Welcome to Reception

Miss Ashington and Mrs Dinnis 

We hope you have a wonderful first term in Reception!

Topic - 'Nursery Rhymes and Traditional Tales'

Hello and welcome to Reception! This half term, we will be focusing on our topic 'Nursery rhymes and traditional tales'. We will be taking part in lots of speaking and listen, recalling many nursery rhymes and stories including 'Hickory Dickory Dock', 'Goldilocks' and 'The three little pigs'. 

Important information this term: 

Monday & Friday - Changing reading book

Wednesday - English Homework

Friday - PE kit 

Tuesday 7th November - Scootathon fund raising

Tuesday 28th November - Wonderland trip toTelford

This half term our focus for PSHE is 'Celebrating Differences'

During the year Jigsaw Jenie helps us with our personal, social and emotional understanding. This term we will be having lots of discussions about tolerance, respect and kindness. 

There is a wonderful website below that is useful for your child and for you as a parent. It has games and information about feelings, health, illnesses and sections on body image, mental health and much more. There is also a section for you, the parent, to refer to for information on the school nurse and it shows local Solihull support services. 

                    Press here to access the website - health for kids.

The EYFS framework includes Seven Areas of Learning that are equally important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly important for sparking enthusiasm for learning and forming relationships.

The Prime Areas of Learning:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

The prime areas are strengthened and applied through four Specific Areas of Learning:

• Literacy
• Maths
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning
In addition to addressing all seven Areas of Learning, our curriculum is designed to promote the Characteristics of Effective Learning. These characteristics describe how the children will learn. These learning behaviours are particularly important in the EYFS because they build the foundations for children to be lifelong learners. The characteristics are:
     

• Playing and Exploring - Engagement
• Active Learning - Motivation
• Creating and Thinking Critically - Thinking

Planning and assessment

We offer the children in Reception a ‘hands-on’ play-based curriculum, both indoors and outdoors, throughout the day. Planning can be intentional, responsive, or anticipatory. It is flexible and can change in response to children’s ideas and interests. Planning may also be linked to events in the community or around the world.

“Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.” 

                                 Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

In addition to the activities planned by the adults, the children are offered plenty of opportunities to direct their own learning.

All children starting Reception will take part in the Reception Baseline Assessment.  Please see the information for parents document produced by the DfE below to explain the process.

At the end of the Reception Year children will be assessed for the EYFS Profile. Each of the seven areas will be further broken down into the following categories.

As we start this term, I thought it would be useful to signpost you to some resources that can be used  should the children wish to. 

Rhino’s Readers is an APP available at a cost of £1.99 per month which will give you access to lots of reading books, some of which we use in school. They are banded according to the children’s phonic levels. Most children in Reception will be able to access up to the end of Level 4. Some children may wish to try some of the books in Level 5 but they may find these quite challenging as they have not yet learnt the alternative phonic sounds, for example ‘ay’ also making the sound ‘ai’.

To practise phonics, the children can access Mr Thorne’s Phonics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MrTsPhonics/playlists This is free of charge and the 5 minute videos will give the children a reminder of the sounds they have already learnt but would also enable them to start learning about sounds that are to come in Year 1 if they wanted to. Games can be accessed on https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ and https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ Additional resources are also available below, covering all of the phonics taught so far.

Maths games can be accessed free of charge via Top Marks: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ The children could also continue to practise number formation, ensuring numbers are correctly orientated, and do practical addition and subtraction, for example using Cheerios for counting. There are also resources below revisiting learning the children have covered this year.

Dental Hygiene:

In EYFS, we teach about dental hygiene. The children learn the value of good brushing and how to use toothpaste to fight tooth decay. The Colgate Tooth Defenders help us to learn how to keep ourselves healthy and even give us our own toothbrush and toothpaste to take home!

The Tooth Defenders would like us to complete our brushing chart to make sure that we keep our teeth and gums healthy.

If you need any support for your child or any tips on keeping teeth clean, please see our documents below to help you. Also start taking your child to the dentist….it is never too early to start!

Baseline:

Please use the link below to find out about the statutory Reception Baseline assessment that we will be completing with all children.

Parent Information