Reception

Welcome to our Reception Class

• Teacher: Mrs Britton and Mrs Johansen
• Teaching Assistants: Miss Dinsdale, Mrs Heslop and Mrs Hudson

In our foundation stage classes, nursery and reception, activities are planned to enable the children to acquire the “Characteristics of effective learning,” which are learning skills and attitudes which will serve them well for life.

We help them to engage with and be excited by activities so that they will:

• Find out and explore
• Play with what they know
• Be willing to “have a go”

We help them to be motivated so that they will:

• Be involved and concentrate
• Keep trying
• Enjoy achieving what they set out to do

We help them to think and be creative so that they will

• Have their own ideas
• Make links
• Choose ways to do things

These characteristics of effective learning underpin everything we do.

Activities are planned within the Prime and Specific areas of learning in ways which allow children to develop the characteristics of effective learning. Click on the links below to view further information about the areas of learning.

Prime Areas of Learning:

Personal Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Communication and Language

Specific Areas of Learning:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

Welcome from Class Teacher

Welcome to Reception! We hope that your child has enjoyed starting school and that they are beginning to feel settled. We have loved getting to know them and playing with them in our indoor and outdoor classrooms.

Water Bottles

We encourage the children to drink lots of water every day. If you haven’t already done so, please could you send your child to school with a water bottle, or you can buy one from the office. These will be kept in school (emptied and refilled daily) and washed in the dishwasher each Friday.

Read, Write, Inc.

Children are beginning to learn sounds and they will be sent home daily with the sound that they have learnt. It would be great if you could ask your child what the sound is and ask them to attempt to write it – at this stage we don’t expect perfect formation, we just encourage them to have a go! It doesn’t matter if the sound takes up a whole page or if it is the size of the example. If your child struggles to write it, they could use their finger to write it in the air, on their hand or on your back!

Baking

Every Friday afternoon a group of children will go to the cookery room with Miss Dinsdale for a baking session – the groups will change every week and all children will have a turn!  Children will then all eat the food made together at the end of the day.

P.E

Our P.E. days are Monday and Friday. Children are to come to school wearing their PE kits , including t-shirt, trainers and jogging bottoms or leggings on this day. Shorts are not required.

Reading Library

Children will not be bringing reading books home until they have reached the level where they begin to read books in our Read, Write, Inc lessons – a separate letter will be sent when your child is ready. It is just as important to read stories to your child – we will have a reading library where you can come and choose one of our books to take home and read with your child. These can be changed weekly or kept for a longer period of time. The reading library will run from 2.45pm-2.55pm on Mondays – children can go home once they have chosen a book!

How can you help at home?

In general:

• Encourage independence – putting their own coat on, doing up the zip, putting own shoes and socks on.
• going to the toilet independently, flushing the chain and washing their hands.
• walking, running, skipping and dodging.

For Literacy:

• share stories together; talk about the story, characters and setting.
• reading to your child regularly – just enjoying stories so that they get used to hearing storybook language.
• helping them to write their names for a purpose – in cards for relatives or postcards home from holidays.
• practise reading and writing the sounds they bring home.
• play games like ‘I spy’ to hear the first sound in words e.g. cat – c, dog – d etc.

For Maths:

• recognising numbers on buses, front doors, prices in shops.
• Counting objects e.g. apples in the fruit bowl, biscuits in the tin (to 10).
• describing shapes such as triangle, cube, sphere, curved, straight, corner, edge etc.
• counting to 20.

For Understanding the World/Expressive Arts and Design:

• talking about change – seasons of the year, eggs cooking, ice or chocolate melting.
• noticing how you celebrate certain festivals and how others celebrate them differently – birthday and Christmas traditions in your house and others’ houses – Easter, Eid, Chinese New Year – any other festivals that you celebrate.
• singing songs and nursery rhymes.
• making “music” with real instruments or pots and pans with a wooden spoon – maybe in the garden or when someone else is looking after them!

Websites:

If you would like to use some websites to support your child then you can type these into google and the website should come up!

• Phonics play pick a picture: good for reading words – you can sound out for your child to say what word it is e.g. you say c-a-t and they tell you ‘cat’ and choose the picture.
• BBC schools counting: this will bring up lots of links to counting rhymes and songs you can sing at home.
• BBC stories: this will take you to the BBC website where you can choose stories to share at home.
• Topmarks Maths: lots of brilliant Maths games – the counting games are especially good.
• CBeebies Number Blocks

And finally…

Parent partnership is really important in the early years, so please let us know how you child is feeling and learning at home and if you have any queries, or would like to come in and help, or are unsure – please ask!