"No time is wasted in the early years" Ofsted 2023
Welcome to Toucan Class!!
Thursday 5th, Friday 6th, Monday 9th September ~ Home Visits Tuesday 10th or Wednesday 11th September ~ 9:30-11:30 Thursday 12th September ~ 9:30-11:30 Friday 13th September ~ 9:30-1:15 Monday 16th September ~ full day
Mr Crowley ~ Class Teacher
Mrs McCarthy ~ Teaching Assistant Mrs Johnson ~ Teaching Assistant
Other Faces You May See
Miss Ringrose ~ Forest School Teacher Mrs Elston ~ Cover Teacher
+ Cover Teacher
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Our First Quest in Toucans will be...
It's Fantastic To Be Me!
(Autumn 1)
Ascot Heath are so excited to have our new starters coming in for their very first term at Ascot Heath! In this quest we will be learning all about how amazing we all are, and how we have lots of similarities and differences with everyone around us. As it is also our first term at "big school" we will also take our time learning about the rules and how to respect our environment, our teachers, our friends and ourselves!
See below to see what exactly we'll be doing this half-term!
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Toucans Class Charter:
In Toucans the children will make a class charter to show how they will all act in order to make our class a respective, fun and caring learning environment.
Phonics
At Ascot Heath we use the 'Read Write Inc' phonic scheme to build children's abilities to read and write throughout Early and KS1. This will continue till children join KS2 at which point they will have English lessons as a class. Whilst children are working through the Read Write Inc scheme they will be split into groups of their phonetic ability, mixing all classes from Early Years to Year 2 to best challenge and develop their skill.
Please find below the presentation slides from our Workshop showing the different aspects to our phonic schemes as well as links for ways you can support your child's phonics at home. For handwriting I would recommend using these video's made by Upton Primary school to show you how we learn to write our letters and the rhymes that we teach with them ~ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZhrFZlv6caOgIgflHW-Ug/videos?app=desktop .
PE
Toucans will have PE Monday and Thursday afternoons. All PE kit should be labelled and kept in school for the half term and we will send it home for a wash at the end. Please ensure children have practiced getting changed into their PE kits and back on their own as to limit the amount of time spent changing and increase the amount of time running around and enjoying PE. It is particularly important that any shoulder length hair is tied back and all jewellery is removed for their own and other children's safety.
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Outdoor Area
We use our outdoor area all year round. Something very useful for the children to have in school is a pair of wellies as we often have messy play. We do have some spares but often children prefer to wear their own. The children also should bring their coats in every day just in case we have a sudden downpour, as well as a hat on sunnier days. Please ensure that all of the outdoor area toys are left alone at the beginning and end of the day as they may have been setup for the following day limiting children's want to explore them that day. This also includes our climbing frame as we are not liable for any injuries that occur outside of the school hours.
Forest School
We are very lucky to have Mrs Ringrose and our lovely wild garden which backs onto our outdoor area. Children will take part in forest school on alternative Fridays with half of the class completing it one week and the other half completing it the next. As the weather gets colder and wetter the children will need to bring in clothing that you don't mind getting wet or muddy. e.g. old joggers, waterproof coat, waterproof trousers if you have them. Children will be expected to come in Forest School clothing with a spare pair of shoes to be worn in the classroom.
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Children's belongings
Please do make sure that all your child's belongings are labelled with their names. This will help us out greatly and save us a lot of time as the children learn to look after their own things. This can be simply done by using a marker pen as labels can sometimes fall off. We encourage the children not to bring in things from home such as a special teddy or toys We would hate for these special things to get lost or broken. They can also cause a distraction too from the children's learning. On occasion we may invite children to bring in something but we will always inform you of this first.
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Birthdays
In the past some parents have provided sweet treats for the class when it is their child's birthday, however we have been unable to do this for some time due to allergies and dietary needs.
If you would like an alternative to this we suggest that you could donate a book to our class library (This is not compulsory) Inside the cover we like to write who the book is from and the date it was given.
Communication
It is very important to us that we work with you to get the best for your child. If you would like to chat to us the best time is after school (unless it is something urgent for that day, then let us know in the morning) or if you contact the office via email or phone and we will make time to see you. The school office are very good at helping to solve any day to day issues such as ordering school lunches etc.
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For all other information see below for the Toucan meet the teacher PowerPoint which covers everything in more detail.