September is here

We promised you way back in the summer term, a virtual tour of the classrooms.  We delayed sending you these as the classrooms were not up to standard and we also felt that the children had lots of things to talk about school with you already and we didn’t want to over load them.  Teachers have been in school over the holidays tidying, sorting and cleaning the rooms ready for your September start.  So here we are with a virtual classroom tour.. ta daaa.

Click on the links below.

Welcome to Tiger Class

Welcome to Panda Class

Welcome to Lion Class

What’s happening this first week?

Tuesday 1^st September is a staff inset day.

Wednesday 2^nd September and Thursday 3^rd September: You have designated time slots to have a tour of the classroom and meet the teacher in small groups.  If you can’t remember your slot, don’t hesitate to contact the school to double check.  The office team are very friendly and are always happy to help.  Equally, if you are having to isolate for whatever reason and can’t join in on the tour, then please let us know.

Friday 4^th September:  We will be calling you individually to talk to you about your children.  In ‘usual’ circumstances we would carry out home visits.  This is where we visit you at home so that the children can meet us in their own environment which is easier for them.  They get to show us their favourite toys and chat to our TA’s while the teachers ask you, the parents/carers, questions about how they are getting on and you talk about any worries you have about their settling, any medical concerns or dietary needs.  Therefore, the idea behind the phone call is that you are able to have time to discuss your child with the teacher. These are the sorts of questions we will be asking you:

How are they feeling about starting school?  Is there any aspect they are concerned about? 

How are you feeling about them starting school?

What films, toys and interests do they have? 

What are they really into playing with at the moment?  

What do they like to play with at home or at preschool? 

Who are the people in their family that they will be telling us about eg.  Sister, Brother, Uncle, Grandparents 

Any specific dietary requirements? (We have all of this written down in the forms you completed but as teachers we like to double check as it is so important) Any medical needs?

However, big or insignificant it seems, please don’t over think it - we are happy to hear about it. 

With all of the children going back, how are you managing covid risks?

Here are just a few highlights of the provisions we have in place…

Hand washing:  Children will be washing their hands once they come in every morning, before food and snacks, after play times and before home time.  This will be an opportunity for counting, singing and all the things we can pull out of the bag to maximise the time spent lining up. 

Children will remain in their class bubbles: We have sectioned off our outdoor area so that each class stay within their area.  Their play times are staggered so not all children are out at once and we are maximising the use of the outdoor areas that we have to really spread out.  Lunchtime will be in the classroom with a designated lunchtime supervisor.  There will be no collective worship or big events where the children all get together for the first term at least.  

Cleaning habits:  The staff are all armed with bottles of spray and Milton sterilising fluid for washing down the tables and the plastic resources that we use most days.   Each evening the classrooms are cleaned down thoroughly. 

Minimal stuff:  Children will keep their own belongings in their bags.  We have stripped the classrooms back of material items and each child has their own pack of stationary that they can use.

Communication:  Obviously, any family which has a positive test will inform the school and parents will be immediately notified.  We have always been very clear in our communication and will continue to do so. 

Hopefully this alleviates some of your concerns.  Please don’t hesitate to talk to your class teacher if you are not confident or have any other suggestions that could help us.

Recent FAQ's...

Are we not entitled to free school meals?  I thought it was something that the government funded?

You are correct - children do get these for free as part of the infant Universal Free School Meals.  However, due to the changes to school structure, we are welcoming reception children in for lunch from the very start of the year.  Normally they would be doing half days and therefore eating at home.  They are having full days from day 1.  We don't want to worry children and we want to make this transition as smooth as possible.  Therefore we ask that they bring in a packed lunch from home with fillings and snacks that you know they will happily eat.  Packed lunches should not contain any nuts, chocolate bars or fizzy drinks.

Also - due to the distancing regulations, children will be eating in their classrooms so as not to mix with the entire school.  Therefore, we do not want to carry in hot meals into each classroom as logistically this would be very hard for the kitchen to manage.  Please do bear with us with these changes.  As soon as we can provide the Universal Free School Meals in a safe way - we will let you know.  

