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 05/06/2026

We hope you all had a fantastic half term. The children have settled back into school for their final half term in Reception! We had a wonderful time on our Library trip on Monday – despite the wet weather! Thank you again to all of the volunteers who helped us make the trip possible.

This week we have begun our Castles topic. We have been focussing on the purpose of castles as homes and for defence. We have also learnt about the different features of castles, such as; turrets, battlements, moats, drawbridges, arrow slits and portcullis.

Next week we will focus on people who lived in castles and their jobs. We will compare life in a castle to life now.

Sports Day:

The EYFS and KS1 Sports Day is on Monday 15^th June. The children will complete a circuit of different activities, followed by a series of races.

On Sports Day, the children need to come to school wearing a t-shirt of their House Team Colour. This is the same colour as their colour teams in class (where they put their book bags and water bottles). It is also the same colour as their older siblings in school if they have any. Your child should be able to tell you which colour team they are in. You are welcome to clarify this with us if necessary.

Once you have dropped your child off, please make your way around to the school field to watch.

Bike Track:

Our next bike track session will be on Thursday 11^th June. As always, your child must have a helmet. Bikes without stabilizers and balance bikes only. Thank you.

Beach Trip:

We will be going to the beach on Wednesday 15^th July. We will need support with walking to the beach in the morning. A letter will be sent with more details soon.

Summer Fayre:

It is the Summer Fayre on Friday 19^th June. The Friends require donations for Tombola prizes, please give any donations to your child’s teacher on the school gate. Thank you for support.

Phonics:

The children have settled into their new phonics group well. It is great to see them embracing their next challenges.

Please remember to continue listening to your child read 5 times and week, and record this in their reading record.

Maths:

This week, we have recapping our number bonds to 5 and 10, ahead of our final assessments. We have incorporated songs and props, such as 5 Little Speckled Frogs and 10 Green Bottles.

As a home challenge, see if you can sing some counting songs such as 5 Little Ducks or 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. After each verse, encourage your child to tell you how many ducks/monkeys have gone and how many are left. As a challenge, you could ask them to record each verse as a number sentence, for example, 1 + 4 = 5.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Horton and Miss Parker 

Dates for the diary:

Friday 5^th June – Reception Late Night

Thursday 11^th June – Bike Track Session

Monday 15^th June – EYFS/KS1 Sports Day (AM)

Friday 19^th June – Summer fayre

Wednesday 15^th July – Beach Trip

Friday 17^th July – Last Day of the School Year

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