Foundation

Class Teacher: Mrs Hodgson

Teaching Partners:  Miss Young, Miss Maule

Learning Support Assistants: Mrs Whiting

Welcome to Foundation! 

Our class page is your go-to place for all of the key information about our learning journey together this year. The team can't wait to support your child's progress and learning this year, where we will be exploring lots of exciting new concepts and skills as they navigate their first full year at primary school!

Please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Hodgson with any questions or queries. 

Our Timetable - Autumn Term 

Please note that our PE day is on a Tuesday afternoon with the KS1 Team. Please come to school dressed in PE kit on these days. Earrings and other jewellery should be removed for PE and hair tied back where possible. 

PE Kit includes: 

• Red or dark PE hoodies,  black or grey tracksuit trousers or shorts (unbranded) 

• Black, grey or white trainers 

• Zip-up sports jackets are suitable for colder weather. 

Curriculum Overview 

Autumn Term 1: Marvellous Me!

• English: We will be practising and refining our mark-making skills to create All About Me Books and My Favourite Story Books inspired by the books All Are Welcome, Faces (by Jan Pienkowski), You Can! (by Alexandra Strick), Beegu, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

• Maths: Matching, sorting and comparing; measure and patterns, number focus 1,2,3.

• Science: Exploring skills used by scientists to begin to experiment with push and pull, loud and quiet, floating and sinking, freezing and melting, light or dark. Children will also collect and sort autumnal objects as we explore this term's seasonal changes. 

• History: In history we will explore the topic of growing up to talk about our families, match objects to familiar people, explore ideas of how we've grown from babies to children, name and describe special people and explore household items from the past.  

• DT: Children will explore junk modelling skills, designing and making 3D models, selecting and joining materials effectively.

• Computing:  Children will explore parts of computers and develop mouse and touch skills through a range of activities.

• Music: The children will learn simple welcome songs and have fun working as a class to create simple actions to accompany songs and nursery rhymes. They will learn to follow musical instructions and explore creative movement – jumping like a jack-in-the-box or dancing like a rock ’n’ roll teddy bear! 

• Physical Education: Children will explore coordination and footwork skills, balance on one leg and shape and travel in gymnastics-focused sessions.

• Religious Education:  In RE we will be focusing on the big question: Why is the word God so important to Christians? Children will also prepare for our Harvest Festival service.

• Relationships, Sex and Health Education (including Economic Education):  Children will meet Boris the Robot and begin to learn about what it means to be HeartSmart - playing cooperatively, reading facial expressions, talking about what we love. In Economic Education, we will begin to explore the idea of spending.

Autumn Term 2: Let's Celebrate!

• English: We will be practising and refining our mark-making skills to create books about My Special People and Pattern and Rhyme Books.

• Maths: Shape - circles and triangles and shapes with 4 sides; focus on numbers 1,2,3,4,5.

• Science:  We will be exploring our 5 senses and observing seasonal changes as we enter the season of winter, creating a class weather chart.

• Geography:  Children will be exploring and investigating maps, including pirate maps, looking at our school from above, building our own 2D and 3D maps and creating journey sticks.

• Art:  Children will begin to explore mark making, an experiment with how they can use the marks they make in their drawings. The focus of the exploration is around spirals-an ancient symbol which we all recognise, and which lends itself to conversations around growth, movement and structure.

• Music:  As the term progresses, they will learn to recognise simple classroom percussion instruments and compare their sounds. They will compose simple sound sequences and represent them using objects and pictures. Children will also learn songs to perform during our Nativity performance at the end of term,

• Physical Education: Children will focus on dynamic balance to agility - jumping and landing, static balances seated and gym skills of shape and travel.

• Religious Education: In RE we will be focusing on the big question: Why do Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas? 

• Relationships, Sex and Health Education (including Economic Education): Children will learn about the second HeartSmart principle 'Don't forget to let Love in', where we will talk about our own uniqueness and importance and looking after our emotions. We will also have our first RSE session about recognising the importance of friendships and how these make us feel. In Economic Education, children will look at making decisions when it comes to spending money.

Reading 

Please read with your child as often as possible, even if only for a few minutes. Research shows that regular sharing of books and stories with your child makes a positive impact on their academic success. Within the first few weeks of school, your child will be provided with a reading record and reading books. We encourage all parents to attend our Early Reading Information evening (date tbc), even if you have older children in school, as the meeting shares key information about how we develop children’s reading at home and ways to best support this development at home.

Mrs Hodgson and the Foundation team will check the children’s reading records each Friday and change their books. Please note that children are encouraged to read these books at least twice before being changed. To celebrate excellent reading at home, each Foundation child who has read 3 or more times to an adult outside of school during the week, will be rewarded with a dip in the goodie bag!  Please date and sign their reading record each time they read to an adult, and encourage them to show off their super phonics skills.

Volunteers to hear readers are always welcome! Please speak to Mrs Hodgson if you’re able to offer any time.

Outdoor Learning:

In Foundation, a large part of our curriculum involves outdoor learning opportunities. To ensure that your child is always prepared (whatever the weather!), we kindly ask that your child brings in a named pair of wellington boots in a carrier bag to stay in school. Please also ensure that the children have coats on wet or cold days and have suncream applied before coming to school each day.

SeeSaw - Online Learning Platform 

Please encourage your child to discuss what they are learning at home. Our online learning platform, SeeSaw should help to guide these conversations, as we will share snippets of your child’s learning journey throughout the week. Please ensure that you have consented to SeeSaw via Arbor and look out for an invite code which will enable your access to our class site. Please feel free to use the platform to share any WOW moments your child achieves. Posts shared will also form part of our daily show and tell.

Key Dates 

Parent-Teacher Meetings:  

We offer these termly, dates are included on our weekly newsletters. 

Celebrations, Trips and Visits: 

For up to date information, please check the weekly school newsletter

Wednesday 17th September - Welcome Service at St. Thomas' Church

Thursday 4th December - Perlethorpe Living Nativity 

Communication 

You can contact Mrs Hodgson via the below contact forms. Alternatively, please email teachers@archbishopcranmer.notts.sch.uk or the school office (office@archbishopcranmer.notts.sch.uk or schooladmin@archbishopcranmer.notts.sch.uk).