Information for Parents

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Please ensure all items of clothing are labelled, including shoes!

PE KIT

Pupils will wear their P.E. kit to school on a Tuesday and Friday. They will need to wear their house colour t-shirts, shorts/joggers/leggings and trainers. Pupils should wear their school jumper/ cardigan on top. 

WATER BOTTLES

Water bottles are kept in a box in the classroom and children may drink throughout the day. This is in addition to any drink’s bottle included with a packed lunch. Please ensure this water bottle is clear and contains only water and their name is clearly marked. Water bottles can be purchased from the office.

SNACK

Your child will need to bring their own snack, which may include fruit/veg, bread sticks, rice cakes or cereal bars, clearly labelled with their name please.

GROUPS

The children are grouped initially with the children who started on the same day during our staggered intake. These groups will be changed regularly throughout the school year to give the children the opportunity to work with other children in their class.

Curriculum Information

LANGUAGES, LITERACY and COMMUNICATION

We use the Jolly Phonics scheme within Reception to teach Phonics.  Pupils are introduced to a new phonic sounds every day through stories, songs and rhymes.  We teach the children the letter sound not the name of the letter.

Pupils are also introduced our reading scheme, Oxford Reading Tree.  Pupils will be introduced first to the characters and their names. They will then be taught key sight words, which we have split into sets that progress in parallel to the level of book. We do test the children regularly on their flashcard words and we ask that these are learnt by sight and not by decoding/sounding out.   We will only send new words home when these words are recognised in their reading.

One of our main focuses in school is to improve standards in writing and we encourage the correct pencil grip. In your welcome pack you may remember receiving an example of our handwriting scheme. Initially children may find this a little tricky, but with perseverance it has proven to encourage children’s writing to flow

MATHS and NUMERACY

Pupils will develop their understanding of counting, 1:1 correspondence, number recognition, number formation and early addition and subtraction strategies. We will also work on shape, length, capacity, weight, time and data handling. 

Pupils will use the Mathletics programme as an aid to their learning.    

On Entry Assessment

The 'On Entry Assessment' was developed to assess children’s abilities and development in 3 areas of learning:

• Languages, Literacy and Communication
• Maths and Numeracy
• Health and Welbeing

This assessment will be conducted over the first 6 weeks and will be in the form of observations and formative assessments e.g., how they play with others, how they communicate with each other, care for themselves etc.

LEARNING AREAS

As you may have noticed during your visit, Reception is divided into the Language Room, the Maths Room, Middle Area and Outside. The children work within all areas during a school day. During the afternoon session (which is topic based) the children have the opportunity to work with their friends from the other class. They also have this opportunity in the morning if they are in the Middle Area or Outside.

HOMEWORK / SEESAW

All homework at Evenlode is completed via Seesaw, an online learning journal.  Students use creative tools to enter text, to take pictures, draw, record videos and more to capture learning in a portfolio.  Children are issued with individual logins at the start of the year to be able to access their own journal and complete teacher created activities that are assigned on Fridays and submitted by Wednesday mornings.    Seesaw is available from https://app.seesaw.me on a computer, or you can install the Seesaw Class App on an iOS or Android device. 

TREASURES

You may have noticed that you child may have brought home a small prize on a Friday. The prize is given to the group who have gained the most treasure. These are given to children for anything over and above the golden rules and may include good effort in work etc.

LEO the LISTENING LION

To help children with their listening skills we introduce Leo, who  is the listening lion. Leo will be brought home on a Friday and return to school the following Thursday. Leo will be coming home with a book which we would ask you to help your child write about activities that they have done with Leo and add photographs or drawings. When Leo is returned this will be an opportunity for your child to discuss with the class what Leo has done. Leo will come home each week with the ‘Golden Ticket’ winners from Reception.

TRIPS

Lastly we try to arrange  trips which reinforce  the topic that we are learning about at that time. We normally organise these termly. We ask for payment in advance through Parent Pay as we are a cash free school. Even though payment is on a voluntary basis, unfortunately if we do not receive sufficient funds, the trip will be cancelled.

Termly Curriculum Topics

AUTUMN HOOK - CELEBRATE

Big Question - Does everyone celebrate the same things?

We will be celebrating ourselves as well as learning about celebrations from around the world. 

SPRING HOOK - Growing

Big Question - How do things grow?

Pupils will be learning about different classifications of animals, compare young with adult animals, look their features and habitats. They will also learning about what plants need to grow and how we grow as humans.

SUMMER HOOK- Footprints

Big Question - What leaves a footprint?

We will be learning about the world and how what we do locally can affect people globally. Pupils will discover what they can do to leave a 'green' footprint along with looking at the 'footprints' that have been left from the past. 

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