At the heart of everything is a personalised approach to each unique individual as part of our Christian Community. The strong family ethos ensures that all children and staff feel valued, respected and grow in self-confidence. Enthusiastic and caring staff with high expectations, demonstrate care of the whole child. Through God’s guidance we encourage each and every child to 'let their light shine.'

Welcome to Reception!

Mrs Armitage is your class teacher on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Mrs Hunt will be teaching on a Thursday and a Friday. Our teaching assistant is Mrs Fitzpatrick.

Starting school is an exciting time: a time of new experiences, new friends and new places. Our school days provide a secure environment where your child can play, explore, experiment, investigate and learn. We encourage the children to acquire skills and knowledge through first-hand experience, gaining a sound understanding of the world around them. We aim to provide a challenging and fun learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, for children to ignite self-curiosity and nurture a life-long love of learning! 

Our whole school topic for this term has a STEM focus and our umbrella text is the book 'I Wonder'. 

In Reception, we are going to be wondering... "What can we find in the garden?"

Reception's topic will be In the Garden, we will be learning about different minbeasts and their life cycles and what plants need to grow.

Here are some of the books we will be reading:

                                        Please see our curriculum map for more details.

Our Spring Term 2 topic is Planet Protectors - we wil be learning about rubbish and recycling as well as how we can look after our oceans.

Here are some of the books we will be reading:      

Please see our curriculum map for more details

P.E

Reception will have their Forest School lessons every Tuesday afternoon with Mrs Moxley and PE lessons will be on a Thursday with Mr Friel. Please make sure that your child wears their full P.E. kit in school on those days. Wellies and waterproof trousers would be recommended for Forest School as we go into the winter months and if the weather is wet.

Reading

Reading is at the heart of reception. Children learn to read in a story-rich environment.  We share books every day and learn about the world through a range of fiction and non-fiction books. Please see our list of topic based books you can read with your child. In the autumn term, reception will be taught set 1 sounds of the Read Write Inc programme. Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. Phonic sessions will be taught at 10.30-11.00 daily.  Please listen to your child read at least three times a week and write in their reading record after every read.

The words below are an example of "red words" these are words that cannot be sounded out and have to be memorised. We will send home ten red words every half term, please help your child to learn to read and write these words. Please see the red word power point in the files, this shows all the red words your child will need to know for each level of the Read Write Inc reading Scheme. The first ten red words have been uploaded to the files for you to use at home with your child.

Maths

We aim to introduce the children to maths through the use of concrete, pictorial, abstract methods to give children a deeper understanding of how mathematics works.  

The only way to achieve mastery is to build upon a solid foundation of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. To ensure a deep level of understanding, it is necessary to move through the curriculum at a different pace to the method used in previous years. 

The teaching of mathematics in the Foundation Stage consists of daily maths workshops that focus on specific areas of the subject. These sessions focus on counting, using number names in the correct order and recognising numbers in the environment. The children learn through a range of practical contexts using images, objects, stories, rhymes and songs to engage and promote the importance of number. The children are introduced to the language of ‘more or less’ and start to recognise simple shapes from everyday objects. They begin to develop early problem-solving skills to encourage them to use maths outside of the classroom. In Reception, Maths teaching is based on the EYFS curriculum and supported by the use of White Rose 'Mastery Maths' resources.

Our maths focus for the Summer Term will be 

To 20 and Beyond

Building numbers beyond 10

Counting patterns beyond 10

Spatial reasoning

Match, rotate, manipulate

First Then Now

Adding more

Taking away

Spatial reasoning

Compose and decompose

Find My Pattern

Doubling

Sharing and grouping

Even and odd

Spatial reasoning

Visualise and build

On the Move

Deeping understanding

Patterns and relationships

Spatial reasoning

Mapping

What is Numicon?

Numicon is a fantastic resource, each flat plastic piece has a series of holes and each shape represents a different number from one to 10. This gives children an image of what each number looks like as well as understanding each numbers value. Numicon is used in Reception to teach many different mathematical concepts including number value, one more, one less, number bonds, odd and even numbers as well as teen numbers.

Children will be provide with a login for mathletics, homework will be set each week, which is linked to classwork, certificates will be awared every Friday for pupils who have earnt 1000 points or more. 

Purple Mash/ Mini Mash

Mini Mash is the safe online space for children in the Early Years to learn, create and explore. There are seven learning areas, in each area you’ll find a range of engaging content and tools that are perfect for developing your child's skills accross the Early Years curriculum.  Logins will be kept inside your child's reading record.

Our Class Charter

As a rights respecting school, one of the first activities completed in September is our Class Charter. The children choose a number of articles which they feel must be met at school. It is then discussed how the adults (duty bearers) and the pupils (rights holders) in school ensure that these rights are met. Have a look at part of our class charter below.