Start of the new academic year - September 2020

 Dear Parents/carers,

I can't wait to welcome the new starters and the existing F1 children on Sept 7th. Mrs McCormac , Mrs Murphy and I are so excited to return to school after what seems like an eternity. We will do our absolute best to meet all your needs in a Covid-safe way. Please read the following:

This is how the Early Years (E) department at Newbold School will be managed in light of the latest DfE guidance.                                                                                                                  

BUBBLES (groups): Latest Government guidance does not expect Early Years (EY) children to form bubbles within their class, but they need to try to remain separate from the rest of the school. It is a well-known fact that children of this age cannot social distance. However, as our EY department forms part of a school, we need to also consider the updated School guidance. Therefore, F1 and F2 will form one bubble (currently 20 or so children) but will not mix with any other year groups. We will use the F1 and F2 classroom, our outside garden, the playground and the surrounding Newbold College outside areas. 

The adults, however, plan to social distance from each-other as much as possible. The staff will ensure the children’s emotional needs are met as best they can. 

DROP OFF DETAILS: Only one parent (who is not self-isolating and is symptom-free) can drop off their EY child between 8.55-9am. EY parents are to enter (and leave) the school grounds via the wooden gate on Popeswood road. Both sides of the gate will be open - one for entry and one for exit. There will be lane markers on the ground which must be followed. A member of EY staff (most likely Mrs Jennings) will be waiting by the EY garden gate - please keep your distance. Please ensure you and your child are consistently 2m apart from the people in front of you. Your child’s name will be called and your child will enter the EY garden with the staff member.

• F1 - Your child will enter into the F1 classroom, supervised by a member of staff. There will be another staff member there to welcome them inside and to direct them to place their prepared snack in a plastic bag into their tray and to find their name card. They will then walk towards the sink - place their lunchbox and/or water bottle on the trolley and then a member of staff will supervise the washing of their hands before your child chooses what table-top activity to do. If they have separation anxieties, you may  enter the EY garden to help them settle and a member of staff will assist you when they can. 

• F2 - The member of staff (most likely, Mrs Jennings) will walk your child into F2 and they will be greeted by an F2 staff member who will direct them on where to place their lunch box, water bottle and prepared snack, before being supervised whilst washing their hands. 

In the meantime - You will exit via the same large wooden onto Popeswood Road (following the markers). The big wooden gate will be locked at 9.05am. 

WHAT TO BRING IN/WEAR: We are following the DfE guidelines and want to reduce as much cross-contamination as possible. With that in mind, there are some changes from the last information feed:

• No toys, no books or any object from home (including pictures) are allowed. 

• No small tupperware pots, containers with lids or canvas lunch bags are allowed.

• School uniform will now be worn

• Your child DOES NEED a water bottle, as we will not be using our cups or provide milk/crackers at this time.

• Please bring in a fruit snack - (in a plastic bag for loose fruit, such as berries)

• Please bring in a wipeable lunchbox (contents to be in packaging that the children can open themselves). We will wipe the lunchbox with antibacterial spray on arrival and before departure. Canvas lunch-boxes are not permitted as they cannot be properly wiped.

• Your child needs a clean set of clothes in a named bag, wellie boots, a sunhat and a WATERPROOF jacket suitable for the weather, as we plan to do a lot of outside learning, whatever the weather. 

 

CLASSROOM LAYOUT AND ROUTINES: The classroom will look a bit different to how it usually does, but I’ve tried to make it as inviting as I can. Public health advice is to remove all soft toys, and any toys that are hard to clean, such as those with intricate parts. Where practicable, we have removed soft furnishings, for example pillows, bean bags, the bed and most rugs. We have also removed access to all soft toys, dressing-up clothes, sand and other sensory resources from our learning environment. There will be accessible books available each day, which will be changed daily. The accessible resources will be different each day and will be disinfected and thoroughly cleaned at the end of each session. Daily resources bags will contain some scissors, glue sticks, pens and playdough tools. These will not be used again until 7 days later. Frequently touched surfaces, toilets, handles etc will be cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. Children will wash their hands throughout the day and will be supervised each time. They will be required to wash their hands on arrival, before snack-time, after using the toilet, after personal hygiene, when coming in from the playground and before they go home. Staff will be following the same guidance. Children will go to the toilet one/two at a time whenever possible (but this may not be possible on some occasions). The children’s temperature will be taken (non contact) at registration times and if your child looks unwell, tells us they feel unwell or they feel hot.

