Reception at Heron Hill
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Back row: Mrs Dodd-Hemingway, Mrs Barber, Mrs Bennett and Mrs Foster. Front Row: Mr Westwell, Mrs Drayton and Mrs Robinson
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Hello and welcome!
 
Staffing
 
Mrs Dodd-Hemingway (teacher) and Mrs Robinson (higher level teaching assistant) will be covering Mrs Foster and Mrs Barber (class teachers) when they are out of class.

Independence

  • Encourage your child to come into school after saying goodbye outside.
  • Your child needs to hang up their own coat so that adults are not coming into the crowded cloakroom in the morning – lots of adults distress some children. Please pass this message onto grandparents when they bring children to school. Your child will need a coat every day as we are outside in all weathers. Their water bottle goes on the sink (and this must contain only water, no juice, as school policy states).
 
Messages

  • Written messages and/or monies in clearly named envelopes to be placed in the tray on the shelf in the cloakroom for the teachers to collect (not in book bags).
  • There is a Parent Board sent home regularly (by ParentMail, if parents are registered) and displayed on the notice board outside the gate. Please look at this to see what the children will be doing.
  • If a different adult is picking your child up after school please let us know verbally, by letter or by telephone. We will not let your child go with another adult without prior warning.
 
School Meals, School Milk, Snacks

  • Remember to book your child’s free school meals online at Lunch Shop.  The meals can be booked up to 3 weeks in advance. Cancel meals before 9.30 am if your child is not going to be at school.
  • ‘Cool Milk’ is free to children who are under 5 years old.  If you have registered, you will receive notification from Cool Milk about how to pay for milk if you wish to continue after your child turns 5 years old.  It costs approximately 23p a day.
  • Your child is entitled to free fruit and vegetables each day for snack time. If you wish to give your child other snacks, only fruit, vegetables or cheese are permitted. 
 
Expenses
 
We will be having a visitor from Zoolab in the autumn term, for which we will ask a £5.00 contribution. The children will also watch a performance of a pantomime (£4.50) during the year. There will be a visit during the summer term which usually costs around £13.00 per child and we will go to the Leisure Centre for a ‘Fun Swim’ session in the small pool which will cost around £1.50 per child.
 
Learning Journeys
 
We have already begun an electronic Learning Journey called ‘Tapestry’.  You will be able to access your child’s photographs and observations as well as add your own comments. You can also add your own ‘wow’ moments from home.  Please let us know if you have any problems.

Physical Development

  • Our PE morning is Friday. Long hair must be tied back and earrings must be removed as per Cumbria guidelines. Make sure that all clothing is clearly labelled, including vests!
  • Practise turning jumpers, trousers, tops and skirts the right way round again as they remove them. This will increase independence so that your children can get changed quickly by themselves.
  • As we are always physically active, often outdoors, it is important that hair is always tied back (please check plastic headbands that fall forwards and do not keep hair out of their eyes) and that the children are wearing appropriate footwear. Children should wear black school shoes; no black trainers please.
 
Phonics

  • There will be a daily phonics lesson using Jolly Phonics to learn each letter sound, song, action and shape.
  • Each week a homework task will be set that matches the sounds and words we have been learning that week.  It will be stuck into your child’s orange phonics book.  These consolidation activities are really important to support your child’s learning and will be checked in school.
 
Communication and Language: Literacy

  • Speaking and listening is of high importance: encourage your child to talk to you and speak to them using a broad and interesting vocabulary. Take time to listen to them and to allow them to make their own decisions where they can.
  • Show and Tell Bag: Children can bring in a present to talk to the class about after their birthday or a special item to do with our topic or from a holiday. Unfortunately we do not have the time to do show and tell on a daily basis.
  • Reading: We will hear your child read and change their books on a weekly basis.  When you hear your child read please write in the blue home/school book. This can be a date and book title or a comment about how your child read at home and will indicate to us that they are reading regularly at home. Books will not be changed unless we know they have been read.
  • Literacy ideas: look at the Parent Board to find out what we are reading each week and for ideas of activities at home. Weekly themes are usually based on a story.
  • Handwriting: always encourage your child to hold their pencil correctly and to start each letter in the correct place every time. Good habits make it easier to join up letters at a later date. Names start with a capital letter but continue with lower case letters.
 
Mathematics

  • It is important that we present Maths in a positive way with an emphasis on the fun and enjoyment of numbers and investigations/problem solving.
  • Start by counting everything forwards (1, 2, 3, 4….) and backwards (…4, 3, 2, 1) making sure that one-to-one correspondence is clear (finger pointing).
  • Ask questions such as how many forks do we need to eat our tea in our family?
  • Read and recognise numbers, checking that they match what we have counted!
  • Encourage lots of mathematical vocabulary – taller, longer, shorter, more, fewer, less, the same….
  • Play games and use different types of dice, spots or numbers.
  • Mathematics ideas to do at home, linked to our weekly theme, will also be on the Parent Board.
  •  ‘Learn Its’ are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts that children need to know by heart and be able to recall instantly.  Your child should be able to tell you which Learn Its they are working on so that you can support at home with these.  In Reception we learn doubles up to double 5, 1+2, 3+2.
 
Child-Initiated Curriculum
  • All learning takes place through play, promoting independence in an engaging learning environment, centred on your child’s interests.
  • The adults will play alongside the children, responding to their interests and moving them onto their next steps. 
  • In addition to this, we will have daily phonics and mathematics teacher input.
 
Parent/Adult Helpers
 
There are always jobs to do in the Reception department; helping children, filing, tidying and hearing readers. There are more specific jobs, for example, helping with Christmas craft activities or dressing children for our production.

If you are interested in helping regularly, or occasionally, please let us know when you are available; you will be most welcome.