A warm welcome to all of our Early Years children and families!

As a 'paperless' school it is vital that you check your child's class page and the Seesaw app weekly, to keep updated with everything that is happening - and in Early Years there is alot!

Staff

The staff in our fantastic unit this year are Mrs Nicholl, Mrs Smith, Mr Butterworth and Miss Chowdhury.

With Mrs MacMillan supporting us most days and help from Mrs Boucher too!

Our lunchtime supervisor is Mrs McCartney.

P.E

The Reception children will have a P.E session on a Thursday morning. Please ensure your child comes to school dressed in weather appropriate kit and trainers, instead of their uniform, with their PE pumps in their school bag.

Wellies

The children venture outside in all weathers, so a pair of wellies (labelled with your child's name) will be really handy to keep in school. 

Labelled uniform

Please ensure your child's uniform is labelled with their name - particularly their jumpers, cardigans and shoes as they are removed often and are difficult to keep track of in a busy Early Years setting.

Homework

Once your child has learnt to blend sounds to read words in phonics you will be asked to sign up to 'eBooks' where you can access the book your child is reading in school and they can practise with you at home. Your child will also be given 'tricky words' to learn, these are high frequency words that are not phonetically decodable. There are 12 sets of 'tricky words' and your child will make their way through the sets throughout their time in Reception. There are additional things you could practise at home that you will find in your child's reading record such as sound recognition, pronunciation and letter formation.

Children who are working towards blending sounds together to read words, particularly children in Nursery, will benefit from singing nursery rhymes, songs and looking at high quality children's books with an adult. 

Library 

Every Friday your child will visit the school library and pick a book to take home for the week. Please return books on Friday morning so they can be changed.

We can't wait to start your child's journey at Whitegate End alongside you, and will be here to support your family every step of the way. Please use the Seesaw app to contact us with any queries you may have, no question is too small and no problem is too big. 

We are honoured you chose us for this big step. Let's get going...

Autumn 1

This term we will be focusing on settling the children into the Early Years unit and ensuring that all the children are happy and, in turn, ready to learn! We will be learning all about how to be a Bucket Filler too!

The concept of the topic is based around the book 'Have you filled a bucket today?' by Carol McCloud. Please copy and paste the link below into your internet browser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEg38zCOMgk

During this first half term we will be working hard to create a happy learning environment for all. This topic will help your child to learn about kindness, how their actions and words affect others and important social skills. I find the book is food for thought for adults too! Can you show your child what it means to be a Bucket Filler?

The terms 'bucket filling' and 'bucket dipping' will be used throughout the half term and beyond, perhaps you could use it at home too to help your child to recognise when they are filling up, or indeed dipping into, someone's bucket.

In Reception phonics will take off in the second week of the term where the children will be learning sounds and how to blend them together to read words through the Little Wandle phonics programme.

Autumn 2 and beyond...

Please ensure that you are now set up on the Class and Family Seesaw apps for weekly updates on your child's learning include what The Rainbow Challenges are each week, photos and information about our topic work. Lots of messages, reminders and key dates are also shared on the apps. See you there!