Dear Cygnus Families,

What a great week it has been! It was so lovely to speak to so many of you on Wednesday and share how settled and happy the children have become in the past seven weeks. It's amazing how far the children have come in such a short space of time, and Wednesday provided a great opportunity to reflect and appreciate that. I’m looking forward to meeting even more of you next Wednesday!

Harvest Service

We are excited for our annual Harvest Service! All families are warmly welcome to join us at St Peter and St Paul's Church on Thursday 22nd October at 10:00am.

We would be very grateful for any parents or grandparents who are able to volunteer to walk down to the church with us—we will be leaving school at 9:15am. Please email your child's phase inbox if you are able to help.

Children are invited to bring an in-date, dry good as an act of service to be donated to the Oxford Food Hub (such as pasta, tinned goods, or cereal). Please note that children will need to be able to carry their donation themselves, as they will not be taking backpacks to the church.

Reminders:

• Please make sure that your child brings in any books they have borrowed on Monday.

What we’ve been up to:

• We finished off our split-pin gingerbread men from last week. The children loved this activity and playing with the moving parts.

• We started this week's terrific tale: Hansel and Gretel! The children engaged really well with the story and the activities we did around it.

• For this week's drawing club we drew our own food-making machines! We thought about where our machines would be, what our secret codes were, and what kind of food they would make. Once again, the ideas were fantastic!

• On Thursday we had an amazing visit from The Story Museum! James from The Story Museum was brilliant and the children's minds were truly captivated for both of our sessions. We looked at the Brothers Grimm and their stories, learning that we are all storytellers in different ways.

• We continued our phonics journey. Here is the link for our sounds this week.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/541316/G3rx9jwPjDqAP8oW

• We engaged with new and continuous provision throughout the week.

• We continued our maths work, solidifying our foundations and understanding of numbers.

Next week:

Monday: Book day and PE day. Please remember your books and the children wear their PE kit and trainers.

Tuesday: Nothing to remember today!

Wednesday: PE day. Please remember the children wear their PE kit and trainers.

Thursday: Harvest Service! Please refer to the information about the service at the beginning of the reflect and review.

Friday: Inset day.

Dates for the Diary:

Wed 21st October - Parent Evening

Thur 22nd October - Harvest Service (thank you to those of you who have offered to walk with us)

Fri 23rd October - INSET Day - school closed to children

             26th - 30th October - Half term

Mon 2nd November - INSET Day - school closed ot children

Tues 3rd November - Term 2 starts

Sat 7th November - Open Morning

Fri 13th November  - flu vaccinations in school

Fri 18th December -  term 2 ends at 1pm

Thank you all for another great week, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again on Monday for our final week of the Autumn 1 term. The time has flown by!

Best wishes,

The Cygnus Team.