Hopes for the new school year
Typically I never got round to doing N’s foundation stage round up at the end of the school year. Going camping straight away after they broke up for summer didn’t leave anytime for blog posts. But the school year has started again, and I want to get set for the new year.
N’s gone into year 1. He’s excited to not be in reception any longer, but scared in case the writing he has to do is too hard. He’s not a fan of writing, and I’ve deduced that it’s because he doesn’t like to fail and be wrong. He’ll always seem to check with me first before writing what he thinks. It’s his writing which means he’s in the lower split class for Year 1. They move most up to be in a class with Year 2, while the remaining year 1 children stay in Class 2 with foundation stage. Gradually they move the rest of the year 1s up depending on how well they progress. It’s his writing he needs to work on so hopefully he’ll get some confidence before he falls too far behind, while his friends move further ahead in the other class.
Last year he had a great foundation stage
While he could take or leave making lots of friends, he seemed to get stuck in to playing with a couple of friends, and at playtime joining in with the year 2s football games…the joys of having a cousin in that year.
He found a love of tennis (and turned out to be quite good at football while not really wanting to play it).
He was VIP a lot (around 17 times). As well as getting his bronze, silver and gold target certificates. And was awarded Learner of the week and Star of the week over the year.
He learnt his phonics, and could get through a book (under duress).
He was very aware of what’s going on in his class and in school, and we’d have chats each night about what went on, who did what.
He felt part of the school, and knew the routines, the teachers, the routines. He could probably recite the school policy book, they seem to know exactly what should and shouldn’t be done while in school.
N just took foundation stage in his stride, and was proud that he’d done that year and was moving up to Year 1.
My hopes for his Year 1 are simple
To make wider friendship groups. Or be more interested in being friends with more people. He seems to get on and play with others, but mostly these are older children, rather than his peers. And with his best friend moving to the other Year 1 class and leaving him behind with no-one he’s particularly friendly with, he’s going to need to make more of an effort.
Writing (and reading) clicks, and he’s more willing to give it a go. In particular with writing, because this is the area that he needs to improve on to move up.
That N keeps enjoying and improving his maths work. This seems to be his strength, especially the more practical side of it.
Try some team after school sports. N only seems to want to do the school lesson sports, but he won’t try any of the clubs after school (apart from tennis). The choice this term seems more limited, but I’d love for him to try something else to meet some other children as well as his usual friends.
Not lose any items of clothing (and make his school shoes last until his feet grow instead of scuffing them too badly to wear them). He forgot a few items last year, but by the end of the year they’d all come home again. So hopefully this success will continue.
Continue to be a happy little boy, and keep enjoying school. Yes it will be harder work wise, but I’d really like him not to be scared of trying and giving school work a go.
N, enjoy year 1
What year are your children moving into? What do you hope for them?
And a reminder that the #SchoolDays linky will be back on Sunday the 11th, so do come back and link up any school posts then.
Such a lovely post! My daughter has also just moved up to Year One and is great with her maths, she also enjoys reading but hates to write. I don’t understand why she has to practise cursive script which is what she struggles with as it seems so outdated. I hope he has a great Year 1! #sharingthebloglove
Thanks Kat.I was surprised they started cursive writing so early. N seems quite taken with it, so I’m hoping that it makes him feel more important and better at writing if he can do that. Although so far his b looks like a k so it needs a bit of work! Hope your daughter gets over her dislike.of it soon.
If you have any #schooldays posts, do come and link up – I do a weekly linky open on Sundays to Saturdays
Thanks for stopping by
It really does sound like he had a great foundation year. I can understand his frustrations with writing and wanting to be right – I’ve always been very much like that. Hopefully his friend moving to the different year group will be the push he needs to encourage him to widen his friendship group. I really hope he has a wonderful Year 1! Thanks so much for joining us again at #SharingtheBlogLove
Wanting to be with his friends isn’t really moving him on yet. Thankfully he seems to be making friends with one of our neighbour’s son who’s stayed down too, so that’s good. Thanks for stopping by and commenting Katy.
This was so lovely to read about how N got on in reception. Alice has just started in reception and the school year feel long, but I know that it will go quickly. I hope that she does as well as N did in his first year. Good luck N in year 1, I am sure you will do just as well. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove x
Thanks Laura. I love keeping a record because there’s no way I’d remember, plus it’ll hopefully show N how far he has come even though I despair still over his reading. Thanks for stopping by
Nice to know he is good at Maths as it is so important in life. I might be biased as being a statistician though. Reading and writing are more important however, so I would suggest a lot of encouragement on those – the three Rs are a necessity a life. School uniform bits – haha The amount of PE kit and uniform items that have been “lost” in our house is unbelievable, and that is before the “lost” items at school!!!!
We had a jumper lost on the first day….at least I thought we did. I think I just miscounted thankfully. Last year he forgot a lot but not one item went missing which was a bit of a result for a very forgetful child. It helps that there’s only 100 kids in the school!
Not lose any items of uniform? We’re three days in and already lost a pair of trousers! Yes, really.
The friendship thing is an awkward one. I have my opinions on one or two of her friends, but we’ve always encouraged friendship groups outside of school etc. I think this has worked well.
Best of luck N for this academic year.
Thanks John.
I despair already. Jumper taken in on day one (the only new one this year), and I couldn’t find it on Friday when I was in. But I did find a manky old handmedown from last year that I didn’t even know we were missing. I thought we didn’t lose anything last year!
My eldest has just started school this week and i love the idea of doing a yearly round up like this, it will be so nice to look back on in the future. I hope your little one has a great school year x #sharingthebloglove
That’s what I’m hoping. I’ve found it lovely to look back each week, and then the year. Much easier than getting round to scrapbooking it!
Hope yours has settled in well.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting
lol with the not losing any clothing… everyday I have to ask where a jumper or a lunch box it… good luck with that one!
Yes, we have already had a jumper left at school since Monday. I’m hoping it won’t have just been left on the floor. His old peg was in a corner so things were easy to find. Now it’s in a more open space. Friday afternoons I get to check.