For now, we will not be doing PE in the carpeted hall nor have Toast Tuesday. We will be doing as many activities as we can outside, including singing and movement in music outside. Playdough will be changed daily. The library books will be accessed by staff only. If your child requests one, they will go home on a Tuesday and must be returned before or on Friday. These will be stored for 72 hours before being released to any other child.

PICK UP ARRANGEMENTS - 3.20pm for EY or 12.05pm: These are the same as with drop-off routines. Only one parent who is symptom-free/not isolating can pick up children. Social distance and stand-on markers will be used. Please enter through the big wooden gate on Popeswood Road (both for lunchtime and end of the day pick-ups). Please stand on the markers and wait until a member of staff opens the garden gate. Once at the front of the line, a member of staff will collect your child and bring them out to you. Once reunited, please exit promptly through the big wooden gate - following the one-way markers, so the next parent can collect their child. All correspondence and handover information will need to be done via email rather than face-to-face. Any minor accident/first-aid correspondence will be emailed to you for you to acknowledge and return. Please do not use your mobile phones whilst waiting as we cannot discharge your child to you if you are on them, and this will cause a hold up. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and support.

We will continue to support children’s early language and communication skills and use the outdoor space as much as possible. We will plan how children can learn in age-appropriate ways about how they can keep themselves safe, including regular hand-washing and using tissues. For children in F1, practitioners will mainly focus at this time on the prime areas of learning, including: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and physical development. For children in F2, we will also assess and address gaps in language, early reading and mathematics, particularly ensuring children’s acquisition of phonic knowledge and extending their vocabulary.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS TO READ: There are conditions, specific to our school situation, that parents must understand and adhere to. Our up-dated school risk assessment and EY risk assessment contains details of the risks and what we have put in place to mitigate these, as well as changes to specific policies. All of these will be sent to you before school re-starts. Please ensure you read them thoroughly. 

If someone in school displays symptoms, and/or tests positive, this will impact your child’s attendance and could also impact the opening of our EY department at short notice. Full guidance will then be followed and communicated to you. As part of the national test and trace programme, if other cases are detected within the setting, Public Health England’s local health protection teams will conduct a rapid investigation and will advise settings on the most appropriate action to take (please find details in our risk assessment). Everyone, including under 5s, can be tested. You will be expected to sign a parent agreement giving your consent to follow all policies, procedures and risk assessments. Thank you for your continued support in helping to keep everyone safe. 

Mrs Jennings

Early Years Manager

Mrs Jennings returns!

On 4th June, I will return to F1 after my foot operation. It's been six weeks of foot elevation and no weight-bearing. I am now in phase 2 of the recovery and physio is helping me walk on it again properly. I've been instructed to ease into work gradually so have to be mostly desk-based for the first 3 weeks back. However, I am very much looking forward to seeing you all again and excited for the fun activities we have planned during our final, busiest and hopefully sunniest term together.

I will be bringing in my adjustable crutches for the children to explore. We will have a special delivery this week (look out for the Tapestry observations for more info). It's also the term for Fathers Day, sports day (Mon 8th July or rain-date: Wed 10th July), school trip (Tues 11th June), International day (Wed 17th July), Tempest photos (Thur 13th June), transition arrangements and school reports..... oh, and a drama workshop (Friday 7th June).

We will have an EY 'stay and play' for the Dad's, Grand-Dad's and any family member - male or female - for children who attend on the morning of Friday14th in F1 and F2. It will be from 9-10.15am.

We welcome Matej to our class on the 4th, and prepare to say good-bye to a few of our children who are moving to other schools for next academic year.

Enjoy the rest of half term and see you on Tuesday. YEY!

Science week

Science week was awesome!!!!! 

We had so much fun doing scientific experiments - inside and outside. The children really enjoyed exploring, experimenting, observing changes, investigating and predicting. So much learning took place whilst developing their scientific minds. 

We focused on colour change and added water to a plate of skittles - admiring how the dye from the skittles changed the water into a rainbow. Then we examined the underneath of the skittles and they had turned white. After an hour or so, we went back to the plate and found the skittles had disappeared - they had dissolved. 

