Starting School

Reception Class School Starters – September 2023

We want to wish you all a very warm welcome to Southill Primary School.

As we look forward to getting to know our new families joining our school community, and as we begin our transition activities for this year, we are once again going to use this webpage as a hub to hold all the information that you need as you prepare for September and your children starting school. Many of you will already have children in our school and so will be familiar with some of the information about the school, but for some of you this will be the beginning of your journey at Southill. We hope that, whichever the case, you will find this page informative and helpful.

Please rest assured that we have a robust transition in place, which is tried and tested over many years that has received positive feedback from parents about how it has supported their child to settle into school life.

This year we will offer a comprehensive transition as detailed below. We will mostly be offering in-person sessions for parents, carers and children whilst other activities and information will be online. We are also in the process of arranging visits to preschools and nurseries so please do update us to let us know where your child currently attends.

1. Meet the staff

Mrs Puddick
Reception Class Teacher

Mrs Kench
Reception Class Teaching Assistant

2. Starting School at Southill Primary

This year, you’ll have the opportunity to visit school for an information evening. We will share lots of information with you to help support you in the start of your journey through Southill Primary.

Look out for an invitation to this event and other opportunities to visit our school. We welcome visitors every Friday at 11:00 as part of our ‘Open Mornings’, feel free to pop in!

Full of information and pictures, this document will set the scene and get you off to a great start (opens as a PDF):

After the success of last year, we’re pleased to host another Book-nic afternoon inviting our new families to join us with our most favourite tales, treats and teddies! It’s a great opportunity to meet the team, to ask any questions and to make some new friends. We also launch our popular summer home challenge activity, full details will be shared at this event. We really look forward to welcoming you ..

3. Document: Uniform Policy

4. Powerpoint Presentation

This presentation was shared at the new parents meetings in 2023. It contains important information and also some pictures of the Reception classroom and children. We think it’s helpful for you to see how everything works on a day-to-day basis:

NB Ordering milk and hot school meals

Children under the age of 5 will be offered milk free of charge each day unless you ask us not to. After the age of 5 you can order and pay for milk from www.coolmilk.com

Our hot school meals are very tasty and highly recommended. Menus and ordering information will be sent to you well in advance of the start of term.

5. Practical tips for starting school

Below is a mini guide with ‘practical tips’ to starting school (opens as a PDF):

6. Parent/Pupil questionnaire

This is a copy of the questionnaire we have sent in the post to you. It is designed to help us learn more about each individual child so that we can start to prepare for their transition to school. Please return the completed questionnaires to school as soon as you can.

7. General Information

Please follow these links to sections of the school website you might find useful.

The school prospectus

Information for parents

Reception curriculum

Learning at Southill School

Our Reception Class page

Please follow these links to other useful websites.

BBC Bitesize – starting Primary School

BBC Radio – listening games and activities

Supporting your child in learning to read

8. School Health presentation for new parents

9. Some useful documents for you to explore.

The Road to School: Helping you and your child prepare for school

Steps to Starting School: Top Tips

What to expect, when?

A longer document looking at learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage

10. Pictures from our time at school

Just look at all the fun learning we get up to…

11. Home Learning Ideas

Home Learning Project for the summer holiday: Treasure Bags

At our ‘booknic’ we will give out a fun summer challenge – treasure bags. You will be given a paper bag and a list of things to collect over the summer. Here is a preview of the treasure bag challenge.