Oak Class - Reception 2024 - 2025
Mr Harley
Teaching Assistants: Mrs Bradley, Mrs Cairns, Mrs Toms, Mrs Freeman
I am delighted to welcome you and your families into our wonderful school community.
It is a real privilege to have the opportunity to educate and nurture the children through the end of their early years foundation stage (EYFS) and into their primary education, so thank you for choosing us and we hope you have many happy years as part of our community.
Before I outline the learning that the class will be doing in the autumn term, I would just like to remind parents of the timings of the school day and the things your child needs to bring with them.
The School Day
8.45am - The school gate opens - You will say your goodbyes at the gate and your child (unaccompanied) will make their way onto the playground and line up in their class line.
8.50am – Start of the school day
10.30am – Playtime – Your child will be provided with a snack**. During the school day your child will also be offered a glass of milk and a piece of fruit.
12pm – Lunch* - free for all infants (children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2).
3.20pm – End of the school day. Collect your child from the playground at the rear of the school building. Children will
*Our school lunch menu and more information about snacks can be found on the Lunch Menu and Healthy Snack section of our school website, which can be found under the Virtual Office tab. For ease, I have put the link to the page here for you
**Snack costs a £1 a week. If you could please enclose the money (cash only) in a named envelope in your child’s bookbag or in person to either Mr Harley or Mrs Bradley, that would be much appreciated.
Things your child should bring to school
Each day, unless advised otherwise, your child should bring water in a named bottle and their school book bag with them.
On a Monday morning, in addition to their water bottle and bookbag, your child should bring their PE kit, in a drawstring bag. It is important that it is brought in on Monday morning because we have PE first thing on a Monday. The kit will be sent home later in the week so that you can wash and return it.
At the start of the year, please can I ask that your child brings a pair of named wellies in a named bag, preferably a drawstring bag? These will be sent home at the end of each half term so you can check that they aren’t getting too small for your child.
P.E Kit
The items that should be in your child’s PE bag are: a school PE t-shirt, black shorts, trainers, a spare pair of socks and, if your child has an occasional accident, a spare pair of underwear.
Learning in the Autumn Term
In the first half term our topic is ‘All about me’. So we can thoroughly cover the topic, please can parents email me photographs of the people that live in your household, including any pets you have, grandparents or any other significant people in your child’s life? Please advise of the names of the people in the photographs and any family names for them, such as ‘Nana Lynda’. Do let us know if there are any elements to family life which are sensitive or challenging for your child, so that we can be aware when talking about the different ways in which families are made up.
If you have any pictures of your child in a special place, somewhere that is familiar to them, at a grandparent’s house, at one of their favourite places then please also send these to me.
It would be interesting to compare current photographs to historic photos of the same people or places so if you have photographs at grandparent’s houses, old houses that the children may have lived in, or photos of grandparents from a few years ago, then please send these as they will help the teaching of the topic to be more personal and fun for your child.
In the second half of the autumn term, our topic is Bonfire Night and we will be expressing ourselves dramatically and creating lots of magnificent pieces of art.
Our curriculum map for the year is attached. This gives an overview of the learning Oak Class will be doing this year. To see our day-to-day learning then please follow us on X (formerly Twitter); our class handle is @stannesoak. We also have a school Instagram account @stannesfulshaw.
Reading
At St Anne’s Fulshaw C of E Primary School, we are passionate about reading and understand that when children learn to read at an early age, they have greater general knowledge, a wider range of vocabulary and an improved attention span.
To help foster a love of reading and learning that will last a lifetime, please read to your child every day. I have linked to an article from BookTrust, which describes how important a bedtime story is for a child’s development through the conversations that this prompts and the positive impact it has on parent-child relationships.
Phonics
We use the systematic synthetic phonics and fluency scheme from Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to teach reading in Reception and KS1.
I will talk about the Little Wandle scheme in more detail at the Meet the Teacher evening, which is happening this half term. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have more information in the ‘for parents’ section of their website.
In week 4, your child will join a reading group that reads with an adult at school three times a week before bringing their book home to share with you. Because they will be familiar with the book, they should enjoy sharing it with you with confidence, and this should be precious time that you spend together enjoying a book and sharing in your child’s success.
Baseline Assessment
Since 2021, in the first 6 weeks of starting school, children have taken part in a baseline assessment, and this is something the children will be taking. I will be administering the assessment, which is interactive and accessible to all pupils. Schools and parents are not made aware of the results of the assessment. I have attached more information about the baseline assessment that the Department of Education has published for parents here.
If at any point in the term you have a question or something you would like to discuss with me then please send me an email (gharley@stannesfulshaw.net) or chat to me on the playground when collecting your child.
Thank you
Mr Harley
