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.

It's the Summer Term!

The children are always keen to talk about their holiday, day trips and visits out so we thought, let's celebrate that with our new topic 'Let's Explore...' purposely left often ended so we can move around the world with the children's interests. We plan to start off with 'Where do we live?' looking at Stourbridge and key places within it also looking at simple maps of the local area e.g. Mary Stevens park. We will then move to look at London, the UK as a whole and in parts and even make our way over to Australia!

Role Play

With the children’s input we have created a 'Travel Agents' so the children can visit and book their own holiday! There are maps and travel brochures to help make their choice and then once they have chosen the children can write out a booking form!

Literacy

We are looking at sounding out words by ourselves and even writing a sentence! We are using all of our Phonics knowledge to help us do this! We encourage children to write the sounds they can hear in a word as well as use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces correctly!

Maths 

​​​​​​​Our Maths inputs will be focusing on...

• Numbers to 20 and beyond- looking how we make number e.g. using 10 and 2 to make 12.
• Spatial reasoning including orientation of shapes and distance.
• Addition and takeaway.

R.E

Our RE question for this half term is 'What Stories did Jesus tell?' We will be focusing on the meaning and significance of the stories Jesus told from the Bible such as 'The 
Lost Sheep', 'The Precious Pearl' and 'The House on the Rock.' 

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.

Foundation Stage 2021

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. We will tell you the days when we get the new timetable. 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!

We will give you a named water bottle please make sure it 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:

• Have a watch of the above video and have a chat about it. You will find all the photos of the environment.
• 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.