Welcome to Class 1

Dear Parents and Pupils,

We are now in week 3 of the autumn term, and many of you and your children are now familiar with some of the routines in Class 1, however, as I don’t always get to speak to you all personally I would like to warmly welcome you to Class One, and provide you with a useful point of  reference in the form of this termly newsletter. I apologise in advance to those parents who have had some of this information last year, but a ‘belt and braces’ approach ensures that everyone is kept informed!

The EYFS Curriculum

In school, we often use a range of acronyms and initials, which I appreciate, can be confusing. EYFS for example, stands for Early Years Foundation Stage, which is the curriculum document which both Nursery and Reception children follow. The primary school curriculum is separated into 3 Key Stages: EYFS, Key Stage One (KS1) and Key Stage Two (KS2). EYFS comprises of Nursery and Reception, KS1 comprises of Years One and Two and KS2 comprises of Years Three, Four, Five and Six. In class one we have Nursery, Reception and Year 1 children, so EYFS and KS1.

The EYFS classroom is set up to encourage child initiated meaningful play, which the children may refer to as ‘choosing’. By this, they mean that they are free to choose an area or activity set out, in or outside of the classroom. These areas of learning and activities are carefully planned and arranged to encourage spontaneous learning opportunities. These areas are called the ‘Continuous Provision’. The areas will regularly be enhanced with topic related activities and themes as well as resources to reflect each child’s personal interests throughout the term. In addition to the Continuous Provision, the children will be taught daily Phonics, Maths and Reading and Literacy lessons. Other lessons will be taught relating to the topic or identified areas of need. Initially these sessions will last no more than 10 minutes extending as when the Reception children are ready. The Year One children are now ready for more sustained lessons and you may hear them complain that they ‘didn’t get to do much choosing this morning!’ that is because our literacy and numeracy lessons are becoming more substantial than when in Reception!

The overriding topic theme for this term is ‘India’ the focus for each subject is as follows:

• Art and D&T- Indian art, repeating patterns, rangoli patterns and printing on fabrics.
• Computing – programming Beebots and photographing a simple recipe.
• Geography – exploring globes, land and sea, comparing UK and India.
• History – The life and achievements of Gandhi.
• Music – singing, body percussion and call and response songs
• PSHE- healthy lifestyles, keeping safe and why we have rules.
  • PE – Cricket, Indian dance and simple team games.
• RE – Harvest, Indian gods and goddesses Diwali and Christmas.
• Science – the five senses, external parts of the human body and Indian animals.

Routines

We open the class doors at 8.40am and parents are welcome to drop off the children any time after, school officially starts at 8.55am prompt. The Reception and Year 1 pupils place their book bags in the book bag box and during this time we will hear children read, share books and encourage children to take part in the ‘morning activities’. All Nursery children will have a named box, where we put any letters or items to go home. Please check your child’s box for things to take home. At 9am we will all come together to formally register the children and discuss the day ahead. At 9.10 we have daily phonics. At some point between 9.30 and 10.15 a reading/literacy session will take place. At 10.15 we will stop for Fruit and milk. If you would like for your child to have milk you must register them on the Cool Milk website. Please speak to me if you need more details about this. Initially I will use this time to reinforce good manners, good hand washing and sharing the fruit, once the routines are established this session will be a good opportunity for 
children to talk. Playtime starts at 10.30am. The children can, if they wish, buy plain biscuits or crackers. It is entirely up to you if you wish for your children to have snack money. The simplest way to organise this is for your child to have a named purse/wallet with enough small change for a week or two and I will send it home to be replenished when the money has run out! After break, we have our maths activity. The children in Class 1 will go for dinner 15 minutes earlier than the rest of the school; this will give the children 15 minutes of quiet, calmer hall time, plus additional time to eat. Either myself, Mrs Evans or Miss Simpson will be in the hall with the children. Every day they will have a choice from 2 main meals, a sandwich or jacket potato and the salad bar. We never force children to eat all of their dinner or to have something that they do not like. I will try to encourage them to eat enough to sustain them for the school day! The afternoon sessions vary depending on the activities, PE and ICT are timetabled due to resources. We recommend that PE kit stays in school at all times to allow us to take advantage of the good weather when we have it.

Afternoon break is at 2.00pm. Can I remind all parents (including Nursery children) to ensure that your child has wellies, a waterproof and warm coat and spare ‘over’ or waterproof trousers for break times. As you are aware we like to make full use of the field as it allows all of the children the space and freedom to play the types of games they want to. The water proof trousers certainly reduce washing of school uniform for you at home too! Please name all items of clothing and footwear!

We have whole school assemblies at 3.10pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Homework and Reading.

Reception children

It is very unlikely that your child will have a reading book for the first few weeks. I will be focussing on making your children feel safe and happy at school as well as establishing routines and expectations. Once a book does come home there will be a reading record book for you to make comments about the books you have shared. We can use this book for communication if you are not dropping off or collecting that day. Ideally, I would like for the children to share their book with an adult every night, this should take no longer than 5 or 10 minutes.

Year 1 children

All Year 1 children have reading books and in addition they will have one piece of homework and a set of phonic related spellings to learn and practise. I will give out spellings and homework and ask for both to be returned to school by Friday.

Communication.

We try to keep parents as fully informed about school, visits and anything extra happening in school via school letters and the school app.

Mrs Evans, Miss Simpson and I are always available for a chat at the start or the end of any day and we would urge you to come in and see us at your earliest convenience should you have any concerns, or questions about what is happening at school. Equally, should you need to speak to us on the telephone, or arrange an appointment to speak 
confidentially to us, please leave a message with the office and we will contact you as soon as we possibly can. You can email me directly at head@irthingtonvillage.cumbria.sch.uk Sometimes the school office is unmanned. Please do leave a message on the answer phone as we check for messages at break time, and again at home time. 
Finally, there is a new date for your diary - Harvest Festival in church on the 3rd October at 2.30pm. More information about the harvest festival will come home shortly, but for those new to school, all children will take part in the service and will have a line or two to say! Including  Nursery who usually attend that day!)

Many thanks for taking the time to read such a lengthy introductory letter and hope that you do find the information helpful. We are all really looking forward to the year ahead with your children and hope that they all enjoy the curriculum, visits and other exciting opportunities that we have planned for them.

Yours sincerely,

Lynn Harrison. 

Headteacher