Parents pages

Colour of the week

Children can chose to bring in something of the weekly colour each day to show their friends.

Curriculum for the term

Our curriculum document can be found here.  

This weeks topics, colours, songs, Makaton sign and phonics

An overview of topics by week can be viewed here. This list includes the weekly colour and phonic sound we are practising.  Each week we share with parents a song we are working on, as well as a greeting and a Makaton sign.

Parental survey

Thank you very much for completing the surveys.  The response has been great.  

Please click here to see the results of the 2019 survey and our responses to the findings. 

Please click here to see the results of the 2018 survey and our responses to the findings.

Please click here to see the results of the 2017 survey and our response to the findings.  

​

Dental health

​

As part of our curriculum we talk about keeping our teeth healthy.   Every so often our treasure basket is filled with interesting things to do with oral hygiene and dentistry. We talk about why we have teeth and how many we have and why we need to look after them.  We talk about how we brush our teeth, how often and for how long. We talk about the routine for brushing teeth, how we put a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush, wet it, brush for two minutes once at bedtime and at one other time during the day.  We brush every tooth and the gumline too, making tiny circles with the toothbrush.  We first should brush the outside of the teeth, both top and bottom, and then the inside of the teeth and 

the biting surface of every tooth, making sure we take our time and do it properly.   We talk about the fact that we spit out our toothpaste but we DON'T rinse our mouth, we only rinse our toothbrush.  We have used a two minute timer and pretended to brush our teeth for the recommended two minutes. We also talk about how we have a first set of teeth that fall out naturally and we grow a second set. We have to take extra care of our second set as we have them for life!

​

We think and talk about other things we can do to keep our teeth healthy, like eating vegetables and not eating too many sweet treats or drinking too many sweet or fizzy drinks. We talk, and read some books, about going to the dentist which reassure us about how friendly and helpful dentists are, and we should visit the dentist regularly! We have taken part in various other activities including sequencing the stages of good teeth brushing and sequencing a visit to the dentist.

​

The main themes we promote regularly at The Lodge when reinforcing good dental health with the children are keeping sugary and acidic food and drinks to a minimum, brushing teeth at least twice a day for an appropriate amount and regularly visiting the dentist. Parents we hope you enjoy looking through the resources below for information on good oral hygiene.

​

Tips for Parents
click here for a brushing reward chart

Internet Safety​

​

As part of our curriculum we talk about staying safe on the internet.  We know this can be a challenging topic to broach with the very young so share here what we talk about at school, which are messages we hope you can reinforce at hope.  See also our internet safety section on the "useful info and links" section of our website for useful resources for this age group and older siblings.  

​

As part of the curriculum we regularly talk about what the internet is (a network of billions of interconnected computers, tablets etc that are connected together by wifi and cables that can share information between each other).  We talk about how you can access the internet using a laptop, computer, tablet and even a mobile phone.  We talk about all the things we use the internet for (watching TV and videos, playing games, finding things out, learning) and how we can have a lot of fun on the internet and learn about lots of interesting things.  

​

We also talk about the fact that no one is in charge of the internet and so anyone can put anything on it, and some things on the internet are not for children.  We talk about basic safety rules on the internet, such as always asking a grown up before you go on the internet so grown ups can help you find safe and fun websites only, always check with a grown up if you want to try a new website.  We explain that even if you can unlock / open your grown ups phones and tablets we should never do this without asking a grown up.  We discuss that sometimes things pop up on your screen and we don't know what they are - we don't click on these things and we always tell a grown up about these things.

We talk to children about the fact that people we don't know on the internet are strangers (like people we don't know in the real world) and can pretend to be anything and anyone (Penguinpig is an excellent book for supporting this message).  We should never tell people on the internet our name, where we live or where we go to school.  Just like in the real world, the internet has people who can be both kind and unkind.   We should never ever meet a stranger we have talked to online alone and without a grown up.  

​

We explain to children that if anyone tries to send a message or chat to them when they are using the internet, they must always tell a grown up.  

​

We use a variety of traditional tales, activities, lessons and stories to deliver these messages.  There are many useful resources online and see also our Book Club page for some excellent books for delivering key internet safety messages to preschool age children.