Welcome to Inkpen Class – Foundation
Class Teacher: Mrs Wilkinson
TA: Mrs Smith and Mrs Yorkshades.
Here you will be able to find out what is happening in our class as the year progresses, I hope you find this useful.
We generally work on a topic based curriculum linked to our literacy theme which is chosen by the children’s interests.
- Key person – We have a qualified teacher and two part time teaching assistants working in Reception. Your child’s key person is the class teacher. This person is responsible for ensuring that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person seeks to engage and support parents and/or carers in guiding their child’s development at home. They also help families engage with more specialist support if appropriate.
- Daily routines
- Forest School
What is forest school?
Summer and Winter kit list
- Up and coming events – please look at the calendar on this page to see what is happening in Inkpen class.
Autumn Term 2, 2020:
Welcome back Inkpen class, we hope you have had a good break and are ready for more learning. As we now find ourselves in this funny old world of lockdown I am so pleased to have met you all at the beginning of the school year. The parent teacher meetings this term will all be online and you should all have received your dates via Dojo. The children will receive home learning packs this term. These are non-mandatory unless we need to isolate. there is a lot of work in these folders, but you may pick and choose as you and your child feel fit. You have until next term to have a go at some of the work. This term we will be looking at the seasons and in particular, Autumn. We will also be looking at the dark as the nights draw in and at the Winter traditions of Diwali and of course, Christmas.
Please keep reading with your child as often as you can, little and often is the best tactic. Here are our topic webs for this coming term…
Light and Dark
Christmas
You should all now be set up on the class messaging service, ClassDojo. You will be able to contact me (class teacher) directly, through this service and I will reply as soon as I am free. Please realise that any messages sent during school hours will not be replied to until the end of the day, we’ll be a bit busy. On ClassDojo you will also see you child earning merits for the class to be rewarded by class treats throughout the year. The treats will be chosen by the children by a vote, the only stipulation is that there is no cost or very minimal.
I am in the process of linking parents into your child’s Tapestry Account where you will find observations of your child in class. This forms part of our assessment evidence but we also use our own knowledge of the child and written work to assess where your child is at and their next steps. Please feel free to add observations of your own which we will add to your child’s portfolio and they will be used to support your child at school.
This term we will be observing and assessing all children to see where they are in their development against a document called Development Matters. We also reflect on the 3 characteristics of learning; Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, Creative and Critical Thinking. We will continue to monitor your child’s development throughout the year, making official assessments in December, April and June, these all help us to know where we need to go next with your child’s education.
Focus Child
This term your child will be chosen to be a ‘Focus Child’ for observations along with 2 others. You should now have your dates and I will remind you the week before. The following week you will be invited in to chat about your child’s progress and to talk about how you are getting along with the home learning packs sent out his term. Please be aware that these activities will not be compulsory and should be taken as a ‘drip feed’ process, only when your child is willing. Remember, you will have a whole term to complete them.
Personal, Social and Health Education
We will be spending lots of time with the children helping them to settle into school and to help them learn the classroom rules. This will be consolidated with our weekly PSED sessions which this term will be about ‘goals and dreams’.
Literacy and Communication
The children have daily circle time learning good behaviours for learning such as good listening, good looking, good thinking. Focus children are also enjoying their time at the front of the class telling us all about something they are interested in or about somewhere they have been.
Last year, for the first time, we were trying out the ‘Helipcopter Stories’alongside a weekly poem that we all learn together. This involves adults scribing stories told by the children and then them being acted out towards the end of the day. This has worked well with the children queuing up to tell their stories. Some children are even beginning to write their own! We will continue with this, this year.
Reading Books
Your child will receive reading books and Journals. We will try to read with all children in the class once a week and welcome any volunteers as this is a time consuming task. Please fill in the journal when you read with your child at home. This gives us an idea of how well you are getting on with it. We will also fill in the journal when we read with your child.
You have now received a story sack each week and we hope that you have enjoyed these. This term we hope to begin library sessions when the children will get to choose their own books as we continue to endeavour to instil a lifelong love of books and stories with all our families.
Phonics
The children receive a directed phonics session everyday at school to enable them to begin to read for themselves and begin their own love of stories. We begin with single letter sounds blending these to read simple words (CVC words). At St James we follow the Letters and Sounds Program using the Jolly Phonics images to help consolidate the sounds.
Maths
We use a Maths Mastery approach to Maths and will look at numbers 1-20 for most children. We will also look at maths in the world around us.
Family Toolkit
This is a series of optional fun activities which you can do with your child at home to help develop maths. The books may be returned to school whenever you would like me to have a look at the work happening at home.
Understanding the World
This is linked to literacy and this term we will be looking at the world around us.
We also hope to tap into the children’s natural curiosity for the world around them and develop the children’s natural curiosities. Forest School will be looking the changing season and fantasy in the woodland.
We follow the Discovery RE Scheme which helps to develop the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural well-being and allows the children to develop an understanding of the 5 British Values (democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs) .
As always, if you have any questions or would like to talk about your child with one of our team then please let us know.
Mrs Sharon Wilkinson
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