The Dinky Ducklings (Reception)

Autumn 1 Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Reception! I’m thrilled to welcome both returning and new families to the Barlborough Primary School community. I’m excited to get to know your little ones throughout the school year. Our main focus in these first few weeks is to help the children transition smoothly into school life, ensuring they feel comfortable and safe as they adjust to their new environment and routines.

This newsletter will provide some insight into your child’s day and what to expect during the first half term. I hope it helps ease you into the school’s routines and structures. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Morning Routine

Children are expected to be dropped off at 8:50 am. To help your child settle quickly in the morning and begin to gain independence, we have a few tasks for them to do each day. Practicing these tasks at home can make mornings easier for both your child and the class.
-When entering the cloak room your child will find and recognise their name, this will help them learn the letters that make it up and therefore distinguish it from others in other contexts such as on book bags, PE bags and cardigans/ jumper.
-Your child will then put their coat on their peg. Practicing taking coats off and putting them on (including zipping and buttoning) at home will help them do this independently.
-After hanging up their coat, children will go to the toilet and/or wash their hands with soap and water before entering the classroom.
-Once all tasks are complete, children will enter the classroom and sit down, ready for the register.

Topic

Our topic for this half term is "Marvellous Me," where the children will explore the unique ways that make them special. We will look at their individual features, interests, and characteristics. This will lead to learning about families and how they differ from one another in the UK and other countries. Finally, we will explore the amazing human body and the importance of staying healthy. To make the topic more engaging, we will use books by Lisa Bullard, which explore cultural diversity and the similarities and differences between ourselves, our families, and our homes. Please see the vocabulary triangle and discussion points provided to support your child’s learning at home and encourage discussions about your unique family.

Phonics

We will begin Level 2 of the Twinkl Phonics scheme starting the week of Monday, 16th September, depending on how the children are settling in. They will be introduced to a new sound every day, practicing these in reading and writing tasks to build the skills needed for blending to read and segmenting to spell.

To support you at home, I will conduct a Phonics Home Learning Support Workshop on Monday, 16th September, at 4:00 pm. It would be wonderful to see as many of you as possible, as it is crucial we work together to develop the fundamental skills needed for reading and writing in Reception. If you cannot attend, I will upload a video of the presentation on Class Dojo.

Phonics can be tricky to understand at first, especially initial sounds. The Oxford Owl website offers excellent demonstrations of pronunciation: [Oxford Owl Phonics](http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/phonics-made-easy). The Twinkl Phonics YouTube channel also has helpful videos: [Twinkl Phonics YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzkjubQ-Ok).

As we start phonics, I will send home weekly handwriting practice sheets. These will be sent out on Fridays, starting the week we begin phonics lessons, and should be completed and returned the following Friday. Guidance will be uploaded on Class Dojo.

I will also upload fun phonics games via Twinkl Go that can be accessed at home. Parents have given great feedback about these, with children enjoying them regularly.

Reading

As we start Phonics, it’s important for your child to recognise and practice the sounds they hear at school in various contexts. We will be sending home a Rhino Reading book linked to our Phonics lessons for you to share with your child. Reading regularly at home is crucial, so we recommend reading with your child at least three times a week. This will help develop their sound knowledge, segmenting skills and comprehension skills. You will receive an information leaflet with your child’s first book for guidance. Your child will also have a Reading Diary to date and sign each time you hear them read. Please keep this diary in your child’s book bag.

Initially, we will send home Lilac books without words. These encourage children to create their own stories by looking at pictures. As they progress, we will send Level 2 A books to help them practice blending sounds to read words. We will change these books on Fridays.

I will also send a ‘How to Read with Your Child’ guide to help you use similar strategies at home. This guide explains our reading reward system to encourage home reading.

Maths

During this half term, we will be focusing on number recognition with numerals to 5 and counting objects and actions to this total. We will also be teaching children how to subitise as this is a key element of the new EYFS curriculum as it underpins a secure understanding of numbers and their compositions. Subitising can help children to build images for numbers, to visualise and to learn number facts. For instance, most four-year-olds readily learn to recognise five dots on a dice, which helps them to understand the cardinal value or 'howmanyness' of five. We will develop their recognition of different arrangements of objects to represent numbers to 5 along with the standard dots on a dice.

With number recognition we encourage children to explore the shapes of numbers and the different lines which make each up. This allows them to distinguish them from one another and will encourage them to begin to record numerals with their own representations. When you are out and about see how many different numbers you can see on doors, shop windows, price tickets or number plates. This will help children with their development with this.

