Reception

Mrs Swindley and Miss Robinson

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope that you have all had a wonderful summer holiday and are looking forward to the year ahead. Over the past few days, the children have been amazing and have settled into the school routine excellently. They are forming some good friendships, as well as trying hard and being willing to give everything a go! We are so proud of them all.

In Reception, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, which has a strong emphasis on learning through play. Our learning will take place through different topics which will follow the interests of the class. These can last between 2 and 4 weeks, depending on the overall enthusiasm for the theme.

We will begin the term with the topic ‘All About Me’, where we will explore families, homes, special events and children’s likes and dislikes. This will be followed with the topic ‘Traditional Tales’, where we will be focusing on the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children will experience fun, independent learning activities as well as adult led learning. These activities will be aimed to suit the needs of your child at their level and encourage the children’s creativity, exploration skills, physical development and their abilities to interact with others. Adults will assess the children’s progress through observations of their play and the outcome of their adult led learning experiences. Assessments will then, in turn, direct future activities.

By the end of September your child will be sent home with their book bag, which will contain a Tricky words folder. They will start with 5 key words for your child to practise reading. These words are all classed as tricky words which cannot be sounded out but the children need to know. As they become confident with these more words will be added. As the children become more confident with their phonics over the coming weeks we will look to send out reading books.

In the classroom, we use the rainbow, sunshine, raincloud and thunder cloud reward chart. Children have a chance to move onto the rainbow where they will receive a special sticker. We hope that all children will remain on the sunshine or rainbow, however if children need to think about their behaviour we ask them to take a time out and they will temporally be moved to the raincloud. If behaviour continues, they will be moved to the thundercloud and parents will be informed.

Next week we will introduce a ‘Star of the Week’. The ‘Star of the Week’ gets to take either Leo the Lion or Tilly the Tiger home with them for the weekend. It would be great if you could fill in their diary with pictures and explain what adventures you have been up to together. They will need to return to school by the following Monday in order for there to be 72 hours before Leo and Tilly can go to a new home under current guidelines.

The children have access to the outdoor area at all times, therefore please ensure that they bring a suitable coat with them every day. We also have a mud kitchen that children can use. In order for the children to access this fully we would like them to wear a pair of welly boots that will remain in school. Please could you send a pair into school as soon as possible, with the children’s name inside.

Homework

5 minutes every day reading Blending and Segmenting book
5 minutes every day practicing sound flashcards
Three times a week playing games with sound card

Numbots

This is an online game that practicing simple counting and then moves onto simple addition. The children have all been sent home with a log in. The more they play, the more points they will earn, which will earn them certificates as well as points. Please encourage your child to play on this as much as possible at home.

To keep up to date with what is happening in the classroom don’t forget to check out the school twitter page. We will start adding posts next week.

Key information:

Please ensure that your child comes into school wearing their PE kit every Thursday
All children need to bring a water bottle to school every day. This needs to be filled with water rather than juice.
Please inform your child if they need to order a school dinner before they come into school.
Don’t forget if your child would like snack it needs to be ordered and paid for online. Please contact the school office if there are any issues with this.

We know that this is a lot of information, so if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to the fun year ahead!

Kind regards,

Amanda Robinson and Clare Swindley