Dear Parents,
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 home visits this week, and we’re looking forward to getting them all together as a class 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 ‘Ourselves’. We will be finding out about each other and our likes and dislikes. We will be painting self portraits, investigating our skeletons and using and comparing parts of our body such as eyes, ears and hands to explore similarities and differences between us. We will also look at how to keep our bodies healthy, as well as beginning 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 (click here for further information).
Reading books will be sent home in the week beginning 22nd September when the children begin attending 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.
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)