Pre-School 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Pre-School Spring Term 1 2026  

We will be starting our first SpringTerm topic 'Traditional Tales' please enjoy looking at the topic web in the file section below.

We have lots to look forward to this half-term including all our making and baking activities and puppet shows 

Welcome to all the new children and their families starting with us in January, if you have yet to receive the welcome pack with details about the Pre-School day, then please ask at the school office or download the PDF in the files section attached to this page.

Routines, Reminders & Messages for Children starting Reception 2026: 

• Tapestry – If you have not yet sent any family photos or photos of special times for your child then we would love to share them in class. Please upload a photo of your child’s family as soon as you can, thanks so much!  

• Book Bags – Please look out for our ‘wow stars’ to complete at home, we will share your child’s celebrations/achievements together at school. Also, it is really great to share any news or information about home life with us, we would love to see any type of news in their books when you bring them back to us each week  

• Reading for Pleasure' books - Your child will choose a 'Reading for Pleasure' every week.  These are lovely books for you to share with your child at home and are wonderful as a bedtime story or snuggling up on the sofa to read together. These books are also changed on your child's specific Book-Bag Day and again we have a limited supply, so would appreciate your support in ensuring they are returned on time to be available to be chosen by another child.  

• Phase 1 Phonics- We will be learning about how to hear and say sounds at the beginning of words. We will start with letter s and work on a new letter each week: a,t,p,i,n will follow. Each week you will receive a small poster with instructions on how to model the pure sound and practise new words at home together. 

• Lunches - You may change lunch option at any time for your child so if you wish to switch to a school lunch provided by our kitchen, please do not hesitate to let us know, an order form and menu can be obtained online or from the school office.   

• Passwords - We require a password for every child. If you have not provided a password on your registration form, then please inform myself or Miss Moss at drop-off or pick-up time so that we can update our records. Also, if there are any changes to normal collection routines, please let us know on the day or contact the school office.  

• Tapestry Learning Journey - If you are new to Tapestry as a family then please look out for an email with instructions on how to get started by the end of this week. If your child has an older sibling and you already have an Tapestry login then please reactivate your previous account, it should be able to be accessible by the end of this week. If your child attends another setting we can share accounts with the other setting with your permission. If your child had a previous account at another setting then we can continue their Learning Journey by accessing a Key Code from the manager, please contact your previous setting and ask the manager to email Rode Heath Admin with the key code and we can then transfer the data to our Pre-School. As always, please let us know if you have any problems.
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Week Commencing: Monday the 2nd of February 2026 

This week we will explore the story 'Guess how much I love You'

Communication & Language:

This week we will enjoy the heart-warming tale of two Hare's in Guess how much I love you. We will practise sequencing the story using a simple pictorial story board. We can practise recalling the beginning, middle and end of the story and use stick puppets to recall and repeat phrases such as I love you as big as... as much as.... Our new words this week will be based around the setting of the story, the characters names and the items that the Hare's list to describe how big their love is; sky, moon, arms, toes, hills, river. 

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

This week we will enjoy the joyful and sweet story of 'Guess How much I love you' and we will use the messages in this story to form positive phrases about the things we love and the people we love in our lives. We will start by being thankful, we will close our eyes and say, 'thank you for our family and thank you for our friends'. We will add new things to our ‘thank you tree’ and add pictures and cards in our free play time. We will look at the pages in our Colour Monster story book to help us to invoke the warm feeling of love in our hearts to help us to feel happy and peaceful. We will explore the colour pink as we breathe in the rainbow.

Physical Development:

This week we will enjoy learning a traditional song about a princess in a castle and we will learn how to sign in Makaton as we sing- 'There was a princess long ago'. We will explore climbing and jumping and look from our tree house in the woods. We will take a wellie walk through the woods and pretend we are looking for magical faraway places those like in the fairy tales from long ago. We will mix potions and pretend that they will show us how to love and be merry using our lovely pink sand and gloop trays.

Literacy:

Literacy: 

We will practise pattern tracing the letter n with bunny hop patterns using our tripod pencils and make tally charts on our white boards to see which topping has had the most votes. We will start at the top of our boards and make sure our marks start at the top and go straight down. We will also write our full name using a special handwriting pencil.

Phonics:

This week we will have lots of fun exploring how to make the pure sound 'n', using the air correctly pushed over our tongues that is raised up and pushed against our closed teeth. We will also use actions to help us as we will pretend to 'tap a nut...make a fist and then tap with the other hand' as we make the 'n,n,n' sound. We will enjoy playing a picture bingo game to match the pictures to the picture board whilst practise each word; nut, nail, night and many more.

  Mathematics:

This week we will continue learning about counting 3. Each morning we will start with our favourite songs When Goldilocks went to the House of the Bears and 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a Fish Alive. We will move our fingers when saying counting words and notice number symbols as labels. We will also be practising labelling amounts of bean bags in our games and answering the question how many are there?

    Understanding the World:

This week we will talk about who is in our family and how thankful we are.

   Expressive Arts & Design:

This week we will immerse ourselves in relaxing rainbow colours and peaceful music with piano and guitar We will explore the colour pink, painting with red first and then adding white to mix and blend pink colours of various shades. We will enjoy creating a love heart collage to take home.

We know that the first few weeks at Pre-School can be a bit of a scary time, even for mums and dads! If you have any worries then please come and talk to us- mornings at the door can be a bit busy but we have more time to talk at the end of the day. Please email the office directly if you would like a phone call or a meeting.

Our door is always open, please contact us for help at any time.  At busy times, please telephone to leave a message or email and we will respond as soon as we can.