A huge Whissendine Welcome to all our new children and their families in Foundation Class as we embark on a very happy and exciting first year of school!  We begin the school 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.   Our theme for our first term is called ‘School is Cool’ and 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 (phonics) Russell Crow (shapes and maths vocabulary) Curious Cat (positional language) and Boris (PSE).  Birthday Bear will be with us soon, I am sure.

We have started our Read Write Inc Phonic programme and are learning 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. Maths activities will be focussing very much on assessing the children’s starting points during the early weeks in school.  Our weekly PE session is on Friday morning and children will bring home their PE t-shirt in house colours for labelling and returning to school -  please provide shorts – thank you.  PE kits can be kept in lockers during the term for easy access!  (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! 

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).

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 ‘tweet’ regularly!