Blue Class

Welcome to Blue Class. Here is some important information about our class.

In this class, the teacher is Miss Tarpey:

• Every Wednesday afternoon, the class teacher has some time for PPA (planning, preparation and assessment). During this session, the children will be having a PE lesson or an art lesson, alternating each week.
• Mrs Fitzgerald is the main Blue Class teaching assistant. Mr Brown will also assist the class during the morning sessions.

Alternative pick up arrangements If you have made arrangements for your child to go home with someone different, it is essential you let us know. Please send a message via SeeSaw as soon as possible, preferably the day before, to allow us to receive your message within good time. Alternatively for last minute changes, you could inform the office who will let us know.

Clothing
The children go out to play each day and also have regular outdoor activities. They need to bring a coat to school every day, which will withstand light rain. A hat, gloves and scarf (and wellies) are also a good idea during the cold weather and a sunhat when it is hot. This is particularly important for our Forest School sessions and they must have warm, waterproof clothing and wellington boots as they will go out in all weathers! Please ensure that all children’s clothing is named so then it is easier for us to find if it gets misplaced.

Even though we are a no uniform school, we do have a standard of dress that we expect from the children. In order to continue to have a no uniform policy, there are certain criteria which must be followed for the children’s comfort and safety.

Please ensure that the children follow this basic dress code:

• No hats/caps indoors
• No jewellery (especially necklaces, as they can be dangerous and could get pulled)
• No dangly/drop earrings. Stud earrings only are allowed but must be covered for PE.
• No high heels
• No Oodies or onesies – these are not appropriate for school unless it’s pyjama day.
• No cropped tops that show stomachs
• No wellies in the classroom. Please bring a change of shoes for inside if wellies are needed outside.

The children should have clothes labelled with their name. Please make sure your child comes to school in comfortable and practical clothes for a day in the classroom and a warm coat for outside.

May we also remind those older children that makeup should not be worn here at school.

Please could the children bring in a spare set of clothes, including pants, in case of accidents to be kept in a named bag in their classroom storage box.

Drinks in the classroom
The children are allowed to drink water freely during the day, especially when it is warm. The children must bring a named water bottle to school each day to drink from and to take it home at the end of every day.

Snack
Children will receive a piece of fruit each morning at play time.

P.E.
We will be doing P.E. on alternative Wednesday afternoons and every Friday afternoon. Please ensure your child dresses in appropriate clothing on these days.

If your child wears earrings, it is school policy that these are either removed or covered for P.E. lessons. Please either teach them to do this themselves or remove them before they come to school that day, as we are not allowed to do it for them. Just a reminder that jewellery (apart from watches and stud earrings) should not be worn at school. Please also make sure that your child brings a bobble on P.E. days if they have long hair.

Home-School Communication 

We will be changing our home-school communication tool from Bloomz to SeeSaw. SeeSaw is a user-friendly app that will be used to share class updates and showcase your children’s work, similar to how we have utilised Bloomz in the past. Instructions on how to sign up will be sent to you next week once the classes are set up.

Reading books
We will hear children read regularly in class, on a 1-1 basis but also in a whole class guided reading format. The children will regularly bring books from school to practise their reading at home. Children who are accessing our Little Wandle phonics programme will bring home a book to read each week; these are given on Mondays and returned on Fridays. Your child should be able to read this book confidently and fluently with 90% accuracy, only pausing around 10% of the time if they’re unsure. This book will also be read three times in school with a trained teacher or teacher assistant, so it is important that books are returned on the correct days so that the children can read the same book at school and home. They will also receive another matched guided reading book which matches their phonics knowledge, but is a book that the children have chosen themselves; they will still be able to read this independently to you. They will also have a library book which they have chosen and is to be shared with you for pleasure. We highly recommend that you hear your child read for at least ten minutes each day and ask them questions about what they have read as this makes a big difference to the progress they make.

Homework
We do not ask for parents to do specific homework tasks. We will regularly share with you our topic knowledge organisers so that you can keep up to date with the learning the children are doing in school and you may choose to do activities that link to this at home.

Lunch
All children in Reception and Key Stage 1 are entitled to a free school meal. We give the option of either a cooked lunch or a ‘Grab Bag’. Your child can choose each morning which they would like or they may bring in a packed lunch from home if they wish. Please remember that we have a ‘no nut’ policy at our school, this includes Nutella.

Lost property
We would like to reduce the amount of lost property we accumulate in school. To help us reunite children with lost clothes, it is essential they have names on all items of clothing then we can return found items. Please help us by labelling all your child’s property, including water bottles and pack up boxes.

Toys
We ask that the children do not bring toys or footballs into school (with the exception of fidget toys). We have footballs and other outdoor equipment in school for the children to use. The children may also bring in notepads, books, magazines, pens and trading cards to keep them entertained at break times and lunch times.

Medicines
If your child needs to take medicine during the school day, please take this to reception. You will need to fill in a consent form for us to administer this. For children with inhalers or epipens please also do this and we will discuss specific arrangements for your child.

Thank you for your continued support.

Miss Tarpey

e.tarpey@ebor.academy