St Michael'sChurch of England Primary School

Sandhurst, Berkshire

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Ducklings

Welcome to Ducklings

The adults who will be learning with you!

Class Teachers: Mrs Kate Lampitt

Support Staff: Mrs Philippa Hall and Miss Nusa Ivancic

PE Teacher: Mr Wayne Boardman

PPA Cover Teacher: Mrs Claire Newman (Friday afternoon)

If you require any further information or an appointment with the class teacher, as always, please send an email via the school office:

secretary@st-michaels-school.org

Key information:

All children should wear uniform which is clearly named.

Please drop off and collect your child from outside our big blue door of the Ducklings classroom:
- Drop-off time is between 8:40am - 8.45am.
- Pick-up time is 3:15pm.

Please ensure your child has a spare set of clothes, waterproofs and wellies, book bag and water bottle in school everyday.

Our PE days in Reception are:
- Wednesdays with Mr Boardman
- Thursdays with Mrs Lampitt when we are not on a woods walk.
On PE days please ensure the children come to school wearing their PE kit and weather appropriate outer wear. Please ensure that earrings and jewellery is removed at home or by the children, if they are able, before the lessons.

Phonics in Ducklings

At St Michael's we follow the Phonics Shed Phonics scheme. You will be sent a link to access the activities your child can complete at home once the children have started to learn their sounds.

When we start our phonics programme we will begin learning our initial sounds and High Frequency Words (HFWs)

This week in our phonics we will be learning about:

Revisiting our sounds and HFWs learnt

You can find guidance of all of our sounds and the actions on the Phonics Shed YouTube Channel. Or use this link:

Phonics Shed

Phonics Shed - Resource - Parent Leaflet - Phonics Shed - ParentCarers Leaflet.pdf

Reading

Reading is a valuable life skill and here at St Michael's we try to promote a love for reading as much as possible. As well as hearing many stories during the day and individual reading, we have a class story each week where we discuss a story asking many different questions. We are very lucky to also have a large bank of story sacks. These are to further develop a love of books through a range of activities. Each sack contains a story and fact book as well as games and sometimes toys or puppets, and these are to encourage children to engage in the stories with their families at home in a fun and engaging way.

Here is also a list of recommended texts suitable to share with your child:

Reception-Recommended-Reads-Poster-2024.pdf

What is Ducklings?

The Ducklings is our Reception EYFS (Early Years Foundation Satge) class for children who will have their 5th birthday in the academic year between 1st September and the 31st August. All the children start school together in September, with an option to go home at lunchtime until Christmas. By January all pupils are full time. There is a maximum of 30 children in the class with 3 members of staff for 4 mornings, and 2 every afternoon.

The Ducklings have a rich and exciting curriculum with weekly visits to the local woodlands for an entire morning, or to a local care home to learn alongside their 'older friends' for an afternoon. We go on frequent trips further afield, visiting farms, museums, churches, theatres, parks and finally the seaside for a family day out at the end of the year. We are firmly of the belief that learning does not have to take place in the classroom and we embrace the outdoor life, whatever the weather!

The Ducklings are very much a part of the wider school, and we welcome parents and grandparents into the Ducklings classroom at all times and on our many trips.

The Ducklings receive a letter from a buddy in Year 5 before they start school and their buddy greets them and plays with them on their summer afternoon visit to the school. The relationship continues to flourish as they meet the again on the first day of school and know that they always have someone to look out for them in the playground.

Ducklings is an exciting but safe place for the children and their parents to flourish and form friendships to last a lifetime. Our children make excellent academic progress and most of all enjoy their childhood.

The curriculum in Ducklings is delivered through a balance of adult led and child led learning. It incorporates everything we want the children to experience, learn and be able to do. Meeting all the requirements of the educational programmes in the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the flexibility to allow us to respond quickly to children’s new interests and/or needs.

Below is a broad overview of what we are learning this year and a timetable for this term. Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development. All areas are interconnected.

Timetable

Although we have a timetable things do change from day to day as we learn more about our children and what their interests may be, as well as the day to day school life.

What does the day look like in Ducklings?

Spring Timetable 2025.pdf

How to support your child at home

There are six key areas of early mathematics learning, which collectively provide a platform for everything children will encounter as they progress through their maths learning at primary school, and beyond:

Cardinality and Counting
Comparison
Composition
Pattern
Shape and Space
Measures

These areas form the fundamental mathematical basis of a CBeebies series of five-minute animated programmes called Numberblocks. We use these and the NCETM materials to draw out and build on the maths embedded in the stories contained in each episode.

You may also like to check out the EYFS website below:

White Rose Math White Rose Maths Team has prepared a series of five maths lessons for each year group from Year 1-8. Every lesson comes with a short video showing you clearly and simply how to help your child to complete the activity successfully.
Numberblocks: Sing along and learn all about numbers with the Numberblocks!
Alphablocks: Watch as the letters of the alphabet tell stories and make words using phonics. Play the learning game, watch clips and print colouring pages.
Epic Phonics: One month free membership.
Phonics Play: You will find lots of games and ideas to explore with children at home. Free membership.
Stay at Home Story Time: Oliver Jeffers has read many of his books and discussed some of the things that went into making it.