SES Blog

Dear Parents, 

Everyone would agree that the End of Year Performance was an amazing success, showcasing the children’s singing, dancing, musical instrument skills, and acting abilities. Their hard work, and confidence were evident throughout the performance, and we are incredibly proud of all they have achieved.

The class party was also a wonderful celebration, with the children enjoying the special food they brought to share with their friends.

We would like to send our very best wishes to our Year 1 children. It is hard to believe that some of them started their journey with us when they were just three years old. It feels like only yesterday that they first walked into our classroom, and now they are ready to begin an exciting new chapter in primary school.

We also say a farewell to Eleanor, Imogen, and Alinaswe, who will be returning to their home countries. We will certainly miss their smiles and the joy they brought to our classroom community.

Please note that the Year 1 portfolios will be shared individually via Google Classroom. We also invite you to enjoy the photos attached to this post.

As we come to the end of another wonderful academic year, we would like to thank all parents for your continued support, trust, and partnership. We wish you and your families a restful holiday break and look forward to seeing you again in the new academic year on Monday, 10th of August, 2026.

End of Year activities

To celebrate the end of the school year, the children enjoyed bringing their favourite soft toy to school. Each child was given the opportunity to share something special about their soft toy with their classmates, helping to develop their confidence and communication skills.

The children also enjoyed participating in a variety of games, including Kim’s Game, where they had to identify the missing object from a tray, as well as Musical Statues and Pass the Bean Bag. They had a wonderful time sharing and playing board games with their friends, with some children learning new games for the very first time.These activities provided excellent opportunities for social interaction, cooperation, independent thinking, and problem-solving skills. It was lovely to see the children engaging positively with one another while demonstrating confidence, resilience, and creativity throughout their play.

The children also took part in a fun detective-themed activity, where they worked together to crack a secret code. By matching letters to corresponding symbols and placing them in the correct spaces, they successfully deciphered the hidden message: “Enjoy your Summer Break!”

Year 1 additional learning covered – Week 38 and 39

Phonics   

To identify sounds represented by more than one letter, for example /ch/, /th/, /qu/, /ng/, /ay/

Some children are learning about alternative sounds such as /ee/ can also be written with ‘ea’, ‘e-e’, ‘y’.

To use phonic knowledge to read decodable words. Reading and writing CVC words,words with adjacent vowel / consonants using sounds covered, words with double consonants such as bell, mess, mitt, back. 

Language / Literacy – Reading. Guided Reading groups – Practising fluency of reading and gaining the confidence to recognise sounds and blend them to read words and sentences.  Reading comprehension, to be able to answer direct questions about the book and work on understanding inferential questions as well. 

Language – Writing and Spelling

Sight words / High frequency words

The children practised reading and writing the words. 

Kind regards,

Montessori Team

Dear Parents, 

The Fun Day was a wonderful experience for everyone. It was such a lovely day, and the weather was very accommodating for the event. The children had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed all the games, from the potato race, noodle pool race, parachute activities, and bubble making, to name just a few. The day concluded with fun snacks such as popcorn and apple juice. To celebrate their participation and reinforce that everyone is a winner, the children brought home artistic medals they had created themselves.

With the upcoming End of Year performance, all the children have been diligently practising their songs and dance routines. Please remember to attend the special performance on Thursday, 4th of June, at 11:30. There will be no PE that day. The children need to come to school wearing their checkered uniform. For girls, please avoid high ponytails and large hair ornaments. We would like them to wear low ponytails or simple braids, as some of the children will be wearing headpieces on their heads during the performance.

The children watched the Flutterpillar Junior Production on Tuesday. They were able to relate that all great performances require lots of practice. They all enjoyed the singing and wonderful acting.

Alongside this busy schedule, the children are continuing to work on their learning. They are all working on their own individual goals in the classroom.

Please note that the photos from the Fun Day and End of Year performance as well as the Y1 learning covered will be posted in the final Google Classroom post during the last week of school.

Units

Our new mini unit is all about ‘Holidays’, where we discussed why people need holidays. The children also learned about two general types of holiday destinations: natural and man made destinations.

For natural destinations, we explored activities that can be done at the beach and learned vocabulary related to mountains. A fun experiment was carried out to replicate a volcano. To extend this learning, the children also made binoculars for pretend exploration activities.

We also explored man made holiday destinations by looking at a range of pictures of theme parks and discussing the different attractions and activities people can enjoy there, such as roller coasters, water attractions, 3D cinemas and a few others. The children also discussed the importance of respecting public places such as theme parks, malls, and zoos by helping to maintain cleanliness and taking care of the environment around them.

Today, the children baked flatbread and patiently followed the many steps involved in the process, from adding the ingredients, waiting for the dough to rise, kneading it, and finally baking it in the oven. Of course, at the end, everyone enjoyed tasting what they had baked themselves.

Important dates for Semester 2

Further information will be shared closer to each date. Please note that unless otherwise stated or indicated as ‘parents are invited,’ these events are for children only

1 Jun – Public holiday

2 Jun – First dress rehearsal for the End of Year Performance

3 Jun – Second dress rehearsal for the End of Year Performance

4 Jun – End of Year Performance (parents are invited)

12 Jun- Last day of school 12:00 dismissal for all children

Kind regards,

Montessori Team