We made a volcano out of playdough (wrapped around a bottle). We explored the white powder (bicarbonate of soda) and the clear liquid (white vinegar which smelt disgusting!). When the two ingredients mixed, we observed the lava (orange foam) pouring out of the top of our volcano. We predicted and explored what happened when we added more.

We all discovered how stamping hard on the foot pump of a foam rocket launcher made the rocket zoom high in the sky, and why/how that happened. The windy day made the rocket fly on all directions. We made our own rockets and used them in the playground to fly to different laminated planets.

Outside, we planted, observed different vegetables and made perfume using herbs, coloured water, petals and old flower heads. We were exploring using pipettes and test-tubes. 

A fun week of learning.

Half Term

Dear Parents / carers,

Happy sunny Friday. We wish you all a lovely half term.

On our return, we will be changing some topics in worship, movement in music and PE. This to ensure we cover a wide range of curriculum activities and expose our children to lots of different skills in an age-appropriate and interactive way.

WORSHIP: We finished our 'helpfulness' topic this week and will start a new topic - "Easter". The unit overview is the Truth: Salvation, through Jesus' death and resurrection, is God's Best Gift. 

MOVEMENT IN MUSIC: We finished our "Instruments - sounds, beat and rhythm" topic and will start a new topic - "Different scales, pitch awareness and voice sounds". However, the first week is a settling back week and the second week will not happen due to Tempest Photography being set up in the hall and taking individual photos of your children. Movement in music will therefore start on 12.3.19.

PE : We will be extending our 'moving in different ways topic. F1 and F2 will be splitting up for PE due to the increased number of children. We will be using the wooden wall climbing equipment to extend the children's climbing skills and following our safety rules. We will move around obstacle courses and also do some Spring and growth dances. 

I have sent home a sheet entitled 'Half Term Snaps'. Please could you attach some printed photos to this sheet with an explanation on what your child did. We look forward to sharing these sheets and hearing more about what your children have been up to. 

We will be planting seeds on our return - learning more about growth and change. We will continue to take many walks around the beautiful Newbold college grounds too. 

We welcome Rosie to our class too. 

Enjoy the sunshine and the break

Kind regards,

Mrs Jennings

BA (Hons) 1st

Early Years Manager

January 2019

WELCOME TO THE FIRST MONTH OF 2019.

We welcome a new starter: Josie, and will welcome another new starter after half term: Rosie.

This half term starts with a new worship topic: 'Helpfulness'. We are learning that helpful hands are kind hands. We ask ourselves: How can we be a gift? We can use our kind hands to help.

We also start a new focus in 'movement in music' : Instruments - sounds, beat and rhythms.

In PE, we will be developing our ball skills (rolling, throwing, passing, catching, bouncing and kicking), as well as performing ring games and circle dances - following instructions. Each PE lesson will start with a coordinated aerobic warm-up.

Other adult-led activities include the 3 ability-based phonic groups each day, which are short, interactive and fun. I have just introduced a daily small group activity for the children who have attended F1 since before the start of this academic year. This sessions focus on extending literacy (reading and writing) skills and maths (numbers and shape, space, measure) skills. These children are all enjoying these activities and progressing very well.

The children are enjoying learning through play and this is child-led and quite often leads to in-the-moment learning. A classic example of this was last week, when a number hunt in the woods turned into the realisation that number 11 was missing. The children had convinced themselves that a cheeky fox had taken it, and maybe ate it. At lunchtime, a letter was left for us from the fox, saying he had thought that the number 11 was for him as it was his birthday and he was 11 today. We voted on what to do (let him keep it or ask for it back) and it was agreed that the fox shouldn't have taken it as it wasn't his to take. The children had a great idea: make him a birthday card - lots of imaginative drawing and writing came next, and another trip to the woods was in hand. We left our card, an orange and a sock (as the video footage we watched as part of our research into what foxes like, included fruit and socks).
The next day, we went back to the woods and to our surprise, the number 11 had been returned as well as a thank you note. The birthday card had gone, and so had the sock. During our walk to the woods, we saw orange peel on the ground.  This in-the-moment activity lasted 2 days, ignited such interest, developed skills in the 7 areas of learning and developed a positive mindset.

The children love 'Toast Tuesday' - where they develop their skills in using tools, noticing changes, using their senses. The UK wide "big garden birdwatch' of 2019 was fun and educational last week. The bread the children threw resulted in us seeing lots of pigeons, magpies, crows and even a robin. Thank you to those children who carried on this activity with their parents at the weekend.

