Welcome to Squirrel Class

Reception is a fantastically exciting year when we welcome you to your learning journey at RAF Benson Community Primary School. We have some amazing things planned for you, so watch this space.

Your teacher this year is Mrs White who will be supported by Mrs Richards (Teaching Assistant). Mrs Lyes  will be taking you for your PE lessons on Friday afternoons.

Important Notice 

Welcome to the Summer Fun. 

We hope you have all had a wonderful half term break and that you are looking forward to the last term of Reception. We have loads of exciting events happening over the term, such as Camo Day;Summer fair and Sports Day. We will also going on our first school trip and we will send details as soon as they are confirmed.  

I'm sure your children have been telling you all about their caterpillars they have been 'growing' over the last term. At the end of term, all the caterpillars had formed chrysalises and we were waiting with excitement for the butterflies to emerge. Unfortunately, the butterflies did not realise we needed a half term holiday and most have emerged over the break. Although I have had to release most of the butterflies, we will have a couple or so left that we can release together on Monday morning. I have managed to make a short film of the emerging process for the children to see. This is available in our photo gallery for our Summer Term 1 topic page if you would like to share the joy with them.

Please can you ensure your child has a named sun hat in school as we will be spending quite a bit of our day outdoors. 

Achievement Assembly , Achievosaurs  and Wow moments. 

Reception children have loved receiving certificates in Achievement Assemblies,which will continue to take place just before pick up on Wednesday afternoons. If your child has been selected to receive an award they will be given an information slip on the Friday before the assembly in which they will receive the award. This will hopefully give you enough notice so that you can make arrangements to attend. If you are unable to make it, please do not hesitate to let us know as we can postpone it to a more convenient time . 

Achievosaurs are our resident dinosaurs who celebrate the children’s ‘growth- mind set’ and ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ achievements. They will be handed out on Friday afternoons and the children will be able to keep them for the weekend. Please can you make sure that they are well cared for and returned to school on the Monday morning. 

Wow moments are those little (or huge!) achievements which happen at home. We would like to celebrate these moments with the children and school too so we will be sending home some popcorn templates for you to fill in when your child has a ‘Wow’ moment. These could be anything from getting dressed independently for the first time to reading a sentence in their book. We have a popcorn board on display and we hope to fill it with all those precious moments. Please could you send in the completed popcorn so we can add it to our board and put a copy in their Learning Journey. Once our board is filled to the brim, we will have a little reward of ‘Popcorn Cinema’ to celebrate. This will take place in the classroom at an appropriate time.

Don't forget to send these in to school so we can place them on our board.

Pick up routine 

Pick up is at 3:10 pm from the Squirrel Classroom door.

School Dinner 

Please remember to order your choices for the meals before using the new online system the day before. 

Packed Lunch 

If you are bringing in a packed lunch, please remember to pack a delicious healthy selection of foods and please be aware that we are a Nut Free school. No chocolate spread or peanut butter!

Snack

Please remember to bring in a named water bottle. We will have a selection of delicious snacks for you to eat.

PE Kit 

The children are enjoying their  PE lessons and we were impressed with how well they were all able to get changed independently. We are still finding shoes without names in them, so please can you check that all your child's kit is clearly labelled, and show them where they should look to identify their items. We are changing into wellies every play time so it is important the children are able to find their own shoes. If your child is unable to put his/her shoes on independently please can you spend some time at home practising this very important skill. 

Reading 

The children are enjoying their reading books and progressing well. Please do speak to us if you have any questions regarding your child's reading progress. It is now important that your child works on comprehension skills and this can be done by asking how and why questions when they have completed a page or book eg. 'How do you know the dog is sad ?' and 'Which word/sentence tells you that the boy was scared ?'. Other activities that help with reading comprehension are asking your child to complete a story map or retell the story through writing or role play. These can be done over a few days and children should not spend more than 5- 10 minutes on these activities at a time. 

Boots and coats 

As it is getting warmer please make sure that your child has a named sun hat and a light waterproof coat. We will not be able to apply sunscreen to children so it is advised that you put it on them in the morning before they get to school. If your child requires more cream during the day, please can you provide a named easy-to-apply bottle of sun cream. We continue to  go outside everyday no matter the weather so wellie boots are essential! We are happy to keep them at school so you don't have to remember them everyday. 

Purple Mash password 

The password you have received for Purple Mash is for your child to access some fun and engaging activities that the program has to offer in the comfort of your home. You can access the program on the school website through Children/Learning zone /Purple mash. Please ask us if you are still unable to access the site. Reception children are not required to do any work on this site but it is a useful and enjoyable tool to help supplement their learning. It is recommended that they do not spend more than 20 minutes at a time using the computer. We would love to see any creations they do make on the site if you are able to print them and send them in . If you do not have a password for this site please can you let us know and we will issue you with one. 

If you have any questions we are always happy to talk to them before or after school. 

 We are very excited about the adventures we will have this year 

and

we hope you'll have loads of fun along the way too !