We appreciate that parents/carers who are new to our school will have many questions and concerns. Staff at the school are often asked questions in relation to your child’s education, school timings, procedures and a many other topics. We won’t have answered them all here of course but we have provided answers below to our most commonly asked questions in the hope that parents are able to find information they are looking for quickly without having to take time out to contact the school.
If your particular question is not answered here then please do contact the school via our contact us page.
Please follow the link below and apply before the 15th January 2023: At present Reception children start at 8:45am and finish at 3:10pm. This may be subject to change as staggered drop off and collection times have been introduced to aid social distancing. Parents drop children at the school gate where they are greeted by a member of staff. Parents collect from outside of the Reception classroom. Please see.... http://www.totstoteams.com/ Please see.... http://www.totstoteams.com/ On PE days children arrive in full PE kit and wear that all day. School meals are free for Reception children and year 1 and 2 children. From September 2023, once children are in Key Stage 2 dinners will cost £2.50 per day. You pay for meals through the Parent Pay web page. Some children do choose to bring a packed lunch. Children up to the age of 5 receive free milk under the ‘Cool Milk’ Scheme. After the age of 5 parents may choose to continue this for a fee, through the cool milk website. Children receive a piece of fruit through the day as a healthy snack. If your child has any food allergies or require a special diet. Please inform our office once you have accepted your child’s place. We advise that all children bring in a full water bottle to drink throughout the day. As we are a healthy school this must be water and not juice or fizzy drinks. Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. At Kirk Merrington we use Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds as our phonic programme. Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read. Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words. Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch. Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out. For example, when a child is taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, they can start to build up the words: “tap”, “taps”, “pat”, “pats” and “sat”. The Reception teacher holds a meeting in September/October time to discuss this further. In the first term of school children begin to receive reading books. We start with picture books with no words to develop story telling and comprehension. As children start to blend words together they receive simple story books that match to their phonic knowledge. These get progressively harder as they move through the reading scheme. Children can go to our new school train library and choose a book to read with an adult. We believe in a balance between child led and adult led learning. Children come together on the carpet for teacher led input on subjects such as phonics, reading, maths and topic for a short focused amount of time. Children may then be asked to complete an activity as a small group, supported by an adult. Topics may be seasonal, planned in response to children’s interests or to support specific learning intentions.Teachers value child initiated learning and learning through play. Staff observe children learning and capture observations using Tapestry and online learning journal. This helps parents and carers not only to see how their child is learning at school but also to contribute their own observations and activities to the journal. At Kirk Merrington Primary the EYFS Framework learning is divided into 7 Areas: These are the prime areas: The specific areas are: At the end of the Reception year children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals to determine if they have achieved a good level of development. This is a statutory assessment that is reported to parents and the local authority. Yes. We love to play outdoors in all weathers. It is important that children are always dressed appropriately for the weather as sun, rain or snow we play outdoors. Reception children have a Forest School and they go outside in all weathers on a weekly basis. Children need to have a named pair of wellies kept at school at all times. The school provides a ‘mud suit’ to keep clothes clean and dry. As we don’t have our own nursery the Reception teacher works closely with feeder nursery schools. Children typically come from several local nurseries and quickly make friends. Transition usually involves The Reception teacher arranging to visit the child in their setting and inviting the child into our school for a couple of short sessions to become familiar with staff and the building. Usually parents are invited to a meeting once they accept their place. Should this not be able to happen due to Covid-19 virtual alternatives will be organised. Some children require more transition work and this is organised to meet individual needs. Currently we have an external provider Little Darlings who provide breakfast and after school club. Each child is treated as an individual and support is tailored to suit them. If you have concerns about your child starting our school please contact us. Our SENDCO is Sarah O’Sullivan, Deputy Head. If you require information about the local offer please follow visit About the Local Offer in County Durham section on the DCC website. Reception class is usually staffed by one Teacher and a TA at any one time. Is my child ready for school? What do they need to be able to do? Children begin school with a range of abilities and we have experienced staff that will help your child to gain independence. In general we would like children to be able to: Staff reward positive behaviour with a ‘dojo’. Parents join an online app, Class Dojo, which alerts them when their child receives a dojo. These may be given out for: good listening, sitting quietly and paying attention on the carpet, being kind or helpful, moving around the school in a sensible way and for many many more positive reasons. When each child in the class has collected 100 dojos we have a class party. Class rules are agreed together in a class charter. When rules are broken we have a behaviour management system in Reception Class of a sunshine, a cloud and a thunder cloud. Children start on the sunshine and if a rule is broken they are often given a reminder of the expected behaviour. Another occasion of poor behaviour results in their name moving to the cloud. This is a visual reminder to change this behaviour. A further incidence of poor behaviour would result in their name moving to the thundercloud. This then has a consequence. Children are asked to take a 5 minute time out to think about the behaviour and they lose 1 dojo point. As a school we have a zero tolerance on intentionally hurting others. In this case you would automatically move to the thunder cloud. On a very rare occasion children who then do not modify their behaviour would visit the Head Teacher’s office to discuss their actions. Children can also work their way from the cloud back to the sunshine by demonstrating good behaviours and attitudes. Each day everyone returns to the sunshine.