Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been wonderful to finally meet all the children. Starting school is a very important moment for you and your child, and it has been a delight welcoming you to Preston Primary.

We are enjoying getting to know the children, and we are incredibly proud of how they have settled. The children have enjoyed exploring their new learning environment, and they have been busy learning new routines and developing new friendships.

The atmosphere in the classroom has been happy and calm. We are thoroughly looking forward to working alongside you all this year. 

Sports Day

We are delighted to invite you all to our Sports Day on Thursday 30th September. This will be our first event on our new Astro Turf Sportsfield. Below are the times for each age group:

Unit 4  (Years 5 & 6) - 9.00-10.30

Unit 3  (Years 3 & 4) – 10.30 – 12.00

Unit 2 (Years 1 & 2) - 12.45 – 2.00

FS  (Puffins and Penguins) – 2.00-3.15

We will send you more information closer to the day.

Swimming

We are excited to start swimming sessions next week. Puffins and Penguins will be swimming every Tuesday. A letter has been e-mailed with further details. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

School Value

This half term, we are learning about Respect, and how respect for others helps builds the warm, welcoming, and calm atmosphere in school.

British Value

This half term, in our Class Assemblies, we are learning about the British Value of Democracy by electing our School Council, to help our school become even better.

Our Curriculum

We are incredibly proud of the curriculum we create for children.  This half term our learning experience is ‘Marvellous Me’. We will be supporting the children to answer the following questions:

1.Who am I? What makes me unique and special?

2.How are we the same, and how are we different?

3.What are our school values, class rules and routines?

4.How do we look after ourselves and others?

Please also support your child at home to answer these questions. We are keen to share your child’s learning with you and we appreciate your support.

The children had their first trip to our school library this week. They enjoyed looking at the different books, and we talked about the difference between fiction and non fiction. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Visiting the library is a chance for the children to independently choose a book to share at home with you. We are not expecting the children to read these books themselves, they are to share with a grown up for pleasure.  We will visit the library every week.  Penguins will visit every Monday and Puffins will visit every Tuesday. Please ensure they return their book on the correct day, so they can choose a new one.

We will post an image of their chosen book on Seesaw, and it would be lovely, if over the week you could click the 'Add Response' button and help your child record a short voice message or video telling us what they enjoyed about the book. Please also tell us about all the other wonderful books you are enjoying at home.

Plymouth Theatre Royal Trip

We are very excited to offer the opportunity to visit the Theatre Royal Plymouth to watch a live performance of ’Stickman’.  One of our curriculum priorities is communication and language and the theatre is a language rich environment that we would like every child to experience. A letter has been e-mailed to you with further details. The payment deadline is Friday 24th September. If you have any queries please contact the class teacher. 

Link to the Stickman Live Tour web page Stick Man Live Tour

Special Box

Over the summer we set the children a task to collect some special items/pictures in a box to share with their friends. Please bring the special box to school next week if you have not done so already. Thank you.

Read Write Inc

This week we started our daily phonics lessons. The children have been practising the picture cards in preparation for learning the sounds next week. We have assigned a selection of videos on a Seesaw activity, so children can recap the pictures at home.

Messages

· Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries. There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website  https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/

· Please ensure your child is wearing full school uniform at all times. This includes a shirt (not a polo shirt) and a tie. A full school uniform list can be found in the welcome booklet on the school website or alternatively, e-mail the school office for details.

· Please ensure your child brings a drinks bottle to school daily. Can we please ask that they are only filled with water, not squash.

· Next week you will receive a link to a school consent form. It will ask you to consent for various images and videos of your child to be used across school. In particular, it will ask you about consenting to photos and videos of your child being used on the school app, Seesaw and in newsletters like this. It would be wonderful to include lots of photos of the children learning together in school, and we often create video montages for the school website and Seesaw. We would appreciate your support by enabling your child to be included in these wonderful celebrations of learning.

· We have children in school with peanut and kiwi allergies. We request that these products are not put into your child’s packed lunch as the children will be eating in the same environment. Thank you.

If you have any queries regarding the messages above please contact the class teacher.

The Brush Bus

Next week we will be sending you an online link to a consent form for your child to take part in the Brush Bus scheme. We have been running this scheme for several years. It has always been so successful and with the support of yourselves, we are confident this year will be the same. The children will brush their teeth every day after lunch, supervised by an adult. All equipment will be provided and children will also receive a free gift pack to take home to support the programme.  We will also put more information on Seesaw next week. We are looking forward to supporting your child. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

School App

Our school app is the best way to get information about dates and events going on in the school. Search for ‘School News’ in your app store.

Dates to remember

Swimming—Every Tuesday until half term

Trip payment deadline—24th September

Sports Day—Thursday 30th September

Theatre Trip—Friday 5th November

Last day before half term - Friday 15th October

School returns after half term - Monday 1st November

Home Learning

· Enjoy sharing your new library book. Please click the 'Add response' button to tell us about your experience.

· Watch the videos on Seesaw of the Read Write Inc pictures. Can you join in too?

· Every Friday we will assign a story on Seesaw for the children to watch and enjoy for pleasure. This week Mrs Bastin is reading Aliens Love Underpants.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team