Charlton Kings Infants School. Reception Brochure 2016

Transcription

1 Charlton Kings Infants School Reception Brochure 2016

2 We warmly welcome you to the Charlton Kings Infants School Reception classes. In conjunction with the school prospectus, we have prepared this booklet especially for our new children and their parents. Our aim is to provide you with plenty of information and guidance and allay any worries you may have regarding your child starting school. Children settle quickly into school life as a result of the excellent liaison with the pre-school providers and parents and carers. High quality teaching and learning and a well-planned curriculum enable children to become confident learners who progress rapidly. Children develop a love of learning that stays with them throughout the school. Colin Lee, Lead Inspector, OFSTED, January

3 Contents The school calendar 4 Daily routines 5 Collecting times 5 Worship 5 Playtime routine 6 Lunchtime routine 6 A typical day 7 Overview of the Reception year 7 The curriculum 8, 9 Learning through play 10 Classroom organisation 11 Learning support at home 12 Reading 12 Teaching reading 12 Writing 13 Mathematics 13 Prepare your child for a happy start 14 Ready for the first day a checklist 15 3

4 The school calendar During the Reception year, also known as YR, there are many occasions when parents can take part in school life; the following are some examples. v The Reception Harvest Service, held in St. Mary s Church in October, will be your child s first special event. Your child may bring a harvest gift to the service. v The Reception Christmas Performance is held in the Baptist Church in December. It is an opportunity to celebrate Christmas together. v Reception Class Worships take place in the summer terms and parents and friends are invited to attend. v Parents Evenings take place in the autumn and spring terms. They are an opportunity for you and the teacher to discuss your child s progress. v Wednesday Wanders, classrooms are open for an hour after school, four times a year. They are a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to celebrate their achievements together in their classroom. v Classroom Visits happen four times a year and last for about 20 minutes. They are a chance for us to inform you about what your child is learning and ways you can help at home. v The Summer Fete is a fund raising and community event, organised by the parents, teachers and friends of the school (PFA). The fete takes place in June. v Sports Day happens in July at the end of the school year. Parents and friends are invited to come and enjoy the morning. Exact times and dates will be announced through our Reception termly topic letter or the school s regular Wednesday newsletter, which are posted on our website Updates and reminders are also posted on the Reception page on the school website. 4

5 Daily routines The school day begins at 8.50am. Please wait in the area outside the Reception classes until the teacher opens the door at 8.50am. We would like the children to get into the habit of lining up outside their class door, on the markings provided. We realise your child may be happier if you accompany them into the classroom on the first day or two, but we will be encouraging your child to become independent and self-reliant from day one so we would, therefore, ask you to encourage your child to: v enter school on their own v hang up their own coat v put their lunch box on the racks (once lunches are started) v put their snack box away v put their book bag in their drawer. For the first few weeks your child will be attending for mornings only and should be collected at 12 noon. When your child starts to stay for lunch during this induction period, please collect them at 1.15pm. Once your child starts a full day, when all parties agree, they should be collected at 3.00pm. Please be on time when collecting, as children sometimes get distressed if they are left waiting. Please telephone the school if you are ever held up and then we can explain to your child and keep them busy. The visit afternoons run from pm during the induction period in September, on the two days previous to your child s actual starting day. If your child is being collected by someone other than their usual pick-up, please inform the school office directly, either in writing, by or by phone. If you have any worries, we are always pleased to discuss them with you at the end of the school day; the start of the day is not always the best time for the teacher, as the children need their attention. No matter how great or small, if it is a problem to your child then it matters to us. If your child has a minor bump to their head during the day, you will be informed of this through a red slip in your child s book bag to enable you to monitor them, if it is a more serious accident, you will of course be phoned immediately. Collecting Times 12.00noon 1.15pm 3.00pm Part time Part time and lunch Full time Worship Reception children will join in the daily act of worship in the main hall with the rest of the school, a few weeks into the term, when they are ready. 5

