Early Years Welcome and Staff Information

Early Years Autumn term

Welcome to Early Years 2021 Welcome to Early Years 2021 Hello parents/carers, Welcome to Early Years! We are delighted to welcome you and your child into our school community. It is such an exciting time! Early Years encompasses both Nursery and Reception classes. This presentation is designed to give you some information about what happens in our Nursery and Reception classes. We hope that you will find it useful. We are looking forward to working with you and your child throughout the year! Kind regards The Early Years Team

Welcome to Early Years! Welcome to Early Years! Nursery We have one Nursery class. We are delighted that most of our Nursery children are now able to join us for the full school day. Reception In Reception we have two classes. Class 1 and Class 2 which are situated next door to one another.

Nursery Staff Nursery Staff Miss Martin is the Nursery Teacher: Miss Martin is the Nursery Teacher: nmartin@corpus nmartin@corpus- -christi.org.uk christi.org.uk Support staff: Support staff: Mrs Mrs Richter Richter- -Wolzscak Mrs Channer Mrs Channer Ms Ms McCann McCann Wolzscak (pronounced (pronounced Rickter Rickter- -Volshchak Volshchak) ) Your child will be assigned one of these adults as their Key worker over the Your child will be assigned one of these adults as their Key worker over the next few weeks. This is a more personal point of contact for your child in next few weeks. This is a more personal point of contact for your child in addition to Miss Martin as the class teacher. addition to Miss Martin as the class teacher.

Reception Staff Reception Staff Mrs Bray is the Class 1 Teacher ( Mrs Bray is the Class 1 Teacher (Early Years Phase Leader) zbray@corpus zbray@corpus- -christi.org.uk christi.org.uk Early Years Phase Leader) Miss Miss Loh mloh@corpus mloh@corpus- -christi.org.uk Loh is the Class 2 Teacher is the Class 2 Teacher christi.org.uk Support staff: Support staff: Mrs Sheehan Mrs Sheehan Mrs Mrs Donlon Donlon Miss Miss Haque Haque Your child will be assigned one of these adults as their Key worker over the next few weeks. This is a more personal point of contact for your child in addition to Mrs Bray/ Miss Loh as the class teachers.

CInsert who to see protocol

Morning drop Morning drop- -off off Morning drop off time is between 8:45am and 8:55am. Nursery: Nursery should be delivered to the Nursery door (through the small catering entrance on Trent Road). Reception: Reception children should be dropped off at the large black gates on Horsford Road. The gates will be locked at 8:55am. If you arrive after this time, please take your child to the School Office and they will be taken into class. Your child will receive a late mark if they miss the gate closing (except for special circumstances.)

Afternoon pick Afternoon pick- -up up Afternoon collection: Nursery: Please come into the playground to collect your child from the Nursery door. Afternoon collection is currently 2:50pm whilst we wait for all Nursery children to join us. From Monday 20th September, collection time will be 3:10pm -3:20pm in line with the rest of the school. Reception: Please come into the playground to collect your child (using the same entrance). Afternoon collection is between 3:10pm 3:20pm. The gates will be closed at 3:20pm. If you arrive after this time, please go to the School Office to collect your child.

Afternoon pick Afternoon pick- -up up If you have arranged for another parent or family member to collect your child, please inform the office by telephone and class teacher by email. If a last-minute change is made to end-of day collection please ring the school office and they will inform the class teacher. We thank you in advance for your patience and support whilst we are dismissing the children. Our priority is that the children are collected safely by the correct adult. For this reason, it takes us a while to release the children each day.

Making contact For all absences, parent pay, uniform, medication etc. the best contact is the school office. You can telephone them or contact them on office@corpus-christi.org.uk If you want to mention something quickly to a member of staff you are welcome to do so at drop off in the morning or you can email your child s class teacher. If you need to speak to the teacher for a few minutes, you are welcome to do so at the end of the school day. However, please wait until all of the children have been released to their parents/ carers. If you need more than a few minutes of the teachers time, then please email them to make an appointment.

