Year R
Welcome to Pine!
Acorns Teacher
Conkers Teacher
Acorns Teacher
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We hope your child had a fantastic time on their ‘induction’ days and we are thoroughly enjoying getting to know them. The children have adapted to their new setting really well and we have been impressed with how well they have come into Pine by themselves and how quickly they have settled. We hope that the information below is helpful as your child settles into Pine. |
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Staff Acorns:
Conkers:
Shared teaching assistants- Miss Davanna, Mrs Herd, Mrs Higgs, Mrs Prela, Mrs Critchley and Mrs Casey Home/ School Communication If you have a message regarding alternative pick up arrangements or medical appointments, you can either email the class teacher in advance or inform a member of staff on the Pine gate. For urgent messages, please phone the school office as the class teacher may not be able to access emails until the end of the school day. If you require a longer conversation, the class teacher is very happy to speak in person at the end of the day once all other children have been collected. If this is not possible, you can email us or phone the school office to have a telephone conversation. Acorns- Mrs Mercer-kerry.mercer@firslower.org Conkers-Mrs D- sarah.donbavand@firslower.org |
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Read, Write, Inc We will be starting to teach Read, Write, Inc (RWI) from Monday 16th September, which is the programme we use to teach reading and writing. We teach a sound a day and when the children have been taught a new sound, they will bring an associated ‘sound/handwriting sheet’ home in their popper wallet the same day. We would really appreciate it if you could spend a few minutes helping your child to complete the sheet on the day it comes home as this has the greatest impact on helping to reinforce what has been taught. Please could you transfer the sound sheet from the popper wallet to your child’s Sounds folder each day and give your child their wallet each morning so that they can place it in the box. The Sounds folder is to be kept at home. Look out for the folder containing the first sound sheet (m) in your child’s bag from today. A ‘My Set 1 Speed Sounds Book’ will also be sent home and this will help your child to consolidate the sounds taught. A Read Write Inc information evening for parents will be held on the evening of 1st October. More information will be provided closer to the time. Reading Books Alongside the sound sheets coming home, reading books will be issued once a week, commencing Monday 23rd September. For the majority of the children, these will be ‘wordless’ books. There are many skills which can be developed through sharing picture books and these are outlined in your child’s Reading Record. The inserts on the front and back covers also provide lots more information about reading. Please keep the Reading Record and book(s) in your child’s popper wallet which needs to come into school every day. |
PE lessons
Conkers’ PE session is every Thursday, starting on 26th September and Acorns’ PE session is every Friday, starting on 27th September. We would like the children to come dressed to school in their PE Kit (inc appropriate footwear which can be plimsolls or trainers). As the weather gets colder, the children will need to wear black tracksuit bottoms and a green jumper (which can be their school jumper/cardigan).
Involving Parents
We love to involve parents in the children’s learning so if you have a job which you think the children would enjoy hearing about such as a dentist, mechanic or vet and you would be happy to come in and talk to the children, please do let a member of staff know. We would also love to hear from you if you have a skill or a hobby which you would like to share such as art, sewing (inc crochet) or playing a musical instrument. If you would like to help in Pine on a regular basis with things such as cooking, gardening or hearing children read, we’d also be very interested to hear from you. Thank you.
Donations!
As part of the continuous provision in Pine, we like to have the following resources available all the time. -corks -plastic lids -egg boxes -recycled greetings cards (birthday, anniversary etc). Please could you cut off the right hand side of the card. Occasionally, we may request recycling but we’ll email about this as and when we’re getting low otherwise we’ll be overflowing!
Many thanks
ParentPay
If your child is having hot dinners, please could you make sure that you have selected which meals your child is having through ParentPay. If you are completing this on a weekly basis, it needs to be done by Friday lunchtime at the latest. If changes need to be made after this point, please inform a member of staff on the morning of the change. If your child doesn’t enjoy a particular dinner, we’ll let you know by sending home a slip of paper.
Many thanks.
Reception Baseline Assessment
You may be aware that as from September 2021, it is a statutory requirement to carry out a Reception Baseline Assessment for every child. The government have produced a leaflet for parents which explains all about it and this can be accessed through this link -
DfE Baseline Assessment - Parents
Tapestry All parents have now been sent an activation email. Please follow the instructions in the email in order to activate your child’s Tapestry account. Please also check your junk or spam for the email. Many thanks
Autumn Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about the changes we see during Autumn. When your child is out and about, please encourage them to look for signs of autumn and to collect objects such as acorns and conkers which they can bring in for the ‘interest’ table.
Reminders
- Name labels - Please could you check that all your child’s items of school clothing are labelled, including their shoes, as we have come across some items which do not have a name in. Thank you.
- Lunch boxes- please can your child’s name be written clearly on the outside of the lunch box.
- Water bottles - All children need to bring their water bottle into school with them every day.
- Welly boots - please could your child bring in a pair of named welly boots if they haven’t already done so. Ruck sack- If your child doesn’t have a ruck sack yet, these can be purchased from Prestige in Flitwick.
We hope that this letter has answered some of your questions, but if not, please do not hesitate to email your child’s class teacher with any queries.
We have had a wonderful time getting to know all the new Pine children, and we’re looking forward to working with you in partnership to make sure they all have a fantastic year with us.
Thank you for your support.
The Pine Team