6 Playtime routine We appreciate that playtime can be a daunting experience for some children. The Reception children enjoy their own playground in the morning break and at lunchtime. This extends over the grassed area including the log train, the balance logs and the willow cave, whenever the weather permits. Please supply a piece of fruit or vegetable for the morning snack. We ask that you do not send sweets, biscuits, crisps etc. as we try to be a health promoting school. We also ask that you do not send nuts in to school, to protect those children with nut allergies. Please send the snack in a reusable plastic container if it requires one, rather than a plastic bag; we are an Eco-School and are trying to reduce the amount of packaging we throw away. Lunchtime routine Lunchtime is from 12noon 1.00pm. Lunches commence once all the children have been in school for a few weeks. Free cooked lunches will be available for your child and you will receive further information regarding menu choices. Please send a bottle of water on Mondays for children to access throughout the week. This bottle will be rinsed and refilled daily and returned to you on Fridays. 6

7 A typical day Time Activity 8.50 Arrival, lining-up, class door opened Registration, classroom activities Worship Classroom activities Playtime Classroom activities Lunchtime Carpet time Afternoon rotation including outside and classroom activities Story Home time Classroom activities include whole-class sessions (carpet time), group work, individual tasks, role play and outside. Overview of the reception year Term Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 3 Spring 4 Summer 5 Summer 6 Topic A Bunch of Bears (Induction: Teddy Bear Week, Nursery Rhymes, Autumn) Marvellous Me! Dora the Explorer Spring into Life Come Outside Once Upon a Time 7

8 The curriculum Reception children are required to follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. The curriculum was revised in There are seven areas of learning and development. The three Prime Areas are particularly crucial for igniting children s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. The Prime Areas v Communication and language Development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations. v Physical development Involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children will also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food. v Personal, social and emotional development Involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their abilities. Children will also be supported in four Specific Areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The Specific Areas v Literacy Development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest. v Mathematics Involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures. 8

9 v Understanding the world Involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment. v Expressive arts and design Involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology. Your child s development in these areas is recorded in individual Early Years Foundation Stage Profiles. The teachers will take time to discuss children s progress with you throughout the Reception year. We also ask you to contribute to these records by recording significant achievements on look what I can do slips at home. Your observations, along with ours at school, help us build a more accurate picture of your child. We will give you a booklet to explain these slips in more detail in September. 9

10 Learning through play Play is an essential part of your child s learning process. In Reception we provide a wide variety of valuable play activities in order to support their learning. Wherever possible we provide opportunities for the children to lead their own learning. Through play your child will: v acquire essential social skills such as sharing, taking turns and playing cooperatively v develop language and listening skills to aid and reinforce their communication skills v develop independence in routines such as getting resources out and putting them away v practise and develop reading, writing and number skills in a stimulating and enjoyable way v develop gross and fine motor skills v find out about the world around them and respond creatively to it. We are proud of the play opportunities we offer our children. The large role play areas are positioned in the Reception corridor outside each classroom. The children help plan and make them and have the opportunity to use all three areas. We greatly value the importance of outdoor play in all areas of learning and development and provide excellent equipment and facilities including an adventure playground, playhouse and a walk-in sandpit. 10

11 Classroom organisation The classroom is organised around a planning board system, to encourage confident and independent learners. The planning board consists of photographs of different learning areas on which the children can put their name, to indicate where they are working. Listed here are some of the types of activities we offer. Role play Outdoor play Sand and water play Malleable materials Art workshop Computing Listening centre Writing table Maths challenge Book corner Tracing, writing, drawing and painting Construction and small world toys Bear cave, shoe shop, doctor s surgery, café, jungle, space, Percy Park Keeper s hut, garden centre, supermarket, Chinese takeaway, castle. Walk-in sandpit, adventure playground, playhouse, hoops, ropes, balls, nets, stilts, mats, ride-on toys, parachute, large construction kits, natural materials, water painting, painting and drawing on large sheets of paper, chalks, drywipe and chalk board, books, vehicles, puzzles. Equipment is changed weekly to stimulate different lines of enquiry e.g. creative, mathematical, scientific and investigative activities. Playdough, plasticine, clay, gloop, shaving foam and shredded paper are provided. Tools and equipment are changed regularly to stimulate and support different objectives. Drawing, painting, cutting, sticking and modelling are regularly part of the children s activities. They have access to the art workshop where they can select their own materials. A range of computer programs, digital cameras, ipads, interactive smartboards and a selection of programmable and computing toys, all support the children s learning in a stimulating way. Children have the opportunity to control and listen to a wide variety of music and stories, to support speaking and listening and develop an enjoyment of books and musicality. Themed writing tables are created to encourage children to attempt writing for different purposes e.g. knights and princesses or a dinosaur writing table. The children decide what the theme should be each term. Fun practical maths challenges, linked to the week s learning objective, are created to extend children s problem-solving skills. Children have free access to a range of age appropriate books, both fiction and non-fiction, in a cosy, themed book corner. They can choose a book to share with you at home each day. Access is freely available to pens, chalks, pencils, felt tips and paper. There is also a magnetic/chalk board outside each classroom, as well as a large painting easel. There is a wide range of construction and small world toys e.g. duplo, wooden blocks, doll s house, rockets. Children are able to develop their designing and making skills and their ability to use their imagination, as they use these resources. 11