 

I thought the school provided fruit/ healthy snacks?

Children will have to bring in 2 snacks for the start of September.  They will normally be supplied with a piece of fruit, but this scheme, which is funded by the government, will not be starting up until after Sept.  The snacks should be healthy & contain no nuts.  See previous bog on 'How will they cope on their own at lunchtime?  What about snacks?' 

 

Do we need Book bags or Back packs?

Backpacks.  We carried out a quick survey from our current parents and we have come to the decision to all have backpacks.  This will free up space in the classroom, which will help with children moving around a larger space.  The children can access them easier if they are on their peg and they don't all look the same.  They should also be able to fit in all their home things.  It's a win win all round.  Do remember to put on a distinguishing label - just in case someone else has the same!  You could have a little piece of twine, a key-ring, a ribbon - anything that they can recognise as theirs.  Also - try to find one with a bottle holder or side pocket.  So many water bottles leak all over their books.  

*When they come into the classroom on day 1 we will teach them to take out their snacks and put them safely in the snack pot (make sure they are labelled) and also their water bottle on the sink so that they can easily access it throughout the day.  

What about a PE kit?  When do we need this?

 

PE kit is to be warn to school on school PE days, your teachers will let you know which days these are in Sept, by notices in the classroom window and via the school app.  Rest assured we will not be doing PE for a few weeks so don't worry if you haven't got a kit just yet.  We can talk about this in September.  

Preparing for September

Starting school can be so nerve-wracking for children and also parents!  We completely understand how you feel as you approach this huge milestone in their lives.  Here are a few tips to support this transition..

Talk is key

You now have the 'welcome to reception' booklets so you can show your children pictures of the school.  Share the clips of the virtual tours and chat about things they might like to do when they start school.  Show them clips of their new teachers and read about what your teachers like to do: Welcome from your new teachers    You could talk to your children about what they like doing and suggest that this is something they can share with their new teachers.    

You could read them this story  Suzie goes to school and talk to them about how they are feeling.  Reassure them that it is ok to be a little bit worried because it is something new and unknown but that if they are in school and they feel sad, their teachers are there to talk to and make them feel better.  

* Some children have comforters that they don't go anywhere without.  In the current situation we are particularly strict on them bringing soft toys into school.  If you are worried about this - please talk to your class teacher.    

Walking/scooting/cycling to school

During the summer holidays, plan your route to school and even do a dummy run -this will hopefully build the excitement and prepare them for that first day.

School uniform

Make it fun and exciting to have a school uniform. Try it on before they start school but don't get it too early that they don't fit.  You might want to buy them some new school shoes or even a new lunchbox.  Here is the link to the school uniform if you aren't sure what to buy - school uniform

When they try their uniform on, get them to practise fastening and unfastening any buttons, zips, velcro, etc. This will save a lot of frustration when they are in school when they need to go to the toilet.

*Please remember to label their uniform.  If you can't face sewing in labels, just get a good permanent marker and write their first name and first letter of surname.  Things will get lost but if they are labelled, they usually find their way home.  

And chill..

Try to set out the clothes the night before and make sure you have your checklist...

- warm coat

- rucksack - (We have suggested you buy one with a side bottle holder so their water bottle doesn't spill.  We may reinstate book-bags down the line but for now we think it'll be easier for them to carry all their belongings in something more sizeable)

- labelled water bottle

- labelled packed lunch

- labelled snack (might be worth sending in two snacks so they have one for morning and also one for the afternoon)

It really doesn't seem much to remember but when you have a very excitable child and you want to get those pictures of them looking totally gorgeous in their uniform, the time runs away with you!

Remember, we are a caring community and we really want to support you in this transition.  Please do approach your class teachers if you have any concerns or worries - we are there for you too and we want to do all we can to make your child feel at home in our school.

Learning to read

Reading is such an important life skill and it is crucial to us that we get this right from the get go.  Many of you will be thinking, how can I support my child to be a successful reader?  

Please don't worry about learning sounds just yet.  The best way to make your child a successful reader is encourage a love of books by reading them stories and making it a really lovely experience with you.  By reading a range of different books and talking about the stories, you will be building so many literacy skills including developing their language and communication.

