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 16/01/2026

This week, we have continued learning about winter. We have been on a walk around the school grounds, looking for signs of Winter. We have also been exploring and experimenting with turning water, to and from ice. We have discussed the processes of freezing and melting as well as solids and liquids.

Next week, we will begin a two-week topic on Dinosaurs.

Swimming:

During the week beginning the 23^rd February, we will be going to Splash for swimming lessons. Each class will attend for two mornings. The sessions in the pool are usually 30 minutes. We will need lots of volunteers to help the children walk to and from Splash.

Once we have had the timings and cost confirmed, you will receive a letter with more details.

Phonics:

This week the children have continued their new phonics groups are getting used to the new challenges and routines. Next week, we will complete interim assessments with any children who are excelling in their current group to see if they can move to the next group before half term.

The children will be getting a new reading book (either a lilac book, a blending book, a red book or a green book) every Monday when books are normally changed. Please complete reading homework 5 times a week with your children. This should mainly be listening to your child reading their reading book and practising any new sounds that have been sent home. Please record this every time in their reading record.

Please make sure your child has their book bag, books and reading record in school every day. They will not be given new books if they don’t have their book bag or haven’t returned their last book, as we have a limited number of RWI books. Thank you for your help with this.

Maths:

Our key focus this week has been the stable order principle – rehearsing the order of the first 5 numbers and understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. They have will spent time discovering that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number. Using blocks and squares to order quantities from 1 to 5 will help to embed this key understanding.

For your home learning challenge this week, encourage you child to make a staircase pattern for numbers 1-5 using bricks.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Horton and Miss Parker

Dates for the Dairy

Friday 30^th January – Forest School Afternoon

Thursday 12^th February – Valentine's Discos

Friday 13^th February – Final Day of Half Term

16^th – 20^th February – Half Term

23^rd February – First Day Back of Half Term

W/B 23^rd February – Swimming

W/B 2^nd March – Parents' Evenings

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