Reception

Welcome everybody to the Reception section of the website. 

Welcome to Reception class:

Class Teachers:
RJM-Miss Jackson/Miss Marron
RB - Mr Billington 
RM- Miss Moran

Learning Support Assistants: Mrs Lindan , Mrs Wilkowska, Miss Jakobowska, Mrs Taylor (HLTA) and Mrs Phillingham (Speech and Language)

Assistant Headteacher: Miss Moran

We have planned a sequenced curriculum to ensure that all children make progress and are ready for the next stage in their education. Our carefully planned time table ensures that children access a balance of independent learning opportunities through play, small group work and whole class learning. 

The Partnership between home and school is integral to your child’s success and we encourage parents to take an active part in their child’s learning. We see parents as playing a significant part in the education of their children, and greatly value their contribution to school life. 

Whatever the needs of your child or special interests they have, we aim to ensure your child thrives at Lark Hill Community Primary School. We want the children here to have memorable experiences, build on what they know and can do and help them to become confident, lifelong learners.

P.E and outdoor
Children in Reception do not yet need a PE kit. Being outdoors is a great way to engage in learning and develop key skills. Please ensure your child has a warm, waterproof coat and wellington boots so they can access the learning in all types of weather. 

Water bottles and snacks

Don't forget to bring a water bottle to school each day - it is important for children to stay hydrated throughout the day. Please label bottles and take them home to wash at home time. Juice is not allowed in school to promote good oral health.

Children do not need to bring in a snack as they are provided throughout the day. Milk can be ordered at the start of each half-term, please speak to the school office about this.

Topic- Autumn 1 Marvellous Me

We have developed a long term curriculum plan, including 'overarching themes', which support how the different areas, knowledge and skills will be taught across the academic year. They link prior knowledge to new learning to deepen children's understanding. Over the year we will explore the children's interests and use themes to guide our learning. The adults will tune into children's interest and plan purposeful and meaningful learning experiences across the curriculum. The learning environment will also reflect our Literacy theme which this half term is called Marvellous Me. We will get to know the children as individual learners and plan opportunities to get to know the new learning environment.  

Reading at Home

In Reception, it is important that you read with your child at least 3 times a week and sign their reading record. A member of the Reception team will check reading records daily, so please ensure that reading records are returned to school each day. 

Support children to apply their phonic knowledge by saying letter sounds and blending those sounds together to read a word.  See Saw has all of the RWI videos on how to say the sounds. Also, continue to demonstrate reading for pleasure and reading stories to your child. 

Practise reading sight words daily. These are the tricky words children cannot use their phonics to sound out, they learn them by sight. Children learn best by repeated exposure to the words, by seeing them and saying them and by playing games. At Lark Hill, we call these Red Words and your child will bring a set home with their first reading book, we will check them when reading in class. The words are linked to the colour of book your child will bring home.  

Seesaw

Seesaw is an online learning journal that we use to share information about our topics and photographs of our day in Reception. We will also use this to share videos of the phonics sounds children are learning at school so they can practise at home. 

Please respond to the things that we post with a comment, and post your own photographs or videos so that we may share them in your child's home learning journey.

PSE

In Reception we take part in planned weekly sessions to develop our personal, social and emotional development. We use Think Equal to develop children's knowledge and understanding of themselves, others and the world around them. These sessions are very important and promote excellent talk and and thinking about wider issues and subjects. 

Mathematics

We use Mastering Number and First4Maths to support our learning in Maths. This half term we are focusing on subitising so children quickly say how many objects they see without counting. We will develop our understanding of numbers being made up of 1's and make comparisons between sets using vocabulary such as more than and fewer. 

We will also explore height and length and engage in practical activities to practise using new vocabulary in context. 

Literacy

In Literacy we will be reading The Friendship Bench and Marvellous to engage in learning about starting a new school and meeting new people. The texts are used to develop oracy skills, reading, comprehension and writing. We will introduce new vocabulary and practise using the words in a sentence and through play. Every day we will model writing words, captions and sentences and children will engage in practising the words orally as well as writing in small groups. 

We are also continuing our writing journey through play with large gross motor activities and sensory play We are also supporting the children's writing skills by exposing them to challenges linked to our theme to encourage them to build on prior learning and engage in writing independently. 

There are lots of ways to promote a love of writing at home. Enjoy writing shopping lists, birthday cards and messages for others. Use the information on See Saw to support how to form the letters correctly and learn the formation rhymes. Speak to your child's teacher for more information on developing fine motor skills. 

Phonics

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics-based programme which helps children learn to read whilst also developing a wide range of vocabulary and encouraging a love of stories. It was developed by Ruth Miskin.

In Reception, children will be taught a sound a day and will be assessed regularly by their class teachers. We will continue in our phonics groups learning new sounds, segmenting and blending, reading and keywords. We regularly give out phonics certificates to those who have tried hard, too!