As you read with your children, you can start to tease out information.  Here are a few things to think about and perhaps choose one or two of these to work on when you next read to them.

- When introducing a new story - look at the cover, what do you think this story will be about?

- Tell them who the author is and perhaps link it to other books they might like.

- Tell the who illustrated the book and again, they may have another book with the same illustrator. 

- Talk about the type of book it is.  Is it a story that is made up, a fiction book or is it an information book which is a non-fiction book or is it a poetry book?  It is really good to try and build in some variety of genres.  

- Talk about the pictures, what you do you think is happening?  

- Discuss the different characters you read about and talk about their feelings.  

- Make predictions, what do you think will happen next?  How do you think this story will end?

- Can they appreciate any of the inference/ pick up on the details that are not directly explained.  For example in the Gruffalo, how was the mouse tricking the animals?  Why was he surprised to see a Gruffalo?  How did he then scare the animals?

- As you read, explain those unusual words and try to bring those up again in other scenarios

- Once you have finished the story you might recap, what was your favourite part?  What happened in the end?  Can they retell the story?

Do make time to just simply read to them and not always overwhelm them with questioning.  It is important to get the balance right.  

Letters and Sounds

This is a phonics resource published by the department for Education and Skills. 

This link to Oxford Owl explains this systematic approach:  What is letters and sounds?

As we mentioned before, there is no need to teach your children the sounds before they start school.  As you can see, the sounds work starts in phase 2.  Before we get to that we need to work on phase 1 which concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work.

Phase 1 consists of seven interlinking parts: 

- environmental sounds 

- instrumental sounds 

- body percussion 

- rhythm and rhyme

- alliteration (words that begin with the same sound)

- voice sounds 

- oral blending and segmenting. 

Supporting your children with environmental sounds...

*Go on a listening walk. When walking down the road, make a point of listening to different sounds: cars revving, people talking, birds singing, dogs barking. When you get home, try to remember all the sounds you heard. You could try taping the sounds, to listen to them again, or try reproducing them yourselves, using your voices or instruments. 

*Make sounds, using a range of props, such as running a stick along a fence or tapping the bin lid. *Invent a secret family ‘knock’ for entering rooms. 

*Play ‘sound lotto’. You could make your own game using some of the sounds you heard on your listening walk.

There are games you can access online such as, Can you guess the sounds or Welcome to the Zoo

Here is a sheet of other useful ideas Environmental Sounds

Ways to support your children at home: instrumental sounds....

* Make your own musical instruments, using cardboard rolls, tins, dried peas, beans, stones. Shake these loudly, softly, as you are marching, skipping or stomping. Play ‘Guess what’s inside the instrument’. 

* Sing known songs loudly and then softly, stretch words in known songs and add new words or sounds. 

*Listen to a range of music with your child, from rap to classical. Encourage your child to move in response to the variety of musical styles and moods. 

Here is a sheet of other useful ideas Instrumental Sounds

Positive mathematicians

As we mentioned in a previous blog, we don't expect children to start school being maths genius' and knowing how to write all their numbers to 10 or solve addition and subtraction problems.  However, building positive mathematicians is all about building in experiences as much as possible into the 'every day' humdrum of life.  At the heart of being successful at maths in school, is being confident and having a go.  There is so much they learn before they even step foot in a classroom and ways that you can support them at home once they do.  

What things can you do at home to build positive mathematicians?

So much of this is things that you most likely do anyway, but it doesn't hurt to have a refresh! Also, it is reassuring to know that you are doing all the right things without feeling that you need to sit down with a pen and paper or bring out an activity book!  And remember - however you might feel about maths, your children need to feel really positive and they will succeed.

Counting 

- Children need to know how to say the number words in sequence

- Songs and rhymes are a brilliant way to introduce counting.  BBC nursery rhymes

- Count down as a timer.  We have 20 seconds to get our shoes on, who can win?  

- Be rockets blasting off.  Start with 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 and then when they become really good at that, start from 10.