Counting underpins all operations and the more we practise, the better we get. If possible, count with your child as much as possible at home. Children can count anything and everything, shoes, claps, carrots or jumps! – encourage them to count things wherever they are and if possible, begin to integrate matching the total counted to a numeral for development of number sense and understanding. Some great games can be found on this website; www.maths-games.org/counting-games.html

Boys Learning

It is common knowledge that some boys often have a completely different approach to learning than girls. Although this comes with it many positives, it has also created a global problem where girls can be seen out performing boys throughout their whole school life. With this in mind it is absolutely crucial that we work together to try and engage both the girls and boys in the class and create that love of learning from the outset. Independence is key when it comes to boys learning and I will be sending home some activities to all students which are designed to encourage independence in thought processes as well as when involved in tasks. I will also be sending home information by Gary Wilson who has published many books to help practitioners and parents nurture boys and build them to be successful learners. I have a fantastic book by him for parents called ‘help your boys succeed the essential guide for parents.’ I would strongly recommend for parents to purchase this, or I am happy to lend my copy out if you are interested in reading it.

Separation Anxiety

It is completely normal for children to get upset when you first start dropping them off at school, especially when they are not used to the new routine and structure that they are experiencing and having spent a lot of time at home these last few months. To help upset children it is vital that we work together and make the goodbye in the morning positive and not sound so final. Using phrases such as ‘see you this afternoon’ or ‘ I can’t wait to see you when I pick you up later’ will help with this. It is best in these situations that you leave the playground quickly as this makes the anticipation of you leaving less intense. In some circumstances children will latch on to you, making it difficult for you to leave, in these cases I will always ask your permission before I intervene. Next, I will ask that you give them a kiss and a cuddle before you leave. I will then take your child from you calmly and gently and comfort them until they calm down. Often, they take very little time to settle, and we will always contact you to assure you that they are ok, likewise you are welcome to ring the office if you are concerned as I understand that it can be very upsetting for you too. If your child isn’t clingy, yet still upset, allowing you to leave easily, please make a member of staff aware as some children will then try and follow you. More information about making separation easier in a morning can be found on the school website, under the ‘New Starters’ tab.

Memory and Executive function skills

Executive function is a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life. Trouble with executive function can make it hard to focus, follow directions, and handle emotions, among other things. Over the summer, it may be useful to try and build in some fun games which will help your child exercise and develop these skills- ready for when they come to school. One of the biggest ways to support with this is by giving your child time to think of an answer to a question, before jumping in with the answer or thing they would like. Anther way is to ask them lots of questions so that children begin using their working memory to retrieve information as they respond.  Children who struggle with these skills often find following one or two instructions difficult as they cannot yet retain and retrieve information in their working memory. If you ask your child things such as “Take your shoes off, then hop 3 times.” Can they do this? You could build up these simple instructions into your everyday routine. “Take your coat off then get your cup please.” Etc.

An easy game to play when in the car is an auditory sequential memory recall game! Say 3 or 4 words which the children have to try and repeat in order. E.g. suitcase, lamb, sock, sandwich. Then ask children to repeat a sentence e.g. “The baby cries a lot.” Can your child remember the list of items?

Another favourite is the “What’s missing?” game. Place up to 5 objects on a tray, let your child see what is on there. Cover this up and remove one item. Can your child tell you what has gone? If they are really good at this, you could try taking away two items.

A few further bits of information:

• We will have PE twice a week. An indoor and outdoor kit will be needed. The days these will be on will be confirmed when we return to school, and you will have two weeks’ notice to organise kits. Children are asked to be sent into school in their kits on these days.
• Please look out for First Aid letters which children will be given at home time if they have had an accident at school. This gives you information about what minor injury your child received and how/when.
• Each half term, our class newsletter is available to read on the school website.
• It is important that your child begins to develop their independence in order to undergo day to day school life confidently. With this in mind we ask you to support your child in practicing certain skills at home such as getting dressed and undressed, taking their jumper off and putting it on, recognising their name, putting their coat on, using a knife and fork and tidying away what they have been using before moving on to something else! Another great skill to try and develop which may have been delayed slightly from spending lots of time at home is recall of and following instructions. This is part of the Early Years curriculum so it would be great if you practice asking your child to do something once and letting them try and remember this and follow it up without reminders. This can then be increased to two and then three things within the sequence. An example of this would be “go and wash your hands, put your coat on and then sit down.”
• Mrs Gilbert will lead the class on my PPA afternoons as it is my allocated planning time. Here they will take part in natural learning activities in the garden.
• Please ensure all clothes (including PE kits/water bottles etc) are named as things will go missing and we are always eager to reunite it with its owner.
• Book bags and mice will now be expected to be brought to school daily, so we have access to their reading diaries. These will not be checked daily, so any letters being returned to school should be handed in to an adult or will be taken out of book bags on a Friday when these are checked. Any letters to be sent home will also be put in book bags during these Friday checks too.
• Any letters or important information will be put on Class dojo, or the website so please check these regularly.
• The school finish time for KS1 is 3.20pm.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak with Mrs. Stokes or with me. We understand there is a lot of new information, and we are always happy to help.

I look forward to starting this learning adventure with your little ones in September and hope you have a lovely summer.

Kind Regards,

Miss Jolly and Miss Stokes

Curriculum Web and Topic Knowledge Organisers for this half term. 

Please take a look at the wonderful things we will be learning about this half term. 

Key Vocabulary 

 Please see below the vocabulary that we will be using in class this half term.