Welcome to Poppy Class!

What an exciting first half term in Poppy Class! All the children have worked so hard to settle into their new routines and have built great relationships with all members of the team, as well as each other. Please find below a brief overview of the key Poppy Class information for this half term.  Please be aware that we are gradually adapting the Poppy class curriculum to be more in line with main school curriculum, where appropriate. This will continue to support the children’s learning opportunities across the curriculum as well as encouraging them to have shared experiences with their peers through project based learning.

Autumn 2 curriculum overview

PE days – Wednesday and Friday

Please send a PE kit into school that we can keep here over the half term. We are gradually encouraging children to change into their PE kits on PE days, where appropriate. Please also remember to send a coat in with your child as we will still be accessing PE, as well as other activities, outside on a regular basis.

Trips / visitors

We will be increasing our access to local trips this half term, including walking to local shops to buy our ingredients for our weekly cooking sessions.

We also intend to continue our half termly swims although we are currently searching for a new location due to changes to Penstowe’s seasonal opening times. We will update you with more information once this is confirmed.

We are also encouraging the Poppy class children to access as many trips within their mainstream link classes as possible, with support from Poppy class staff. We do of course ensure these are appropriate and safe for the children to be part of and will contact you individually to inform you of this.

If there are any upcoming celebrations that are important to you and your family, please do let us know as we would love for you to come in and share your experiences with the children.

Sensory play

Our allocated sensory play afternoon will be Thursday; please ensure your child has a change of clothes on this day. However, we will be incorporating sensory experiences into our daily child-led learning, so it is best that your child is sent into school every day with a spare set of clothes. Please note that while we do encourage the children to wear aprons, this can sometimes be challenging and can be impactful on their learning opportunity. We always use washable materials so that hopefully any soilage to clothes can be easily removed in the washing machine!

Parents evening

Please ensure you have booked your parents evening slot for next week. Please see the information previously sent out on how to do this. As well as an opportunity to discuss your child’s settling and progress, it is a great opportunity for you to see all the learning that your child has engaged with so far this year in Poppy Class!

Cooking

We have incorporated a weekly cooking session into our project learning. This takes place every Tuesday and the children are really enjoying exploring and tasting a range of food items so far! If there is anything you do not want your child to eat please let me know so we can adapt the recipes accordingly. If there are any simple recipes that you would like to share with us that you think Poppy class will enjoy, please do pass them on to a member of the team!

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mrs Haxton-Bartlett and the Poppy class team