Welcome to Reception at Oldswinford C of E Primary

Where we ‘Believe, achieve and shine brighter together.’

The Reception team:

Mrs Preece (FSLion) and Mrs Terry (FSCrystal) with Mrs Harris and Mrs Hardy.

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 workshop in the Autumn term to show some of what we do.

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 Tuesday and Thursday. 

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.

This half term our focus will be 'All about me' we will be getting to know the children, building relationships with them and sharing their brown bags. We will be creating self portraits, looking and similarities, differences and how we are all unique. Sharing who our important people are and who we live with. We will be sharing stories such as 'The Colour Monster', 'Super Duper You' and 'Only One You' to enable conversations around feelings, emotions and how to respond to our feelings.

Phonics

We are going to be singing lots of rhymes, clapping syllables and hearing sounds.

We will then begin to look at the 's,a,t,p,i,n' as our first phonics sounds. We will give the children their first reading book in coming weeks.

Maths

In maths we will be exploring 3D shapes. We will also be learning 'To 20 and beyond', 'Adding and taking away' and 'Sharing and grouping', please see below for the small steps that are included:-

Manipulate, compose and decompose

Step1- Select shapes for a purpose.

Step 2- Rotate shapes,

Step 3- Manipulate shapes,

Step 4- Explain shape arrangements,

Step 5- Compose shapes,

Step 6- Decompose shapes,

Step 7- Copy 2D shape pictures.

Step 8- Find 2D shapes within 3D shapes

Visualise, build and map

Step 1- Identify units of repeating patterns

Step 2- Create own pattern rules

Step 3- Explore own pattern rules

Step 4- Continue patterns beyond 10 (14-20)

Step 5- Explore mapping

Step 6- Represent maps with models

Step 7- Create own maps from familiar places

Step 8- Create own maps and plans from story situations

Make connections

Step 1- Deepen understanding

Step 2- Patterns and relationships

Consolidation

Step 1- Subtraction

Step 2- counting back

Step 3- Problem solving

RE

Our question for this half term is:-

Who is special to Christians?