Plover Primary School

Foundation Stage

Information for parents/carers

Welcome to

Plover Primary School

Dear Parent / Guardian,

On behalf of the staff of Plover Primary School, I would like to welcome you to Plover Primary School. We hope this booklet will provide useful information, and will begin to answer any questions you may have.

Your child’s time in the Foundation Stage should prepare them for the rest of their time in school. We hope to make it enjoyable and, at the same time, to stimulate their learning.

By the time your child enters school, they will have begun to learn many skills. It is our aim to develop these skills and to provide a secure and happy environment in order for further development to take place.

If you have any questions, problems or concerns please come in and talk to us, phone the school office or email me at cprice@ploverschool.co.uk. Further information about the school can be found in the school handbook.

                                                             

 

Thank you for your cooperation.          

                                                         

Mrs Claire  Price    

Assistant Head                            

School information

SCHOOL ADDRESS:        Plover Primary School,

                                                     Coniston Road,

                                                     Intake,

                                                       Doncaster,

                                                       DN2 6JL

TELEPHONE:                               01302 361450

EMAIL:                                              admin@ploverschool.co.uk

 

HEAD OF SCHOOL:                         Mrs J Ogle

FOUNDATION STAGE

LEADER/

ASSISTANT HEAD:                   Mrs C Price

MAIN SCHOOL TIMES:                        7.30         Breakfast club at Kiddiewinks

                                           8.40  F2 doors open -School starts

                                           8.45         Learning starts

                                           11.45-12.35 F2 dinner

                                           3.15         End of school day – After school clubs

                                           4.00         After school provision at Kiddiewinks

F1 SESSION TIMES:                          Morning session 8.45-11.45

                                        Afternoon session 12.15-3.15 (doors open 3.00)

                                        30 hour children 9.00-3.00

SCHOOL WEBSITE:                        www.ploverschool.co.uk

You can find the Foundation 1 (Nursery) and Foundation 2  (Reception) Blogs on the website.

Our Aims

At Plover Primary School, we aim to provide a stimulating, happy, organised and secure environment where all children are given the opportunity to succeed.

During the Foundation Stage, we want children to develop independence, to co-operate and to work alongside others.  We encourage them to talk and communicate in a range of situations, building on what they already know, understand and can do.

We will provide opportunities through a planned, and child initiated, curriculum to enable children to develop a positive self-esteem and attitude.  This will enable them to gain confidence, an enquiring mind and to become successful learners. We provide opportunities for every child to achieve their potential.

Parents/carers and staff work together to create a firm foundation on which to build each child’s future.

Attending School

Children will normally be admitted into Foundation Stage 1 from September if they have reached the age of three years by 31st August of that year. They will usually come to either the morning or afternoon sessions and will be admitted gradually, in small groups, over a short period.

At present, there may be the opportunity for some children to be admitted earlier, according to criteria specified in the LA handbook. Children who start F1 in September will spend one year part-time, and will then transfer to full-time school the following September. Some children may be eligible for 30 hours funding and will be full time in F1.

Children start Foundation 2 the September following their 4th birthday. This is full time.

At the end of Foundation 2, we make the transition to Year 1 as smooth as possible. The children have opportunities to spend time in Year 1 and the Year 1 teachers spend time in Foundation 2.

Having made the transfer from Foundation Stage 1 to Foundation Stage 2, encourage your child to be more independent. During the year you will be invited to come into school to help your child.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Toileting

It is important that children are ready to attend school and this includes being toilet trained. We understand that children have accidents but please work with your child on them going to the toilet independently. This includes dressing and undressing and wiping their own bottom as well as washing their own hands.

Attendance and Illness

Please make sure your child is at school on time, and that somebody responsible is there at home time. Please inform staff if someone different will be collecting your child. If someone different is to collect your child who we don’t know then they need to know your password. Children get upset if collected from school late. A few minutes can seem a very long time to small children.

If your child is ill, please do not bring them to school. If your child is unable to attend school, please inform us as soon as possible.

Accidents

Sometimes minor accidents occur, or your child is sick at school. We must have two telephone numbers that we can use to contact you should the need arise.  Please ensure that you keep us up to date with telephone numbers if you change them, particularly for mobile phones.

The accident book will need to be signed for any injury or illness that occurs at school.

School Uniform

Foundation 1 – School uniform is required. Activities can sometimes be messy.  Paint and glue can get in the most unexpected places despite the use of aprons!  Please bear this in mind when dressing your child.  Also, we will go outside to play in all weather conditions, so please ensure your child has clothes which will keep them both warm and dry. Also, please supply a pair of ‘wellies’ and waterproofs which need to stay in school.

Foundation 2 – All children are required to wear our school uniform. Children will need both outdoor and indoor shoes (i.e. black pumps for PE).  Please ensure that outdoor shoes are black in colour and of a practical style.  Velcro fastenings are preferable as laces can be very difficult for young children to fasten.  Please encourage your child to dress/undress themselves at home as they will need to do this in school.  All removable clothing must be named.

