‘Firstly welcome to the team!  We are excited to be working with your children and showing them all the amazing things they will be doing when they start school. 

Mrs Stevens, Mrs Attrill and Miss Denton are all Early Years lead practitioners which means that we support other schools in developing their own practice.   We are very proud of the work that is carried out at Manea and adapt the provision to meet the interests and needs of each cohort.

Your child will have a team around them throughout their reception year.  Mrs Stevens is the Foundation Stage Leader and will be the main adult responsible for your child through the year.  We will gather information during the home visit and then during the first few weeks of school to support the tailoring of the provision and environment. The early years team will all spend time with your child and gather information on how they like to learn, areas they need to focus on and areas that we can develop further.  This in turn helps the children make the best progress they can.  We will have parent consultations during the year to share successes and targets for next steps, however please do not hesitate to contact us with any celebrations or questions that you may have. 

Mrs Stevens can be contacted on pineclass@manea.cambs.sch.uk

A typical day

Welcome session with register starts the day. It is important to be punctual as learning starts straight away.  Children are encouraged to make their own safety checklist to ensure that the environment is safe for learning. Whole class sessions also take place a couple of times throughout the day for phonics, maths and other subjects.  We then have continuous provision – where the children access the activities that are provided to meet their next steps, guided activities led by an adult and their own independent exploration.  We link to a main focus text and the children can come up with their own investigations – they then share them in learning walks and learning talks to ensure that their activities are always supporting development. 

PE kits

In the Autumn term Physical activity takes place throughout the day in our continuous provision across our environments along with some hall sessions that initially only require taking off shoes and socks.  We therefore do not need PE kits until at least the spring or summer terms.  We will advise you closer to the time so please do not purchase any yet as we are sure your children will have grown by then!

Reading books

We prepare your child for their reading books throughout the first half term when they are introduced to the characters and the procedure involved in reading.  Your child will then bring home a reading book after the first half term.  They will have a reading diary with their book for you to write in and comment on how they have worked on the book each week.  If you have any questions, please write in the diary or email the classteacher.

Home link information

A brief overview of the learning that has taken place each week is put on the webpage for the reception children.  There is also a home link information sheet which has useful links and ways to continue and consolidate the learning at home.  There are additional questions that you can use to prompt any discussions that you wish to have.  Please email any comments they say that you feel would be helpful in order to support their development.

Home/school agreement

We will discuss the home/school agreement with you during your visit to school in September - please then sign it to show your intention to support your child with their learning at home.

As part of our ‘getting to know you’ sessions we ask the children to bring with them an all about me box.  This is something that you can work on throughout the summer holidays – use a small shoe box, decorate it and put in it  some of the things that you child enjoys doing – these will remain in school throughout the first half term so please do not put their favourite toy in there – a picture or drawing of it will do.  We will then spend time where you child can share their contents with their friends and we can then tailor their learning to their interests.

Please see the videos below of our all about me boxes.  See what you can find out about us!

If you require any further information about lunches or uniform, please contact the school office.  If you have any questions for Mrs Stevens, please email pineclass@manea.cambs.sch.uk

So...... have fun getting started on your 'all about me' boxes.  We can't wait to share them with you!