​Wow we cannot believe we are already at October half term! We are so proud of how well all the Nursery children have settled into their new environment. It has been so lovely to see them getting more comfortable each day – making new friends, forming relationships with the adults in the classroom and exploring different activities. 

Phonics
We have started our phonics sessions in small groups. At school we follow the Letters and Sounds phonics programme. We have started by focussing on phase 1 phonics. Phase 1 phonics is the first stage of early reading development and it focuses on helping children develop strong listening and speaking skills before they begin learning letters and sounds. During this phase, children take part in fun, play-based activities that help them tune into the sounds around them and sounds their bodies can make. They also enjoy rhymes, songs, and stories to help them recognise rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration (words that start with the same sound). As their confidence grows, children begin to explore how words are made up of individual sounds, practising skills like blending sounds together (e.g. hearing “c-a-t” and saying “cat”) and breaking words down into their separate sounds. These early listening and sound awareness skills are essential building blocks for learning to read and write later on.
 
Lunchtimes
We really enjoy lunchtimes in Nursery and the social side of it too. Just a reminder that if your child has grapes or other small fruits/vegetables in their lunchbox, please ensure that these are chopped (lengthways and then halved again).
The children have set times for a drink at snack time and lunchtime, but we also have the children’s drinks bottles accessible throughout the day for children to have a drink when needed.
As these drinks are accessible for children throughout the day, we would like to remind you of the Department of Education’s advice that water is a healthier option than juice.

Library
The children will begin going to the school library after half term and will bring home their chosen book in a reading wallet each week. Please could they be returned to school on your child’s set day:

• Nursery beginning of the week and full-time children: Wednesday
• Nursery end of the week: Thursday

 
School applications
Just a reminder the Reception applications are open and the deadline to apply is the 15th of January 2026. Applications need to be made for all children, irrespective of their current Nursery place. Please chat to one of us if you want to know more about the process.

This October Primary Sports Coaching Limited (PSCL) will be running their Ofsted Registered Active Holiday Camps.

Norbury Hall Primary School, Hazel Grove >>
Book online at https://primaryscl.coordinate.cloud/project/60548

Halloween Day
Come along to our Halloween theme day at all our venues on Thursday 30th October. Get dressed up and play Halloween themed games.

Bookings are live now via our website >> https://primaryscl.coordinate.cloud/list

Times and Prices of Courses:
Children can be dropped off from 9am
Children can be collected from 3.30pm
Standard Day – £24
Reception Child Day – £14 (9am-12.45pm)
Sibling Discount: Use the code ‘SIBLING25’ to reduce the cost to £21 per child per day!

Week Discount: When you book a 5-day week, use code ‘FULLWK’ to get the price down to £110!
​
Wrap Around Care:
Early drop off (8am – 8.55am) = £4 per child, per morning
Stay and Play (3.30pm – 5pm) = £5 per child, per afternoon
For more information, please visit our website at https://www.primaryscl.co.uk/holiday-courses/  or feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

We now have a new website to purchase school uniform. This is a local company who have supplied Norbury Hall uniform for many years.

We encourage you to use this website Norburyhall.uniform4you.co.uk entering the password Shepley1

The stock we have in the school office can still be purchased via the school money app, however the stock is limited due to storage space. 

Please help Norbury Hall P.A.
Easyfundraising have a campaign for October where the PA gets £2 for every new sign up via the app.
 
Many thanks!
 
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/parentkind-app-eal/

​Dear Parents and Carers,
 
We have received the following communications from the online safety team at Stockport LA.  We regularly hold conversations with parents around this topic and unfortunately find ourselves in discussions with families when things go wrong online particularly for our older children.  There is a large amount of support available in the resources that have been shared with us and I want to share a small part of these with you in this correspondence.  I will continue to share more with you in newsletters across the year.
 
I have shared guidance here with you regarding social media.  I know a large number of our children access the apps that are mentioned here.  I would remind you that many of these apps have a recommended age of 13.  Whilst I understand there are many different ways to use these apps, I would encourage you to have conversations in your home regarding safe use if this is appropriate to your family situation.
 
Please be assured that online safety is an integral part of our PSHE curriculum across the year but this is obviously one area where working in partnership is key.
 
Find out how to keep your child safe online. Don’t forget that the Online Safety Hub is now live! You can access it for free here:

https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/  The Online Safety Hub is a brand-new online resource with lots of expert advice and guidance to help you manage your child's safety online as a parent. It includes information on the latest hot topics when it comes to keeping children safe, such as how to manage your child's screen time, understand the latest gaming platforms, what they mean for your child’s safety and lots more.
 
