Welcome to Reception at Oldswinford C of E Primary

Where we ‘Believe, Achieve and Shine Brighter Together.’

The Reception team:

Mrs Preece (FSLion) with Mrs Hardy and

Mrs Howell (FSCrystal) with Mrs Harris.

We look forward to seeing you all on Thursday 3rd September, please see your letters as to whether your child is coming in for the morning or afternoon.

The mornings only during this week:- 9.00-11.30. At the start of school, both school gates will be open (Field Lane and Marlborough drive) and on arrival you should make your way to the Reception outdoor area. You should access this area by going through the Reception Gate, which will be clearly labelled. Please pick the children up at 11.30am from the Reception classroom doors in the outside area. Please note only the Field lane gate will be open at 11.30 not the Marlborough drive one. 

The afternoons only during this week:- 12.50 -3.20pm. The afternoon children will come into school at 12.50pm via the pedestrian entrance gate on Field Lane and on arrival you should make your way to the Reception outdoor area. You should access this area by going through the Reception Gate, which will be clearly labelled. At the end of the day, both school gates will be open (Field Lane or Marlborough drive) at 3.15pm. Please pick the children up at 3.20pm from the Reception classroom doors in the outside area.

We would like Parents to support their children in finding their drawer and putting their book bag in but we will be on hand should you need us. Please also help the children to find their names from the table, put them on the self-register door and then find their name sticker for them to wear. 

Parents can then say goodbye to their children in the classroom and then take their child’s coat and hang it on their peg in the corridor as they exit through the double green doors in the corridor. We will then show the children where their pegs are. 

From 7th-11th September the children will continue to do mornings or afternoons but will have the opportunity to go up to the main lunch hall and should bring a packed lunch and drink with them: - 

Mornings- 9.00-11.45. 

Afternoons- 12.35 - 3.20pm.

 

From Monday 14th September they will be in full time and a school dinner will be provided. A separate message will come to you when the children have started school, about how to order dinners. 

 

Foundation Stage 

At Oldswinford C.E. Primary school we believe that the children’s time in Foundation Stage, the Reception class, is one of the most important times in their school life. This lays the foundation for their learning and development for the rest of their education. We work hard to nurture and care for the children and seek to make school an enjoyable and exciting place to be. Children will be able to free-flow through the two rooms throughout most of the day with children from both classes so they can make great friendships.

Curriculum

There are seven main areas of learning which are split into prime areas of :

• Communication and language development
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

Then we have ;

• Literacy
• Maths
• Understanding the world
• Expressive Arts and design

Each area of learning is implemented through planned, purposeful play. This takes place through a mixture of adult led and child initiated activities. Play is essential to help children relate to others, build their confidence, explore their surroundings, and think critically.

The progress the children make is assessed by 17 Early learning Goals.

What to expect in Reception

We have daily maths and phonics sessions as well as English and kinetic letters most days. We hope to put on a phonics workshop in the Autumn term to show some of what we do. There is a video below explaining how we teach maths at Oldwinford.

The children have two P.E. sessions each week on  a  Tuesday and Wednesday .  Please make sure the children have their active uniform on- black bottoms with a red polo or t-shirt and PLAIN black trainers and have had their earrings removed on those days. *Velcro or elastic trainers please unless they can tie their own laces *

All children learn at different rates so we differentiate our experiences so that everyone can learn effectively. Parents/Carers will be sent a dojo link so that they can see weekly updates and photos of what the children are currently learning and experiencing. Always helpful when a child replies ‘we just played’, to a question about their day! We also love to share things that the children have been up to at home so feel free to send us photos of the children with awards and achievements that we can share with the class. Please note: private Dojo messages will be responded to within 48 hours so please contact the school office for any urgent or going home messages.

Please make sure a water bottle is sent into school each day.

Homework:

We do not set specific homework but there are ways you can support your child’s learning at home which we would always encourage. Please see the starting school pdf below for ideas and things to help your child be ready for school.

• Putting their coats on and fastening them up.
• Going to the toilet and wiping themselves.
• Daily reading. We cannot emphasise the importance of daily reading enough. 
• Counting- children often need a little practice to count accurately moving their finger and saying the number at the same time can be challenging.
• Talking about concepts such as size and weight.
• Writing their name (not all in capital letters!)- we will send home a guide to letter formation.

This half term our focus will be 'Marvellous Me', within this topic we will start by getting to know you and understanding that we are all 'unique'. The children will share their brown bag and discuss their 5 things. We will look at the book 'In the classroom' and do lots of activities from it. We will explore all areas of the classrooms and outside. We will look at the 'Colour monster goes to school', 'the very hungry worry monsters and share the zones of regulation areas and how we can use them to support our worries and emotions. We will look at our families and discuss where we live, finding UK, Stourbridge, school and then some streets on maps of the local area. We will also be exploring the world using  'Max and Lemon' story, looking at different cultures, places and houses.

Role play- Home corner

Phonics

We will use the Rocket phonics scheme to learn the following sounds and how to form them using Kinetic letters the Move it, say it, write it approach. 

 

We learn the following sounds:- s, a, t, i, p, n, m, d, g, o, c, k 

We will learn the following new tricky words:- I, the, go, to, no, into

 We will also practise reading and writing cvc words.

Maths

In maths we use White Rose Maths and Mastery number.  In White rose maths we will be exploring 'Match, sort and compare', Talk about measure and patterns, It's me 1, 2 and 3, please see below for the small steps that are included:-

Match, sort and compare

Step 1- Match objects

Step 2- Match pictures and objects

Step 3- Identify a set

Step 4- Sort objects to a type

Step 5- Explore sorting techniques

Step 6- Create sorting rules

Step 7- Compare amounts

Talk about measure and patterns

Step1- Compare size

Step 2- Compare mass

Step 3- Compare capacity

Step 4- Explore simple patterns

Step 5- Copy and continue simple patterns

Step 6- Create simple patterns

It's me 1,2,3

Step 1- Find 1, 2 and 3

Step 2- Subitise 1, 2 and 3

Step 3- Represent 1, 2 and 3

Step 4- 1 more

Step 5- Composition of 1, 2 and 3

 

RE

Our question for this half term is:-

 Who am I?