What do we teach in Early Years? What do we teach in Early Years? In Nursery and Reception we follow The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This is spit up into 7 areas of learning: Communication & Language Personal, Social and Emotional Development Physical Development Literacy Maths Expressive Arts and Design Understanding the World In addition, children in Nursery and Reception have a weekly PE lesson with a specialist sports coach and a fortnightly ballet lesson with a specialist dance teacher. This year, children in Reception are also taking part in a new music programme with the Royal Academy of Music (weekly lesson).

Most of our teaching in Nursery and Reception is through play. Nursery and Reception days consist of short teaching sessions on the carpet, followed by free play when children can choose to engage with a range of carefully planned and resourced play activities. Both Nursery and Reception work on topics, although in accordance with the new curriculum, much of the learning that takes part is child led and initiated. Each day children in Reception will have a phonics input, a maths input and one other (topic dependent). At the end of each week, your child s class teacher will send you an email to let you know what the learning focus have been and how you can support your child at home. Please make sure that the school office has an up to date email address for you, so that this information always reaches you.

Phonics We teach children to read using a synthetic phonics scheme. Nursery: Children work through Letterland. They learn the alphabet and crucially the sounds that each letter makes. They learn how to hear sounds in words. Reception: Children recap all of the Letterland sounds. They then learn digraphs (sh, ch etc.) and trigraphs (igh,air etc.) Children are taught how to orally blend and segment words. When they are ready they begin to apply this to reading decodable words and eventually recording (writing) some.

Reading Please read to your child/ share books and rhymes as much as possible. Reception: Once the children have been taught most of the phonic sounds, they will begin to bring home 2 books per week. This will be after October half term. Please share these books with your child and support them in reading them. We will also send home some tricky words (non decodable words) for your child to practise.

Homework activities After October half term, the children in Nursery and Reception will bring home an orange home/school book. Each week, your child s class teacher will send home a practical activity for your child to complete at home with you. These simple activities are based on what the children have been learning during that week. It is not essential for your child to complete these, although they tend to really enjoy it. In the orange book we encourage parents/ carers to make comments/ stick in photos/ drawings to show what the child has enjoyed about the activity/ has been able to do.

Ballet/ PE Ballet/ PE Ballet: Nursery have ballet every Tuesday and Reception have ballet every 2nd Tuesday. Children do not need to wear their PE kit for this. PE: Both Nursery and Reception classes have PE on a Thursday. Please ensure that your child comes to school wearing their PE kit every Thursday. The PE kit is: A navy blue tracksuit A white t-shirt with the school crest Any socks Any trainers

Class Google Site Each Year group has a Google Site. This site is used for: * Displaying termly notices and newsletters. * Providing curriculum information and guidance relevant to each year group. * Displaying photos of our learning through the year. (Please do not share any photos on social media platforms.) * Class Prayers * Please check the Nursery/ Reception Google site regularly as it is a good way to keep up to date.

Important dates Come and spend a day in Early Years! Day in Early Years Reception: Wednesday 6th October 9:15am 10:15am or 2pm 3pm We are very aware that parents/ carers have not had any opportunity to come into school and see the environment. Come in and see your child s classroom and some learning in action. They would love to show you around! Nursery Wednesday 13th October 9:15am 10:15am We will be asking parents to sign up for the sessions in the next couple of weeks but please save the date.

Important dates A social evening in school for new parents A social evening in school for new parents Wednesday 6 The parents association are hosting an evening to welcome new parents/ carers into the school community. This will be held on Wednesday 6th October at 7pm in the school hall. The School Leadership Team will also be present to give some information about learning and extra curricular opportunities across the school. Wednesday 6th th October October Nativities Nativities Week commencing 6 Week commencing 6th th December Both the Nursery and Reception perform a Nativity for parents/ carers. These will take place during the week beginning 6th December 2021. We will send you the specific date and time of your child s performance in a few weeks time as there will be two different ones. December

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or queries please feel free to email your child s class teacher or Mrs Bray (EYFS Phase Leader). Mrs Bray will also be available in the playgrounds (between the Nursery and Infant playgrounds) on Monday 20th September from 2:30pm if you would like to come and say hello or ask anything in person.