Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back! We hope that you and your family enjoyed a relaxing Christmas break. We have enjoyed welcoming all of the children back to school this week and hearing about their adventures during their time away from school. Don’t forget to check the blogs at the end of the newsletter to see what your child has been learning in class.
In June, our Year 1 children will take part in the Phonic Screening Check, a statutory assessment taken by all Year 1 children across the country. It is designed to check your child’s ability to use their phonics knowledge to read words.
We have invited all parents and carers of children in Year 1 to a short information meeting on Wednesday 14th January at 2:40pm. During the meeting, we will share more information about the assessment, how we are teaching your child to read and how you can support your child at home.
We strongly encourage all parents of children in Year 1 to attend and hope to see as many of you there as possible!
The letter below has further information.
Thank you to everyone who attended our first Time to Talk session delivered by the NHS WISE (wellbeing in schools) team. The session was led by NHS professionals and focused on understanding and supporting your child’s behaviour. We hope that you found it useful.
Our next session is on Thursday 5th January and will focus on supporting children with autism.
As the new term is underway, we have begun teaching our new curriculum themes! We have designed our curriculum around half-termly themes that link together subjects such as History, Geography, Art, Science and DT. This helps the children to make links between their learning and apply it in new contexts. Each theme is planned around a high quality book.
This week, we have begun teaching the content for this half term. The curriculum themes are as follows:
| Nursery | Off We Go! |
| Reception | Ready, Steady, GO! |
| Year 1 | Sensational! |
| Year 2 | Welcome to the Jungle! |
Look out for our parent overviews coming home next week with more information about what your child will be learning in class and how you can support this learning at home.
If you have a child born between 1st September 2021 and 31st August 2022, they are due to start Reception in September 2026. It is very important that you complete your application online before the deadline of Thursday 15th January 2026. Please apply online by visiting the Barking and Dagenham website.
The school doors are open from 8:50-9:00am for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. The most intensive lessons start first thing in the morning so it is vital that your child is at school on time every day.
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs S O’Hara
Head of School
This week in Nursery we have been learning all about Winter. We found a lot of ice in our garden and decided to experiment. We poured water into different containers and left them in the garden over night. The next morning we were so excited......
This week in Oak Class, we have been immersing ourselves into our new story 10 Little Aliens. we have been reading parts of our new story and learning the strong 5 little men in a flying saucer. The children have enjoyed singing the song and......
The children returned to school this week to a wonderful surprise – our class role-play area had been transformed into a train station. They explored a variety of toys representing different modes of transport, alongside non-fiction and story books linked to the theme. The children......
This week in Year 2, we watched a story about a Chameleon. We learnt lots of interesting facts and then we all attempted to draw our own Chameleon!...
Please note: If your child is absent you must inform the school on the morning of the absence. Please do this by phoning the school office on 0208 270 4655 or emailing us at office@dorothybarleyinfant.org.uk.
We aim for the best education for your children at Dorothy Barley Infant School. Full Attendance and Punctuality are essential for your child to make the maximum progress.
To reach the school target pupils must not have any more than 6 days off per academic year. If you need to make appointments for your child, please aim to make them out of school hours or during school holidays. Thank you.
Children with 100% attendance each half term will receive a certificate. Pupils with 100% attendance for the whole year will receive a special reward.
| Attendance during one school year | Equals this number of days absent | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 90% | 19 days | ||
| 80% | 38 days | ||
| 70% | 57 days | ||
| Outstanding 100% | Good 96% – 99% | Requires Improvement 91%-95% | Inadequate (PA)Below 90% |
Do you know our Child Protection and Safeguarding Team?
Mrs Ratford
Assistant Headteacher & Designated Safeguarding Lead
If you have a concern about a child, please see a member of our Safeguarding Team.
In an emergency call 999.
| Class | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Reception | |||
| Ladybird | 82.5% | ||
| Bumblebee | 95.7% | ||
| Year 1 | |||
| Rabbit | 87.4% | ||
| Squirrel | 96.9% | ||
| Hedgehog | 93.2% | ||
| Year 2 | |||
| Kingfisher | 97.7% | ||
| Woodpecker | 99.2% | ||
The whole school attendance this week is: 92.82%