We look forward to the rest of this half term and want to thank you - the parents - for your continued support.

From The F1 team.

New half term - Nov 18

Dear Parents,

We have had a lovely week this week and the children have settled into the new term really quickly.

There will be a change in the way we distribute 'goodies from home' for children's birthdays. If you would like to send in sweets, this is by no means obligatory, please can you send in individual packets of sweets that can be put in children's book bags. Please send them in the morning and please do not send in individual cupcakes or cake that needs to be sliced. 

We will make sure the children know that the sweets have gone in their bag and the class will say thank you. I'm sure you can understand that the handover period is a busy time and we need to ensure children's safety at this busy time. Thanks for your cooperation. As always, if you have any questions, please ask. 

Our offsite 'Pumpkin Walk' will take place on Monday 12th November to Popeswood Meadow area. This is weather permitting. If it is raining - we will reschedule. I have completed a risk assessment and you have already signed permission for local trips. We have 8 adult helpers so are covered in ratio and we will ensure constant supervision. All children will wear hi-vis vests and two adults will stop the traffic on the road when we cross it. We will be exploring the local meadow, play on the equipment and find a pumpkin (pre-hidden by me) - then we will sing some ring games around it. 

Please see me if you have any concerns or questions.

What have we been doing this week?

The main interest this week, was Mrs McCormac's BIG birthday (and Ocean's too). We had a fabulous day on Thursday - decorating cakes, looking at toys that were popular in 1968, listening to birthday stories and playing musical bumps/statues/chairs. We also did lots of art with leaves, enjoyed number games and moved in/on/under/through equipment in our obstacle course PE lesson.

What will we be learning next week? - This week there's a lot going on........

Next week we will be discussing their experience of firework displays, how to keep safe and making firework art using a variety of resources. We will also be talking about Diwali and have a dance workshop on Thursday. We will be making Diwali candle Divas, doing some art and listening to a Diwali story. We will also be learning some Diwali dance moves and will use scarves to move like fireworks in PE. Later in the week we will be making poppies for Remembrance day and discussing the relevance of this occasion. This is the video that I will be sharing with the children - it's age appropriate and through our discussion helps them to gain an understanding of war. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/poppies

Summer Term 2018

Welcome to the final term of this academic year - the best one due to the weather!

The sun has been shining all week and we've had a great first week back. We have welcomed new children: Ava, Inam, Adam and Zara. All four children has settled really well and seem to already love coming to school.  

We have made the most of the sunshine by playing and learning outside:

PE outside: throwing and aiming fun

  Hockey fun.


Slide and apparatus fun


We sat outside in the shade and enjoyed our healthy snacks this week. We all enjoyed listening to stories outside too.


Then on Thursday a surprise parcel was delivered. We all guessed what could possibly be inside. We had some wonderful ideas but no-one actually guessed correctly. Inside the parcel were 10 tiny caterpillars in 2 feeding pots. WOW - we are so excited to watch them grow and change over the next few weeks before waving them off in the big wide world as butterflies.

Look carefully and you can see them in the pots in our display.

We even found time to make some cracker faces this week. The children looked in a mirror and chose which food represented their facial features the best. Here's an example of one lovely creation.

What a great first week back. We look forward to more exciting adventures this term. We have a school trip to Buckleberry Farm, International Day, another Stay and Play (for Father's Day) and Sport day to look forward to too, 

Thanks for all your continued support. Remember it's the induction meeting for new parents on Monday 23rd April and a Parents Phonic workshop on Monday 30th April - both at 3pm. 

from Mrs Jennings and the EY Team. 

Dear Parents and Children of F1,

WELCOME to the first newsletter of the academic year. I hope you all had a fabulous summer and are looking forward to school starting on Wednesday 6th September.  We are so excited to meet all the new starters and welcome back the existing  children. We are sure you will love coming to Foundation One and meeting lots of new friends to play with. Welcome also to the parents/carers of our new children – we look forward to working with you during your child’s time at Newbold as your child learns and grows in our nurturing environment.

On your first day back, parents are welcome to stay as long as they feel is necessary. The first few days will be spent settling in and exploring their new learning environment, as well as familiarising themselves with the routines. I will be introducing a new 'playground buddy' system for outside break-times. Some year 5 and 6 children will take on the responsibility of making playground times a happy place for our new children.

