Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely Christmas break and wish you a ‘Happy New Year!’ 

During this term, we will be completing activities based around our theme ‘Traditional Tales’.  This will include learning to:

·         retell familiar stories

·         writing descriptive sentences about the characters

·         counting and comparing numbers, partitioning, addition and subtraction, comparing measures, sorting and patterning.

 We will also be learning about a range of festivals and celebrations; Chinese New Year, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent and Valentine’s Day.  We will also be taking part in Safer Internet Day.

Just a reminder that all clothes need labelling with your child’s name to avoid anything getting lost.

 Star Moments

Please continue to send in ‘Star Moments’ to help celebrate your child’s achievement.  This is a fantastic way to contribute to your child’s learning journey.  If you run out please just ask for some more or you can download them from our class page: https://www.freckleton.lancs.sch.uk/curriculum/classes-1/reception 

 Open Door

‘Open Door’ night will be a Wednesday at 3:30pm, please take this opportunity to come into the classroom and speak with me; I look forward to seeing you!

  Water Bottles

Please make sure your child brings a water bottle into school every day! This must only be water please; no juice!  Please also make sure your child’s name is on the bottle.  If you child is bringing a packed lunch from home for lunch, they will need an additional drink in their lunch box for lunch time.

Tracksuit Days

Please make sure your child comes to school dressed in their school tracksuit on a Tuesday & Friday with their PE shorts in their bag.  Do not forget to label all items with your child’s name. 

Milk

If you would like your child to have milk, please make sure you order this via Cool Milk.  Please follow the link to the page so you can register and order, milk is free until the term your child is five, https://www.coolmilk.com/parents/ 

Home Learning

Home learning is attached to this email and is also on our class page of the school website.  The activities will be fun and you can choose which ones to complete.  

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or worries, yearR@freckleton.lancs.sch.uk

 Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Gilmartin

Meet the Team

    Mrs Gilmartin - Acting Assistant Headteacher, EYFS Leader & Reception Class  Teacher

            Mrs Catterall - HLTA (Teaches  Reception Class on a Thursday  afternoon and all day Friday)

            Mrs Burwood - Teaching Assistant (Monday & Tuesday and Wednesday)

                           Miss Dean - Teaching Assistant  (Thursday & Friday)

Reading

In Reception class reading books are linked to the phonics phases taught in class.   Please make sure children have their books in school everyday.

Do not forget to sign and comment in the yellow reading diary.  Children get stickers every time they read, not just for completed books, so please keep a record in their yellow reading diaries.

Home Learning 

The aim of 'Home Learning' is to reinforce and enhance all children’s progress in their learning.  Home Learning is shared each half term via email and shared on this page too (scroll to the bottom of the page).

 Tracksuit Days

Our tracksuit days are Tuesday and Friday.  Children may wear their school tracksuits on these days with their PE kit underneath.  Please be aware earrings MUST NOT be worn on these days.

Star Moments 

Please continue to send in ‘Star Moments’.  We love to read them in class and the children feel an enormous sense of pride. 

Timetable 

 Phonics   

Articulation of Phonemes 

Click on the image below to hear how to pronounce the phonemes.

Blending sounds to read words

Click on the image below to support your child to blend words.

Writing 

 Please find below some useful resources to support writing.

Please find below the letter formation posters, we are focusing on forming the long ladder letters first, then the robot armed letters, followed by the curly caterpillar letters and finally the zig zag letters.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum which is a play based approach to learning and development, enabling children to develop in all areas. Our wonderful indoor and outdoor environments supports children to share, take turns and play collaboratively.  Throughout the year children develop independence and the skills and knowledge that form a firm foundation of their life-long learning journey.

 In Reception class, we like to have lots of fun with our teacher and friends.  Our teacher is Miss McDonnell and we are very lucky to have our teaching assistant Mrs Foxley.  On Thursday afternoons, Mrs Burwood and Mrs Hayward come in to help us learn too!

Starting school is an exciting time for children and their families.  A good partnership between home and school is essential for children to make the most progress with their education. Children only spend 20% of their time in school so parents play the biggest role in their child’s life-long learning. We value your partnership and want to work together to achieve the best start for your child.

"Good parenting and high quality teaching and learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up"

(Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage)

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework

The EYFS sets out how children learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development, from birth to the end of Reception. It is used in all early years’ settings as the basis for supporting learning and development. 

The three prime areas are the foundations which children’s future learning and development can be built: 

 Communication and Language; 

Physical Development; and 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development. 

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas, these are: 

Literacy 

Mathematical Development 

Understanding the World 

Expressive Art and Design

Characteristics of Effective Learning

The 'Characteristics of Effective Learning' are how children learn.  These are reflected within the learning environment; when the adults in the setting observe and plan for children’s next steps in learning and through high quality questioning and dialogue.  A child’s individual learning characteristic will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning taking place in the environment. 

Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS are:

playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’

active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievement

creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things. 

 For information and support on the Revised EYFS 2021 please click on the image below: 

Topic Overview 

Click on the images to see the topic web

Autumn 1 Me & My World	Spring 1 Traditional Tales	Summer 1 Minibeasts
Autumn 2 Nocturnal Animals/ Celebrations	Spring 2          Growing & Changing (Plants)	Summer 2 Superheroes

"X is coming on leaps and bounds and is absolutely soaking it all up at school."

 "I feel X's vocabulary has expanded, he can now hold a conversation using a variety of words and sentences."

"We are really pleased with how well X has settled into school life ad how much they enjoy it.  We have enjoyed seeing them grow and develop both socially and academically.  Thanks for everything."

"X has enjoyed their first year at school.  X's reading has come along so much"

"I feel X has made huge progress since starting school in September.  X has loved coming to school and learning so many new things.  Their reading and writing skills have come on massively.  I would like to thank you for all the support and encouragement you have given.  X has had a positive start to school life..    ."

"I am very pleased with X's progress.  They have made friends.  Thank you very much."

"We are realy pleased with X's first year at school.  We think the Buddy system is fab.  X has made lots of progress this year but we are mostly glad they have been happy."

"X has really enjoyed his first year in school.  They have really come on with their reading and writing."

"It has been a pleasure to watch X learn and develop in their first year.  Going  way back to the first  ever settling in sessions, the efforts made to introduce X to school were fantastic.  We as parents  felt included in their learning journey from day one, and we can notice every week what progress X makes from the wonderful efforts of Miss McDonnell and the teaching assistants.  We have thoroughly enjoyed attending the various events that are put on, and feel this family part of school life is lovely and so important.  We truly could not have hoped for a better start to X's education and school life.  Thank you. for your continuous hard work and effort.  "

"It has been a pleasure to watch X learning so many new things this year!  X has loved their time in reception and as parents it has been great to see.  We have been so impressed with the continuous updates- we always love to hear what they've been up to!  Thank you for all of the patience and kindness you have shown X. "

"X has had an excellent first year in school.  X has made progress academically but more importantly to us he has made friends and is happy at school.  X has really impressed us with his reading and maths.  Thank you for all your hard work."

"X has settled into school well.  They enjoy going to school and have made friends.  We feel they are making good progress with their reading and writing and is always talking about what he can learnt."