Senior Infants

Senior Infants

General Information & Communication

• Parents can contact teachers for any class queries by sending a message through Aladdin Connect or emailing the school at info@ennisns.ie.
• For administration queries, please send them to info@ennisns.ie
• We have three senior infant classes. The teachers are Ms Howley, Ms Tiernan & Ms McMahon. We also have Ms O’Neill, Ms. Kelly, Ms Eustace as our SET support teachers and Ms. O’Connor and Ms. Spring as our Reading Recovery Team. We do lots of creative and fun activities together.
• Some of the highlights on the Senior Infant calendar include: nature walks, baking, the Halloween hobble, The Christmas show, posting a letter to Santa, a visit from a member of our community, a visit from the librarian/storytellers, Easter hunt, teddy bears picnic sports fun day, and many many more!
• Parent teacher meetings take place in November.

Encouraging Positive Behaviour

• In Senior Infants we follow the Incredible Years Programme.
• We place emphasis on rewarding positive behaviour.
• Each class teacher uses their own positive incentive system.
• Principal’s awards are handed out each month to children who have worked hard and tried their best.

Homework

• Homework sheet is distributed on a Monday each week. It is expected that each child completes their homework daily.
• Homework should take no longer than 20 minutes, this will include a library book, oral and written work.
• Dictation copy to be signed each Monday.

English

• Guided Reading is an initiative that takes place in Senior Infants. Guided Reading is an intensive teacher-led approach that involves three SET teachers and the class teacher working with a small group of students who demonstrate similar reading behaviours.
• We cover initial sounds, digraphs (double sounds) and develop word blending.
• The children will learn how to form all 26 capital letters and revise the lowercase letters.
• In Senior Infants the children will learn Tricky Words. These are words are can’t be sounded out. The children will learn and spell the tricky words 1-30 and will recognise and use tricky words 31-60.
• During the course of the year the children will progress from a teacher led approach to their own independent writing.

Maths

• Maths Stations is an initiative that takes place in Senior Infants. The children benefit from working in a small group setting. Two SET teachers along with the class teacher provide intensive support and a hands on approach for the learning of new maths concepts.
• Your child will be learning the story of number this year. We start with number 5 and continue with one per month up to the story of 10. They learn the different ways to make the number e.g. 5+0= 5, 4+1=5, 3+2=5, 2+3=5, 1+4=5, 0+5=5.
• Children will explore addition within 10 and number awareness up to 1-20.

Gaeilge

• The scheme Bua Na Cainte is followed to teach Irish.
• Children play language games and sing many songs in Irish.
• Children learn and use many helpful phrases throughout the day.
• Children and teachers speak Irish naturally during the school day outside of the formal Irish lessons.

History, Geography & Science

• History, geography and science are taught primarily through the means of Aistear.

Visual Arts, Music & Drama

• The creative arts are integrated throughout the curriculum and often tied to the themes the classes are currently exploring.

Physical Education

• Children develop gross motor skills through a variety of activities including dance, ball skills, playground games and gymnastics.
• We try to do physical exercise every day in addition to our PE lessons.

Social and Personal Health Education

• The Stay Safe and RSE programmes are taught on alternate years. The Stay Safe is a personal safety skills programme while the RSE is relationship and sex education.
• Zippy’s friends will be taught every school year in Senior Infants and focuses on your child’s emotional health.

Religion

• We follow the Grow in Love religious programme.

Aistear

• Aistear is the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework. It is a thematic child led initiative.
• Children participate in a variety of stations in the following categories: role play, games with rules, small world, creative and construction.

Assessment

• We have no standardised testing for senior infants but we regularly carry out teacher designed assessments and teacher observation.
• We work closely with our SET teachers to monitor children’s progress.

Any Other Information

• LABEL ALL YOUR CHILD’S BELONGINGS! – stationary (pencils, twistables etc.) & all clothing.
• Our school is a Health Promoting school. We encourage children to bring healthy lunches with a small treat allowed on a Friday. Pack a lunch, not a picnic!
• We are a Green School so all rubbish and food waste from your child’s lunch goes home.
• Wear runners each day as we do a lot of physical activities. No laces please.
• Invitations – Please refrain from distributing party invitations in class.
• No party food to be sent in by your child.