Reception

Mrs Dunleavy, Miss Barnes, Mrs Moules, Miss Gripton, and Mrs Boxwell can’t wait to welcome you into our school. Reception is such a magical time for the children, as they enter into their first experience of school life. They learn all of the rules and routines and become increasingly independent, as well as joining in with school assemblies and school events.

At the heart of Reception practice is ‘learning through play’. There are so many different engaging and exciting activities for the children to explore all day, every day in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms! The staff challenge the children while they complete their chosen activities so they constantly move forward in their learning. Our carefully planned activities and provision are based on the seven Areas of Learning to ensure that the children are always developing, learning and moving forward in their knowledge and skills.

 

What will my child’s day look like?

You will start the day by entering your classroom, greeted with a big smile from your class teacher. You put your things away in the locker, as you say hello to your friends. You make your way to a new activity that your teacher has set up the night before, feeling confident as there is a Reception grown up nearby ready to support you with your chosen activity. Once you feel settled, its time for the morning register! We say our prayers and begin our first lesson of the day.

Once you have learnt lots of new things on the carpet, you will be busy learning through play for a little while before it’s time to have a snack! The teacher always has some fresh healthy fruit for you to eat. Now it’s your turn to complete your focused work in your book with your teacher. This could be in your Literacy, R.E or Maths book. You will also have a Learning Journal which captures the learning you achieve through play.

Now, it’s lunch time. You will head to lunch with your friends, while you are looked after by the dinner ladies.

The bell rings and it’s time for you see your teacher again for the afternoon register. You will go into our phonics group where you will learn a new sound every day! You will learn to read and write in this lesson.

Don’t forget to head outside, where you can explore the activities set up in the outdoor classroom. You might choose to use the mud kitchen with your friends to make some mud pie!

You will finish the day by listening to your teacher reading a story before the doors open and you head home to tell everybody all of the exciting things you have got up to and learned during your busy day.

 

What will my child learn when they’re in Reception?

Throughout the day, the children take part in focused learning time on the carpet, alongside focused work at the table with the class teacher. This will be on a 1:1 basis or within a very small group.

They will learn to read and write in English, as well as developing a lifelong love of books and stories.

They will learn to count and understand numbers in maths, as well as applying them to solve real life problems. As a Catholic school, the children will take part in R.E lessons where they listen and learn about different stories from the Bible. We also learn about other religions and how they celebrate too.

 

Our Topics in Reception:

Autumn Term –

All about me!

Seasons

Spring Term –

Far far away…

Places around the world

Summer Term

Growing

Minibeasts

 

Across the year as well as using books and stories to support our topics, our focus texts are Funny Bones, The little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Enormous Turnip and Superworm.

For those of you who already have children attend our school, please find more detail on our class page on eSchools