This newsletter aims to inform you of some of the routines, expectations and key learning areas so that you can continue to support your children at home. 

This year we are pleased to be able to work again as a Reception Base. This means the two Reception classes are working together in one large space. The children will be interacting with all of the adults. Within the base, the teachers are Mrs Sophie Barnett, Mrs Ruth Kennedy, Mrs Laura Keay and Miss Konni Jackisch . We are supported by our fantastic teaching assistants - Ms Martina Tkacova,  Miss Tasha Burt, Mrs Gemma Player and Miss Katie Smith. The classes are called ‘Nightingales’ and ‘Jays’. In Nightingales Mrs Barnett teaches Monday to Thursday and Miss Jackisch teaches on a Friday. In Jays class Mrs Kennedy teaches Monday to Wednesday and Mrs Keay teaches on Thursdays and Fridays.

As you will appreciate, the mornings are a busy time and staff are not always available to speak with each parent directly. If you need to pass on information about changes to collection arrangements, future appointments etc please email pickupchanges@bithambrook.wilts.sch.uk by 1.30 pm rather than informing teachers at classroom doors. Any concerns or queries can also be directed to KS1Phaseleaders@bithambrook.wilts.sch.uk.

This term is usually one of the coldest, so please ensure children have a really warm coat and hat as the children do spend lots of time outdoors all year round. Many of the children’s jumpers/ cardigans/ coats/ water bottles are still not named. Please could you check over the holidays that your children’s items are named. Please note drinks bottles should and only be filled with water. This is primarily to promote a healthy lifestyle but also we now have quite a few stains on our classroom carpet where children have spilt squash so we would appreciate bottles just containing water.

Please continue to ensure your child brings minimal possessions into school. Children must not bring any toys from home. 

Can we please remind you that children need a pair of welly boots which will remain in school for the year. Please ensure that these are labelled with your child's name

Supporting your child at home

We expect you will want to support your children to achieve the very best that they are capable of and to this end we encourage even our youngest children to continue their learning at home. This might include:

• Sharing a reading book
• Learning phonemes (letter sounds)
• Learning a rhyme
• Practising name writing, letter formation or number formation
• Practising common exception words (more on this to follow)

Your child will bring home a sharing book in their reading folder. This is for an adult to read to them and we change these twice a week.

From time to time there may be a task or activity to complete which is topic related.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you to please write in your child’s reading log book each time you read with them, as this is helpful for us to know how the children are progressing at home.  Children will be rewarded with gold stars for their reading at home. If your child does any writing at home please bring it in to show us so the children can be celebrated in class. 

As the year progresses and the phonics and reading knowledge becomes increasingly challenging, we would ask you to take the time to support your child with their learning. When children are consistently reading at home, progress is good. Please ensure that you are reading 5 times a week, practising common exception words and also support your child to practise correct letter formation. 

Please continue to practice common exception words at home. There are many words to learn, so it is important for you to support your child's progress. 

PE

The children will need to continue to come to school on P.E. days wearing their P.E. kit with their school jumper over the top. We would ask that they wear a white t-shirt, black shorts or jogging bottoms and trainers on their P.E. days. 

Jays have dance on Wednesdays and Nightingales have dance on Tuesday. Our other PE day is Friday.

Clothing

Please, please, please could you make sure your children’s belongings and uniform are named. It is difficult to dismiss the children at the end of the day when so much uniform is unnamed. Despite our best efforts to keep all uniform in one place, they do get mixed up. If there is no name, it is very difficult to know which clothes belong to which child, especially as they are so similar. Frequently washed biro does fade so it is not sufficient to label clothing with this. In order to help the children become independent and responsible for their own uniform they do need to be able to recognise their name. In conjunction with this, we would like to ask parents to support us in developing your children’s independence. This may take the form of encouraging them to take off their jumper independently or showing them how to turn things the right way out. Now your children are at school we will be encouraging them to be as independent as possible, so anything you can do to support this at home would be great! Here are a few ideas:

Can they take their shoes on and off? (laced shoes are not appropriate and are not to be worn in Reception please) Can they take their jumper off on their own? Can they peel a banana? Can they zip up their bags or coats? Can they put their coat on themselves? Can they eat with a knife and fork? We’re sure you can think of many more.

Jewellery is not permitted except for watches and stud type earrings and if these cannot be removed children will have to wear micropore tape across their ears for PE.

This term our topic is ‘Once upon a time’, much of our learning will be linked to traditional tales.

Phonics
● We will continue with Phase 3. We will continue to practise CVC blending and segmenting and will apply the children’s knowledge of blending and segmenting to read and spell simple words and captions..

Maths

Our Maths work will focus on
● numbers, addition and subtraction within 10,
● grouping and sharing,
                      ● number patterns within 15,
                      ● doubling and halving,
                      ● shape and pattern and time.

Literacy

● We will be using ‘Pie Corbett’ style story-telling, whereby we use actions and story maps to retell familiar stories.
● We will write simple recounts.
● Three Little pigs – creating and labelling story maps, labelling a story setting,
● Speech bubble and caption writing.
● We will write factual sentences about wolves.
● We will continue to focus on correct letter formation.

Music

We will be listening to Stravinsky’s Fireworks music and thinking about how the music portrays the different fireworks. We will also think about how we can use percussion instruments to represent the sounds fireworks make.

Art

We will be developing ‘joining’ techniques in junk modelling and in addition learning to use a hole punch. Explorations will involve testing adhesives with different materials. We also will explore collage materials in order to create different textures and then create story characters. We will be looking closely at the work of the artist Bridget Riley and really beginning to refine our painting skills. Any donations of boxes, tubes or any junk modelling items are always greatly received.

DT

The children will also be learning different joining techniques, and how they can apply these independently at our junk modelling station. 

PSHE

Our lessons will focus around our dreams and goals including learning to persevere, goal setting, and feeling proud of our achievements.

Understanding the World

● We will learn about materials and their properties. We will widen our vocabulary when describing materials.
● We will explore the winter weather.
● We will be developing our knowledge of place - learning about cities, towns and villages.
● We will also learn that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways.

Physical Development

In PE we will be doing Football. We will be learning how to use our dominant foot when kicking the ball and how we can accurately pass to our team mates. We will also think about how to successfully receive the ball.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you to please write in your child’s reading log book each time you read with them, as this is helpful for us to know how the children are progressing at home.  We have sent home the first set of Common Exception Words (words that we learn by sight).  As we continue to work through the phonemes the children will be given new flashcards.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sophie Barnett, Ruth Kennedy, Laura Keay and Konni Jackisch

Reception Team

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