Welcome to Explorers Class
We are proud to be able to offer 2 year old provision for children in Explorers class. We are able to offer both private and funded places for children when they turn 2.
The term after their 3rd birthday, all children become eligible for government funding, this allows them to access 15 hours free childcare a week, or 30 hours for qualifying working families. It is possible to share funding between two different childcare settings and if you would like to do so please inform a member of staff.
Wherever possible, we are happy to admit children after their 2nd or 3rd birthday prior to the funding commencing. However, this is dependent on the availability of spaces at the time.
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ClothesWe hope that children in Explorers Class will enjoy a variety of play – some of it messy! With this in mind, we ask families to consider the clothes that children in Explorers wear during sessions. Key WorkerEach child in Explorers is allocated a key worker. The aim of this role is to oversee your child’s learning and development journey throughout their time in Explorers. This key worker will share key learning activities with children and report strengths and target areas to parents and families.
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Sleights Remembers Them
This week, the whole school have reflected on the service personnel who lost their lives and are remembered on our village’s War Memorial Monument. These local heroes have been discussed and their lives researched during the week. The children have each created a symbol of remembrance, including artwork and writing about the local lost soldiers. Today, we came together as a full school and heard the names of these soldiers read out by our children, before beginning our two minutes silence. The hall was still.
The photographs show the work created by the children celebrated around the village. Please do visit the school, community centre, Spar shop, St John’s and the War Memorial to see the work in person. It really is beautiful.
A huge thank you to families who have shared personal memories too. These included finding out about a family connection to one of the individuals on the War Memorial, as well as some very special items from fallen family members.
Celebrating Diwali
It was lovely to welcome almost sixty family members into school today to celebrate the festival of Diwali. The classrooms were a hive of activity, as children and families learned together about the customs, traditions and beliefs of Diwali. The gallery below gives a flavour of some of the activities that families and children enjoyed together.
Harvest Festival 2023
The land has yielded its harvest: God, our God, has blessed us, Psalm 67:6
It was so brilliant to be able to welcome so many families to our service on Wednesday. St John’s was full! A huge thank you for supporting us with your very kind donations too. All donated items will now be shared with the Whitby Food Bank to share around our community.
Remembrance at Sleights
Throughout the week, the children have taken part in some excellent discussions about Remembrance. Children shared their own reflections with great sensitivity and thought. To mark Remembrance Day in Sleights, each child created a piece of art or message.
After school, Mrs Hann and I walked to St John’s and the War Memorial monument to display the children’s fantastic and thoughtful Remembrance reflections. The work is incredible and is now firmly in place to help the full village mark Remembrance Sunday this weekend.
Well done, Sleights.
Fire Engine Visit
Today was the day the fire engine and fire brigade came to visit Explorers class. The children were extremely excited and very intrigued to look around the Fire-Engine. Fireman Jay brought his crew along to show some of the equipment they use when going to an emergency. Fireman Joe put on the protective clothing and breathing equipment to show the children what they wear when going into a fire. Fireman Jay and Frazor showed the children some of the equipment that was inside the Fire-Engine and talked about the machinery to cut vehicles, the pump to retrieve water, one of the hose pipes and the ladders to help people stuck in tall buildings. We then listened to the sirens and watched the flashing lights! What a great experience for the children.The children received a fire-man Ted sticker. What a morning!
Rugby with Justin
The children have enjoyed a rugby session with Justin from Whitby Rugby Club this morning. The children did very well listening to instructions and all had a go at the different games. It was a great morning, thank you Justin!
What we can see
This week we have had a busy week trying to find things using our eyes in Explorers class. The children have explored some containers that contained different small objects hidden in sand or beans and were asked to draw what they saw.
Also in small groups we have explored our playground. Miss Idle took some pictures of different areas around our school and in our groups we had to identify each one and where they were on the playground.
From my head to my toes
We had a different sort of P.E lesson this morning! As we have been reading the story ‘From my head to toes’ by Eric Carle, we thought we would get moving like the animals in the book. The children used their listening ears and waited for instructions, copying the movements Miss Idle, Mrs Wharrick and Mrs Exelby made from the book. They used all different body parts to move around the room.
Our Body
This week in Explorers class we have been looking at our bodies. The book we are reading is called ‘From Head to Toe’ by Eric Carle. The children have already been moving in a variety of ways in which the animals in the book do. This will be continued each day with the different groups of children we have in. We have also been talking about our body and what body parts we have. During a group discussion this morning, we named body parts and drew a big picture of a body including all of the body parts we could see on each other. Finally we tried painting with different body parts.
The Gruffalo
For the last 3 weeks before we break up for the Summer holidays, our story book will be ‘The Gruffalo’. I know this is a firm favourite with quite a few of the children but for those of you who may not have read the story before or don’t have a copy at home, there is a PDF below. We have lots of fun activities planned to link into the book once we return in a couple of days.