Please remember, to bring in your fruit snack and drink every morning, along with a packed lunch, if staying for lunch, with enough food to last the afternoon.

*No nut products. Grapes sliced length ways*.

There will be a whole school induction evening on Wednesday 13th September - more details to follow via our internal email system. This will be an opportunity to learn more about our school. The headteacher will talk first , in the hall, then F1 parents will move into F1 and I will share all the important information about our class. Please make every effort to attend.

Please remember to bring in any outstanding completed paperwork on your first day. I will set you up on Tapestry (our online learning journey system) too. Mrs McCormac, Mrs Murphy and I will all be on hand to answer your questions on your first day (and beyond!).

For now, enjoy what's left of the holidays. We look forward to seeing you all next week.

Thank you

Kind Regards

Mrs Jennings

Dear Parents,

Welcome to our last half term of the academic year.

I am in the midst of writing school reports at the moment so look forward to you receiving them near the end of term.

We have some exciting dates coming up:

Fri 16th June - Our Fathers Day treat. - songs, videos and a stay and play from 11.30am - 12.30pm.
Fri 23rd June - A visit from Bracknell the fire crew at 10.30am
Tues 27th June - Our school trip to Odds Park Farm
Mon 3rd July - Sports Day (morning) (Rain date is Wed 5th)
Thur 6th July - International Day
Tues 14th July - transition session into F2 (9.30-10.30am)
Wed 19th July - Last day - finish at 12.30pm.

We have lots planned this half term and our caterpillars have arrived, We are watching them grow and they're getting bigger every day. We are learning all about the chrysalis process and emerging as butterflies. We hope to release all 10 butterflies in to Sylvia's Garden when they're ready to fly into the big wide world.

After half term

Dear F1 Parents,
Welcome back after February half term.
We will be welcoming some new children over the next few weeks, and this will result in our class reaching our maximum size of 24.
We continue our 3 ability-based phonic groups. They are going very well. We are lucky to have Megan to support the red group on a Monday and Friday, and Mrs T on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We are introducing growing, and have planted some seeds already this week. We are continuing to do this and look forward to planting runner beans this week,
We have bought a worm house. This week I need the children's help to find worms to add into the worm house. We can then enjoy watching them at work. There will be other worm related activities too. We will also look for signs of Spring.
Of course, it's pancake day this week, so it's pancake making and decorating on Tuesday. Also, book day on Thursday so please dress-up as your favourite book character, and bring the corresponding book please.
Later on this term, we have Mothers Day and Easter activities to look forward to. More details to follow soon......

Dear F1 parents,

We would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas. Thank you for our wonderful cards and gifts. They were much appreciated.

We have had a great first term and all the children have now settled. Recently we have been busy with Christmas activities: nativity play, decorating cookies, party games and making gifts, cards and various creations. All the children have progressed well in phonics in our 2 groups. We have a new member of staff joining our F1 team in January. We will therefore have 3 phonic groups and your child's group will be communicated to you on the return to school. We also welcome more children in January and February.

I will be checking my emails over the holidays so please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you all in January. The first day back is Thursday 5th January 2017.

Best wishes

Mrs Jennings and the EY team.

🎄🎄🎄

Hello new and existing parents of Foundation One class,

Welcome to a fresh new academic year. I hope you have had an enjoyable and relaxing summer.

Tuesday 6th is our first day and Mrs McCormac and I are very much looking forward to seeing you all. We are going to have a fun term as we learn and play together. You are very welcome to stay until 10am on the first day, if you wish, to help your child settle and chat to us. I will be setting up Tapestry for anyone who did not manage to set it up in the holidays. They are updating their software so I hope to have the process complete by Monday. I must alert you to the fact that I have a funeral to attend to on Tuesday so I will be leaving at 10.15am. The children will be left in the capable hands of Mrs McCormac, Miss Jones and Mrs Braun. Due to my absence, I will not be able to have the photos on the children's pegs for the Wednesday but I will ensure I do that as soon as I can. You can email me at any time on:

M-Jennings@newboldschool.co.uk

There will be a parent meeting on Wednesday 14th September at 6.30pm. Please make every effort to attend. There will be a whole school information session followed by a class meeting in my classroom. I will be sharing lots of important information plus introducing phonics.

