Wren Chicks Class 

 Wren Chicks Galley

Hello and welcome to Wren Chicks, our Pre-School / Reception Class.  Our teacher is Mrs Maurice. Our class TAs are Mrs Knight, Miss Hunt, Mrs Kent and Mrs Kerry and Mrs Strutt. Mrs Coduri-Dunn will teach PE on a Thursday afternoon.

In our class children learn through play, following the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. We aim to provide learning that is fun and engaging, and that will challenge the children and support their development. We deliver our curriculum through both adult let input and child-initiated learning opportunities, following children's interests wherever possible and provide high quality interactions, engaging with children in their play in order to develop and deepen their learning opportunities. Underpinning all our learning sit the Characteristics of Effective Learning: Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically. With these at our foundation we aim to support our children to become effective independent learners.  

Our learning journey begins with a focus on the Prime Areas of development: Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. As we develop and our journey progresses, greater emphasis is put on the Specific Areas of learning: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding The World and Expressive Arts and Design. During our time in Wren Class we move from taking our first teetering, brave steps into school, towards becoming confident learners in our Reception Year. 

Autumn Term Newsletter 

Welcome to the Autumn term, 2024! We hope you have all had a lovely summer. We have been very busy getting the classroom ready for the new school year and I am sure you will have noticed some exciting changes in our outdoor area. The enlarged covered area will allow us to enjoy outdoor learning in all weathers and is a really valuable space which we are looking forward to using.

Our over-arching theme for the first half-term this theme is ‘All About Me’ and we will be learning about families, our feelings, bodies and staying healthy. We will also have a weekly book which we try to tie in with special events and celebrations – for example we plan to explore Roald Dahl stories to coincide with Roald Dahl Day, and later in this half-term we will choose texts to align with Talk like a Pirate Day, World Space Week, Recycling Week, and Harvest. Of course, we try to follow the children’s interests wherever possible, so these plans are flexible and may change!

During the second half-term our over-arching theme is ‘Celebrations’ and we will be looking at lots of things that are celebrated such as birthdays, Diwali, Advent and Christmas.

Our focus over the initial couple of weeks will be on settling the children in, and establishing our routines and behaviour. We will also be undertaking baseline assessments (further information on baseline assessment will follow). Once the children have found their feet, in addition to learning through play in Continuous Provision, the daily timetable for Reception children will include phonics and literacy each morning, with maths each afternoon. Across the week there will also be sessions or activities which focus on Understanding the World, RE, PSHE and Expressive Arts & Design ensuring that all 7 areas of learning within the EYFS Framework are taught. Initially these adult-led sessions are very short, and will increase in time over the course of the year.

Pre-School children will also have some adult-led teaching for Phase 1 Phonics and early reading and writing skills, as well as early maths.

All children (Pre-School and Reception) will have PE on a Thursday afternoon taught by Mrs Coduri Dunn – please ensure that your child has suitable shoes on this day. We encourage Reception children to come into school wearing their PE kit on this day.

On the 11^th September, at 6pm will be offering a parent workshop about phonics and reading where we will provide you with more information about how and what we will be learning – this is primarily focused on Reception children, please do join us if you can.

All parents should have received an invite to join Class Dojo which is a digital platform that we use to communicate with you on a frequent basis and to send you details of your child’s learning journey. If you haven’t received an invite or are having any problems with Dojo, please let me know.

We know that the children will have a few changes to adjust to at the start of term so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns about their well-being, their educational needs or the new structure of the school day. Please use Class Dojo to contact me, or phone to make an appointment if you would prefer an opportunity to discuss anything further.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Maurice

Important things to remember