Welcome to the Reception Class Page
Miss I Adams – Class Teacher
Mrs J Bradley - Class TA
Spring Term 2025
Happy New Year!
Welcome back to our children and families. We hope this New Year brings happiness to all.
Play underpins the Early Years Foundation Stage. It also underpins learning and all aspects of children’s development. Through play, children develop language skills, their emotions and creativity, social and intellectual skills. For most children their play is natural and spontaneous although some children may need extra help from adults. Play takes place indoors and outdoors and it is in these different environments that children explore and discover their immediate world. It is here they practice new ideas and skills, they take risks, show imagination and solve problems on their own or with others. The role that adults have is crucial. Adults provide time and space and appropriate resources. These might include clothes, boxes, buckets, old blankets that will inspire play and fire children’s imaginations. They observe play and join in when invited, watching and listening before intervening. They value play and provide safe but challenging environments that support and extend learning and development.
Religion
Our focus for RE this term is 'Celebrating’. Through this scheme of work and our collective worship sessions we will explore what a celebration is, think about the different celebrations and look at photographs from school and from home to share experiences of being part of special celebrations. We will look closely at the local church community and learn about what the parish family celebrate.
Some questions to ask your child at home;
What is a celebration?
How do people celebrate?
Can you celebrate on your own?
Perhaps you can gather around a display or focus at home. Have a quiet moment together to reflect on and appreciate the joy of celebrating together. Talk about different celebrations and ask your child which celebration they would most like to attend and why. Sing the celebration song together.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is enjoyed by our children and staff on a daily basis in Reception class. The children are beginning to develop a real love for reading.
We will continue to use and introduce high quality texts to develop our love of reading in Reception Class. The children have daily access to the books in our provision areas. We carefully plan our books according to the children’s interests and use them to fire children’s imagination and curiosity. If you have any favourites or have recently enjoyed a book at home, please do let us know - we love story recommendations!
Please continue to read with your child at home each evening. This supports their phonetic knowledge as well as developing their love of books. Thank you for keeping the communication open by signing the reading diary, this helps us further support your child at school. The bookmarks are really useful and give some good ideas for questioning when reading with your child.
Reading Support
Your child has now been introduced to all of the set 1 sounds in the RWI reading programme.
Please do keep up the regular practise at home. You can find the set 1 sounds in the middle of the reading diary.
In this term we are focusing on blending the sounds together to read words eg
m-a-t = mat
d-o-g = dog
sh-o-p = shop
Parents, here is a short video to help with blending the sounds together to read words;
https://www.bing.com/videos/search
Maths
Our Maths curriculum embeds mathematical thinking and talk. The open ended provision in class will help the children to practise what they have learned during whole class sessions as well as becoming independent in creating their own challenges through many play opportunities during the school day.
To support and direct our teaching and learning, we follow the NCETM Mastering Number programme.
There are six key areas of early mathematical learning. They provide the foundations for children as they progress through primary school, and beyond.
Cardinality and Counting - the quantity or the total amount
Comparison - more or less
Composition - one number can be made up from two or more smaller numbers
Pattern - help children notice and understand mathematical concepts
Shape and Space - helps develop wider mathematical thinking
Measures - compare weight, length and volume
Our children love to watch Numberblocks - we use the videos and visuals to support and develop our mathematical understanding.
Please do follow the link and enjoy the videos and activities at home with your child;
https://www.ncetm.org.uk/classroom-resources/ey-numberblocks-at-home/
Literacy
Our Literacy book focuses for this term were chosen to support learning around the topics Winter, Celebrations and Growing. We will use each story to build interest, awe and wonder, and learning around each story. We will be building up to holding and writing simple sentences E.g. ‘It is a cat.’, with the expectation that all children in Reception should be able to write a simple sentence by the end of Spring Term. We will be using our phonics to support this, and adapting each activity to meet the needs of each child to ensure that all children have the foundations to build on in the Summer Term.
Please ensure that you are providing opportunities at home to build on this learning and that you are talking to your child about the writing that they are completing at home.
Every mark that a child makes independently contributes to their love for writing and enhances their fine motor skills.
Parent notices
Please send your child in to school each day with a waterproof coat and a pair of wellies (we love to get wet and muddy and play outside in all weather conditions)
Please practice self-help skills at home such as putting own coat on and fastening independently
Ensure all clothing is name labelled
Water bottles to be brought to school each day and refilled at home
Children to come to school every Wednesday dressed in their PE kit (white t-shirt, navy/black shorts or jogging bottoms with school jumper on)
Book bags to be brought in once a week on your child’s reading day.