Welcome to our New Starters page for 2021/22!
Here you will find information all about Onchan School and our lovely Foundation Stage.
We will also post regular updates, so please remember to keep checking this page.
To our New Starters and their Grown Ups
Welcome to Onchan School. If you
are reading this, we hope that you are going to be joining our
Lions and Penguins classes here at our fabulous Onchan school.
School is something really good. It’s a place where we make
friends, have lots of fun and do lots of really brilliant things.
We also become really good at learning and everyone who comes
here becomes a Learning Hero. You will hear lots about our
different learning characters: Sebastian Shark; Polly Penguin;
Elma Elephant; Woody Woodpecker; Ollie Owl and Bobby Beaver. When
you come to visit, see if you can see them around our
school.
We are really looking forward to you starting your learning journey with us, but in the meantime have a look at our photographs and videos to find out more!
Mrs Richardson - Headteacher
Events:
Here we will post any upcoming events that you can attend with your child. We really enjoyed the first 'Stay and Play' session held in December. It was great to meet so many of you and for you to see our Foundation Stage in action - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Stay and Play Session - 14th December 2020
Official Open Morning - 11th February 2021 Letter from Mrs Richardson
Information Evening for Parents 24th May 2021 5:30pm - 6:15pm
Induction Sessions - 8th & 9th July 2021 (more information will be available about this in due course)
Meet the Team:
Click on the link below for a welcome video from the Foundation Stage team!
Miss Cubbon - Foundation Stage Leader & Class Teacher
Miss Richardson - Class Teacher
School Information:
Click on the link below to meet our Learning Friends, they help us with our Learning Powers and we like to talk about them a lot at Onchan School!
Learning at Onchan:
The Reception year is a very special one indeed. It marks the first formal year of education for your child and the Early Years curriculum is specially designed to allow your child to develop a passion for learning! Have a look at the photographs below to see some of the fantastic learning that happens at Onchan:
Mark-Making is a very important part of the Early Years and we encourage this from September when your child starts with us. Mark-Making is encouraged through writing in sand/glitter, painting, colouring and having a go at writing letters, for example, letters in their name. In order for children to be able to hold a pencil and use it appropriately, they have to have good fine-motor skills. To support them with this, we have adopted an approach called 'Funky Finger Friday's' - have a look at the photos below!
Developing children's fine motor skills is a big focus in the early years. This year we have brought in a new approach called 'Funky Finger Friday's', which has become very popular with our little Lions and Penguins and they all get very excited on a Friday morning. Each week the children complete a different challenge that focusses on improving fine-motor skills!
Reading is very important in sparking curiosity, igniting creativity and encouraging imagination! In Foundation Stage, we read lots of stories and promote a love of reading from when the children first start school. We like to provide 'hooks' into books, for example, earlier in the year we had a special delivery of a basket of fruit and a brand new story called 'Handa's Surprise' - this sparked a great conversation, with the children asking lots of questions and listening and responding to their peers ideas. Children in Foundation Stage start to bring reading books home at October half-term, as this gives them plenty of time to get used to Phonics lessons in school. It is always lovely to see how proud they are to take their first reading books home.
At Onchan, we follow a Maths Mastery approach. Maths Mastery is the process of children gaining a deeper, long-term, secure understanding of the subject. Children are given the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a mathematical concept through a variety of activities including reasoning and problem solving.
We love the outdoors in Foundation Stage! We're very fortunate to have our own Outdoor Area in Foundation Stage, which the children always have access to throughout the day. We have our own play bin, stage, mud kitchen and areas to plant and grow. The outdoors offers endless opportunities for creativity and imagination not to mention improved fitness, developed muscle strength and coordination!