Reception 2026

Mornings – Class starts at 8.50m. The school doors open at 8.50am, parents are welcome to walk their child to the classroom door where they will be met by the class staff.

End of the day – Class finishes at 3.15pm. Children are to be collected from outside the classroom.

P.E. – This will be on Monday.

Children can come into school in their PE kit on a Monday. The children are not allowed to wear ear rings for the PE lessons; please make sure that you take them out at home on the days that we have PE.

The class will go swimming for half a term during the Autumn Term.

Forest School – This will be every Friday.

The children can come to school in clothes suitable for forest school on a Friday. They will be wearing wellies and waterproofs but need spare clothes and socks in their bags in case they get wet or dirty. Waterproofs are provided from school and we have a good selection of wellies, but if your child would prefer wear their own please label them.

Reading – We will be listening to children read every Friday. Initially they will be given sound cards to learn instead of a book. When they recognise all of the sounds they will be given books with words. Initially the books will have one word on each page for your child to blend the sounds to read the words, then they will progress onto a story book with sentences. It is important to help your child recognise sounds as they are not able to read without knowing the sounds. Please read stories to your child as often as possible and allow them time to explore a variety of books. This will help develop their interest in reading.

Snacks – We try to encourage the children to eat fruit, cheese or yogurt at playtime, Crisps, biscuits, cereal bars etc. are not allowed as part of our Healthy School Initiative. (Please label your child’s snack so that they do not get mixed up) We usually keep the snacks in a separate box from their lunch so please wrap them separately.

Lunch – The children will sit in the hall for their lunch. If they are having school dinners please make your child aware and they can order it with me when we do the register. Drinks are not always provided with the school meal so you might want to send one in as well. SCHOOL DINNERS ARE FREE FOR ALL CHILDREN.

Seesaw – I use seesaw to send all messages out and also photographs of the children doing activities. I will be sending out invitations during the first week of term so please register as soon as possible. More than one person can register using the same code if you want both parents, grandparents etc to have access to messages.

 Maths— We are aiming for your child to be able to count to 20 with ease and recognise and write the numbers by the end of the year. It is important that you count with your children in their everyday routines i.e. getting dressed, bath time, making tea etc. and encourage them to find numbers on signs, food packaging, when shopping etc. In class we learn the numbers through Numicon. If you have any questions regarding this please do not hesitate to come and see me.

Sounds — We are learning sounds using the Read, Write, Inc. Phonics programme. The children are introduced to a new sound everyday and start to put them together to make words. It is important that you help reinforce the sounds at home by using the letter sounds not names when talking to your child about them. Please keep an eye on how they are writing their letters, as it is very difficult for them to form them correctly if they have been used to forming them incorrectly.

Writing — When you are helping your child with their writing at home please make sure that they are holding their pencil correctly, as this is very hard to rectify as they get older. Could you also make sure that they don’t use capital letters unless it is at the start of a name or the beginning of a sentence.

I.C.T. – Your child will be working a lot on the interactive whiteboard and ipads in class, so if you have a computer or tablet at home, please allow them to use it as often as possible.

Some useful websites that we use in school include: –

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

www.primarygames.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk/schools

www.topmarks.co.uk

The class will be more structured than what the children are used to as they will be expected to have formal lessons. Our daily routine usually consists of three focused tasks which are led by a member of staff and a selection of pupil led tasks which are play based but linked to what they will be doing with the staff. The children work through all focused tasks and have the opportunity to choose where they want to work when not working with staff. The majority of our lessons are done in small groups so that all children have the full attention and support of the member of staff with some lessons such as PE and forest schools being done as a whole class.

It is important that your child is happy in school and that you are happy with everything that is going on in school. If at anytime you have any concerns regarding your child’s education or welfare at the school, please feel free to come and see me.

Thank you for your support and cooperation.