Dear Parents,
We hope you have had a fantastic Summer and enjoyed the best of the sunshine when it appeared. We have a busy and exciting first term planned with your child, and lots to look forward to.
The main focus this Autumn term will be settling your child in to school, helping them understand the routines, rules and ways of school life with a view to helping them become more independent in the classroom. From the pre-school setting visits we carried out in June and our settling in sessions, all of the children we have met already seem very settled and ready to learn – fantastic!
Please check inside your child’s book bag regularly, as reading books, homework and other pieces of information go home regularly and are really important links to school. Please also remember to write a WOW certificate as often as possible, at least once a week so that we can have the most accurate and rounded view of your child’s learning at home as well as school. There is a display in the classroom to celebrate and share each child’s success.
Alongside this, we will be learning about your child as an individual as well as your child getting to know us and their new school. Later in the term, we will be asking the children to share a special box from home with all the items inside which are special to them (more details on this to follow!)
Communication and Language
Phonics
During this half term, the children will begin Phonics (learning letters and sounds) lessons. We will be sending home a Phonics book each week with the sounds the children are to practise at home. When these do go home, a short letter of explanation will be inside but do please see myself or Mrs Adams if you have any concerns.
Reading
This half term we will begin sending reading books home for your child to share with you. The books will be changed 2 times per week on a Tuesday and Thursday. Initially the books will be picture books for your child to share, looking carefully at the pictures and making up their own story for the pictures and then we will begin sending books home with simple print. Please let us know in the reading record if you feel your child’s book needs changing, if you would like to keep the book a little longer or if you have any other questions. We will also be sharing books, songs and nursery rhymes with your child daily in school. Please make sure you also share a book of their choosing at home with them as regularly as possible – bed time is usually the calmest time!
Mathematics, Shape Space and Measures
In Maths we will be looking at numbers, learning to recognise numbers from 0-10 and then 10-20 and form them correctly. We will also be doing lots of counting to 5, 10 and 20, learning number rhymes and stories, and having fun with numbers and shapes both in and outside the classroom. We will also be looking at patterns in number, number sequences, and the vocabulary for 2D shape.
Understanding the World
Forest School
Each Tuesday, children will be going to Forest School, from Tuesday 12thSeptember with Mrs Elkington, Mrs Larcombe and Mrs Clark. For this, your child will need suitable named clothing -waterproof trousers (not shorts or skirts due to brambles and scratchy plants), coats and wellies. Children must come to school in uniform as normal and we will change before lunch. On this day, children will come home in their Forest School clothes and bring their uniform with them.
Welly Walks
On Mondays, weather permitting we will be going on Welly Walks throughout the year. For this activity, the children need their wellies and a waterproof coat. We do still try to go even when it is a little rainy or frosty (these are the best walks!) We will be walking around the vicinity of the school, the local village and often we will go down to the canal or across to the school field observing our local environment, patterns, numbers, shapes, the different features of the local environment noticing how these change throughout the year.
Physical Development
On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, children will be having P.E. lessons. Your child needs to have their named P.E. kit ready each week (trainers, blue shorts and plain white t-shirt). These are to be kept in their named lockers outside the classroom. When the weather turns colder, children can wear joggers and their school jumper for PE sessions outside.
Computing
We are very fortunate to have a bank of ipads for the children to use in school and these will form part of the continuous provision this year. The children will have monitored use on these and also be shown how to log on to certain educational websites for both home and school learning. You will be given a log in for two websites ‘ActiveLearn’ which has a collection of books which will be suitable for your child to share with you at home, and ‘Purple Mash’, a programme with many different activities for your child to explore at home. These will be put in the front of your child’s reading record next week. Please let us know if you have any difficulty using them.
Please remember that this is a log in for your child only, please do not this log on with friends or relatives as we encourage the children to keep their log on details private as part of esafety (being safe online).
Please also regularly check our school website for more information about our school, diary dates, a list of our school Governors and a link to our school photo gallery which is frequently updated.
If you have any concerns or questions, do let us know so we can help make your child’s transition to school as smooth as possible.
Many thanks,
Mrs Crow, Mrs Adams, Mrs Clark and Mrs Larcombe