School days – christmas nativity play

That’s Christmas term done and dusted at school.  He’s had a great year so far – his maths is rocking as expected, I’m amazed how he’s applied himself to learning spellings, and his reading has blossomed. Even his writing is coming more freely and his confidence in his ability is much better than it was on starting in year 1.

I was expecting N and his other year 1s to be moving up to Class 2 next term to join the rest of the year 1s, but nothing’s been mentioned so I’m now holding out hope for them going up by February half term. Last year they’d all gone up at Christmas, but there’s obviously a reason why they’ve not this time.  I hope it’s not due to class size given N’s year 1s are a huge year and over the standard capacity, while reception year is much smaller for the first time in years.

N doesn’t seem too worried about not moving up – he says Class 2 do much harder writing and no pictures, but I do think he needs to be stretched a little so he can understand that he can actually do harder work than he thinks.  Plus of course, I don’t want them to take so long to move up, that the other year 1s are off and so far ahead, that the gap is too wide to bridge.

Anyway, no need to worry this holiday. We’ve got parents evening in January, so we can find out more about progress then.

Nativity play

Of course they had a nativity play at school. Reception, year 1 and 2s take part, then the older ones do a different Christmas play on another day.  This year the nativity was slightly different, a Strictly Come Dancing themed play.  N was a shepherd and this year was given a line to say, as well as the sheep and shepherds performing morris dancing.  It was all very sweet, humourous and festive.

N’s costume worked out really well too, and although he missed a few rehearsals the previous week when he was off sick, he didn’t do too badly joining in.

Christmas festivities

The school always get really into Christmas. The whole week involved lots of Christmas crafting, Christmas jumpers, class Christmas parties and their last day ‘dress up for Christmas lunch’ when Father Christmas pays a visit.  We did have a bit of a strop in the morning because N didn’t want to wear any of his smart shirts.  Given he has 2 really nice ones unworn in the wardrobe, that’s a bit disappointing. But he still looked smart.

Carol Singing

On the last afternoon there’s always carol singing and parents can go along.  I made it towards the end, just in time to see everyone doing 12 days of Christmas, with the 2 men teachers (including N’s) doing their annual rendition of 5 Gold Rings a different way each round.  It lots of fun, even more so when you see some of the men still in their pantomime dame make up for the staff Christmas performance.

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Books

N has blitzed his book level this term, and he’s only had a few left to read before completing the ranges they cover off. As well as Oxford Reading Tree’s Biff Chip and Kipper*, he also does Story Worlds (which are so boring).  On the last Thursday he was sent home with 2 books, but he read both that evening and decided that he would ask for more books over the holidays to get through them all.  The next morning N went into school, chose his 4 books to bring home.  Hopefully it means he will actually do some reading if he’s got the aim of moving up a level and going up to the next class to get his reading books.  That should give him a boost in confidence going into 2017.