Please book parents evening slots for Wednesday 18th October and Wednesday 1st November.
Welcome to Toucan Class!!
Teacher: Mr Crowley Teaching Assistant: Mrs Aves
Introducing our first Quest of the year...
It's Fantastic to be me!
(Autumn 1)
Welcome everyone to your first half-term at Ascot Heath! We are very excited to teach our new Toucan Class and get to know them all a lot better. In this quest we will be learning all about each other from our differences to our similarities. We will also be spending a lot of this half-term settling down and getting to know Ascot Heath, taking a huge step in your learning journey!
See below to see what exactly we'll be doing this half-term!
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.
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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 Tuesdays 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.