A new term!

At the start of the new academic year, we warmly invite parents to join us on Monday 8 September, from 6:30 – 8:30pm, for our Parent Information Evening. This will be a brilliant opportunity to meet the team and find out a little bit more about the year ahead in Reception. Individual parent consultations will be taking place later in the term, on Tuesday 14th October.

This term our topics are:

‘Do You Want to be Friends?’ and ‘What’s father Christmas doing when he’s not making presents?’

The children will have the opportunity to settle into their new classes by sharing information about themselves, their families and their friends. We will cover several areas of the EYFS Curriculum during this topic; paying particular attention to the key areas, which include: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development and Communication and Language.

You can see more detail in our topic tree here.

Arc Pathway is our online system for sharing observations, making assessments of children’s progress and sharing reports. You can also use this to share key moments from home.

If you have not yet signed up to use Arc, please use the link here to do so. Please let your child’s form teacher know if you have any questions.

We will be following the Read Write Inc. phonics programme throughout the year, which is aligned with the rest of Pre-Prep and delivered during timetabled sessions every day.

This term the Reception children will spend the morning of Tuesday 14th October at Tilgate Park.

We’re so excited to be able to offer the children some real-world experience of what they are learning in school. Trips are a brilliant way of making learning more tangible and memorable, as they enable the children to engage with the material in a more active and immersive way than can often be possible in the classroom. They are a powerful tool for broadening the children’s horizons, and also a lot of fun; we cannot wait to enjoy this day out!

More information will follow nearer to the date.

For all absences, please complete the absence request form via the Parent Portal. Please see the guide here on how to request an absence for your child.

Please ensure your child is well enough to attend school each day. If they’ve required Calpol in the morning, they aren’t well enough for school, so please don’t send them in. If in any doubt, please contact Front Office to discuss your concerns.

If your child will need any prescribed or over-the-counter medication administered during the school day, please complete the following form here. No medication can be administered without this form.

Start of the Day

Children may be brought to the Reception classrooms via the rear classroom doors between 8:15am – 8:30am for registration, so please make sure your child is in school ready to start by this time. Children arriving earlier should please be booked in for breakfast from 7:30am or join our Early Birds in the Pre-Prep Hall from 8:00am.

Collection

Please wait to meet your child outside the Reception classrooms at the rear of the Pre-Prep building, and make sure your child has ‘blobbed out’ with their teacher. If they are going to after school supervision, or a hobby, the children will be taken to that directly from the classroom. 

After School Care

As we have many parents with children in the Prep and Pre-Prep, we want to make pick up as easy as possible. From September, we will be changing the end of the Prep School Day to 4:15pm, before Clubs start at 4:30pm. As a result, we will now be offering free after-school care for Reception – Year 2 pupils until 4:30 pm. The first 30 minutes of this will take place in year group classrooms (3:30-4:00pm) before moving into the After School Club Room (until 4:30pm). During this time, there will also be clubs available for Reception – Year 2 children.

If you’d like your child to join us for breakfast, or stay beyond 4:30pm for hobbies or after school supervision/supper club, please contact extendedday@pennthorpe.com to arrange this.

As well as your pocket-sized diary, parents can also view the Autumn Term calendar via the website and Parent Portal.

Please do have a look through and pop important dates in your diary.  Of course, sometimes plans need to be updated, and so any changes will be updated on our electronic calendar and communicated to you as soon as possible.

The key events for our Reception parents include

• Please join us for a Parent Information Evening on Monday 8 September 6:30-8:30pm
• Open Morning is on Friday 26 September
• There will be a Pennthorpe Alumni Celebration on Saturday 27 September
• Whole School Harvest Festival will be held on Friday 3 October
• Pennthorpe’s Golf Day at Cowdray Park is on Saturday 4 October
• Reception class trip to Tilgate Park on Tuesday 14th October
• EYFS Class Teacher Parents’ Evening is scheduled for Tuesday 14 October
• Pennthorpe Fireworks Night on Wednesday 5 November
• Our Whole School Remembrance Service will be held on Tuesday 11 November
• Save the date for our annual Pre-Prep Christmas Production on Thursday 4 December
• The Pennthorpe Carol Service will be held on Tuesday 9 December
• Carols Around the Tree takes places on Thursday 11 December
• Friday 12 December is the end of term with school finishing for Reception at 11:40am.

Our brilliant Friends of Pennthorpe, as always, will be doing lots to support our school and community this term. Key things for you to watch out for include:

• The FOP Christmas Fair on Friday 5 December

Children can wear either summer or winter uniform until half term, after which all children should switch to winter uniform.

Whilst the sun is shining, please apply sun cream to your child at home, before the beginning of their session as we will be outside as much as possible. We cannot provide sun cream in school so it is essential that children bring this in themselves.

The children should have their play coat, waterproof clothing and wellies in school at all times, as we will get outside in all weathers at break times, as well as for our Forest School session on Friday. If things get particularly muddy, these will be sent home to be washed, but please can they be returned to school on the following Monday.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the children have their Sports lesson. We ask that the children come to school wearing their Games Kit to reduce the amount of time spent changing. Normal uniform is not required on these days.

Swimming is on a Friday afternoon, and the children will be taken to Billingshurst Leisure Centre by Minibus, and return in time for school pick up time. Billingshurst Leisure Centre ask that ALL children wear a swimming hat as part of their kit.

Uniform is available to order online, for further information please click here.

To help ensure a smooth and safe start to the school day, we kindly remind all families that the drop-off lanes are strictly for ‘drop and go’ only.

Instead, please park up in the car park, or find a safe place to park on the neighbouring roads (being considerate of our neighbours, especially with regards parking near to junctions or driveways).

Our Wellbeing Ambassadors, who are children in Year 8, are available to support families at the busy drop off time by walking children from Reception to Year 2 down to the Pre-Prep. Please do use this option if you are in a rush and need to drop your child and leave.