Autumn 2023 

In EYFS, we invite parents to make a £10 donation each term. 

In the Autumn term your money will allow us to provide daily snacks for the children,  as well as for ingredients to make playdough and buy art supplies for our creative areas. Thank you so much for this. You can make your donation either through parent pay or by giving £10 cash to your child's teacher in a named envelope.

We also welcome contributions for junk modelling (egg cartons, cardboard boxes, bottles, etc) and natural resources for our mud kitchen such as avocado stones, pebbles, conkers and corks.

We would also welcome donations for the woodwork bench such as: plastic bottle lids, offcuts of soft wood, corks, lolly sticks, screws, nails etc.

We would like to put together an ‘investigation box’ for the children and  would welcome donations of old or broken technology such as radios, clocks, keyboards, phones, CD players, cameras etc for the children to take apart!

Reading

Reception children will be introduced to Little Wandle Phonics this term.   

We will be starting whole class phonics sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays  and Fridays. 

Once the children have some basic phonic knowledge, we will start to send a book home for them to read with you.

Reading books are changed once a week. Please bring your child’s book bag in every Monday, their books will be changed and returned to you on a Wednesday. Children will also take home a book from the library during our weekly visits. 

Please try to read with your child every day, and either sign and date their reading record, or write a comment to share with your child’s teacher. Your child will make more progress if you read with them at home.

If you would like tips on reading with your children, please ask your child’s teacher. 

Uniform and bookbags

Please ensure that your child wears their full school uniform each day.  Please label your children’s clothing with name labels or permanent marker.  Please ensure your child brings their books and reading record to school every Monday.

PE

The children will have a PE lesson every Tuesday. Please make sure they have a named PE kit (white t-shirt, navy shorts or tracksuit bottoms and plimsolls) each week. 

Well being

Children sometimes require a change of clothes at school.  Please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes to change into in the event of an accident, including pants and socks.  Please ensure these clothes are named.

Wellies

We go to the field every Tuesday morning.  Please bring in a pair of wellies clearly labelled with your child’s name. 

In the Moment Planning

The cycle of observation, assessment and planning at George Tomlinson is carried out on a moment-by-moment basis.  Each week, approximately 10% of the class will be focus children. 

Some interactions and activities that occur are recorded when the cycle is complete.  These records are on the learning journeys of the focus children and on “in the moment” planning sheets for activities in which a group become involved.  

We work this way because young children are experiencing and learning in the here and now, not storing up their questions until tomorrow or next week.  It is in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest—the “teachable moment” - that the skillful adult makes a difference. 

By using this cycle on a moment-to-moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child’s thinking (assessment), and always ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children’s well-being and learning (planning for the next moment). 

When your child is a focus child you will receive notification the week before.  We will give you a sheet to complete and ask you to take some pictures over the weekend.  The week after your child has been a focus child, the class teacher will meet with you to discuss your child’s learning.  This will replace the traditional parents’ evening.