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.
- 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 1, 2020:
Welcome to St James and Inkpen class. I have had a chance to meet some of you already as part of our parent teacher meetings and look forward to meeting the rest of you over the next week. These meetings are vital in helping the adulta around the child to get to know each other and begin those crucial communications. We hope that you settle quickly and find the school to be a central part of your community and support. This term we will be settling the class into the daily routines and helping them to make new friends that may last a life time. As part of our settling in process this year we will be focusing our attention on the Oliver Jeffers book ‘ Here We Are’ and thinking about ourselves and families. If you would like to learn more about what we will be doing please check out our topic webs below:
Here We Are (a subset of Me and My World)
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
Each term your child will be chosen to be a ‘Focus Child’ for observations along with 2 others. The following week you will be invited in to chat about your child’s progress and to be given some handy hints and activities to do with your child at home. 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. Please look out for the books. The books should be brought in on a Friday.
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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