Dear Parent/s, carers,
We hope you had a relaxing summer and are looking forward to an exciting milestone in your child’s life – starting school! It has been great to meet all the children again during consultations and we’re looking forward to getting them all together as a class next week to welcome them again properly. We hope that the induction process will make the transition as painless as possible and are confident that the children will soon be feeling settled and happy.
Reception is an important year in your child’s development, not only socially but in terms of equipping them with key skills to send them successfully on their learning journey. To make the experience as rich and enjoyable as possible, we will be covering a variety of topics beginning this term with ‘People Who Help Us’. We will start by looking at the people who help us in school as a way of introducing the children to those who will be working with them and the variety of jobs they perform. We will then look at some of the people who help us to stay healthy such as doctors and dentists and how we can do our bit to help them in return by eating properly and keeping our hands and teeth clean. In addition this term, we will start our focus on phonics and number.
During the first half of the term, we will be performing baseline assessments, looking at each child’s current skills and stage of development. This will help us to tailor our provision to provide the best learning experience for each child individually. These assessments will follow the seven area of learning outlined in The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (click here for further information). We will feed back our findings and outline the next steps in their learning at the first parent consultation meeting which will be held in November.
Reading books will be sent home in the week beginning 16th September, the first week when the children will attend full time. Books will be changed twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, but please ensure that they are returned to school every day in their book bag as we will listen to the children read regularly. Further information will accompany the books.
P.E. lessons will take place on a Monday but it is useful to have a named kit in school all week in case we need to reschedule. Just a reminder, we will not expect the children to have trainers as part of their P.E. kit until the summer term.
Show and Tell will take place on Friday afternoons on a rota system which will shortly be on the noticeboard outside the Reception classroom, and a paper copy will be provided in book bags. This will start in the week beginning 23rd September. For their session, the children can bring in something from home such as a toy or photo/s to share with the rest of the class. Please avoid bringing in anything too precious or breakable!
Some additional information:
– Miss Hannah Powell and Mrs Adrienne Hinrichs will take the class on Thursday afternoons while myself and Mrs Carmichael have our non-contact time for planning, preparation and assessment. (If anyone has a couple of hours to spare on Friday afternoons and would be willing to help us with cutting, sticking and laminating resources, please talk to one of us – it would be very much appreciated!).
– I will be holding a parent information evening on Tuesday 24th September at 6.30pm about our phonics scheme Read, Write, Inc. This is intended to familiarise you with some of the terminology used in the scheme and how we will use phonics to support your child with their reading and writing. Hopefully, this will enable us to work in partnership, ensuring a consistent approach at home and at school. If you are new to Skyswood or would simply like to refresh your memory, you are very welcome to attend.
– We are anticipating a class trip to Paradise Wildlife Park in June/July 2020 at an approximate cost of £20 per child; details and precise cost will be confirmed closer to the time. No further trips incurring a cost are expected but should an opportunity arise to enhance the children’s learning, we will provide as much notice as possible to parents to allow for budgeting.
We are looking forward to a fun and productive year and to getting to know you and your child. If at any time you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Jenny Kerr (Reception Class Teacher) & Jane Carmichael (Early Years Practitioner)