter. Our week started with a visit to the church where we began learning the Easter Story and found out about the different symbols of Easter such as eggs for new life and hot cross buns which represent when Jesus died on the cross. When we got back to school we continued thinking about Easter and followed instructions to make our own Easter nests. We were lucky to make these from cereal and chocolate! We were amazed at how quickly the chocolate changed from a solid to a liquid after putting it in a bowl over a bowl of hot water. I think some of your children may like to have another go at home. Ask them to write a list of things you will need and then go shopping together to buy them before following their instructions to make your own! In Maths we had a very important job to do helping the Easter bunny deliver the eggs in the quickest amount of time. We explored different ways but realised that the Easter bunny would get more eggs delivered if he ran rather than hopped!
Remember over the holidays to keep consolidating the words and sounds within your child’s monkey book. If you get a chance why not go and visit Dungeness lighthouse (and climb to the top and take photos of the view) as we will be thinking about water and how to keep safe around it next term.

 

Year 1 To their surprise on Monday morning the Year 1 children found that a giant beanstalk had grown over the weekend in their classrooms. This event helped to stimulate the children’s imagination so that they were able to plan and write their own exciting version of Jack and the Beanstalk. The children had to change the setting at the top of the beanstalk and the villain that lived there.

During Maths lessons the children have been consolidating their knowledge of number bonds to 10 and 20 and have gained such confidence when recalling them.

The teachers have been very impressed! During topic lessons this week the children have been learning about the Christian symbols that are associated with Easter and the key events in the Easter story.

Year 2 this week we were very excited to perform our Mother’s Day assembly to all our lovely mummies. We hope you enjoyed it! Monday was a busy day for our year 2s as we visited the church as part of our Easter celebrations. We carried on our learning about Easter through exploring the Easter story in English. We role played the story and created a newspaper report all about it. In Maths we have been learning about measure through capacity. We had great fun exploring the volume of different containers. We estimated first whether we thought the container would hold less than, more than or about 1 litre. We then tested the containers to find out; it got a little bit messy with some of our containers! We became composers in our music this week. We explored the duration of sound and which musical instruments would create long or short sounds. We then linked this to mini-beasts by deciding which mini-beast would create a long or short sound. We then finally put together our mini-beast composition.

Mothers’ Day Assemblies

Thank you to all adults who came along to these- we hope you enjoyed them.  A huge thank you to the Friends volunteers who provided tea and coffee at the end of each of these.

Easter Event

We are holding a joint spring event with the Children’s Centre on Tuesday 4^th April during the school holidays. The child can come along with parents for a number of activities.   Please come along at 10.30am

Thank you to The Easter Bunnies

Yesterday your child should have come home with a homemade treat from the Friend’s Easter Bunnies! A huge thank you to Mandy, Maureen, Fran and other parent volunteers who spent their time making these for every child.  The children were thrilled to receive these at the end of yesterday.  The monies which are raised are used for extra special things like this so please support us when you can either by making donations or by giving up some time to help at events.

Easter wishes to you all from the Friends of Downs View

A huge thank to everyone who took part in the Mother’s Day shop which we hope you all enjoyed and liked your children’s choice of gift. As this was our first go at doing something like this, we thought you may like to know how we went about trying to make it fair. Those who wished to take part brought in their gifts and we kept these gifts in year groups, we also purchased a number of gifts in case the numbers buying were greater than gifts coming in, these went into each class. Once the children had chosen their gift we put their names on and gift wrapped them to take home. We are pleased to say that we raised a £372.49 which will be spent on many things, including coaches for trips, which everyone benefits from. We have been approached by a number of parents asking if we are doing the same for Father’s Day, details will follow about this.

Our next event is the Spring Fayre on Thursday 20^th April from 3pm in the hall. There will be a number of stalls and activities and the choir will be singing some spring songs to entertain you.  Don’t forget to think of how you’re going to decorate your cakes.

We hope the children all enjoyed their gift from the Easter bunny, once they’ve eaten the sweets they still have a flannel to use.

Fingers crossed for lovely weather for all the Easter egg hunts and have fun making lovely memories.

See you all next term. Mandy, Maureen and Fran, Friends of Downs view

 

Ashford Children’s Centres, Easter Half Term Planner

Here are some local event which are being held over the Easter holidays 

Centre	Activity	Date & Time	Location	Details of Activity
Ray Allen Children’s Centre	Spring Event	Wednesday 12th April 10.00am – 11.30am	The Ray Allen Centre, Stanhope Road Stanhope TN23 4EY	Drop into the Ray Allen Centre for our fun Spring event. Activities include messy play, arts and crafts and seed planting! *Old clothes should be worn*
Bluebells Children’s Centre	Spring Time Story Walk (0 – 8 years)	Wednesday 5th April 10.00am – 12.00pm	Bluebells, Children’s Centre, School Road, Hothfield, TN26 1HA	Join our buggy friendly Spring themed story walk through Hothfield Heathlands. Followed by themed activities at Bluebells Children’s Centre. *Bring your wellies*
Little Explorers Children’s Centre	Messy Play	Friday 7th April 10.30am -11.30am *Bookable*	Little Explorers , Children’s Centre, Recreation Ground Road Tenterden TN30 6RA	Come along to Little Explorers for fun under 2’s messy, sensory, fun, play activities! *Old clothes should be worn* *Please call and book your place on 03000 418400*
Sure Steps Children’s Centre	Spring Event	Monday 10th April 10.00am – 11.30am *Bookable*	Sure Steps, Belmont Road Kennington Ashford Kent TN24 9LS	A fun spring event for families living in the Kennington area. Come and enjoy some spring time activities in the garden. *Please call and book your place on 03000 418600*

 

Have a lovely Spring break, we look forward to seeing you all back in school on Tuesday 18^th April