Driffield Church Of England Voluntary Controlled Infant School

Starfish had a wonderful (if chilly) day at Elmswell Farm - Farmer John took the class on a long walk and spoke about building new hedges, planting a forest and tree recognition.  Next month we will go to Kingsmill to identify trees once all the leaves are out and name more wild flowers.  As a class we have been watching the activities of the birds in the playground - Bobert (the robin) is taking food into the ivy so we think there might be a nest and Brian & Brenda the blackbirds are also diving in and out of the ivy - fingers crossed !!!

Maths next week is all about fractions. We will be learning all about finding a half of a shape, an object and an amount. 

In History we are learning about the Victorians - Mrs.Jackson took the class on an impromptu tour of the school where we could see what the school looked like when it was built in the 1850's. We spotted old windows, chimneys and old high ceilings - we learnt about boys and girls being separately taught and that the toilets were outside. Mrs.J did have to keep reiterating that she was not teaching there in Victorian times.  But if any parents/ grandparents did attend the school perhaps you could tell them about how it has changed. 

Phonics next week - 

/e/ ea- feather head bread breakfast spread thread

/ur/ ir  bird skirt girl first shirt third

/ow/ ou cloud sound about out proud found

/oi/ oy  boy joy toy enjoy annoy destroy

Alien words: scroy ept spraw quisk chort shome

In Design Technology we will be making and tasting our pasta salads for the Lighthouse Keeper Mr.Grinling - I'm sure there will be some comical photos! 

Thank you for your continued support. Starfish team. 

I can't believe we have completed another half term! Fingers crossed the warmer days are coming and we get a little bit more sunlight!

Our next topic is 'Let's Grow' and we are really looking forward to it. The Rhyme Time Nursery Rhyme for the first two weeks back is Wind The Bobbin Up and we will be looking at the emotions of 'happy' and 'sad' 

During our whole school exhibition the hanging bird feeders were displayed and admired - as shown in the photo above.

I hope you all have a lovely half -term and we look forward to seeing what you have been up to via Tapestry. 

For the last two weeks, the Seals have been enjoying learning about Environmentalism. They have learned that environmentalists take action to protect the world. Our social action project has been focussed on protecting birds, culminating in designing and creating our own bird feeders. We hope these all find a a good home and families enjoy seeing birds visit them over the coming weeks. Wishing all families a happy half-term ahead. 

Thank you to all the adults who visited our Environmentalism Exhibition. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this project, sharing lots of brilliant ideas and opinions throughout.

This week, our book of the week-linked to our project- was ‘Duffy’s Lucky Escape’ by Ellie Jackson (a well known author and environmentalist). Our story was all about a sea turtle who had mistakenly eaten a plastic bag thinking it was a jellyfish! The story resulted in lots of discussions of all the things we can do to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic.

In Maths, we have worked on the composition of numbers up to 8. Can you find two smaller numbers that add together to make 6? 7? 8? This is a difficult concept to grasp, so we would appreciate if you can continue to do activities at home. For example: if I have 6 sweets and you have 2 sweets, how many do we have altogether?

We have been completing individual phonics assessments this week, we are happy with the progress children are making. Once you return back after the half term, you should notice your child may have gone into another book level.

The children have worked extremetly hard over the last six weeks, and they are definitely ready for a break!

Please find below details of our ‘World Book Day’ challenge to complete over the half term:

We are launching a competition linked to our learning on World Book Day. So, for a chance to win a board game (for which instructions have to be read in order to play!), see the competition details below!
Read Everywhere And Discuss
Your challenge, for our competition, is to show us how reading has helped you to make something , do something or find out something
Make something- Perhaps you could read some instructions for a craft activity or read a recipe to make something delicious.
Do Something- How about reading some instructions to play a new game, learn a new skill or read labels to go on a scavenger or nature hunt?
Find out something- What is really interesting to you? Animals? Harry Potter? Super Mario? Whatever it is, can you read some more information (or have someone read some information to you) about it and learn at least one new fact?
Or, if you visit somewhere, is there information to read? A guide booklet? Information boards?
Or, if you are in the car, which road signs can you read? What can you see as you pass through that place?

You can do one activity or as many as you want. You can also decide how you would like to show us what you have done; photos, the creations made, pictures, models, maps, writing-anything goes! We can’t wait to see them!

Please return all entries to school by Monday 2nd March 2026

Have a lovely half term, and we will see you back in school Monday 23^rd February

Miss Corrigan and Mrs Chapman

This week has been all about Environmentalism and Phonics Assessments!

The children have continued to learn about Environmentalism and how we can help by using less plastic and recycling single use plastics, such as water bottles. We hope you enjoyed the Environmentalism Exhibition yesterday, the children were all very excited about sharing what they had learnt with you.

In maths we have learnt about combining two groups of objects to make a new total. This is something you could practise at home. If I have two cars and you have four cars, how many cars do we have altogether? Some pairs of numbers you child may know already, such as doubles, but if they are unsure, ask them to count how many altogether.

We have completed our Spring 1 phonics assessments this week, looking at all the new Phase 3 diagraphs and trigraphs. The children have been asked to decode and blend a range of words containing these phonemes and to read some tricky words introduced this half term. Many of the children have done fantastically and I am so impressed by their progress. For those children with a few gaps, I will put together some flashcards and ask you to practise these at home after the half term holiday.

Next half term the children will learn all about Chinese New Year, sometimes called Lunar New Year.

You should have already received an email about our World Book Day competition. This year World Book Day is on Thursday 5th March. Our theme is Read Everywhere And Discuss. The children are asked to show us how reading has helped them to make something, do something or find something out. You can do one activity or as many as you like. You can also decide how you would like to show us what you have done. If may be photographs, the creation you made, pictures, maps, writing - anything goes! Please make sure all entries are in school by Monday 2nd March.

