Ravensmead Primary School Welcome

Reception Teachers Miss Morgan Miss Bould

First Day of School Some children will start on Wednesday 5th September. Some children will start on Thursday 6th September Some children will start on Friday 7th September

Promoting Independence You are welcome to come into class with your child during the initial settling in period. It is our aim that by October half term at the latest, all children enter school on their own.

After the first day, please arrive promptly at 8 After the first day, please arrive promptly at 8.50am to be ready to start activities by 8.55am Each Reception class have a set of double doors where they will enter through in the morning. A member of staff will be there to greet them in the morning.

Home time School finishes at 3.15pm. The Reception teachers will dismiss all of the children at the Reception doors; the single door for Miss Bould’s class and the double doors for Miss Morgan’s class. Please wait a short distance away from the doors, so that we can see you clearly. Children will not be allowed to leave until you have been spotted by the adults. Children will only be allowed home with a person who has been formally introduced to the Reception Staff.

Dinner time Dinner time is between 11.55am-1.10pm. From September 2014 the government fully funded meals for all Reception and Key Stage 1 pupils. This will continue at this time, unless there are changes. However, if your child wishes, they can have a packed lunch (please ensure that their lunch boxes or lunch bags are clearly labelled). No fizzy drinks, flavoured water or glass bottles.

Free School Meals If you feel that your child may be entitled to “Free School Meals”, please fill in the form inside your pack and send it back into school as soon as possible or you can give your details to us this evening. This is important as it provides extra funding for the school. If you are successful at applying for “Free School Meal” entitlement you will be given a £100 voucher for Smart uniform. It also means that any school visits are funded by school.

During the first few weeks, all Practitioners in the Foundation Stage go down to the dinner hall with the children to help them make food choices, and to know where to sit etc. Reception children begin dinner 10 minutes earlier to ensure that the hall is quiet when they first enter. The children should be able to use a knife and fork.

Adopted & Looked After children. We need to see all birth certificates of children who have not attended our Nursery. This is a statutory requirement. If your child is adopted or has ever been placed on a special guardianship or residence order, we would appreciate this information as this is a requirement for the school census (a DFE requirement).This will be kept as confidential information.

Water Bottles/ Snack time Children are encouraged to bring into school a water bottle each day, only water please, not juice. Water bottles with the school logo can be purchased from the school office for £1.50 All children in Reception are provided with a cup of milk and a piece of fruit each morning. No other snack provided by you is necessary.

School Uniform / P.E kit Details of the school uniform are in your pack. All the uniform can be purchased from SMART uniform in Newcastle. Obviously you can buy any uniform from any other retailers e.g. Tesco, Asda. It is essential to label all clothing that belongs to your child. Please begin to encourage your child to get dressed and undressed independently, as this forms part of our assessment of your child.

Jewellery Jewellery, including earrings, MUST be removed when children take part in physical activities. They are not permitted for safety reasons. Teachers are not responsible for the removal of earrings or other jewellery. They should be removed by the children or by the parents before school. If your child cannot take out their own earrings they will not be able to participate in P.E activities. If your child is planning to have their ears pierced, please try to do this during the summer holidays.

Wellington boots/Spare Clothing Wellington boots are needed in September and are left in school throughout the year. Both boots need to be clearly labelled and pegged together. We would ask that you provide a spare set of clothing, that can be kept in school on their peg in the event of any accidents.

Telephone Numbers/Illness Please make sure that the office staff have up to date telephone numbers (especially mobile numbers) at all times in case your child becomes ill during the school day and needs to go home. Text messaging service – we do use a text messaging service, so please ensure that we have up to date details in school. We can only contact one Parent or Carer on this.(first contact details) If your child becomes ill in the night, please ring school on the first morning of their absence-by 9.15am. We need a phone call on each day of your child’s absence. When your child returns to school, please bring a letter into school explaining why your child has had time off school. If your child has a medical appointment in school time, please bring a copy of their appointment letter in to school.

