A new term!

A very warm welcome to the new academic year to all our Honey Pot families!

We hope you have all had an enjoyable summer holiday and that you have enjoyed the sunny weather and a rest from the routine of school. We are really looking forward to hearing all about your summer fun and getting to know all the children.

As always, we have an ‘open door’ policy and welcome parents to come and see us with any queries or concerns about your child. The best time tends to be at the end of the day, as the start of the day is always busy and we like to ensure that the children are happy and settled into their routine as they arrive at school. We are always happy to arrange a convenient appointment if you wish to request a longer consultation; just ask a member of the Honey Pot team or via our School Administrators, Tricia Bath and Kelly O’Brien (enquiries@pennthorpe.com).

As the first day of school can be quite busy, we kindly request that if you have any important information or questions, either book an appointment with your child’s teacher or send an email before drop-off on Wednesday. This will ensure that we can focus on settling the children into their new class promptly.

Below you can find all the core information that parents need to know about the term ahead. We’re very much looking forward to the Autumn Term.

Miss Sophie Rego & The Honey Pot Team

Parent Information Evening

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 Honey Pot. Individual parent consultations will be taking place later in the term, on Tuesday 14th October.

Topic for the Term

This term our topics are:

‘All About Me’ and ‘Light & Dark’

We would very much like the children to bring in a picture of their own home and family, please, which we will mount and display. This helps to create a sense of being and belonging, and enables us to get to know each other. We will also be focusing on relationships – for example family, new friends, important people to us and celebrating what makes us unique. We are very much looking forward to exploring our glorious woodland too, and spending as much time as possible engaged in Forest School activities, including looking at the homes of different woodland creatures.

You can see more detail in our topic tree here.

Arc Pathway

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 Sophie know if you have any questions.

Trips

Tuesday 2nd December is the Honey Pot and Beehive trip to Christmas Little Street. This will be a fabulous adventure for all the children, and more information will follow nearer to the time.

Health & Wellbeing

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 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.

Honey Pot Routine

A reminder children may be brought to the Honey Pot between 8:15am – 9:00am for registration. Children arriving earlier should please be booked in for breakfast from 7:30am or join our Early Birds in the Beehive from 8:00am.

Parents have the flexibility to choose whether to collect their child before lunch, at 12:00pm, or to have them stay for lunch and be collected at 12:30pm. If you are collecting your child at midday before lunch, we ask that you collect your child from the Beehive in the Pre-Prep building. The Honey Pot children staying for lunch will join the Beehive children to eat in the Pre-Prep Hall before returning to the Honey Pot for collection at 12:30pm.

The afternoon session finishes at 3:00pm, please wait at the Honey Pot front door and we will bring your child and their belongings to you.

From 3:00pm, Honey Pot children are invited to join classroom club, with quiet games, drawing and an opportunity to rest before going home or joining an extended day club or care.

Classroom Club (free) in the Honey Pot 3:00-3:30pm
Care until 4:00pm (charged) in the Honey Pot 3:30-4:00pm
Care until 5:00pm (charged) in the Pre Prep Hall with Beehive & Reception 4:00-5:00pm
Supper Club (charged) in the Library/Dining Room 5:00-6:00pm

Please note Honey Pot and Beehive children will now be provided with a hot supper at 5:00pm in the Dining Room in the main building.

Dates for your Diary

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 Honey Pot 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
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
Nursery trip to Little Street on Tuesday 2nd December
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 Honey Pot at 11:40am.

FOP Events

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

Uniform

Honey Pot uniform remains much the same in the Autumn Term, a Pennthorpe sweatshirt, polo shirt, jogging bottoms or shorts. We ask that the children wear white socks and black shoes. Please also ensure that your child has a named pair of wellies, waterproofs, and a play coat in school at all times.

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.

Please make sure that children have spare clothes in school, including pants and socks, as there will be lots of opportunities for the children to get messy! These can be kept in a drawstring bag on your child’s peg. Please name everything clearly!

Any nappies and wipes that the children need should be stored in their cubby hole.

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

Car park

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).