September 2020

Dear Parents and Carers of Teddy Bear Class,

Welcome everyone!

We are excited to have our returning children back and to welcome our new children and their families to Teddy Bear class.

It has been an unprecedented time for us all and we are happy to be back in school working with your children. The most important thing is that your children feel happy and settled in school either if they are new to the class or they are returning after the extended period of closure. It is also important that you, as parents and carers feel confident that we are doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of your children at all times.

Below is a list of all the adults in our class who are working with your child.

Topic

This half term our topic is ‘This is Me’. We will also be implementing a “Recovery Curriculum” which aims to address the return to school. Within Teddy Bear Class this will focus on ensuring children are happy and settled. We will ensure they become familiar with the routines of their day so they know what will be happening next. We will ensure the children get to know all the adults that will be working with them and the children who are in our class. We will be supporting the children to become familiar with their new environment. We are lucky in that we have access to our own outside area.  Thank you for your support with the initial settling periods as your children came back in to school. Happy, settled children are able to access the learning experiences and activities more effectively.

As we are an early years class we will be using a holistic and multisensory approach to learning as this is the best way for young children to begin to make sense of the world around them.

We will enjoy many songs and rhymes and use puppets and speakers to retell and re-enact what we have learned and to support the routine.

Sensory exploration and outdoor play are an important part of our daily routine and we will be doing lots of learning using paint, play dough, pasta, shaving foam and cornflour, to name just a few. To support our maths development we have sand and water trays in the classroom and garden for the children to experiment with capacity, weight, size, colour and shape. These experiences encourage our children explore, use their senses and become motivated and inquisitive. Please make sure your child wears clothes that are comfortable and can get messy. It would be useful if you could send in a spare set of clothes in case we do need to change them.

Timetable

We will be sending home a class timetable for your child in the next fortnight. This way you will be able to see what your child has been doing each day from physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, Music, Dance and PE and hopefully make it easier to talk with your child about their time at school.

Therapists

We work closely with the multidisciplinary team including Speech and Language, Occupational therapist, Physiotherapist, dietician and the school nurse. Children in Teddy class will have daily therapy devised by therapists but implemented by the class team.

Home School Links

We are sending home weekly ideas and suggestions via email for you to try at home. There are also Zoom links for music and whole school singing. There are also occasions during the week when you can access Teddy Bear group sessions within the class room if your child is unable to attend school. You should have received the regular Zoom links for these. If not or if you have difficulty accessing  Zoom  then please contact us and we will try to help you.

If you are happy to send us photographs via email of your child enjoying these activities at home we would love to include these in our classroom displays.

Yours sincerely

Megan, Caroline, Tracey, Velma, Zahida and Agata