Inhalers If your child needs to use an inhaler, please ensure that he/she has a spare one to leave in school (with his/her name written clearly on both the inhaler and the spacer) You will be given an Asthma Care plan to complete for your child.

Medicines The Reception staff will administer medicines but only if the medicine has been prescribed by the doctor and has your child’s name clearly visible on the bottle/packaging. We must have written permission by the parents explaining what you would like us to do, how much and when. Forms are available from the main office. No un-prescribed medication will be given (e.g. pain and fever relief/hay fever tablets) unless a specific request from the doctor.

Special Needs Mrs Goodall is the school’s Special Needs Co-ordinator. Please do not hesitate to contact her if you have any concerns or questions about your child’s learning development.

Term time Family Holidays If you plan to go on holiday during term time, you must complete a school holiday form available from the Main Office. This must then be passed on to the office staff or your child’s class teacher. The Headteacher, on behalf of the Governors will inform you that holidays should not be taken in term time, unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. It will not be possible to categorise any holiday as “authorised leave”. The local authority has the capacity to fine families; fining each adult of the child £60 each for taking term time holidays.

Learning Reception children learn through topic related activities like Nursery but at a higher level. Topics may include “Once upon a time”, “Minibeasts” and “All around the world”. At the start of each term, an information booklet outlining the ‘Topics’ is sent home with your child to inform you of those being covered. This is also available on the website. You are welcome to send into school any relevant materials, books, artefacts etc that will enhance the children’s knowledge and understanding.

The New Foundation Stage Curriculum: Organised into 7 Areas of Learning 3 Prime Areas Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, and Language, Physical Development 4 Specific areas Literacy Mathematics, Understanding of the World, Expressive Arts and Design.

Assessment: Foundation Stage Profile The children’s achievements are collected throughout the year through photographs, videos, observations, discussions with parents and small group work. These are then recorded onto their electronic Learning Book for each child to show what they can achieve. Parents are able to upload any achievements from home on to their child’s Learning Book. There will be a further meeting about the Learning Book in the Autumn term.

We would really like you to feel part of the assessment process by uploading any of your child’s achievements at home on to their Learning Book. ‘Magic Moments’ when your child could do something that they couldn’t do before Sharing swimming certificates and other physical achievements 1st time your child rode his/her bike 1st time your child could count/recognise numbers. Progress towards their individual targets.

Homework Every Friday your child will bring home an information sheet outlining the work being covered during the following week. These sheets will give you some ideas how you can support and reinforce the learning at home. Homework is handed out on a Friday and is due in by the following Tuesday. Team points are rewarded to children who return their homework on time. All children in school are strongly encouraged to share their reading books at home at least 4 times a week.

Donations Like Nursery, Reception provide very practical activities which often require additional resources. Therefore, we would be very, very grateful if you could continue giving a donation to help towards buying extra materials to make these activities possible. £1 per week

Getting Ready for School Can your child: Fasten their coat? Get dressed and undressed? Take off and put on shoes and socks? Use the toilet independently? Use a knife and fork correctly? Hold scissors or a pencil correctly? Sit for a short period of time? Follow a simple story?

Reading/Phonics Meeting During the first few weeks of the Autumn term you will be informed of a meeting with regards to reading and our phonics scheme. We would encourage all parents to attend one of the meetings. We will be having workshops during the year, that we would encourage you to attend so that you can work with your child.

Safeguarding and Pupil Safety The whole school places safeguarding and pupil safety in general as our top priority. We have more complaints about parents turning in the school entrance than anything else and of course during the day there is no parking whatsoever in the school car park. We would ask that you don’t stop or turn around at the front of the school.

What does the pack contain? Reception “Starting school” booklet Writing Booklet Reading Booklet Number formation handout Letter formation handout Privacy Notice Free School Meal application form “Just Playing” poem Lunch invite letter Homework activity

Thank you for attending