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 06/03/2026

This week we have been learning about the story of the Three Little Pigs. We have acted out the story, using a story map we had created to tell the story. When working with an adult, the children chose a picture from The Three Little Pigs and used their knowledge of what happened in the story to write a short caption or sentence. During choosing time, the children have made puppets to retell the tale and used different construction materials to create their own houses for the Three Little Pigs.

The children also had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day yesterday! It was wonderful to see lots of the children choosing to dress up as a book character. This year, the grown-ups brought in books that they enjoy reading to share with the children. The children then completed lots of fun activities related to the stories that they heard.

Next week, we will be completing our final week of learning about Traditional Tales with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Parents Evening:

Thank you to everyone who attended a parents evening appointment this week, it was lovely to meet with you all and discuss your child’s progress. If you haven’t yet had a parents evening appointment, please contact your child’s teacher to arrange a meeting.

Forest School (Friday 13^th March):

Next Friday (13.03.26), we will be going to the forest school for the afternoon. Please ensure that your child has wellies and waterproofs in school on this day. If your child already has wellies and/or waterproofs in school, they do not need to bring in anything additional.

For health and safety reasons, the children must wear full length clothing at Forest School regardless of the weather. Please ensure that your child has full length clothing that they can wear on this day (e.g. full-length trousers/leggings, not shorts). Normal school leggings/joggers with a school cardigan/jumper over their top will be fine, but if you would like to provide a change of clothes for your child, such as a long-sleeved top, you can do so. Thank you in advance.

Head Lice:

We have been made aware of a couple of cases of head lice within the cohort. Please check your child’s hair regularly of the next couple of weeks and treat your child’s hair if necessary. All shoulder length or longer hair should be tied up every day at school. This will help to prevent head lice from spreading. Thank you for your help with this.

Phonics:

This week, the children started their new phonics groups. Your child’s class teacher will have explained what group your child is now in at your parents evening appointment.

Please continue to read with your child 5 times per week and record their reading in their reading log. Thank you so much for your continued support at home.

Maths:

This week in maths we have been comparing numbers within 10. We have been discussing which numbers are bigger/smaller than each other. To show this visually, we have used towers of cubes for numbers 1-10. We have then hidden one tower behind another. For example, showing that 4 can hide behind 6 because it is smaller but it cannot hide behind 3 because it is bigger.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Horton and Miss Parker

Dates for the Dairy

Friday 13^th March – Forest School (see message above)

Friday 20^th March – Red Nose Day

Friday 20^th March – Bike Track

Thursday 2^nd April – Last day of half term

3^rd April - 19^th April - Easter holidays

20^th April – Back to school

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