Rainbow New Starters 2020

Welcome To Haddenham St Mary’s School!

We are really pleased you will be joining our lovely school in September and hope you find all the relevant information you might need on this page.  Whilst we appreciate nothing beats face to face contact, we have tried to give you and your children a ‘snapshot’ of life at Haddenham St Mary’s and we really look forward to meeting you all very soon!

Welcome to Haddenham St Mary’s Church of England School

 ‘We love to learn’

Our Vision:

At Haddenham St Mary’s Church of England School we are committed to excellence, care and fun for all. We want every child to achieve their full potential in a stimulating, exciting and safe environment – and at the same time to develop a lifelong love for learning. Integral to our approach is the Christian ethos of caring for one another in school, in the local community and in society. At Haddenham St Mary’s, every child matters and everyone cares.

Our Aims:

We work in partnership with parents, governors and the wider community to –

• Promote curiosity and enthusiasm
• Develop all abilities
• Reward effort and achievement
• Encourage independence
• Promote creative and logical thinking
• Encourage respect and sensitivity for others
• Develop self confidence and self-esteem
• Support Christian values

 Our Legacy:

For every child and every family to take away wonderful memories of their early years with us.

MEET SOME OF THE TEAM

Headteacher: Mrs Collett

Rainbow 1 Class Teacher, Mrs Mehta:

Mrs Mehta

Rainbow 2 Class Teacher, Mrs Smith:

Mrs Smith

We thought you and your children might like a little look around our school.  We hope you enjoy this ‘walkabout’ video of the school grounds and buildings showing those parts of the school that Reception children will spend most of their time in and around. The video has been filmed recently. Please watch it bearing in mind that our Early Years classrooms and other areas are looking very different to normal at the moment. They are rather ‘bare’, in line with current guidelines for keeping safe those children who are in school. No pupils are in this video so you will have to imagine every area full of happy, smiling children!

Please look at the school gallery to see the sorts of things we get up to….. with children in the pics!!

TAPESTRY

At Haddenham St Mary’s we use ‘Tapestry’ to record the children’s learning. Tapestry is an online journal recording much of the learning and fun of children’s early years’ education.  It can be downloaded on an app onto your phone/iPad and you will receive regular notifications when observations have been made.  Please see separate letter/consent form which will be sent in your admin starter pack. NB When completing the consent form please write your email address as clearly as possible with correct capital/lowercase letters etc. as this will be used to activate your account, many thanks.

PHONICS

Phonics is taught in differentiated groups across their year groups. Each group works on a specific phase matched to their ability. Children are assessed regularly and may move groups accordingly. We follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ document. At Haddenham St Mary’s we have high expectations of all pupils and we support each child to help them achieve their full potential. For more information and resources please look at the phonics page on our school website.

LETTER FORMATION

We use cursive script to form the letters of the alphabet,

• Please do not write in capital letters for your child, use capitals only to start proper nouns e.g. the child’s own name.
• Each letter starts ‘on the line’ and all letters are formed without lifting the pencil from the paper:
• Please note – we teach the sounds that the letters usually make, rather than an emphasis on the names of the letters.
• It is difficult to pronounce some letters without adding a trailing “uh” sound, for example, j and w, but try to emphasise the pure main letter sound.

Please click on this link to see how each sound is pronounced:

Phonics Sounds 

OUR GOLDEN RULES

We have a set of Golden Rules for pupils in school. These embody good manners, respect for one another and ways to help us all to get on well together in a group.  At the end of the week for the last part of Friday afternoon, children are rewarded with golden time for keeping these good principles.  At golden time children can choose from a range of fun activities such a construction sets, water play, parachute games, craft activities. It is a very popular time! Golden time will be reduced or removed as a sanction if children break the golden rules.

School Office Times    8:30am – 3:15pm (Monday & Friday)

8:30am – 4:00pm (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday)

Term Dates 2020-21

Buckinghamshire Term Dates 2020/2021:

Haddenham St Mary’s INSET Training Days 2020/2021

Tuesday 1 September
Wednesday 2 September
Monday 4 January
Friday 28 May
Wednesday 21 July

To view Bucks term dates online, please click on the link below:

Term Dates 

Below are links to a few more useful documents.  Under ‘normal’ circumstances we would have held an information meeting with parents at this point, so I have included the PowerPoint we would have shared.

New Starters Information 2020

Access to School

School Uniform

The School Day and Routines

We really hope we have provided you with all the information you need for now.  We will keep you updated with transition arrangements and look forward to meeting you all soon .  In the meantime, if you have any queries or concerns, please contact the school office. Have a wonderful and safe Summer!

Best wishes,

The Rainbow Team