PE will start from Wednesday so please can your child wear their PE kit that day , and every Wednesday (grey tracksuit with plain white tshirt and trainers).  Thank you.

I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Kind Regards

Mrs Jennings

New Term newsletter - April 2016

            12th April 2016

Dear Parents / Carers,

I hope you enjoyed your Easter break. I certainly did!

We look forward to the start of our final term and hope that the sunshine and warmer weather continues so we can learn and play outside as much as possible. I would like to continue the weekly walks to Newbold College Grounds to observe changes, insects and growth that the warmer climate will bring.

We will have some little visitors arriving this week: caterpillars which will hatch into butterflies. When the time is right, we will release them into their natural habitat, in Sylvia’s Garden. We look forward to learning more about growth and change.

EY Worship

We are going to look at 3 different stories over the next term

1. God saves Moses

2. God saves David

3. God saves Daniel

We discover and celebrate how God saved a baby Moses in a miraculous way. God needed a strong leader to show the world what he was like and Moses was the ideal man.

PE

We will also be doing as much PE outside as we can. Our plan for this term is to focus on team-work, along with some activities to prepare the children for our Sports Day later in the term. During the second half of this term, as well as our sports day, we will be celebrating international day and have a school trip to look forward to. More details to follow….

Phonics

We will continue to have our daily ability phonic groups We will do our best to help prepare your child’s holistic development for their move to F2/reception.

IMPORTANT DATE: THIS Thursday (14^th April) is a phonics workshop at 12.05 – 12.25pm and at 3.10-3.30pm in F2 classroom. It’s an opportunity to go through phonic sounds, understand more about what group your child is in and what we will be covering in an interactive way and a chance to ask me any questions. Please try to come along if you can, to one of them. It will start prompt.

Stay and Play

We look forward to welcoming as many parents as possible to our ‘stay-and-play’ session on Friday 17^th June at 11.30am – 12.30pm. This will give you an insight as to what your child enjoys doing at school and an opportunity to ask us any questions you may have. A reminder and more details will follow nearer the time.

There will be some new children starting over the next few weeks so we look forward to welcoming them.

As always, we welcome your feedback and enjoy working in partnership with you. Thank you for your continued support. Please remember that we have an open door policy so you are always welcome to chat to us.

God Bless

Best Regards

Mrs Jennings and the F1 team.

Mark-Making

Here are some photos taken during these last couple of weeks. I am undergoing my dissertation research for my final year of my BA (Hons) degree in Children's learning and development and have introduced some new ideas to encourage my reluctant boys to engage in mark-making by following their interests. It has been a fantastic few weeks exploring various fun ways to mark-make.....

Welcome to the Spring Term 2016

Tuesday 5th Jan 2015

Dear Parents / Carers,

Firstly, may I wish you a very happy new year! I hope you enjoyed your Christmas break. I certainly did! Thank you for all your cards and gifts. Your kindness and generosity were very much appreciated.

We would like to welcome 3 new starters: Jasmine, David and Thomas who all join Foundation One this week, as well as Leila (who starts at the end of January). We will continue to combine F1 and F2 in the afternoons and on Friday mornings when I’m at university as this has many benefits and means we will still play and learn with the F2 children.

We look forward to another great term. We will continue to incorporate your ideas for planning for your child’s development. Please watch out for the form to complete. This week is a settling-in week, so the rota starts again next week. PLEASE remember to return your completed form before or on the THURSDAY. We cannot plan accordingly otherwise.

Daily registers close at 9am so please arrive at 8.45am, in time for registration. It is very disruptive for all concerned if you arrive late with your child. Please also ensure you collect your children on time as it can be upsetting for them if they are left waiting for you. We will only discharge your child to you or to another pre-authorised adult. 

Also, please be aware of our new policy: Please do not use any mobile device when collecting your child. Local safeguarding procedures will only allow us to discharge a child to an adult who is NOT on the phone or using a mobile device. No photos or videos can be taken of your child inside the school building. We will be happy to take any photos on the school's device and send them to you via Tapestry. Thank you for you understanding and cooperation in this.

There will be some changes to staffing during the month of January as Miss Cliffe is not able to attend every day, however, rest assured it will return to normal after then. We have made appropriate plans to ensure the day-to-day running of the class will be unaffected during this time.

