A huge Whissendine Welcome to all our children and families in Foundation Class as we embark on a very happy and exciting first year of school! 

 

We begin the year by getting to know each other and the rest of the school team, establishing class routines and the children will be creating their own classroom rules.   We shall be thinking about our learning in school, what we want to achieve over the course of the year and which new skills we want to learn!  

EYFS children will be meeting all of the quirky characters that enhance our learning including Fred the Frog (phonics) Curious Cat (positional language) and Boris (PSE).  Birthday Bear will be with us soon, I am sure.  We will also use the book ‘oh the THINGS you can DO that are GOOD for you’ as a vehicle to help us get ‘Ready’ for school (our first ‘R’ of the year). Watch out for our display in the next few weeks.

We start our Read Write Inc Phonic Programme very soon and will learn a sound daily (except Friday) in these clusters:   m a s d t    i n p g o    c k u b   to begin with.  In Term 2 we shall hold workshops to show you how we progress along our reading and writing journey following the first teaching of ‘Set 1 Sounds’.  Maths activities will be focusing very much on assessing the children’s starting points during the early weeks in school.  Our main PE session will be on Thursday afternoons but we will be taking part in other various physical activities throughout the week so can PE kits be kept in lockers during the term time for easy access please. The children will bring home a PE t-shirt in their house colour for you to label and return to school – can you please provide shorts – thank you.  (Don’t forget the children will use bare feet for the first two terms – no need to buy footwear – yet!)

Our EYFS outdoor area is amazing, offering so many opportunities for learning and development.  We have a trolley for wellies so that children can access the outside area no matter what the weather, so please bring in a spare pair!  As the weather gets colder, hats and gloves are also a bonus.  No scarves please!  

The children can bring a small snack and drink for the morning (please put in the trolley provided) and we always have fruit in the afternoon. Never worry if you forget, I always have spare fruit or a biscuit for a child to eat.  Please remember we are a ‘nut free’ school.

In a couple of weeks there will be opportunities for us to have individual ‘settling in’ meetings in the afternoons and I will put up a calendar for you to choose a suitable time but please remember, we have an open door policy, so do speak to me in the morning if you have any problems (no matter how small).

We look forward to seeing you at our ‘Sausage Sizzle’ on Tuesday 4th September 4-5pm – please bring all the family!

Finally, I know that you enjoy sharing news of the wonderful things that happen in the school day so I constantly update the Foundation Class page on our school website and you will get regular posts on DOJO.