We’re also offering you as a parent, a free Qustodio account facilitating parental controls on any individual device and free premium access for 30 days. Gain more visibility on what’s going on in your child’s online world. Block dangerous content, introduce screen-free schedules, receive alerts for inappropriate content, keep tabs on their location and more. Follow the link to create your free account https://www.qustodio.com/en/30-days-school-special/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=OSHub&utm_campaign=stockport

Navigating social media and gaming safely
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/articles/navigating-social-media-and-gaming-apps-safely
Supporting families to discuss how to keep their children safe online using our ABC model.

Safe Chat : The best messaging apps for children
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/articles/safe-chat-the-best-messaging-apps-for-children-1
A good place to start for messaging apps.

Snapchat
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/reviews/snapchat
Review of the snapchat platform
Information, advice and guidance for parents

Tiktok
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/reviews/tiktok  
Review of Tiktok
Information, advice and guidance for parents
 
Instagram
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/reviews/instagram
Review of instagram - Information, advice and guidance for parents
 
Discord
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/reviews/discord
Review of Discord - Information, advice and guidance for parents

The prevent duty - advice and support for parents
https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/parent/articles/the-prevent-duty-advice-and-support-for-parents
Information and advice relating to the prevent duty.

We have also been asked to share a current online safety concern.

A safeguarding issue has been identified regarding the Spy Dog, Spy Pups, and Spy Cats book series by Andrew Cope. A web address printed in these books is now under the control of another party and redirects to inappropriate content. The publisher, Puffin, is currently addressing the matter and confirms that the website is not associated with Puffin Group or the author, Andrew Cope. 

If your child owns any Spy Dog, Spy Cat, or Spy Pup books, please check for website links at the back of the books and ensure the sites cannot be accessed. The stories themselves remain safe to read; the concern relates only to the outdated link.
I trust this information is of use to you and your family.

Best wishes,
Becky Wood

Dear Parents and Carers,

The half term is racing away.  The children continue to settle in their classes and are really focused on their learning.  Thank you, as ever, for you continued support.

Mental Health Awareness Day
This Friday (10th October) is World Mental Health Awareness Day.  As previously shared with you, we would like the children to come wearing something yellow.  This can be a small splash of colour or head to toe in yellow!  We will be talking with the children, in an age appropriate way, about mental health during the day.

Parent / Teacher Consultations
We will shortly be sending you an email from ‘Parents Booking’ who are the online platform system we use to organise Parent / Teacher Consultations.  
This allows you to choose, book and edit the meetings scheduled with the class teacher. These will take place on;
Tuesday 4th November – 3:30pm - 7pm
Wednesday 5th November – AM (Nursery only)
Thursday 6th November – 3:30 pm – 6 pm
The log in screen is very simple and straightforward to use, no username or password is required. The platform is now live and will close on Friday 24th October at 12 noon.

Autumn Term—What Makes Our World Work?
Week Beginning: 6th October 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,
 
I can’t quite believe I am writing this newsletter in October already!
Last week, after reading the story of the Three Little Pigs, the children received a letter from Mummy Pig.  She said that her three little pigs have become too big for her house and set the children a challenge to build them a new house using different materials in the woods!  They were very excited and just loved building all kinds of structures with straw, sticks and bricks!
​
This week we will be…

• Continuing to explore different materials and building houses together as a team.
• Retelling the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Introduce the five senses using narrative immersion and participation in the story 
• Exploring colour mixing with the paints.
• Looking at the sounds (phonemes):  g  o  c  k
• Talking about measure and patterns
• Practising our careful counting
•  Counting out sets of objects to match a numeral with 10

 
Dough Disco
Last week we started the fun of Dough Disco. This is something that we do most days and love! We have our own pot of playdough in the classroom and we choose a song to dance to and practise flattening, rolling and squeezing our playdough. Dough Disco helps us to strength the muscles in our hands, which in turn helps us with our pencil control and handwriting.

Home Learning and Handwriting
At school we use the handwriting policy of Penpals. This a great resource that supports our children right through school. Your child is practising letter formation in school through explicit teaching and in phonics.  Each week your child will be sent home some reinforcing practice of handwriting linked to the sounds they are learning.  Please return the plastic folder and the completed activity in their reading bags each week by Wednesday please.
 
Star of the day
We now have ‘Star of the day’ each day in class. Children will each take it in turns to be praised on something we have seen that day and receive a certificate. For the next day, the Star of the Day will get to be at the front of the line and sit on a chair at carpet times. 
 
World Mental Health Day
To support and acknowledge World Mental Health Day this Friday (10th October) we ask that the children come to school in their school uniform, but wearing a splash of yellow.
 
Packed lunches and nut-based products
As we have some children in school with nut allergies, please can we mindful of not including nuts or nut-based products in packed lunches or in snacks.
 
Please do not hesitate to speak/email a member of staff if you have any questions.
​
Thank you so much,
The Reception Team