Preparing the Reception children who are returning to school on Monday

Dear parents and carers

If you have indicated that your child is returning to school next week, you should have received a letter giving you full information for the arrangements.  This is just a little more to help you prepare your children further.

Nightingale class (who are not in the key worker group) will be with Mrs Tucker and Mrs Henderson.

Hargreaves class (who are not in the key worker group) will be with Mrs O’Hagan and Mrs Whitestone.

The key worker group will be with Miss Duncan and Mrs Cieslik and Miss Battams and Mrs Szabo.  Miss Duncan and Miss Battams are our Year Two teachers and both are experienced in teaching in Reception.  The government guidance states that we cannot ‘mix’ groups of children and hence they are in a different group to the rest of our class.

We intend to do short bursts of adult led learning – phonics, maths, literacy, speaking and language, expressive art and design and understanding the world (science) alternated with active activities such as music, dance, outdoor play, yoga, water play etc.  There will be much less child led learning and limited independent play – all of which will be in soapy water – e.g. one or two children will be allowed to play with the marble run or vehicles but they will all be in a weak soapy solution.  Each child has their own little desk and chair and a pack of their resources including pencils, paper, white boards and pens, paintbrush, playdough, plasticine, counters, number track etc.  We have spent the whole year encouraging children to share resources but now we need them to make sure that they only use their own!

During the day we will make sure that we encourage the children to wash their hands regularly and not to get too close to us or their friends.

It may help to talk to them about how school will be different and show them these pictures so that they know what to expect.  We will of course do everything to make sure that they are still learning and enjoying school and we will continue to make sure that we keep them safe.

The other side of the larger room is set up with activities but I haven’t got a picture of those.

We do understand that the children will have different emotions about returning to school – if they are anxious or worried, please be assured that we will look after them.  If they are reluctant you could use the promise of their own pack of goodies as a way to get them excited about returning!

Best wishes

The Reception Team