A new term!

This half term our topic is:

‘Staying Alive!’

We will be focusing heavily on Science over the coming six weeks and exploring what both plants and animals need to stay alive and healthy. This will tie into a fantastic trip to Wakehurst Place, where the children will be able to explore seeds, consider what a seed is and what it grows into. They will be able to look at a selection of both native and exotic seeds, including the biggest and smallest seeds in the world.

You can see more detail in our topic tree here.

We will continue with 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.

Each Friday we will be sending home a Learning Journal for you to share and complete with your child at home. In it will be homework tasks, which are designed to help reinforce the learning that has taken place in the classroom that week. The journal is also a way of keeping you informed about your child’s learning journey. We aim to alternate English / topic-focused and Maths tasks. We ask that homework tasks are completed and returned by the following Thursday at the latest, unless otherwise specified, so that they can be marked and the journals prepared with the next task to be sent home again on Friday.

The children are expected to read to an adult daily at home and we ask that you record this reading in your child’s reading record. Practise at home is really important!

Your child will bring home weekly spellings on a Friday, ready for a test on the following Friday. These are very important and we hope that all children will actively engage with this more formal way of working.

This term we have a trip planned for our Year 2 children to visit Wakehurst Place on Thursday 5th February!

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. 

Following the successful implementation of our updated absence protocols last year, we are pleased to share that the system has brought notable improvements in clarity, communication, and safeguarding oversight across the school. Full details can be found here.

If your child needs 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. 

Children are to bring their water bottles to school and take them home daily. The children must drink water throughout the day, and using bottles in the classrooms helps to prevent spillages! If you do forget a bottle, just let us know, and we can ensure that children have a cup to drink out of. 

Start of the Day

Children may be brought to the Year 2 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 be booked in for breakfast from 7:30am or join our Early Birds in the Pre-Prep Hall from 8:00am. When the children enter their classroom in the morning, we will ask them to take responsibility for putting their own belongings away. This will help us to create a calm start to the day and enable us to begin lessons quickly.

Collection

Collection at the end of the day is at 3:30pm. Please wait to meet your child outside the Year 2 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 hobbies 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 the After School Club Room (until 4:30pm). During this time, there will also be clubs available for Reception – Year 2 children. Hobbies will also run between 4:30 – 5:30 pm, which Year 1 & 2 children are welcome to attend. Supper Club will then take place between 5:30-6:00pm.

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.

Parents can view the Spring 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 Year 2 parents include: 

Wednesday 7th January (8.00am) – Term Starts 

Wednesday 28th January (8.30am to 9.30am) – Wellbeing Tea & Talk for Parents 

Tuesday 3rd February (5.30pm to 7.30pm) – Year 2 All Subject Parents’ Evening

Thursday 5th February – Year 2 Trip to Wakehurst Place

Wednesday 11th February (6.30pm to 8.00pm) – Performance of Frozen 

Thursday 12th February (6.30pm to 8.00pm) – Performance of Frozen 

Friday 13th February (9am to 10am) – Reception Showcase and Pre Prep Celebration Huddle 

Friday 13th February (End of School Day) – Half Term Begins 

Monday 23rd February (08.00am) Spring Term Resumes 

Thursday 26th February (All Day) – Chinese New Year Celebration 

Thursday 5th March – Whole School Open Morning 

Friday 20th March (All Day) – Baynards Charity Day 

Wednesday 25th March (1.00pm to 1.30pm) – Year 1 Showcase and Pre-Prep Celebration Huddle 

Thursday 26th March (10.00am to 11.30am) – Easter Service and Easter Egg Hunt 

Friday 27th March (12 noon) – Term Ends 

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: 

• Friday 9th January – Bags of Support 
• Friday 13th March – Bags of Support 
• Tuesday 10th March – Friends of Pennthorpe Mothers’ Day Shop (Not for Parents!) 
• Tuesday 17th March – Second Hand Uniform Pop-Up Shop (8am to 9am) 

Children should wear the winter uniform throughout the Spring Term. 

Please make sure your child’s uniform is labelled with their name, as it does make it a lot easier to reunite lost items with their owners. 

Children are expected to wear smart uniform each day: 

• All children should wear their blazers coming to and from school. 
• Clean black school shoes (if a child needs to wear trainers, for example, where their school shoes have been misplaced, please make the form teacher aware) 
• Shirts need to be long enough to tuck in. 
• The length of skirts and summer dresses must be on or below the knee.
• Earrings – one plain stud only. No hoops. The child needs to be able to take the earrings out independently for PE and Games lessons. 
• No necklaces or bracelets. 
• Plain wristwatch, no smartwatches to be worn. 
• All shoulder-length hair tied up with a plain hairband or small school coloured scrunchie or headband. 

Full Pennthorpe Appearance Guidelines can be found here.

Children are required to come into school in their PE kit on the days when PE is timetabled.

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

Please do not park in the drop-off lanes at the front of school if you are coming past the gates to drop your child into school, or collect them from the Pre-Prep. These lanes are intended for dropping-off 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.