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

Our trip to Bird World

I have attached some photos of our children at Bird World, taken on Tuesday 23rd June 2015. We had an enjoyable day. We saw many different birds, visited underwater world, watched penguins feeding time, visited the discovery centre where we learnt more about Noddy the parrot, a snake, a rabbit, a tortoise and an owl. We even touched the snake if we felt brave enough. We enjoyed a picnic and a play in the farm and parks.