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 14/11/2025
This week we have started our three-week topic all about People Who Help us. We began by learning about the role of being a vet. The children have engaged with lots of vet role play across the week and identified some of the tools that a vet might use to treat an animal patient.
In addition to our topic learning, we also engaged in learning about Remembrance Day. We talked about how different people, such as soldiers, have worked to keep people safe.
It has also been Anti-Bullying week across the school. As part of this, lots of the children came to school in odd socks on Monday! The children identified lots of ways to be kind to each other and have even pointed out when their friends have been kind to them throughout the week.
We finished our week by celebrating Children in Need. Lots of children chose to dress up as different teachers from school today as part of our school fundraiser, which was great fun! Thank you to everyone who donated on the School Gateway app.
Next week, we will be continuing with our topic about People Who Help Us, focusing on the police.
Forest School Afternoon (Friday 21st November):
On Friday, we are going to be visiting the Forest School during the afternoon. To visit the forest school, all children have to be wearing full length clothing on their arms and legs for health and safety reasons. With this in mind, please ensure that your child is wearing leggings/tracksuit bottoms and that they bring their school jumper/cardigan/fleece to wear on this day.
At this time of year, it is likely that it could be wet weather on the day. All children will therefore need to wear a waterproof coat and wellies. If you child doesn’t have wellies in school, please ensure that they bring them in for this day. Your child can also wear waterproof trousers or a puddle suit if they have them in school on the day.
Church Trip:
Our trip to the Church for our Countdown to Christmas event is on Tuesday 9th December, during the morning. We will still need volunteers to help walk the children to and from the church during the morning for the trip to go ahead. One class will walk to Stratton Church after registration. Volunteers will then walk back to school to help the second class walk down the Church. Volunteers will then walk the first class back to school and then return to the church to help the second class return to school. We aim for the second class to be back to school for 11:45 am. If you are unable to help, grandparents or other family members are welcome. Unfortunately, we cannot count volunteers that need to bring a younger sibling with them in our ratios.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are able to volunteer – it is very much appreciated!
Jumpers, Fleeces and Cardigans:
A few children in Reception have lost jumpers, fleeces and cardigans recently at school. We have checked all of the Reception areas and returned any named items to children’s bags to take home.
Some of the named items haven’t yet been found. It is possible that another child may have taken them home by mistake. If you could please check any jumpers, fleeces and cardigans that you have at home to make sure that they don’t belong to another child, this would be really helpful. If you find an item that your child has taken home by mistake, please give this to a member of the Reception team who will make sure it is returned to the child.
To support us with this, please ensure that all of your children’s belongings are clearly labelled with their name. Any unclaimed jumpers, cardigans or fleeces that are not named will be taken to the school uniform exchange at the end of the week. If items have gone missing and you are in need of additional jumpers, fleeces or cardigans, please check for your child’s size in the uniform exchange.
Phonics/Reading:
This week, the children have continued to work in their new phonics groups. We will re-assess them in approximately a week’s time to see if we can move the children up through the phonics groups more quickly. We really appreciate your support with practising phonics at home; it has a big impact on the children’s progress.
Please remember to keep your child’s reading record and books in their book bag every day. This helps us to change their books regularly and check that they are practising at home. Thank you for your continued support with this.
Maths:
This week in maths, we have been comparing amounts within five. The children have been consolidating their language of equal, more than and fewer than. When comparing amounts, we have addressed the common misconception that just because objects are spread out and are taking up more space, it doesn't necessarily mean the amount is more.
For your home learning task this week, ask your child to compare amounts of toys or food. Can they identify which group has more, fewer or if they have an equal amount? Encourage your child to answer you in full sentences. For example, “There are more cars than bricks.”
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Horton and Miss Parker
Dates for the Dairy
Friday 21st November – Forest School Afternoon
Friday 21st November – Christmas Fayre After School
Tuesday 9th December – Trip to the Church (AM)
Friday 12th December – Bike Track
Wednesday 17th December - Christmas Lunch/Christmas Jumper Day
Friday 19th December – Last Day of Term/Christmas Party Day
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