Welcome to Reception

Staff in Reception
I
Mrs Rowling - Class Teacher (EYFS Lead)
Mrs Hilton will work alongside myself as the Teaching Assistants
We look forward to working in partnership with you this year. Your support at home really does make a big difference. Don't forget we are here for you as well as your child. Please do not hesitate to make contact no matter how small you may think the issue is!
A Typical day in Reception
The doors open at 8.50am and children are encouraged to come into Reception and hang their coats up independently.
They will then self registrate and start an independent activity on the carpet.
We then meet and greet, choose a star of the day and look at our timetable for the day.
We begin the first session of independent activities and the snack bar opens.
Carpet time is then called, and this is a maths focus or a literacy focus.
Children then continue with their independent activities inside/ outside and I lead a focus activity for some groups.
We then have our daily phonics session.
Children then have the last session of independent activities before lunch and the snack bar is closed.
We then have carpet time which is either a short maths or literacy input depending on what we did earlier.
Singing/ rhymetime/dough disco session before lunch.
After lunch we gather back on the carpet and this is learning time to find out about the world, be creative and explore and investigate.
The staff interact with the children asking questions about their learning but also by observing the children and encouraging them to become independent learners.
We always finish our day with a story and a prayer.
Home Time
(phew!)

Learning to Read

I send reading books home after the first couple of weeks. Please do not be concerned if you receive a reading book with no words, it is very important that children can follow a story by looking at pictures and use their talk to tell a story.
I will be expecting the children to read at home with an adult at least 3 times a week. The reading book diary must be signed to say that your child has read their book. I will change reading books twice a week, on a Friday the children will take home a book from our class library to share for enjoyment
Floppys Phonics
We are using the Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters teaching programme, which is a step-by-step phonics programme, to introduce children to the letters and sounds (the alphabetic code) that are the foundation of all reading and writing. In the Autumn term there will be a meeting for parents to learn how we teach our children to read and write.
Other Information
- Please let staff or the office know if anyone else is going to be picking your child up from school.
- A water bottle needs to be brought to school daily with water not juice.
- All uniform needs to be labelled clearly.
- Please bring book bags into school daily.
- PE kits stay in school until the half term breaks.
- A newsletter for EYFS is distributed every 2 weeks, it tells you all about our latst learning and home activities that might support. I also includes dates for the diary.
Topic
Each half term we learn a new topic which is based around a particular theme. We try to link our learning to a story and this information is passed on through the newsletter.
I upload each topic plan at the start of each term, our topic this term is 'Light and Dark'. This is a wonderful topic that lends itself to many learning topics. We include both a multi cultural and a mindfulness theme.
Within the half term we are flexible with the children's learning and we like to follow their interests. If there is something in particular that your child is interested in please let us know and we can try to incorporate this into our learning.
The Dot was used to support our mindfulness week.
Reception had the confidence to make a dot and see where their mark would take them!
Other Information
- Please let staff or the office know if anyone else is going to be picking your child up from school.
- A water bottle needs to be brought to school daily with water not juice.
- All uniform needs to be labelled clearly.
- Please bring book bags into school daily.
- PE kits stay in school until the half term breaks.
- A newsletter for EYFS is distributed every 2 weeks, it tells you all about our latst learning and home activities that might support. I also includes dates for the diary.
We are beginning to write simple sentences!
The children wrote a sentence to tell us which part of the 'Bear Hunt' they would like to visit.
Some useful websites to help your child
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/?view=image&query=&type=book&age_group=Age+3-4&level=&level_select=&book_type=&series=
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase1Menu.htm