*** You can access Home Learning for your class here ***

Welcome to OHB!

Our Class Motto was made up of words chosen by the children. These are: “We are: Listening, Kind, Helpful, Friendly, Learning”.

In foundation stage we plan stimulating and exciting learning opportunities indoors and outdoors to engage the children. Our provision areas include; sand, water, role play, writing, maths, construction and small world.

These areas all facilitate opportunities for your children to explore, investigate and wonder, finding out and learning in the most exciting way – through play!

Throughout the school day we have structured time which includes adult led learning. This structure includes; daily phonics, maths, literacy and topic activities. We also include P.E, PSE, Music and RE in our Foundation Stage curriculum. Please see our timetable for more information.

Useful Parent Information

The school day

The school day starts at 8:50 and finishes at 3:15. Please make sure your child arrives promptly at school for 8:50 to ensure they are present for register and ready to start learning. If for any reason, your child arrives after this time, please go to the school office. If you will be late to pick up your child at home time, please ring the office to inform them as soon as possible. For safety reasons, children need to be collected by a known adult, so if someone new is collecting your child please inform a member of staff.

Water Bottles

The children are encouraged throughout the day to drink water to ensure they are well hydrated. Please send your child to school with a named water bottle. Please note these should not be filled with juice.

Reading

Reading is an important and fun part of children’s learning. Children will read a few times a week in a Guided Reading session as part of a group. They also bring home a Reading Scheme book and word sheets to read and enjoy with an adult. We encourage children to read every day at home. The reading book they take home will be changed on a Monday and a Friday so please sign your child’s reading record book to say you have read with your child. There is a comments section for any comments you wish to make.

Children will visit the school library every Friday. They are invited to choose a book to take home for the week. Books should be returned the following Friday if your child wishes to change their book.

PE

In Upper Foundation Stage we have access to the outdoor area at all times; therefore, your child has access to a range of fantastic gross motor opportunities daily. These include; ball games, running, jumping, skipping and climbing skills.

We also have one P.E session per week. Please ensure your child is sent to school with a P.E kit for this session. This can be left on your child’s peg in school to ensure your child has it when needed. We are very fortunate to have P.E coaches throughout the year who work alongside the teachers to help your children develop skills such as balance, coordination and ball skills. 

Uniform

Your child should wear uniform which follows our school policy. In Foundation Stage your child will need appropriate clothing all year round for outdoor play. In winter, please make sure you send your child to school with a waterproof coat, hat, scarves and gloves. In summer, please send your child with a sun hat and labelled sun cream. It is a good idea to send a pair of wellies to school with your child for all year round as we will use them daily when playing on the grass, in the mud kitchen and for water play.

Please remember to label ALL items of clothing and shoes as this will help return lost property as soon as possible.

We hope your child enjoys their time in Upper Foundation Stage. If you have any concerns or queries, please don’t hesitate to speak to a member of staff in the Foundation Stage Unit and arrange an appropriate time to chat.

View our Long Term Plan here.

We have had such an exciting morning! One of our chicks has hatched and a few other eggs have begun to crack. Watch our videos - one shows the chick actually hatch out of the shell 🙂

Perhaps our home learners could write about the life cycle of a chicken whilst you are at home?

We had a great day for World Book Day. Thank you to our grown ups for providing such wonderful costumes. We had a 'Room on the Broom' themed day full of slimey creatures, potions and sparkles! We enjoyed story time in the magical hobbit house today. 

Our story this week is 'Lost and Found'  by Oliver Jeffers. Today we received a very exciting package from the postman similar to the penguin arriving at the door in the story. The parcel had travelled a very long way from the South Pole and was full of snow! Inside the snow was an Emperor Penguin called Percy. We have been learning about penguins and polar bears and know some facts about them. We will be looking after Percy as a visitor in our classroom this week. We have made him some fish to eat and made him an ice cave to live in to make him feel at home in the classroom. We even had some real snow for his arrival today, so we took Percy outside for a look!

We have used a range of media to create our art work, which represents our new school vision SPIRIT. The children worked very independently when thinking about how they wanted their dove to look. We thought our class display looked beautiful when all the doves were flying together in the hall. The children have talked about how we can take part in our school SPIRIT by being kind to others, working hard when challenges occur and always trying our best. 

In PE we have been moving like under the sea creatures! Here we are working cooperatively to move like an octopus. 

We had a very frosty morning this week and found lots of ice on the sandpit. We were all very excited to feel the ice and watch it melt. We had a discussion about how the ice has been made in the outdoor environment because of the cold weather. 

This week we went on an Autumn walk. We were using our looking eyes to spot signs of Autumn being our current season. We all found these beautiful Autumn leaves. We spotted green, orange, red and brown leaves. We then enjoyed an Autumn story in the Hobbit house. Some children used their leaves in their independent art work when back in the classroom. 

We have really enjoyed learning about Harvest and the vegetables we can grow. We have investigated some vegetables using our senses; smell, touch, look, listen and taste. We have smelt the lovely vegetables, felt their textures, looked at the colours, listened to the crispy skin rustle and tasted some new vegetables as part of our snack. We then peeled and chopped the vegetables to make vegetable soup. We learned how to hold our hands away from the area we were chopping to make sure we were safe. We enjoyed the soup during golden time. Well done everyone! 

This week we have been learning about Harvest. We have found out about which vegetables are harvested at this time of year and how. We had our Harvest Celebration with Father Christopher this week. He talked about what we say thank you to God for. We then sung him some harvest songs and gave him some art work we had created for him.

We have been learning about 2d shapes. We know their names and can describe some of their properties. We have been on a 2d shape hunt to find objects in our classroom which look like the 2d shapes. We have also made our houses out of 2d shapes to link to our topic 'All about me'.