THOMAS MUIR PRIMARY SCHOOL 2019 - Welcome to Our School

THOMAS MUIR
PRIMARY SCHOOL

     2019

  Welcome to
  Our School

Welcome
                                    to
                        Thomas Muir Primary School

We hope your child will be happy here at Thomas Muir Primary and we hope to make their
transition to P1 a happy and stress free one for all concerned.

Pupils will start Thomas Muir on Thursday 15th August 2019. They will attend for full days
straight away: 9.00am – 3.00pm.

MORNING:                9.00am – 12.15pm

AFTERNOON:              1.00pm – 3.00pm

On the first day of Primary 1, the children should arrive at school at 10.00am and can be
collected at 2.00pm. At the end of the day, parents are invited to come into the class bases
to take any pictures.

To ease congestion in the mornings, we currently have a ‘soft start’ entry system for Primary
1, 2 and 3, where the children can enter the school from 8.50am onwards. This will continue
in the new session but may be reviewed at a later date.

During wet intervals and wet lunchtimes the children are supervised within the school.

Starting School
1. Explain the routine of the day. Children will come to school in the morning and
   Will be collected them at the end of the day by Mum, Dad, Gran etc.

2. Ensure your child can independently go to the toilet.

3. Remind your child that they should ask to go to the toilet during class, if required.

4. Attempt as far as possible independence when putting on clothes:
    Buttons on shirts/coats
    Zips
    Put on jumper/cardigan
    Slip on shoes or Velcro fastenings would help as laces are a problem

5. To ease the problem of identification it is very helpful if your child’s coat, blazer, school
bag, lunchbox etc are clearly labelled. If your child loses any property please contact the
school office. However, it will be more difficult to find the owner if the item is not labelled.

6. School Bags should be big enough to carry your child’s homework folder which is slightly
bigger than A4 size.

What Do the Children Need to Take With Them to School?
On P.E. days children will need a pair of dark shorts, a white T-shirt and a pair of gym shoes.
Your child’s teacher will let you know on which days your child will need his/her P.E. kit.

Some children leave their gym bag in school all week and take it home on a Friday or at
holiday breaks.

Children will also need indoor/soft shoes to change into each day.

Reading

The best start in reading you can give children is to talk and read to them.
Encourage by:

      Reading stories to your child
      Asking your child about the pictures is very important – talking about pictures can be
       fun

By doing this you will help your child develop both talking and listening skills.

                          Reading should be a pleasure and children learn best when they
                          are introduced to reading as easily and enjoyably as possible.
                          Long before they come to school, children are surrounded by
                          words and visual information of all sorts – in magazines, books,
                          letters, signposts, advertisements and shop signs. Right from the
                          start, learning to read and reading to learn occur simultaneously as
                          children develop an implicit knowledge about the written and
                          visual information in the world about them.

Before children can be taught to read they need to acquire a range of skills and abilities
including such things as:
    Awareness of print in the environment
    Early knowledge of nursery rhymes
    Ability to recognise the letters of the alphabet by sound
    Experience of reading/sharing stories with a parent or other reader
    Reading for meaning – appreciate that sentences need to make sense.

You can help your child to take those first steps in reading and writing before they start
school in August.

Nursery Rhymes:
      Listening to and reciting familiar nursery rhymes provide an easy and enjoyable way of
       learning about sounds in words
      Finding words which rhyme such as wall and fall, all help children to read

Play Word Games
      I spy with my little eye
      Something which rhymes with ………
      Snap
      Odd One Out
      Playing with plastic letters
      Same Sound (find everyday things whose name starts with the same sound)

Reading All Around You
Point out signs and notices when you go out for a walk or out shopping. In your home, point
out names on packets and boxes.

Go To Your Local Library
Take your child to join the library. Help him/her to choose books to take home. Promote a
love for books.

Make Reading Fun
Read to your child using story books, comics, poems and magazines. Talk about the cover
and the picture. Read and point from left to right. Talk about what will happen next. Enjoy
reading with your child. If your child is unable to read a particular word try to vary the help
you give.

Here are some suggestions:

      Encourage your child to look at the picture for help
      Encourage your child to read the first sound or syllable of the word
      Encourage your child to read past the unknown word and try to work out the word by
       reading the whole sentence again
      Guess the word
      Look at the beginning and ending of the word for clues
      Quietly tell your child the word

When your child comes to school, the classroom has lots of examples of written language in
displays, labels and signs. They soon become aware of the purposes of the words and want
to read them and they realise that print carries a message.

In Primary 1 we use Bug Club and Storyworld reading books. The children
are introduced to the stories through the Big Book format and a shared
reading experience. While this reading development is taking place,
we will also be introducing the sounds and common words. We use an
integrated approach to teach reading:
The Whole Word Approach:
Children become familiar with the shape and size of whole words.

The Phonic Approach:
Children are taught the sounds and learn how they can blend them together to make
words.

The Sentence Approach:
Children learn to recognise and read short sentences through captions in books and
classroom displays.

Active Literacy
   In Thomas Muir we use a programme called Active Literacy which combines both the
   sounds and the formation of the letters. All words are made up of sounds. There are
   more than 40 sounds in the English language but only 26 letters are used to represent
   these sounds. Active Literacy introduces the children to the main sounds of English, not
   just the alphabet sounds, for example ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. For each single sound there is an
   action which helps the children remember the sound the letter makes. The children are
   taught 5 basic skills:

         Learning the letter sounds
         The correct way to write the letter sounds
         Blending sounds together to make a word
          (E.g. t-a-p is tap)
         Writing the letters for the sounds in words
         Learning tricky words

                   The letters are not introduced in
                   alphabetical order. The first group of letters: s a t i p n has been carefully
                   chosen as they can be used to make many simple words, e.g. tap, and
                   sat. The children learn to blend the sounds of letters and then to read and
                   write the words.

