Starting School. What will happen on my child s first day?

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1 Reception and Nursery are part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The Early Years curriculum is currently based on 7 areas of learning (these are explained in more detail later in the booklet). Structured play is an essential part of every child s learning within this stage. Whilst your child is in the foundation stage they will continue to build on their concrete play experiences that they had in Pre-school or at home and be introduced to more skill based activities. This transfer will be very smooth and for much of the time your child will be unaware that they are learning increasingly challenging skills as we always try to make their experiences as fun as possible. Parents are often surprised when they enquire about their child s day to hear them respond with I just played. In this booklet we hope to answer some of the questions you will have about your child s time in the Foundation stage. On reading this booklet, should you have further questions our doors are always open and we will be happy to answer them. What will happen on my child s first day? The Nursery children will come in and go home from the main entrance to the foundation stage (by the ramp). The Reception children will come in and go home through the door to the left of the main foundation stage door (The dining room door). The doors open at 8:50 am and school ends at 3:10pm for Reception and 11:50 for Nursery. Teaching staff are always at the doors for these times, and on the first few days we will show them where to hang their coats and P.E kits, where to store their book bags and lunch boxes and how to use the self-registration board. The children will then select an activity within their classroom. We are on hand to help settle those who become upset or are very apprehensive about their first few days. We strongly recommend if your child becomes upset, that you say goodbye and leave as soon as they are in the care of one of the teaching staff. We completely appreciate it is just as upsetting for parents too, if not more so, but in our experience prolonged goodbyes only make the child much more distressed, and when left quickly they usually settle happily within minutes. We strongly encourage all of the children to become independent as soon as possible, and support the children in many different ways to help them achieve this. We would ask that you support your child in this too, and if you think your child is capable of doing their own shoes etc already, encourage them to have a go too.

2 School Uniform Please have all items of clothing and belongings labelled clearly with your child s name. Children misplace their things all the time, and we can only get them back to their rightful owners if they are named. The children should wear clothes that are comfortable and easy to change in and out of. The school uniform is: Navy blue jumper or cardigan. Pale blue polo T-shirt. Grey trousers or skirt. Grey tights/stockings Black shoes. In the summer months girls can wear blue and white checked dresses, and boys can wear grey shorts. We recommend the pale blue polo T-shirts rather than long sleeve button shirts and blouses as the children find them very tricky to take off and put back on again. They also get in the way of wet or messy play, as the children can never get the sleeves far enough up their arms. During the winter months the children will need a warm practical coat that they are able to put on, take off and do up themselves. They will also need sensible footwear and we highly recommend Velcro fastenings, as very few manage to lace up shoes. No heels are allowed at school. Hats, scarves and gloves are also recommended as we spend a lot of time outside in all weathers. We do provide all in one waterproofs and these go over the top of coats. We also have some wellington boots the children can use, but if your child has a pair of their own then please could you send in a labelled pair for them to use. During the summer months we advise all children to come in with sun hats and wearing sun cream is essential as children within the Early Years classes spend a great deal of time outside. We also would suggest that if your child comes into school wearing sandals or jelly shoes that they also bring in a practical pair of shoes too, otherwise we cannot allow them on the large play equipment. Your child will also need a P.E kit and a kit bag. The kit consists of: A pair of navy blue shorts A plain white T-shirt. Navy blue jogging bottoms A pair of trainers

3 All uniform can be purchased from the school office. P.E shirts can be purchased from the school office. Navy shorts are available in many high street stores and Stevenage Indoor Market. FAQ What days will my child do P.E? Our P.E days are on Mondays and Fridays, but occasionally we do have cause to change them so we advise having P.E kits at school all week. Will my child have snack at school? Each day there will be a piece of fruit or a vegetable available for snack. We do not have a set snack time; the children are free to eat it at any point in the morning as and when they feel hungry. The children are also entitled to milk for part of their Nursery and Reception year too. The children also have individual water bottles that they have constant access to. What can my child have for lunch? You can provide your child s lunch in a clearly labelled lunch box and we would advise this option if your child is a particularly fussy eater. The children are not allowed fizzy drinks, chocolate bars or sweets and we strongly encourage having healthy options like fruit, sandwiches, wraps, muesli bars etc. The amount of food you child will need is often tricky to get right, but a selection of smaller portions tends to go down a lot better with the children, than being overwhelmed with too much food. If you would prefer your child to have a school dinner, they will be able to choose from 3 choices each day of the week and these choices will be on a 3 week rotation. Option 1 and 2 are hot meals and option 3 is a chilled packed lunch. We will provide copies of the menu for you. Meals for Reception children will be free, but you may choose to provide your children with a packed lunch from home. The children will need to make their meal selection first thing in the morning during self registration and we can help them to do this, but please let us know of any food allergies your child has. The menus will also be available for you to look at outside the classroom door, so you can choose with your child before they come in.

