Teacher Contact Information
Your teachers are: Mrs Horton and Miss Parker
You can email them at:
Mrs Horton (Horse Chestnut)
sophiehorton@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk
Miss Parker (Sweet Chestnut)
cherylparker@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk
Weekly Update 30/04/2026
What a wonderful week we have had! The children did a brilliant job with their class assembly on Tuesday. We were very proud of them as you would have been too!
This week we have continued with our ‘Into the Wild’ topic. We have continued our Jungle animal fact files and enjoyed a visit from Really Wild Learning. It was great to see the children’s awe and wonder at the animals. We were impressed with the bravery in holding and touching some of the animals. Make sure you have a look on Tapestry for some photos of the visit.
Next week, begin to focus on the African Savannah and the animals that can be found there.
Really Wild Learning Visit
If you have yet to pay for the Really Wild Learning visit, the payment window has been extended until Monday. We appreciate your contributions towards this brilliant experience.
Bike track:
Our next bike track session is Friday 8th May. As usual, your child must where a helmet. Bikes without stabilizers and balance bikes only.
Library Visit:
On Monday 1st June, we will be going on a trip to the Library. You will have received a letter about this today with more information. Please make sure you consent on the Gateway app and write if you are able to help us on the trip. We will require approximately 12 adults to walk with us from school to the library. When we arrive you would help the children to go and buy an ice cream and then help to supervise them at Bude Light and on the Castle green. We really appreciate your help with this.
Reception Late Night:
On Friday 5th June, we will be putting on our Reception Late Night, where the children stay at school until 5:30pm. We will complete a circuit of activities using areas of the school that the children do not usually use. We will then have a picnic tea with food provided from home. A letter with more information will be sent to you next week.
Sun Cream and Hats:
Please remember to send your child to school with a named sun hat every day.
All children need to arrive at school having already applied their first layer of suncream at home to protect them during morning choosing time. We will then ask the children to top-up their suncream before they go outside in the afternoon.
Please also bring a named bottle of suncream to school that your child can apply whilst they are here. We are sure that you can appreciate that it is a time-consuming job to apply suncream to over 40 children, so please ensure that your child can apply their own suncream as independently as possible by practising this at home. Your child will only apply suncream that has been provided by you.
When your child brings their named bottle of suncream into school, it will then stay at school until the end of the school year. This allows us to ensure that it is never forgotten or lost. It also means that your child doesn’t have to remember to take it in and out of their bag each day.
All suncream is kept in the class suncream box, not in your child’s bag. This is to ensure that children are only putting on the suncream that has been provided by their own parent/carer and not using anybody else’s. We also have to keep the suncream in a communal area of the classroom, not in their bags in the cloakroom, for health and safety reasons.
School Uniform:
Since returning from the Easter break, some children have come back to school wearing different shoes, some of which aren’t in line with our uniform policy. Please remember that our school uniform states that the children need to wear plain black trainers with either black or white socks. All children must wear plain black trainers that do not have any coloured designs on them. Thank you.
Phonics:
The children have continued their phonics groups this week. Please remember to listen to your child read 5 times and week, and record this in their reading record. Thank you.
Maths:
This week in maths, we have been continuing to practise our subitising skills. Subitising is when you can see an amount without having to count all of the individual items. We have been deciding when subitsing is a good strategy, or when counting would be appropriate for large amounts. Fo your home learning this week, play board games which involve using a dice. Encourage you child to tell you the amount, without counting.
Have a lovely long weekend, we will see you on Tuesday!
Mrs Horton and Miss Parker
Dates for the diary:
Friday 8th May – Bike Track Session
Monday 18th May – EYFS/KS1 Sports Day (AM)
Friday 22nd May – Last day before half term
25th-29th May – Half Term
Monday 1st June – First day back after half term
Monday 1st June – Library Visit
Friday 5th June – Reception Late Night
Weekly Reading Homework
With your child, please carry out a variety of the following tasks at least 5 times a week, recording in their reading log each time.
Practise recognising letter sounds using flashcards daily – this is essential practise to get your child reading.
Engage in 'Fred Talk Games'. These are games that support your child to orally blend sounds into words. For example, "Fred says, tap your h-ea-d... your head!" Please see the PDF document in the 'Read Write Inc. Phonics' section below for further 'Fred Talk Games' that you can play at home.
If your child is consistently recognising most of the single letter sounds from their flashcards, make simple words out of the flashcards for them to practise reading. For example, sat, tap, dog, bed. Encourage your child to point to each letter as they say the sounds. Once they have said each sound, they need to blend them together to say the whole word. For example, s – a –t, sat. They may need you to demonstrate this initially before they have a try.
Share your child’s lilac book. This book has no words. Your child needs to look closely at the picture and talk about what they think is happening to tell a story. This develops their oracy comprehension and inference skills.
Based on your child’s most recent phonics assessment, the may also bring home a 'blending book' or a 'ditty sheet' to read at home.
Please keep all of the above in your child’s book bag. They need to bring their book bag to school every day.
Homework tasks need to be recorded in your child's reading log at least 5 times a week so that we know that your child is practising their reading at home. Reading logs are checked every Friday to see how your child is getting on at home. Please make sure that you date and initial each time you record in your child's reading log to show that your child has read their lilac book/blending book/flash cards.
Please speak to any member of the Reception team if you have any questions.
Thank you for your continued support in helping your child learn to read.
The YR Team