Welcome to Dosbarth Menai

Academic Year 2023/2024

The children have settled extremely well into the new school year and

Mrs J, Mrs Jones and Myself (Mrs Gordon) would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to our Year 1/2 family. 

I'm sure that this academic year 2023/2024 will bring its share of challenges however we will work together to bring your children exciting and challenging learning activities and adventures. 

This year we are lucky enough to be able to continue to use MyHappyMind as part of our Wellbeing curriculum, Please find additional information on the class Seesaw pages as well as a QR code/link to access the parent app.

We began the year in the Autumn with the topic 'Did all Dinosaurs roar? We kicked off our topic with a virtual immersion workshop with the Museum of Wales. 

In Literacy we looked at the Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs books. Our focus in maths was number, looking at fact families and number bonds, addition and subtraction. We had an enjoyable time leading up to Christmas and had lots of fun rehearsing for our Christmas Concert Twinkly Nativity.

For the first half of the Spring Term our topic was the 'Five Ways to Wellbeing' We have focused on one area per week - Take Notice, Connect, Give, Keep Learning & Be Active.

During this half term we have focused on 2D & 3D shape and pattern in Mathematics as well as weighing ingredients for biscuits. We have celebrated St Dwynwen's Day and Chinese New Year, learning about Dwynwen's story and the how the story of the Great Race helped the Emperor to name the years in the Chinese zodiac.

We have a big focus on Wellbeing in Dosbarth Menai too, we have been practicing our Yoga positions in PE and learning how to be more mindful. We follow the MyHappyMind wellbeing programme and have really been enjoying doing circuit training in PE. We will soon be starting Forest school sessions and will be helping to develop our Forest school Area. We have now met most of our learning power pets and found out which special skills and super powers they have. 

For the second half of the Spring term our topic will be Wonderful Wales, we will be taking part in our school Eisteddfod, learning about Cynefin as well as the history of the red dragon and the welsh flag. We will also be looking at our place in the world, our city Wrexham and Marvellous Marchwiel.

Dosbarth Menai Things You need to know :-

• PE days are Wednesday and Friday, full school PE kit is required, black jogging bottoms/leggings, or shorts in warmer weather white t-shirt with school red jumper, cardigan or hoody
• Forest School Sessions will take place most Wednesdays - children will need to bring with them wellies and a waterproof coat.
• Reading - Individual readers will mainly be listened to during our reading session on a Monday however reading folders with books and diaries should be in school daily.
• Healthy Snack is provided for the children daily along with milk or water, parents please pay via ParentPay.
• Children should have their own water bottle in school every day.
• Please ensure children are dressed appropriately for the weather we use the outdoors daily no matter the time of year.

In Dosbarth Menai we use the RWI phonics scheme and use Whiterose Maths V3 as a guideline for our maths scheme of work.

Useful Links

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources?year=year-1-new#update

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/

https://myhappymind.org/pre-login/

Last Year we were successful in being  awarded a Bronze Accreditation as a  MyHappyMind school. Please look out for how you can help us to achieve our next goal!