- Play games such as hide and seek or What's the time Mr Wolf?

Children need to know that numbers tell you how many there are of something, the 'howmanyness' or the cardinal value.  It's good to count things that can't be moved or things of different sizes.

- Steps and stairs - count together as you walk up and down stairs.  

- Count the number of mini-beasts you might find on a mini-beast hunt or how many rainbows you see on a walk.  

-Count the birds on the bird feeder

-Count when you are crafting, baking, jumping over puddles.  The constant repetition is what embeds that skill.

They also need to understand that the last number you get to gives you the amount so far

- When you are out shopping, get your child to help you- "We need 5 apples, let's count them"

- "How many dolls are in the dolls house?" Let's line them up and count them one by one.

- Make mud pies in the garden.  Make up a recipe for them such as 3 spoons of water, 5 spoons of Cornflour and 1 spoon of food colouring.  

Number recognition

- Be number spotters when you are out and about - look at doors, buses, signs, price tags

- Play simple board games that show the numbers - Orchard games are very good and age appropriate.  

- Make your own number hunt around the house with post-its

- Draw their attention to birthday cards so they can see which is 'their number' or a siblings number.

- Look at a clock.  When the little hand gets to 6, we have our dinner.  

- Get out the chalk and write numbers on the pavement - create your own hopscotch board.

- Number books such as Tip Tap went the crab.  

- Go on a scavenger hunt and write down what you find eg. 3 stones, 5 leaves.  Model writing the number to show your child what that looks like.  

Once they are confident at recognising their numbers, try matching the number to an amount.  *This is quite a jump to link the skills together so do support them.

Grouping and sorting

This is the idea that objects, shapes or numbers have things in common.

- Can they help you sort the washing - put everyone's clothes in the correct pile?

- Sort their toys - can they group all the dinosaurs from the other animals?

- Can they sort blocks or Lego into coloured piles?

*Deep in lock down desperation - The toilet rolls came out!  Here we are sorting the different patterns.  You really can use anything!

Ordinal numbers

This is very easy if you have a competitive child.  They need to understand which is first, second and third.

This is really easy to do if you play races with cars or when you play games as a family.  

Quite often if can be used as you discuss the day.  "First we are going to go shopping and then the second thing we need to do is pop to the Post Office"

Subitise 

This is recognising quantities without counting up to 5.  

-Place with dice and games with dot cards such as Spotty Dogs from Orchard Games

-Play the hidden objects games where objects are revealed for a few seconds

Finally....

Number blocks are a really good way to support your children to learn the value of numbers.  

Here are some ideas from the Cbeebies website - number block activities

How will they cope on their own at lunch? What about snacks?

For the first two weeks that your children start school, we have asked that you send them in with a packed lunch.  Please make sure that you don't include nuts as we are a nut free school.  

*We would normally have a school kitchen supplying hot meals but we are not confident how the usual dining area will be organised as the government have not yet released guidance.  In order for us to plan for a September start we are continuing with the format that we have been adopting with those children in school at present.  As soon as we know more, we will keep you updated.  

When your children come into class, they will bring their packed lunch box with them.  Please familiarise them with the box so that they can recognise their own lunch.  We will show them where in the classroom/cloakroom to keep their box.  

Just before 12:00 they will all go to thoroughly wash their hands.  A lunch break supervisor will come into each class.  We wipe down all the tables with antibacterial spray before children begin to eat.  The class teacher, teaching assistant and lunch break supervisor will stay with the children and support them with this process of finding their lunches, sitting at a table and opening any packets they might need help with.  We stay with them while they eat in the classroom.  After they have finished their lunch, they will head out into the playground/ their designated play area in order to get some fresh air and run around before beginning the afternoon learning.  The children will stay together until they have all finished eating and head out together as a pod.  As they are having packed lunches, you will be able to see what they leave behind in terms of food at the end of the day.  It is usually all slung back in the box as a special gift for you to sort out.  If we notice that anyone is not eating much, we will make a note and let you know at the end of the day.  

What will happen about snacks? 

* During the month of September we will not be given our usual supply of fruit.  This will be something that will recommence but for the first few weeks we ask you to send your child in with two snacks.