4 What happens about library books? There is a wide selection of books available in class that the children may borrow and take home. They will have the opportunity to change them every week with a member of staff, but if you wish to change it more frequently you may do so with your child after school on any day except Wednesdays. Do I need to make any contributions? We do ask for a 3 contribution ( 1 for every term) that goes towards all the ingredients we need for play-dough and other messy play activities, and cooking and we do manage to make it go along way. Any remaining money goes towards food for our Christmas and end of year parties. What is Nursery Lunch Club. We run a nursery Lunch club for up to 16 children every Monday and Thursday. The children in this club stay for lunch and play and will need to be picked up at 12:45. The cost of this club is 3.00 Please see Mrs Chandler for more information and to book a place at the office.

5 Areas of Learning Starting School Physical Development (PD) PRIME It is very important for children to develop fine and gross motor skills. Gross motor skills refer to the development of the large muscle groups within the body and we have a wide selection of play equipment aimed at doing this. This equipment is mostly available in the outdoor play areas, but we also have two P.E sessions each week. Every day the children will take part in a movement session which specifically targets all the muscles in the arms and shoulders to improve upper body strength. Fine motor skills are the small finger and thumb types of activities we offer like threading and cutting. These sorts of activities help to improve their hand eye coordination and develop the required strength in their hand muscles for writing. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) PRIME This area of learning is linked to all the other areas of learning and is in all the activities we offer. It refers to each child s ability to socialise and interact with other children and adults, their approach to learning in terms of their own self confidence, the development of their self esteem. We also encourage the children to be active learners who seek out their own learning opportunities and to be as independent as possible. We give time throughout the week to discuss and explore feelings and appropriate ways to express them. We also celebrate our similarities and differences. The children also learn about behaviour expectations and the school s golden rules. Communication and Language (CL) PRIME Speaking and listening are very important parts of every child s early learning and we exploit every opportunity possible to develop these skills. If children are unable to listen carefully to what happens around them, to use and understand new words, or speak in full sentences they will struggle with all elements of reading and writing, which is why we think these skills are important and spend so much time developing them. The children will experience a wide variety of stories, poems, rhymes and songs. We encourage them to look at books and care for them properly. We also give opportunities to explore all different types of writing materials and styles of writing. Literacy 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.

6 Mathematical Development (MD) We offer many practical activities that promote learning in this area. We count objects, read and order numbers every day. When the children gain confidence with these basic skills we start introduce more complex concepts like addition, subtraction, finding one more or one less than a number and counting in 2 s 5 s and 10 s. We also develop the children s knowledge and use of language relating to 2D and 3D shapes, positional language, and comparing objects in terms of height, weight and length. The children are given lots of opportunities to use their mathematical knowledge to solve a range of everyday problems. Understanding the World (UW) This area of learning covers the broadest range of subjects; science, designing and building, using information and communication technology (ICT), history, geography and communities. The range of activities we offer allow the children to interact and explore their environment and make their own discoveries. We help them follow lines of enquiry and develop their ability to carry out cause and effect experiments, or make links between things that have happened in the past, or learn about natural phenomena. We visit the computer suite once a week to develop their ICT skills using a range of equipment. The children have constant access to construction materials and develop their ability to evaluate and improve their models. Expressive Arts and Design (EAD) This area of development is aimed at developing each child s ability to express themselves through a variety of methods. They learn to use various kinds of art materials and we spend a lot of time on improving drawing, painting and modelling skills. We listen to various pieces of music and create dances to go with them. The children also use and make instruments to play along with music. Each topic that we cover will have an accompanying role play area, and as adults we model the sorts of roles the children might act out in these areas, for example the role of a dentist and a patient in a dental surgery. The children are free to develop their own story lines in these role play areas, and we also cover drama by using props or puppets and retelling known stories.

7 Children s Progress For day to day concerns or queries our doors are always open. Any issues that you wish to discuss that may take more than a few minutes can be discussed at a more appropriate time, and this can be arranged at the start or end of school. Our parents evenings are usually held in October and March and you will be informed of the exact date by letter nearer the time. This is the ideal opportunity to discuss your child s progress and share any concerns you may have and we strongly recommend your attendance. If for any reason you cannot attend the set date, another more convenient time can be arranged. At these meetings we will share the progress your child has made in each of the 6 areas of learning. You will see your child s individual Learning Journal which documents all the mile stones your child is making. At the end of the Reception year your child will have a summary assessment made on them (of which they will be completely unaware) which is called the Early Years Profile, and through a very simple scoring system it lets us as teachers and you as parents know how well they have done during their year and where they need to go next. Their final score from their profile will be shared with you alongside an annual report in July. Sharing home experiences. We also like to hear about the things your child does at home with you as the connection between home and school is very important for young children. We have WOW sheets that we encourage you to complete when your child has achieved a new skill or done something that has made you proud at home. We also invite parents and carers into the classroom every Friday morning from 8.50 until We understand that many working parents find it difficult to attend. The Early Years staff will always be there to sit with children whose parents are unable to attend and make sure that they are fully included and given the opportunity to share too. At the end of each of our topics we invite parents in to share their child s learning journey and review the work they have done. There will also be parents evenings in October and March.