Welcome to Oak Class 2013!

1. Welcome to Oak Class 2013!

2. Our School Day! • Put coat on peg, put bag away, give in lunch box and any letters. • Find name and sit on the carpet. • Register • Handwriting • RWI • Snack! • Playtime • Assembly • Maths introduction • Jobs • Lunchtime • Teacher input • Child initiated play, small group time, one to one focus time • Playtime • Story • Home!

3. How my child will be learning • Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development. • Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are: • Communication and language; • Physical development; and • Personal, social and emotional development. • These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. • As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are: • Literacy; • Mathematics; • Understanding the world; and • Expressive arts and design. • These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. This is a little bit like a curriculum in primary and secondary schools, but it's suitable for very young children, and it's designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child's unique needs and interests. • Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside

4. At the end of the year! • At the end of the EYFS – in the summer term of the reception year in school – teachers complete an assessment which is known as the EYFS Profile. This assessment is carried out by the reception teacher and is based on what they, and other staff caring for your child, have observed over a period of time. • Another important part of the EYFS Profile is your knowledge about your child’s learning and development, so do let your child’s class teacher know about what your child does with you: such as how confident your child is in writing their name, reading and talking about a favourite book, speaking to people your child is not so familiar with or their understanding of numbers. • All of the information collected is used to judge how your child is doing in the 7 areas of learning and development. • The school will give you a report of your child’s progress, including information from his or her EYFS Profile.

5. PE and Outdoor play • P.E every Tuesday and Friday please name everything and show your child where it is! • Outdoor play daily • Wellies! • Outdoor area

6. Whole School Behaviour Policy • Star of the week • Work certificates • Marbles • Sticker charts • Consequences

7. Communication • Newsletter on the website • Parents evening • Home-school book • Come and ask us!

8. Your child • Tired • No friends • Loose their jumper • Not want to come to school • Upset if they get into trouble • Parties • Trust us!

10. Parents as partners • Research shows that a house full of books gives the children the richest start of all • If parents read to their children, have a range of books in the home and hear their children read on a regular basis, reading standards improve dramatically • Learning to read is a partnership between home and school

11. How are the books organised? • Coloured books bands • A wide ability range within the bands • A mixture of reading scheme and real books. • A balance of fiction and non fiction • Children taught independence and then checked by the teacher. Sometimes we get it wrong!

12. Reading at home • Important for your reading sessions to be relaxed and enjoyable. • Keep sessions short. Ten minutes is great at this stage. • Don’t be over-anxious about errors or continually correct your child. This will make your child stop trying and simply wait for you to read the word. We want your child to practice using different strategies for working out new words rather than depend on you. • LOTS OF PRAISE!

13. Starting to read • Focus on the letter sounds and start to blend sounds together • Build up a bank of high frequency words • Encourage your child to point to each word as she/he reads • Point out the differences between letters and words, spaces between the words, full stops at the end of sentences.

14. I’m stuck! • Wait (for 5-10 seconds) • Use the pictures as a cue • Put the word into context • Look at the first letter and have a guess • Start to blend sounds together • Miss out the word, read on to the end of the sentence and then go back

15. The home school book (reading diary) • Keep you informed of reading undertaken in the classroom • Please put a positive comment following a reading session with your child. • We are happy to change the reading books regularly. • From time to time they will choose the same book or take home an incorrect level • Be patient every child learns to read at a different pace, it can take a long time. • Come and see us if you have any concerns.

16. Problems • My child won’t read at home. • My child is taking home the same book every day. • I think the stage is too easy. • My child is too tired. • I don’t have time.

17. Learning to read is about partnership, if you have a problem please come and ask we want to help!