Neptune Class Newsletter


	Neptune Class Newsletter Autumn Term 2007

	Welcome to the Reception/Year 1 class, and for those new parents, welcome to Burstwick Community Primary school. All six classes are named after planets. Our class is known as Neptune. I hope that your child will have a happy and successful year at school. I believe the key to success is partnership with parents - forming good links and communication. We operate an open door policy and invite you to arrange a convenient time to talk to us about your child at any time throughout the school year. To talk, to us about how your child is settling into class, please sign up for an appointment in the cloakroom now. (Appointments are available before or after school from 24^th September onwards). Staff Mrs Hutchinson is the class teacher, Mrs Pepper is the Nursery Nurse. Both members of staff work full time in the class and are involved in the overall development of every child. Mrs Welburn (Teaching Assistant) will work in the class Monday -Thursday from 9.00-10.45 to provide additional support. Every Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Pepper have their planning, preparation and assessment time, and the class will be taken by Mrs Beecroft and Mrs Leitch (Teaching Assistants). Consultation evenings / Tuesday surgeries / Contacting the teacher Three consultation evenings are held throughout the year to inform parents of their child's progress and to allow parents to view their child's work. The first of these will be in November and will be for parents to discuss with the staff how their child has settled into school and what is being learned in class. Every Tuesday after school the class teacher is available to speak with parents about any concerns they may have and appointments can be made by contacting the office. Please be aware that it is important to inform us of any changes to your child's routine, if they have had a bad night etc., at the start of the school day (8.50 - 9.00). However, the class teacher is not available to talk at length at this time as other children arriving into class need to be attended to. If a pressing matter arises then the class teacher is usually available at 8.30 or 3.40 on any school day. We will contact you if your child is ill, has been involved in an accident or is ever distressed. This will be done immediately over the phone if it is serious, or in less serious cases, we will come out to see you as you collect your child after school. We will also contact you if your child displays any negative behaviour at school so we can deal with the situation together in a positive way. Throughout the year we have several assemblies, activities, celebrations and performances to which parents are invited and welcomed. We hope to see you at as many of these as possible, yet also understand the work constraints of many parents. If you have any free time which you would like to spend helping in our class, it would be appreciated and valued. This could be a morning or afternoon or even just an hour and could involve hearing children read, helping a small group play a game or preparing materials. Please let us know if you would like to become involved. Clothing and Equipment All children need a school book bag, available from the office. All children need a pair of indoor shoes - preferably sandshoes and not slippers. All children need to have their name in all school clothing, including vests, sandshoes and coats. All children need to have a P.E. kit consisting of shorts and a T-shirt, (trainers in summer only) labelled with their name. P.E. kits should be brought to school on a Monday and left at school until Friday. Although each class has its own P.E. days, the timetable can change. Therefore P.E. could take place any day and so kit should always be in school. Children will be expected to get themselves changed and unchanged with help given where necessary. You can help your child by encouraging them to change into and out of their uniform independently. Please teach your child to fasten their own coats and shoes and turn clothes the right way out. Children do not need to bring pencil cases or any other equipment to school. Children need to bring their book bag with reading book and word cards to school every day. Please do not allow your child to bring toys to school as they can get lost, broken and easily cause problems. At times throughout the year, your child may be asked to bring articles from home, such as books, photographs or toys, linked to work in class. We will inform you of these times with a notice in the window or note in the book bag. We will look after any such articles and ensure they are returned to the child when finished with. Most of your child's work will stay in school and can be viewed at consultation evenings. However, your child will bring home paintings, models, etc, to share their classroom successes with you. If your child is staying for a school dinner, the meal needs to be ordered and paid for at the beginning of the week. Please send dinner money in an envelope marked with your child's name, amount enclosed and which day(s) they are to stay. School meals are currently £1.65 a day. All children will need a named water bottle. This must be a proper flask type bottle and not just a reused water or pop bottle. The reason for this is that over time the plastic of these bottles can break down and the chemicals from the plastic can mix with the water. Water bottles need to be taken home daily to be cleaned and refilled. Bottles can also be refilled throughout the day at school if necessary. Bottles must only be filled with water, not juice. All children in class have fruit provided daily throughout the school year, yet can bring their own fruit if preferred. This should be brought to school separately from their lunch and placed in their tray. All children in Neptune Class are provided with milk on a daily basis for the first two terms. Please inform us if your child is unable to have milk for any reason. *Reading* All children will bring a reading book home every day. All children will have an envelope of words to learn to read at home. Please try to read with your child every day and practise their word cards. The first books the reception children bring home will not have words. Please discuss the pictures with them first and then make up a story about the characters and situations. You can tell them a story and then let them tell the story to you. Please discuss the title, front cover and pictures with your child before reading the words. Never cover up the pictures as children need to use different strategies including picture clues to help them read. A reading meeting for parents to help their children with reading at home will be held later in the term. Please write comments in their reading record book to let us know that they have read and if you think they need to read the same book again. We will generally change books on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sometimes a child will be given a book or set of books they have already read for a second time. This could be to reinforce the words in the book or to help the child develop their confidence. On Fridays the children can choose a 'silver star' book (library book) to bring home for the week. This book is intended to be read by an adult to the child. Please return these books each Friday so that your child can choose a new book. Soon after starting school, each child is given a 'sound book'. This is for parents to help their child practise the. sounds which correspond to the letters of the alphabet. Each sound also has a corresponding action and story and these help the children to distinguish the letters and learn the sounds more quickly. Behaviour and Discipline From the first day, all children will begin to learn the rules and routines of the class. It is expected that some children will take longer than others to learn and understand what is acceptable and what is not unacceptable. All adults in school recognise that there are lots of new things for Reception children to learn. As a school we believe in promoting and rewarding good behaviour. Each class has its own reward systems including giving praise, stickers, etc. As a school we have a card system which rewards and promotes good behaviour: Green cards These are given to children by any adult in school for good wark or behaviour, The children post their green cards into a post box. Every few weeks a green card assembly is held. Two green cards from each class are drawn from the box and those children win a prize. Certificates are also given to those children who had the most green cards. Yellow cards A yellow card is given to a child as a warning against any negative behaviour which they are displaying. The child knows that if they modify their behaviour that no further action will be taken. Red cards Red cards are given to children who have been given a yellow card already in that session and have continued to persist with their behaviour. Instant red cards are given for any aggressive behaviour towards other children or adults. If a child is given a red card, the adult writes the nature of the behaviour on the card and the child is given time out of the classroom to think about their actions. The Head Teacher and parents are informed. If a child was given several red cards over a period of time, in depth discussions would take place between head teacher, class teacher, parents and often with the child. If necessary the child would then be issued with an individual behaviour plan. Please note that children are rarely given red cards or even yellow cards. Class green cards Class green cards can be given for good work or behaviour when the class has made group achievements. These are displayed in the hall on a notice board and the class with the most at green card assembly win a class privilege. Curriculum The themes for the first and second half term are 'Special People' and 'Special Times'. Special People We will be focusing on what makes each child special, people who are special to them in their families and people who help us in our community. Special Times We will focus on different festivals such as Harvest, Bonfire Night, Birthdays, Christenings, Weddings, bivali and Christmas. Thank you for taking time to read this newsletter. The staff wish all children a happy and successful year and look forward to getting to know them better. Mrs R Hutchinson