We have not yet covered all our phonic sounds so will continue to have a phonic of the week until all sounds have been covered. I will then inform you of how we plan to run 2 phonic ability groups. Our class will consist of new children and children who have a secure understanding of phonics so this will ensure we cater for everyone’s needs. Prior to any changes, I will hold an interactive parent phonic workshop. This will provide an opportunity for me to answer any questions, explain what we will be covering during the phonic sessions and offer any support to you, the parents, who would like to know more about phonic sounds so you can support your child at home.

For the new parents, I will be doing a short informal induction presentation at 12.10am for 15 minutes. I will let you know the date of that shortly. I will be discussing the classroom procedures and phonics, so if you are a new parent please make a special effort to attend. It will be a great opportunity to ask any questions. If you are an existing parent, you are also welcome to attend.

I start my research for my dissertation (on boys and mark-making) this week, so will be in touch with the relevant parents this week to organise a short group interview. Thank you to those affected. I am most grateful.

As always, we welcome your feedback and enjoy working in partnership with you.

Best Regards

Mrs Jennings

4th November 2015.

Welcome back after half term.

We are very excited to roll out our new online learning journeys from today. As mentioned in our presentations, there are many benefits to using an online system. You will now receive weekly observations and read all about what your child has been doing at school, see photos and read about what learning has been achieved. Please try to send us your comments too so that we can collaborate and meet your child's needs more effectively. If you have any issues/questions with the new system, please come and see me.
 
Every child has fully settled into Foundation One now.It is a delight to see them enjoying their playing and learning. We will continue with daily phonics as the children love these short 5 minute interactive sessions and they are learning so much. This week we will revisit the s,a,t,p,i,n sounds and then introduce the next phonic sound next week. Please remember to keep an eye on the notice board outside F1 to see what phonic sound it is that week. We will commence with learning weeks next week too. The children love bringing in their chatter box and we enjoy linking the planning to their interests, so please continue to complete the feedback forms and returning them each Thursday. The more details you can share with us, the better we can meet their needs.

This next half term is a busy one, what with Christmas festivities. As always, our door is always open. Miss Cliffe and I thank you for your continued support.

Kindest Regards

Mrs Jennings

Welcome to a fresh new academic year!

Dear Parents / Carers,

Firstly, may I thank those of you who kindly bought me cards and gifts. They were very much appreciated. I hope you are all enjoying the summer holidays. I certainly am.

I want to welcome you all now in preparation for the start of a fresh new academic year, which starts on Thursday 3^rd September. We will welcome 9 new children into our class: Hadriel, Daniel, Joanna, Aviwe, Aleeza, Mikel, Amanda and Samuel, as well as welcoming back Tegan, Emil, Jamie and Liam. That makes a total of 12 children at the moment. Mrs Elliott has retired and Miss Cliffe will be the new F1 practitioner working alongside me. She has many years experience at a Bracknell nursery and is suitably qualified. We both look forward to nurturing, playing and teaching your child in F1 this term.

We will continue to incorporate your ideas for planning for your child’s development. Please watch out for the form to complete. This week and next are settling-in weeks.

I will be holding a short presentation for parents after the whole school presentation on  16th September at 6.30pm. I plan to inform you all about early years and what to expect in Foundation One. Please can everyone make a special effort to attend. Thank you.

Please note: PE is on Wednesday mornings. Please wear PE kit to school on this day. Assemblies in the hall are on Thursdays and Friday mornings so indoor shoes must be changed into on arrival on these days. Unless it is wet outside, outdoor shoes can be worn on Mondays-Wednesdays as we have free-flow outside. Our school day starts at 8.45am and ends at 12.10pm (morning only sessions) and 3.30pm for all day sessions. The whole school finishes at 12.30pm on Fridays so no lunch is needed to be brought in. Please remember to pack a healthy lunch that your child will enjoy and actually eat (if staying for lunch). No nut products please! Every child needs a morning fruit snack and healthy drink, although we have water and milk.

Please remember to read the F1 notice board outside the classroom every week for important information, including phonic sound of the week. More on this and everything else at the evening presentation….

So, welcome and remember our door is always open. Working in partnership with you benefits everyone.

If you have any questions before school starts, please feel free to email me at :

m-jennings@newboldschool.co.uk

See you on the 3^rd. J

 

Best Regards

Mrs Jennings