In the morning, school will provide a piece of fruit for their snack and also a carton of milk (After September once the service recommences).  If your child doesn't like milk, they can of course drink from their water bottle.  If your child has a tendency to get 'hangry' and they don't like fruit then you may of course send them in with a healthy snack.  We recommend that you put this in a labelled container or bag and separate to their lunchbox in their ruck sack (otherwise it gets confused with lunch and they will either eat it at lunch or go to get a snack from their lunchbox and end up tackling their lunch at 10am).  If they need - send in two snacks so that they have one for morning and one for afternoon break.

As they come into the classroom in the morning, they can reach into their ruck sack and take out their water bottles and snacks.  There will be a box for each of these items by the door or place for water bottles at the sink.    

*The fruit that we have in school can be; apples, bananas, pears, carrots, sugar snap peas,  tomatoes, raisins, satsumas.  It is provided by the local authority and therefore we don't know what is coming and when.

What do you mean healthy snack?

Any fruits or berries (grapes must be halved as they are a choking hazard); any cut up vegetables such as carrot sticks, celery, peppers; olives; plain bread sticks; rice cakes or crackers.  

Please don't send your children in with chocolate or crisps and most importantly - we are a nut free school.   So if in doubt - stick to fruit and veg.  

My child won't drink water

Please try really hard to encourage them that at school, children are only allowed to drink water.  It might be that once they come here, they will accept the rules and follow the other children.  The reason that we say this is because if some come with squash then others start to request it.  If they are sipping squash all day long, this is so damaging for their teeth and we really do want the best for them as we are a healthy school.  Please do not send them in with a fizzy drink.  

We let children have a sip of water at any point during the day.  We do make sure that they drink during snack time and lunch.  This means there are three points in the day we encourage them to drink.  Please reassure your child that if they are thirsty, they can help themselves to water at any time.... except during whole class input. (There is just 10 minutes when they are sat listening to the teacher that we deny them to get up and go and have a drink.  We remind them to go and get a drink after this time.  Please don't worry - we aren't that mean and some little tikes can be very crafty!!)

Mark making

Mark making is the first step towards writing.  For young children, learning to control any mark making tool, such as a pencil, pen or paintbrush, is hard and requires many skills.  

They need to develop whole body muscles (gross motor), to control their upper body and shoulders as well as develop the desire to sit still and concentrate. 

Many of these initial skills can be supported by play through being active and being outside.  Hand-eye coordination is also key for writing as is the need for children to build up the control in their hands and fingers (fine motor skills).

The marks children begin to make slowly start to have more meaning for them and at first may seem like random swirls but soon you may see the emergence of circles, lines and dots. They will then start to bring this into their role play in copying marks they see and create their own 'pretend' writing.  

Once children begin school, we will start to teach them how to form their letters and we will give you guidance on how they form the cursive letters.  In the meantime, we need to encourage them to play at writing.  We find that children who are corrected too often, or asked to write things out ‘properly’ may lose interest.  On the other hand, children who enjoy the process of mark making and ‘writing’ notes that are praised and valued will naturally want to do it more often, and so get better at it.  

Ideas to encourage mark making

Some children love to use pens, crayons, pencils or even felt-tipped pens to colour and draw.  Not every child is so keen on activities like this so you may have to be inventive.  You can use a range of different materials around the house such as: 

• Foil, cling film, greaseproof paper
• Feathers, leaves, sticks - anything from outside!
• Felt 
• Pipe cleaners
• Cotton Wool
• String 
• Pens, Pencils, Crayons
• Spatulas, Spoons, Forks, Whisks
• Carrots, cucumber, potatoes

You can dip these in paints, cornflour and water, sand, flour, or even shaving foam.

Here are a few ideas that we have used in our homes and school...

Draw patterns for them to copy

Use chalks to write names or make patterns

Role play 

These are chalk pens that can write on glass

Nail varnish can be quite toxic but paints do the job just as well

     
                                      

You can freeze poster paints and use your hands to melt them.  It can get messy!  
Drive cars through paint