Welcome back to all our families. Hopefully, you have had a wonderful festive period with family and friends, full of fun and laughter and we look forward to hearing all about it.
Our topic this term is 'Awesome Adventures!'. During this topic we will be going on an Awesome Adventure on pirates ships, to different countries, on a broom with the witches and maybe even on the back of a flying animal!
We will be exploring our topic through each of our areas of learning and we will be providing parents with a weekly newsletter on Class Dojo, showing our story of the month, text of the week, rhyme/song of the week, activities we will be doing and key vocabulary. This will give parents/carers the information they need to support their child further at home.
Class Dojo: At St Botolphs we have started using class Dojo as a positive behaviour system, rewarding children for their amazing work. You will be able to see the points they earn and children will be able to redeem their points for prizes. We will also use Class Dojo to keep parents updated with different events happening at school and any exciting things that are happening in class. Parents can also contact the class teachers directly with any questions they have.
Tapestry: We will still be using Tapestry to show parents/ carers what the children have been doing that week in more detail. Please check this on a regular basis and when your child does wonderful things at home, you can post photographs or short videos on Tapestry for the teachers to see and comment on.
Our core Christian values for the term will be Respect in the first part of the term and then Reverence in the second half of spring. We will explore these themes in our class worships.
PE: Our PE day will continue to be a Monday but as always, please make sure your child's PE kit is brought in on a Monday and we will make sure it is sent home on a Friday. Please make sure that both indoor and outdoor PE kits are provided.
Homework: On a weekly basis we will send home sound books. The expectation is that the sounds/words will be practised on a daily basis from Monday to Friday. On Friday's when the sound book is returned, the children will recap sounds from that week with a member of the Reception Team. If they do not know these sounds, they will be placed in the book again the following week, to continue to be practised at home. Please read and write these sounds with your child to ensure they are secure with them. We will also be sending home a maths activity each week for your child to complete. Again, this will be sent home on a Monday and we ask that this will be returned on a Friday.
Finally, as we return from our Christmas break it is more important than ever that we follow the government information and advice to minimise the disruption to your child's education that Covid-19 has caused. We will be monitoring the advice for education settings very carefully and will notify you if any changes need to be made.
One way we are minimising the risk is to keep our rooms and areas safe is to keep windows and doors open to maintain ventilation. We have air monitors in each classroom and keep our rooms inline with the safety advice we have been given. This may mean that at times the rooms are colder than we would usually see at this time of the year. Please dress your child accordingly with warm layers under their school uniform and appropriate outdoor clothing for the season. Any pieces of clothing or footwear brought into school will need your child's name on it to avoid any confusion or loss.
Your support in sending your child to school regularly and on time is vital so that we can recover some of the lost learning they have already faced and allows us to prepare them for their future learning in such uncertain times.
We are looking forward to another fantastic term and would to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support so far this year. If you have any questions about anything this term, either come in and see us or please use Class Dojo and we will get back to your as soon as we can.
We are wondering where our journey will take us this term. Exciting times ahead!
Miss Kaye, Miss James and the Reception Team