12 Learning support at home Your help and encouragement with all aspects of the curriculum is invaluable. Listed on the following pages are ideas to help your child become a reader, writer and a mathematician during their Reception year; we hope you find them helpful. Reading v Spend time each day sharing a book with your child. Books with flaps, interesting pictures, rhyme or repetition, often make it more fun for the reluctant reader. v Discuss the pictures in a book before you look at the words. Get your child to tell you what they think the story is about. v Once you have discussed the book, read the story with your child. You could draw their attention to phonemes/digraphs (sounds) or simple repetitive words. v Support the Jolly Phonics programme by revising new sounds, using your child s Jolly Phonics folder and the sound cards provided. Practise the tricky word cards with your child too. v If your child comes home with a school book please read it with them and write a comment in the reading diary or encourage them to do so. v Congratulate them for each little attempt at reading and stay calm if they forget words that you have just rehearsed with them. Teaching reading We use various schemes to teach reading, however we start the year with an emphasis on recognising phonemes/digraphs through the Jolly Phonics scheme. We then introduce each child to their own reading scheme book. Towards the end of the year, when the children are more confident, we teach reading in small groups; this is called Guided Reading. There are usually a few children who are reading at the time of starting school and we will be aware of these children from our preschool liaison and initial baseline assessments. We will also cater for the needs of these children by giving them a reading book of an appropriate level. 12

13 Writing v Accept and praise your child s first efforts at writing which will probably be marks and patterns on the paper. v Practise the correct letter formation and pencil hold (thumb and index finger, known as froggy legs at CKIS!) We will provide you with a letter formation sheet in September, that shows where your child should start each letter and in which direction to take the pencil. v You can help your child to write their name by writing it in yellow on a piece of paper and getting them to trace on top. When they are ready they can start to copy it underneath your writing. v Let your child help you to make shopping lists or write cards, letters, etc. which encourages them to write for different purposes. Mathematics You can help your child to become aware of numbers by: v singing rhymes and songs v reciting numbers in order v sorting and counting everyday objects v asking which number comes before or after a given number v choosing a number for the week e.g. 5 and look out for it all the time (in the kitchen, on the pages of books, on car number plates, on buses, on doors, etc.) v playing simple dice games v writing the numbers 1 6 on cards then throwing a die and finding the matching card v sticking numbers on toy cars (or similar) and putting them in the right order. The mathematical possibilities are endless; challenge yourself to think of lots of new ideas, trial them, and then share them with a friend. 13

14 Prepare your child for a happy start Listed below are things which you can do at home to prepare your child for that important first term at school. Encourage your child to: v respect and enjoy other children v share friends and things v tidy up toys and apparatus after use v speak clearly and ask for what is needed using please and thank you v answer questions with words rather than shrugs and nods v go to the toilet alone, wipe themselves, flush the toilet and wash their hands v acquire simple dressing skills v put on and fasten their coat v take off their coat and hang it up v change into their PE kit v sit and listen to a story v respect and enjoy books v recognise their own name v hold a pencil correctly v say numbers in order. 14

15 Ready for the first day a checklist 1. Day one arrive 8.50am. 2. Your child should wear named uniform (see school prospectus for more information about uniform). 3. Bring a named book bag with the school logo on it (available from the office). 4. Bring a named PE bag containing a school T-shirt and shorts (socks and daps/trainers without laces will be needed in the summer terms). 5. Hats, scarves and gloves are recommended in winter and a sun cap/hat in summer (all named). School caps are available from the office. 6. A manageable piece of fruit or vegetable may be brought for break (no crisps, sweets, biscuits etc). 7. A water bottle to be brought on Mondays and returned to you on Fridays. 8. No jewellery should be worn (except stud earrings in pierced ears). 9. Collect your child at 12 noon for the first few weeks (see page 5). 15