Writing

As part of our phonics programme, children are taught correct letter formation (see next
page). Our aim is to teach good writing habits, so that children can write clearly, fluently
and quickly as well as encouraging them to take pride in their work.

We wish our children to be motivated to be interested in written language, to see purpose in
writing and to be confident of their ability to succeed.

Writing
Letters of the Alphabet

Maths
Learning happens everywhere and many of the things we teach in school are already
happening at home. Children come to school with differing experiences and varied depths
of knowledge about number. Many children will have a well developed sense of number
through seeing, hearing and using number before they come to school. We build on this
and help to develop children’s use of number and extend their existing knowledge and
understanding.

A wide variety of activities helps to establish the oral sequence of number names, one to
one counting of objects and recognition of written number names. The children explore
numbers to 20 and beyond. To help children make connections between the skills they are
developing at school you can look for opportunities of involving your child in learning.

In Thomas Muir the children will experience lots of active learning in Maths and will use
TeeJay materials and workbooks as part of their learning. They will also use resources such as
Numicon and Number Talks.

Number:
      When out for a walk - count how many steps you take to get to the next lamp post
      Share sweets out with a friend
      Look for numbers in the environment i.e. house numbers, supermarket aisles etc

Shape
   What shape is the road sign?
      In the Kitchen – what other things in the kitchen are the same shape as the plate?
       How many spoons are left to dry?
      Shopping – Looking at different shapes in the supermarket

Play2Learn
At Thomas Muir Primary we have adopted play based learning in Primary 1. Play is an
integral part of children’s day. Interconnections are made between playing, learning,
growing, developing, being healthy and being happy.

Children learn best when they’re having fun, and they are more likely to be having fun when
they are playing. Children’s learning is optimal when they’re free to learn at their own pace
and in their own way.

Research indicates that a work-oriented, rigid approach to learning is not likely to help
children develop a love of learning or provide the skills and attitude they need to be life-
long learners. Play is the way in which children learn best.

Play provides opportunities to improve fine motor and gross motor skills and maintain
physical health. It also helps to develop imagination and creativity. Additionally, play
provides an environment in which to practise social skills and helps instil a positive sense of
self which is important in facilitating ongoing learning. Long periods of uninterrupted play
build children’s concentration and the inner motivation to take responsibility for their own
learning.

What is play-based learning?

A play-based program does not mean that children just do what they like all day. A play-
based program will look different throughout the day. At times children may play alone or
with their friends. At other times children will come together as a group, listen when others
are talking, follow the rules of the group and begin to take responsibility for their own actions
and their environment.

At Thomas Muir Primary, children experience a balance of independent, self-directed play
and adult directed tasks, such as work in jotters or reading with a group. This year, Primary 1
teachers have observed that many children have taken their adult directed tasks and made
them an integral part of their play.

Using careful and considered observations and meaningful learning conversations with
children, our teachers and support staff create a stimulating and ever-changing play
environment.

Our Play2Learn practice has been observed and highly evaluated by EDC Educational
Psychologists and Early Level colleagues from other establishments.

There is lots of information available about the health and wellbeing benefits of play. Active
play helps to build strong bones and muscles. Children and young people explore their
feelings through play, and this can help them build resilience and cope with stress.
Play is how young children make sense of the world. There is also evidence to show that play
in early childhood can influence the way your child's brain develops, helping to co-ordinate
their mental and physical capabilities. Through play, children and young people of all ages
develop problem-solving skills, imagination and creativity, language and observation skills,
and memory and concentration. Children and young people use play to test their theories
about the world and their place in it.

                                       School Buses
Parents and carers are required to apply for a bus place for their children every year.
Application forms can be obtained from the school office or on the East Dunbartonshire
website:
  https://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/residents/schools-and-learning/free-school-transport
We are required to remind parents and carers that it is their responsibility to ensure their
children are safely on the bus in the morning. When children come off the bus in the
morning, they are supervised in the playground by school staff. Staff also ensure that Primary
1 pupils are on the correct bus before they leave school each day.
Due to insurance purposes, children are not permitted to switch buses throughout the week.
If you need to make any changes to your child’s home plan, please contact the school
office.

Other General Information

      Thomas Muir Primary operates a controlled entry system. All visitors’ should enter the
       school by the main entrance. All visitors are asked to sign in/out using the visitor’s
       book.

      If your child is going to be absent from school, please notify the school office by
       calling 0141-955-2290. A member of staff is available to answer the phone from
       8:15am onwards; please inform us of any absences as soon as possible. Your child
       should bring a short note, explaining their absence to their class teacher on return to
       school.

      We would ask that parents do not park or drop pupils off in the school car park.

      If your child requires medication, please hand this medication into the school office
       and complete an administration of medicine form. No medication should be placed
       into school bags.

                                            http://www.thomasmuir.e-dunbarton.sch.uk/

Early in the first term we shall be inviting you to Thomas Muir for an information evening
explaining more about the Primary 1 curriculum.
We hope this booklet has been helpful and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 15th
August at 10.00am.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any concerns or
questions.

Jennifer Law
Depute Head Teacher