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 Terry (FSCrystal) with Mrs Harris.

This half term our focus will be  'Light and Dark.' . 

We will start off by thinking about Diwali, the festival of light. As we move through the term we will be thinking about Bonfire night, Remembrance Sunday, Hanukah, Christmas nocturnal animals and shadows. We will be learning all about how light helps people celebrate. We will also have Children in Need, a Jingle Jammies Jog for Mary Stevens hospice on Thursday 4th December and we look forward to performing our Christmas Nativity to parents/ carers on Wednesday 10th December.

Phonics

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 will be learning the following sounds: 

ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, l, ll, ff, ss

and tricky words:-

I, the, go, to, no, into

Maths

In maths we will be learning about circles and triangles, 1,2,3,4,5 and shapes with 4 sides, please see below for the small steps that are included:-

Circles and triangles

Step1- Identify and name circle and triangles,

Step 2- Compare circles and triangles,

Step 3- Shapes in the environment,

Step 4- Describe position

1,2,3,4,5

Step 1- Find 4 and 5

Step 2- Subitise 4 and 5

Step 3- Represent 4 and 5

Step 4- 1 more

Step 5- 1 Less

Step 6- Composition of 4 and 5

Step 7- Composition of 1-5

Shapes with 4 sides

Step 1- Identify and name shapes with 4 sides

Step 2- Combine shapes with 4 sides,

Step 3- Shapes in the environment

Step 4- My day and night.

RE

Our question for this half term is:-

 Why do Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas?

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 and ‘middle area’ 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 talk for writing 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, so please make sure the children have had their earrings removed on those days. These will be on a Monday and Wednesday. 

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 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!

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.

• 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.