Welcome to Reception

Miss Carroll and Miss Reid are the class teachers and are assisted by Miss Hulstone and Miss Thorpe who are our wonderful Early Years Practitioners. Miss Kat is our fabulous Early Years Apprentice who will also be supporting in the classroom.

Dear Parents/Carers,

In Reception, we learn alongside the Development Matters National Curriculum for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Throughout all of our work, the staff in Reception will be assessing the children against the objectives outlined within this document and also use it to ensure that all individual needs are being met.  

In Reception, the morning consists of Phonics (taught through 'Super Sonic Phonics') and Maths. In Phonics, the children will continue to learn new sounds/diagraphs in Basic 3 (phase 3). The children will now begin to learn to write simple sentences using their phonics knowledge. The children will also begin to expand their reading knowledge and continue to take home books with simple words in.

In Maths, the children will be learning to identify subtraction facts to 10 and beyond, using practical methods. Learning about odd and even numbers and using resources to identify double facts up to 10. All children will continue to work on their number formation and write and create their own number sentences.

This academic year St Mary's will be introducing the children to the Write Stuff in the Early Years.The Write Stuff is a literacy based programme created by Jane Considine. The Write Stuff is a system that puts key aspects of communication at the heart of your teaching. By implementing Jane Considine's methods, pupils' language will be nurtured through developing ideas, strengthening talk and widening writing opportunities. During the Spring term, the children will be focusing on the book 'Handa's Surprise' by Eileen Browne. The children will create their own sentences using subject specific vocabulary. 

During the first Spring term, the children's new topic will be 'I wonder about our amazing world?'.This will be a focus on History and Geography. The children will learn all about the different continents around the world, the different oceans and focus on similarities and differences from where we live compared to a town in Kenya.

The children will be exposed to a range of vocabulary such as world, country, continent, town, village, city, maps. We encourage parents to discuss the topic words with their children, what they mean and how to use the words in a sentence.

During our RE sessions the children will be learning about Christianity:'Why is the Church special for Christians?'. This will be a focus on the Easter Story and why it is important in the religion of Christianity.

Homework is given out on a weekly basis via Class Dojo. Please all of the activities with your child as it supports them with our current learning topics. Dojos and class rewards are given to those who complete all homework challenges.

Reading books will be given to all children.  Reading is a vital importance in early literacy, communication and language and phonics development. Books are changed weekly. We ask that you listen to your child read at least twice a week. Please head over to our 'videos' tab on the website for support reading with your child at home. 

At St Mary’s outdoor learning in very important to us, Reception promotes this during ‘Muddy Mondays’. Every Monday afternoon the children spend time learning in the outdoor environment, they are given opportunities to explore, discover and take risks. During this half term the children will creating creating dinosaur skeletons, searching for dinosaur clues and diggings for fossils.

Please ensure the children bring to school appropriate clothing such as a puddle suit (see our uniform requirements for more information) jogging bottoms and wellies/walking boots. If you need further information regarding clothing please contact your child’s bay teacher.

Thank you,

Reception team