New to Early Years

We are always busy at school learning new things and having fun, but learning at home is just as important to support your child’s development.

• Talk to your child about starting school and how exciting it will be with lots of new things to do and learn, and lots of new friends to make
• It is of great benefit both to your child and us if we can find out as much as possible about them before they come to our EYFS. This helps in making your child feel secure and to ease the transition from home to school. Provided with this pack is an ‘All About Me’ booklet. This is for you and your child to fill in together and to return when your child starts school.
• Between now and your child starting school it would be helpful if they could begin to help themselves by ‘having a go’ at putting on and taking off their shoes and clothing in the morning and before bed time. This need not be a worrying or stressful task but an opportunity to help them become more independent. It will be of great benefit to them when they need these skills such as when they are dressing up in the role play area, going outdoors to enjoy messy play and getting ready for PE.
• We do expect all our children to be toilet trained. If your child does have difficulties in this area, please do not hesitate to contact us before they start with us at school. We will do our utmost to help support you and your child with this.

Packed Lunch

If your child is having a packed lunch, these need to be in a suitable container with your child’s name on it.

School dinners are available for a cost of £10.50 per week for Nursery, in Reception school dinners are free. Full Information abotu School Dinners can be foudn on our School Day page.

We have a snack every day, so children will not need to bring a snack from home. We ask for a £1 per week contribution to snacks for Nursery. The usual snack items are apples, satsumas, bananas, carrots, tomatoes and bread sticks or crackers with soft cheese. On Fridays we like to have a special treat for all of the children’s hard work. This may include a biscuit, cakes or even hot chocolate.

Outdoor Clothes

We like to go outside, even though it is sometimes wet & muddy. It would be really useful to have wellies & a waterproof jacket in school every day. Please make sure these items are named!

Sun Cream

On hot days, sun cream (which should be applied at home in the mornings) and a sun hat are essential. It is also imperative that these items are labelled with your child’s name.

Spare Clothes

A bag of spare clothes – your child may need to get changed throughout the day due to accidents, weather conditions or messy play (paint, flour etc). Please make sure this bag is replenished regularly and items are labelled. 

PE Kit

In PE we practise lots of different skills through our Jasmine PE scheme. Jasmine PE develops the key abilities your child needs to be successful within PE and sport. Our PE sessions become more regular after the Christmas period, once your child has settled into their new setting. Where possible, practise taking off and on tights/socks/shoes so that they can become independent when changing for PE. Named PE kits need to come to school at the beginning of each half term and can be taken home to be washed at the end of each half term. We ask that children do not wear earrings on the day of their PE session.

Book Bag

Your child will soon receive a book to read and a reading diary. This is a useful way of having a dialogue between home and school on the progress of your child’s reading journey, so please ensure you write any comments in the reading diary when you have read with your child. You will need a reading folder/bag to keep these in. It is essential that you bring this to school every day.

We have an ‘open door’ policy within our EYFS. We welcome you to talk to us regarding any matters. This is achieved through:

• Daily contact with yourselves at the start and end of school days.
• SeeSaw – our communication app
• Regular Newsletters that inform you of all the exciting activities we have planned for your children.
• Appointments
• Parents evenings
• An annual written report on your child’s progress
• School events, such as the Summer Fair
• We will seek your views on our ‘service’ to help us continuously reflect on what’s best and what could be improved. Results from surveys will be shared as well as the action to be taken.

Seesaw is an app that we use throughout school which has proven to be successful in many ways. This is our main form of contact. We use this app to;

• Share your child’s work
• Share pictures of your child within their school environment
• Send out notices, letters, reminders and any other bits information

There is also a function available for you to send a private message to the class teacher. Staff are not able to reply to messages on SeeSaw during teaching hours. Staff do have an allocated amount of time at the end of the school day up until 4pm. Staff will read any messages that you may have sent and they will respond accordingly. If the message is urgent, ie regarding pick-ups, inhalers and medicines etc, please contact the school office and a message will be passed on to the appropriate class teacher.

Every Friday we like to celebrate the children’s achievements in our Phase 1 assembly. One or two children from each class will be selected to receive a PRIDE award. We like to share these special times with you, therefore if your child is receiving an award, you will be invited to the assembly via SeeSaw.

Once a half term we invite you in to spend some time with your child in their learning environment. This is a chance for you to explore some of their favourite things to do in school, look through their learning journeys and speak to the class teacher.