Below is a list of school uniform requirements:

Jewellery and make up

Children are not permitted to wear finger rings or other personal decoration at school. There is a risk of injury to children when they are physically active, especially at break times. This statement does not apply to recognised religious jewellery. Children are permitted to wear one pair of small, stud earrings. These must be removed by the child for P.E sessions to avoid risk of injury.  Earrings are the responsibility of the child and we cannot be held responsible should they go missing.  We recommend that children have ears pierced at the beginning of the Summer holidays.

School Dinners

From September 2014 all children in Foundation 2 are eligible for a universal free school meal, however we do encourage parents to apply for Free School Meals too, if eligible this generates extra funding which can be used for resources in school to benefit your child.

https://www.doncaster.gov.uk/doitonline/free-school-meals

 

Milk In School

CoolMilk administers the provision of milk in school. All children in Foundation Stage will receive free milk until they reach their fifth birthday. Parents need to ensure that they have registered their child for milk on the Cool Milk website https://www.coolmilk.com/

School Policies

School has the required policies for equal opportunities, Health and Safety as well those covering the needs of children and the curriculum. These are available for parents/ carers to read if they wish.

Missing Children

Foundation stage is very secure with padlocked gates and locked doors to children. However, should a child go missing, parents would be informed immediately, and school procedures would be followed.

FOUNDATION CURRICULUM

During the foundation stage, children will be provided with experience of the six dimensions of early learning which are:

3 Prime areas

4 Specific areas

Through stories, assemblies and circle time, children will be introduced to the social, moral and cultural aspects of learning and religious education.

Play is a very important part of children’s learning and development. It is through play that children begin to investigate, explore, empathise with others and understand the world around them. Please do not worry if your child comes home and says they have played all day. Often, they will play letter recognition games, number recognition and counting games as well as role play activities.

        

        

Children often have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of activities indoors and outdoors. These include:

WHAT WE WILL TEACH YOUR CHILD

Expeditions

Throughout the year your child will complete 3 expeditions. These are themes of learning and link the areas of learning together. We will have Hook Week’s to engage the children in the new expedition. There will be visits and maybe visitors too. There will be family events as well as a celebration event at the end. We will send out home learning sheets with expedition information at the start of each term.

Phonics

We use the Read Write Inc Programme to teach children in Foundation Stage and KS1.

Speaking and listening is mainly taught in F1. It particularly supports oral work on blending and segmenting and listening for sounds. Listening is a key focus. Children are encouraged to listen for sounds in the environments, body and percussion sounds as well as letter sounds and rhythm and rhyme.

Oral blending and segmenting is covered at the end of F1 and into F2. It is important that children have plenty of practice of listening to adults modelling oral blending and segmenting before learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (letter sounds)

An example of oral blending – “It’s time to get your c-oa-t!”

Children work through the levels of Read Write Inc starting with single letter sounds. There is more information on the school website and we will share more information with you at Phonics information sessions.

Resources will be sent home for you to help you to help your child learn letter sounds and names.

Progression:-

We can help you with activities to do at home at any stage.

Reading

We develop children’s reading skills, primarily through sharing books with them, singing songs and rhymes and encouraging them to listen and join in.

We show them how to take care of books and how to handle books, including holding them the right way and turning pages. We follow the text to show them the direction of print in English.

Children learn a lot about stories by acting them out in role play or by using puppets. Adults model this for your child to give them ideas of what to do. We encourage children to talk about the characters and the content of the book as they play.

We also share information (non-fiction) books with children, talking about what we can find out, including using a contents page in F2.

Home books

In F2 children will  bring reading books home. These are linked to their phonics stage on Read Write Inc. We focus on the sounds first. Children will bring home 2 books. One is new to them but they should be able to read it. One book will be a book that they have read three times in school and should be very confident with.

They will also have a picture book to share.

In F1 children will bring home a picture book to share.

Words

We divide words into 2 groups – red words (those we can’t blend the letters in yet or have tricky parts) and decodable green words (those we can blend the letters in). During phonics time in F2 both are taught.

Red words for children to practice are within their reading books. We use signing  in school to help with these.

The progression follows the Read Write Inc scheme.

On occasions we also send home lists of words for children to read which are decodable and they are to practice blending the sounds together e.g. c-a-t 🠒 cat.

Snuggle and a story

Once the children are settled in school we will start Snuggle and a story. These are sessions where you can come into school to share a book with your child and then for your child to read to you.

Writing

We believe very strongly in modelling writing to show children what writing looks like. We do this through adult directed activities but also when children are playing.

We encourage children to give meaning to the marks they’ve made. This might be using crayons, paints, pencils etc. they need to know the difference between pictures and writing.

By the end of F2 we aim for children to write their own names and other things such as labels and captions, and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation. There are stages in the writing process.

Scribble

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Scribble streamer

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Writing shapes, letters, numbers they have seen or made up

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Writing clearly recognisable letters

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Writing letters to represent words

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Writing the initial sounds in words

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Writing other sounds they can hear in words

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Writing all sounds they can hear in simple three letter words e.g. cat

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Writing words containing long vowels graphemes e.g. b oa t

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Writing phrases

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Writing sentences, beginning to use punctuation

Whatever stage your child is at we value their writing and encourage them onto the next stage. We send home writing activities for your child to complete. Please allow them to do the writing. You may wish to scribe underneath what they say.

