Reception
Summer Term
Friday 28th June 2024
Friday 28th June 2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
After our visits to Skelton Grange, the children have been comparing the two environments and deciding which would be the best place to move to (as an imaginary community). We worked on our democracy driver and had a discussion about the pros and cons of both places. This was a wonderful discussion and there was a lot of information drawn out about both places and their relative merits. We then carried out a vote. Each child had to listen the arguments presented for each place and decide whether to stay or go. The majority was to leave and live in Skeleton Island. We then had a debate in our very own Houses of Parliament and voted again. This time the majority vote increased. So we will be moving to Skeleton Island in the last week of term. We have been finding out more about the skeletons that live there and as part of this work we have discussed human skeletons and looked at these which was interesting. We also found a fox’s jaw bone outside and talked about animal bones as well. What can your child tell you about our debate and how they voted?
As part of looking at our democracy driver we have discussed the general election. We have talked about the process of voting, secret ballots and the different teams (political parties) we have and the colours. They loved this as it is like our house teams. Continue to discuss democracies and voting at home. Maybe show your polling card and show your child where you will vote. The children are very capable of understanding it all and making links between this and their community debates and discussions. Let us know via Tapestry how you get on.
History
We have continued to find out about the past and in order to help Cowslip with his washing disaster. We have found out about power stations and how electricity is made with magnets and large loops of wire. We will need to inform Cowslip how to make electricity but also inform him how washing was done before electricity. Please do not tell your child how this was done as we have some artefacts to reveal. This is a better experience with some awe and wonder and it will spoil the experience if the children already know. Thanks in advance.
Skipping Festival
Come and join us for a celebration of the children’s success on Thursday 11th July at 1.45. Each child will need an adult with them but you can decide to look after more than one child if not all families can make it. Please let us know if you are coming and which children you will be looking after. We will start our Skipping Festival projects next week to get ready for the event.
ILT
It is so amazing to see how well the children can plan now. This is a key part of ILT, as having an idea and sticking to it to reach brilliant blue is crucial in developing learning skills. The purpose of ILT is to develop learning skills and attitudes and it is so clear that our children have all made enormous progress in relation to these skills and attitudes. It is also wonderful to see how many children use ILT to develop other key skills like reading, writing, mathematical computation and physical development skills. Choosing to do something which you find tricky is not easy for anyone and yet these Reception children do it on a daily basis and that mustn’t be taken for granted. They have become such competent, independent learners, ready for the new challenge that is Year 1. ILT continues in Year 1 and although eventually the time spent on ILT is reduced slightly, it holds a central place in our educational offer as we believe whole-heartedly on its impact on children and their holistic development.
ILT parent and child session
The last session for this academic year was today. Thanks for attending. J Hopefully you found this session useful. Any feedback on attending one of these sessions would be very useful for us. Support and understanding of our approach is very well received and always useful.
Reading
Due to staff illness and absence, not every child has been heard to read this week. Please accept our apologies.
As it is so near the summer break, we will not be moving any child’s book bands from now on. This is so that when your child starts in Year 1, they are competent at reading books on the band they are currently on. We do not want to move a child to a new band close to the long summer break. Over the summer break, we would like children to continue to read and so we will provide a few books to read over the holiday which will be returned in September. If children do not continue to read over the break they can (and do) go backwards which we do not want, as they have worked so hard to reach the level they are on.
Phonics
Please continue to practise the phase 3 sounds. Some children have not embedded these and this is a skill they need to have before learning phase 5 sounds in Year 1. We have subscribed again to Phonics Play and this is a great resource which school pays for, that you can use. There are a lot of fun games on here to practise skills your child needs to work on.
Writing
If your child is writing at home, please can you share this with us on Tapestry?
By the end of Reception, children need to be able to independently write sentences that can be read by others, sounding out words to spell.
Guinea Pigs over the summer
Only weeks 1 and 4 of the 6 week holiday have been taken so far and obviously we would need guinea pig care over the whole summer. Please let us know if you can take them for a week or if you would like to share a week with someone. Ideally you would pair up with someone who lives near and do a share week if you are not able to do a full week.
Let us know on the Reception class email account if you are able to offer some time. J Thanks in advance.
Tapestry and end of year profiles
Ella and I will be putting the last photos and videos on Tapestry soon and these will come out as an end of year summary on Tapestry on Friday 12th July. You will receive a link to download your child’s profile and the summary will be part of this. You can respond to your child’s year and final summary on Tapestry. You will also receive a sheet with your child’s data on it for the end of the year and your child’s own report on the year.
DT resources and outdoor resources
We are continuing to collect for the DT area but we would also love some outdoor open ended resources too. Do you have any piping, crates, safe pallets, tyres, plant pots, compost, seeds or bulbs that you do not need? If so, please let us know. J
Thanks so much for your continued support.
Kind Regards,
The Reception Team