Pre-School 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Pre-School Spring Term 2 2026  

Welcome Back! We hope that you have enjoyed your break together. This week we will be starting our second SpringTerm topic 'People who Help us' please enjoy looking at the topic web in the file section below.

We have lots to look forward to this half-term including information finding about jobs that members of our family do. If you have any spare time to talk to our children about the job that you do or how you help people in the community, please let a member of staff know.

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.

Week Commencing: Monday 23rd February 2026

This week we will explore the story 'The Smartest Giant in Town'.

Communication & Language:

This week we will enjoy the wonderful story of the kindest giant in town, George! This story is a wonderful way to introduce the role of shopkeepers and how helping others is a great thing. We will practise singing the central melodic section of the story starting with the line...'my tie is a scarf for a cold giraffe!'.  We will see how the story develops with different animals needing help from the giant and the ways in which the kind giant helps others by giving them items of from his new wardrobe, recently bought from a clothes shop. We will roleplay in a little shop with different clothes and use language such as...'can I help you? and How much is this?

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

This week we will enjoy slowing things down and taking breaths slowly in and out as we sing our song 'Silly to Calm'. As we practise following the actions in this song we will follow the music and take deep breaths. We will talk about the acts of kindness that George shows the animals in the story.

Physical Development:

This week we will pretend to be a giant, standing tall and moving around with large strides and contrast tiny steps like a mouse.  We will role play movements from the story making our body small like a mouse and then large like a giant. We will enjoy wellie walks through the forest and the fields and imagine we are in a fairy tale.

Literacy:

This week we will learn the repeating phrases of the giant's song as he makes comments about the animals in the story that he has helped along the way. We will also learn about the different garments that he wears and why he is so kind. We will practise pattern tracing the letter 'm' with giant hopping patterns using our tripod pencils and make patterns such as spots and stripes staring at the top and going down and drawing a circle in an anti-clockwise direction.

Phonics:

This week we will have lots of fun exploring how to make the pure sound 'm'. We will enjoy playing a picture bingo game to match the pictures to the picture board whilst practise each word; monkey, milkshake, mouse and mango and many more.

  Mathematics:

This week we will start our exploration of routes and journeys and we will look at how to follow a pathway and a map. We will build obstacle courses and pretend we are the giant on his way through the story and meeting different animals in different places. Can we move over, under and on different equipment?

    Understanding the World:

This week we will learn all about clothes and what are the best clothes to wear at winter time. We will practise our cutting skills and focus on cutting up a straight line and then sticking the clothes we have selected onto a washing line in a row. We will talk about shops and the different types of shops we may have visited with our families.

   Expressive Arts & Design:

We will look closely at the flowers that start to appear in these colder months such as crocuses and snowdrops. We will look at the colour and shape of the leaves and then paint what we can see. We will play shop keepers selling clothes for our babies and play with money and tills.

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.