Handwriting

We have a handwriting policy in school. When writing with your child please follow the correct formation. Capital letters are only to be used at the beginning of names not within them. Letter formation will be shared with you at meetings.

Mathematical development

We aim to develop children’s mathematical development as they explore, enjoy, practice and give meaning to numbers, counting, sorting, matching and shape.

There are 3 areas -         Number, Number patterns, and Shape, space and measures.

We use indoor and outdoor activities and we encourage children to solve real life problems. We develop understanding through practical activities, role play, games and songs, as well as language relating to daily activities.

Numbers

Children develop an awareness of numbers through action rhymes and songs. Through play we encourage children to see what numbers are and mean, by counting, saying numbers in order, matching numbers and 1 to 1 counting.

By the end of F2 children are expected to recognise, order, and count numbers from 1 to 20 developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems, including adding and subtracting. They are expected to know 1 more and 1 fewer, as well as solving problems using doubling, halving and sharing.

Shapes space and measures

We also learn about time, shape, size, capacity, symmetry, weight, patterns, sorting, position and presenting results. We spend a lot of time inputting mathematical vocabulary through adult focussed activities.

As you talk to your child at home and out, encourage them to use mathematical vocabulary.

e.g.        What shapes can you see on the bus?

        Is it taller or shorter?

        Is the water in the bath shallow or deep?

By the end of F2 children are expected to use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects to solve problems. They are to recognise, create and describe patterns. They are to explore the characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

Learning about your child

There are different ways that we find out about your child – what they like and don’t like, what they can do and what they need help with.

For children new to the school, we offer a home visit or placement visit where we spend time talking with adults and children. F1 visits will take place in September. For new children starting in F2 we will try to arrange visits for the end of the summer term. For children moving into F2 from F1 we hold meetings for parents/carers to update us on their child’s progress, needs and any concerns in September.

Children are then invited to attend introductory sessions, where they find out about school, and begin to make friends. We aim to do this before the summer, depending on school closures.

A  meeting for parents of new F2 children will be held in the summer term to provide information for parents/carers about the curriculum in F2.  We will also be sharing information by email, phone and on Evidence Me.

Once your child has started school, they will be assessed regularly to make sure they are making the expected progress. If we have any concerns about progress we will let you know at the open sessions held termly. We will also tell you where your child has made progress.

Any assessments we carry out on your child are available for you to read. We use an assessment system called Evidence Me. This enables us to make observations electronically that we can email to you.

Parents/carers can add information into the learning journey by replying to emails sent from Evidence Me. Photos are a valuable addition to your child’s learning journey.

All children have a key worker. This is generally the class teacher. The class teacher will be responsible for your child’s development and will ensure that work matches their ability level. Other adults will work with your child, carrying out tasks and assessing them, so will be aware of your child’s needs.

If you have any concerns about your child please speak to an adult in the setting. If the adult isn’t able to answer your question, they will pass it on to someone who can help you.

Daily Routine

This is only a guide as the routine changes throughout the year depending on transition, and topics being covered.

Foundation 1

Greeting time

Large group time

Small group/ child initiated learning – adult focused and independent learning, indoors and outdoors, including snack time

Phonics

Story and rhyme time

Foundation 2

Greeting time, Crew

Phonics

Large group time- Literacy/Expedition

Small group – adult focussed and independent learning, indoors and outdoors

Outdoor time

Large group time -story, Pinny time

Dinner time

Large group - maths time

Small group – adult focussed and independent learning, indoors and outdoors

Focussed activity

Story, songs and rhymes, Pinny time

Children are able to access snack and milk at snack time in the morning. We all sit down together to encourage safe eating. Children are able to have water at this time also.

HELPING YOUR CHILD

Before your child starts school

It is very important that we prepare children adequately for their time in school. There are many things that you can do to help your child. Encourage your child to be toilet trained and to clean themselves without help.

When Your Child Has Started School

The first few weeks in school will be spent establishing a routine. Your child could be very tired, especially at the beginning of term, as it can seem like a very long day for them.

Send in observations and photos on Evidence Me.

In Foundation Stage 2 children will bring home letters to practice and, later, a reading book. It is vital that you spend a short time at home in the evenings practising reading these together.

We also encourage you to practise letter sounds at home rather than letter names. If your child has a good understanding of what sounds the letters make they will be much more confident when learning how to read. If you are not sure how best to do this please feel free to ask your child’s teacher. As they progress in F2, they will then learn letter names.

Parents in School

If, when your child has started school, you have an hour or two to spare we would appreciate your help. You may/may not be placed in the same class as your child but nevertheless there is always plenty to do! Below are some examples of things you may be asked to do:

Any help would be greatly received.

Students in School

We have students in school who attend different schools, colleges and universities. Whilst with us they have a range of tasks to complete and have differing roles. They do help teaching and support staff and allow your child to have greater adult support.

Sometimes they might need permission from you to do observations on your child or to take photographs during group work. We will let you know if this is necessary.

A Final Note

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this information. We will look forward to working in partnership with you.

Mrs C Price

Phase Lead

CP/May24