Another date for your diary is Friday 6th February. This is a 'Dressing Up' day for our Careers Week. The children are invited to come to school dressed as their dream job. Would your child like to be a doctor, painter, train driver, ballerina, footballer or astronaut? They can come and show us what they would like to be when they are a grown up. Even the adults are getting involved, dressing up as a job they would do if they didn't work in school.

Next week is half term and we hope all the children have a well deserved rest.

We return to school on Monday 23rd February.

Any questions as always, please don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards

Mrs Dean and the Hedgehog Team

What a super week to end our half term!

We have been busy in Art, etching our great wave inspired designs and then creating our prints. The children really enjoyed this and produced some lovely pieces of art.

In Maths, we have been looking at multiplication and division, thinking about equal groups and using the multiplication sign. They are doing really well with this!

We wrote some creative poems in English, inspired by Michael Rosen's 'Over my toes.' The children chose the landfill for the theme, linking it to our environmentalism project and wrote about the different sounds they would hear. 

The children have done a great job with their environmentalism project, creating lots of work and learning lots about how they can help protect the world around us. 

For safer internet day on Tuesday, we read a lovely book called #Goldilocks which showed the children how we need to think before we post things online and not focus on getting 'likes,' or post without peoples permission. 

I hope you all have a rest over half term!

Miss Dean.

This week the children transferred their designs on to foam tiles. It took a little bit of perseverance to carefully etch the designs out, but once they were ready it was time to print. The children were really excited to reveal the final results. 

Another half term nearly done! 

We have really enjoyed gymnastics this half term, we have learnt different rolls and jumps and how to put them together and to always "present" at the end of the move. 

Our vehicles were finally tested and evaluated - we have really enjoyed this project and have done a great job! Just our bird feeders to complete this week. Next half term we focus on Art so expect some Van Gogh masterpieces heading your way. 

Our literacy focus next half term is Paddington - always popular, until we make a marmalade sandwich! 

Phonics - 

/ur/ or word, world worth, worm worse
/oo/ u oul awful would
/air/ are share dare, square scare stare
/or/ au aur oor al author dinosaur floor walk, author astronaut poor, floor door talk,walk chalk

Tricky words - once, laugh. 

In science we have been looking at good things we can do for our planet and things we must avoid. After half term we will be back on animals looking at reptiles, carnivores, herbivores and omnivores plus classifying animals. 

Just a reminder that our Environmentalism exhibition will be in the hall from 2.30pm on Thursday. To explain to anyone who got bombarded with owl questions or statements - school has had a stuffed owl for many many years. We dug him out last week so we could look at him to help do a digital painting in computing. The annual questions are - Is it alive? No. Is it dead? Yes, How did it die? No idea. So, you will see some fabulous art, bird feeders and instruction writing. 

Thanks for your continuous support 

Starfish team. 

The children have really been enjoying our Environmentalism Project. We have talked about ways we can help to protect the planet we live on the plants and animals which live there. Our focus is ‘keep the sea plastic free.’ At the start of the week, we discussed what it means to be an environmentalist. We looked at plastic and what we can do to help the environment using the 3 R’s- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Today the children watched a puppet show with an Environmentalism message. They also looked at single use plastics and how it is much better to refill a reusable water bottle rather than buying a bottle of water and throwing away the bottle when it is finished. We also talked about the benefits of paper and metal straws compare to plastic and taking our own shopping bags to the supermarket rather than buying plastic bags. 

In Phonics this week, we have been revising the sounds we already know, and applying these into longer words with two syllables that we need to ‘chunk up’. For example: laptop (lap-top), sunset (sun-set) etc. We have also looked at compound words (two smaller words join together to make a new word). For example: carpark, farmyard, bedroom.

In Maths, we are learning about odd and even numbers and double facts. We have used Numicon pieces to identify odd and even numbers, and spotted the pattern on the number line (odd, even, odd, even etc). We have also used the Numicon to work out double facts. It would be great to practise these with your child at home, what is double 1? Double 2? The following link will take you to the song we used in school to reinforce doubles if you want to sing it at home as well.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Oe6YD-K94

Our book this week, linked to our environmentalism topic, was Duffy's Lucky Escape by Ellie Jackson. The story explains how sea turtles often mistake a plastic bag floating in the sea for a jellyfish and try to eat it. Duffy was lucky because she was rescued and taken to the turtle hospital to get better before being released back into the sea. As part of our art curriculum, the children have worked together to create a collage of Duffy the Sea Turtle. We used different recycled materials to create the Duffy, following the children's ideas. 
The children are also making fish using recycled plastic bottles. Instead of throwing them in the bin, the children are turning them into a beautiful piece of art! These will also be on display in the exhibition next Thursday (see below).

Next Thursday- we are hosting a whole school environmentalism exhibition. This will begin at 2:30pm in the hall. You will be able to collect your child at 2:30pm from the normal place and then make your way to the hall via the main entrance. On display, you will find our art collage project, each child’s individual plastic bottle fish, all the learning we have been doing over the last two weeks including children’s comments, and pictures from The Deep. If you are unable to pick your child up at the earlier time, please come for them at 3:15pm as normal. 

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Dean and the Hedgehog Team

In maths, the Seals have been introduced to numbers to 50. They have practised counting, ordering and stating how many tens and ones in these numbers. Here, they are playing a game similar to snakes and ladders to help them recognise and say these numbers. They have been set a challenge to be able to count backwards from 50-0 (with one 'marvellous mistake' allowed!). It would be wonderful if you could help your child practise this at home. If they can prove that they can do it, to an adult in school, they can earn a small prize!