• Things to be brought into school

A book bag, labelled water bottle, labelled PE kit in a drawstring bag to be kept in school, labelled wellies, a spare set of clothes in a labelled bag in case of accidents, a coat and a packed lunch if that is your lunch choice for your child at lunch times.

• PE – Big Moves on Tuesday morning (1 hour for 15 children) and Friday afternoon as usual

We will be sending PE kits home over the half-term so that they can be washed and brought back to school on the first day after the holidays. Please continue to ensure all jewellery is removed at home and hair is tied back. Please label all PE clothing and uniform with your child’s name to avoid lost clothes. We will be taking part in a programme called ‘Big Moves’ after the half-term provided by a company who aim to work with EYFS children to engage and build their core as well as develop gross motor skills. This is a short session over 6 weeks and we will let you know the once the programme is due to end as we will then be having PE on our usual day – Friday. Please see the letter in your child’s bookbag for more information if they have been chosen to take part in Big Moves. Jewellery will need to be removed for these sessions.

• No earrings for PE

A reminder to tape or take out earrings for our PE lessons every Friday and Big Moves on Tuesdays if your child is taking part in this. As the year progresses, the children will be taking part in more contact sports and may not be able to do PE lessons if they have jewellery kept in.

• Reading

When your child receives their first reading book, it is really important that reading is continuous at home. Your child may get a picture book from which you can discuss with your child what is happening on the pages, encourage your child to speak in full sentences when talking about the pages and encourage your child to point and name common pictures. Some children may receive a word book and it is important that you encourage your child to say the sounds first for one word at a time and then read the word. This will encourage recognition of sounds and practise the skills of segmenting and blending.

We advise for you to encourage your child to read their school book 3 times a week to make progress. Any time you have read with your child, please date, sign and write a comment in the diary which we will then check. They do not have to finish the book in 1 day. They could read 1 page on one evening, 2 pages another evening and back to 1 page on the third evening. We will move your child’s face on our reading chart every time you hear them read at home. If your child has read 3 or more times in a week, they will receive 1 house point on their sticker chart. We also advise that your child reads their book twice, in order to develop fluency. We will hear all children as often as we can.