Welcome to Reception at Oldswinford C of E Primary

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

The Reception team:

Mrs Preece (FSLion) and Miss Thomas (FSCrystal) with Mrs Hardy and Miss Carton.

Foundation Stage 2022

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. We shall not be beginning P.E. straight away so you have plenty time to sort a P.E. kit!

All children learn at different rates so we differentiate our experiences so all 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.

Before September

If over the summer, you are thinking ‘how can I help my child get ready for school?’ here are a few suggestions:

• You can also help you child by encouraging counting- anything practical e.g. red cars on the street or going up the stairs before bed.
• Let them have a go at getting dressed e.g. taking on/off jumpers and coats inc. fastenings- we are more than happy to help children but this gets tricky when 30 children need us at the same time!
• Looking at and talking about stories and rhymes will help build a wide-ranging vocabulary. We sometimes use Youtube to help us e.g. five little ducks, 10 green bottles, five little speckled frogs. Please be aware of adverts.
• Have a look at their name, can they recognise it or even have a go at writing it?
• Encourage children to use the toilet with as little help as possible- if your child has any difficulties using the toilets please let us know we will be happy to support you as much as we can.

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.

• Daily reading. We cannot emphasise the importance of daily reading enough. Don’t forget you can also use the online platform ‘Rising Stars’ to read with your child too.
• 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 be happy to support with letter formation if you wish.
• Writing a sentence about a picture they have drawn or labelling it.

Autumn 1- We will be learning all about…

We will be focusing on a book a week all written by the wonderful author Julia Donaldson. We are starting with ‘Zog’ as the children begin school and bring in their transition activities, one of which being their very own golden star.

As we progress through the term, we will begin daily phonics input where we will be learning to read and recognise letters. In Maths we will be looking at number recognition, accurate counting and using rhymes to help us do so. We will also have topic time which links in with the theme of the book of the week. In RE we will be talking about ‘Who is God?’ and the importance of God to Christians. We talk about a variety of special religious events such as Harvest, Diwali and Christmas too!