Class 1 | Great Casterton CofE Primary School

Term 1 Information for parents

Well here we are again!

I hope you have all had a lovely summer, albeit a little different from usual! It’s a strange start to the school year and I know there is still lots of uncertainty about the year ahead, but I want to reassure you that in school life will carry on as normal and we will always put the children’s well being and happiness first.

This year in school we have changed the name of our classes and rather than EYFS, Class 1, 2 and 3 each class will be named after an inspirational person. Class 1 will become

Marie Curie Class

and we will be finding out all about this amazing woman as we go through the Term. Feel free to research her yourselves at home too.

This term we are going to start using the amazing Class Dojo which is used by other schools across the academy. It’s a really fun way to reward the children for their hard work and also a brilliant link between home and school. I will be introducing this to the children in school and you will be receiving your invitation to join soon. I think you are going to like it.

Our topic for this term is called Fit Kids and you will be receiving a knowledge organiser for your child, and an overview for yourself to let you know what we hope to cover in Term 1. Going through the Knowledge organiser with your child will help them to retain the learning, further their understanding and develop their interest to find out more.

PE will only take place outside this term and consequently is difficult to timetable because of the unpredictable British weather. We have decided to get outside when we can but not to worry too much about putting on PE kits. Children will only need suitable footwear in school. It has been suggested that some of the older children may like to wear shorts under their dresses for modesty reasons but of course if you feel this would make your child happier by all means send some shorts in their PE bag too.

Fruit deliveries will be returning to school again this term but won’t start until Monday 7^th September so you may wish to send your child in with their own fruit snack next week.

Reading books will start to come home as soon as possible, and we will be making this a priority in the first few days. There have been a few changes to our reading system and I will be giving you more info on that soon, so if things seem a little different don’t panic!

For those children who are moving into Year 2 there won’t be any major changes and I hope they will all settle quickly and enjoy being the older members of our class. I know I am looking forward to seeing how much they have grown up, and it’s strange to think how young they seemed this time last year! As Year 2s the children will be receiving weekly spelling homework but this won’t happen immediately and I will notify you when this is going to start and how it will work.

For all the children moving into Year 1 things are going to be different, and they may be a little bit anxious at first. This is normal and we do everything we can to reassure them and help them adjust to these changes. We are used to dealing with excitement, tears and tiredness (and I don’t mean from the adults!!). We would normally expect children to get tired towards the end of the week and especially as we get towards the end of the term, and we are certainly preparing for this more than ever over the course of this term. We are very aware that the children have not spent the usual amount of time in school and may find returning 5 days a week challenging. They have not had the same transition prior to moving into their new year group and when they have been in school they have been used to being in much smaller groups. We will adapt our expectations, curriculum and class routine to reflect all of these needs when and where we need to.

And finally…

Together we will RISE to the challenge.