Welcome to Reception! Our teacher is Nicola Duggan. We follow an emergent curriculum that is based upon the needs and interests of the wonderful children in Reception.
Most of the children in our Reception class came to our Nursery and so we are lucky enough to have already formed relationships with them by the time they come to us in Reception. We also welcome some children into Reception from other Nurseries and it is always lovely to make new friends.
Early Years can be the child’s first experience of the wider world, outside of the family home. It is therefore essential that this experience is varied, rich and of the highest quality to ensure that strong foundations are built to enable our children to progress through life successfully. We support our children in becoming capable, confident individuals who have high self-esteem and social competence. We have highly skilled, enthusiastic educators who work hand in hand with parents and the community to provide the best start for all of the children in our care.
During the Reception year, children progress rapidly and develop the skills that are essential for lifelong learning. They work on both adult directed tasks and have lots of opportunities for child initiated learning. Reception children begin their day at 8.50am (they can come in from 8.35am) and stay with us until 3.15pm. We have a breakfast and after school club available daily to both Nursery and Reception children. For more information about this service please click here.
If you have any questions or want to find out any further information about our unit, then please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to help you!
Useful Information for Parents and Carers:
Reception Long Term Plan
Reception Long Term Overview 2025-2026
What we are learning in Reception this half term…
Our topic is: Once Upon a Time!
This half term we will be focusing on Traditional Tales. Throughout this topic we will be reading lots of traditional tales. We will also continue to look at events and festivals at this time of year and how they are celebrated such as: Lunar New Year, Pancake Day and Children’s Mental Health Week.
In Literacy, we will be reading a wide selection of traditional tales. Once we know the stories well, we will be retelling them in both our own words and using the repetitive story language. During this time the children will develop a wealth of story language and use this when we are reenacting the stories. We will also be looking at some of the core values and traditions these stories share with us.
In Phonics, we will be working really hard in phonics to read words and captions with the sounds that we already know. The children who are ready will be learning some new sounds and applying them to read words and captions and learn a few common exception words.
In Maths, we will continue to develop our subitising and counting skills up to 5 and explore the composition of numbers within and beyond 5. We will begin to identify when two sets are equal or unequal when comparing numbers and begin to understand that two equal groups can be called a ‘double’. They will begin to connect quantities to numerals, sorting odd and even numbers and continue to develop their understanding of the counting sequence and cardinality (the final number.)
In shape, we will be looking at spatial relationships as well as similarities between shapes, including learning which shapes combine to make other shapes. We will use mathematical terms to describe shapes. We will recognise, describe, and build repeating patterns. We will be introducing the concept of weight and using language such as heavier than, lighter than and same weight.
Physical development: We will continue to work on gross and fine motor skills every day through our squiggle and dough disco programme. There will be an Increased emphasis on letter formation. We are continuing to encourage the children to be independent when putting on their shoes, coats, waterproofs and wellies, with a focus on learning to zip up their own coat.
Other useful information/things to remember:
- Book bags need to come to school every day.
- An adult will hear your child read and books will be changed every week. Please send their reading books/sounds in every day
- Library books will be changed every Tuesday
- Remember to practise your child’s sounds/reading with them as often as possible at home
- Remember to write at least one short comment about how your child has done in their reading record
- Practise self-help skills with you child-with a focus on learning how to zip up their own coat
- We do P.E. every Friday. Please come to school dressed in your P.E. kit
- Remember to bring your water bottle each day – filled with fresh water, no juice
- Send non-urgent messages/queries to us on Tapestry
- to regularly check your child’s Tapestry account to keep up to date with information. Tapestry should also be checked to see what they have been up to, make a comment on the observation and send observations in from home
Other useful information:
- We do P.E. on Monday & Friday, please come to school dressed in your P.E. kit.
- Remember to bring your water bottle each day – filled with fresh water.
- Book bags need to come to school every day.
- Children will be listened to and reading books changed every Tuesday.
Things you could do to help at home:
- We encourage reading, reading and reading…. “The more you read the more places you will go!” We want the children to love to read and really engage in books. In class, we read a story at every opportunity.
- Sing rhymes, number rhymes, nursery rhymes or even a song they love from the charts.
- Practise the green Fred words and the sound keyrings, you can make this fun by doing a sound/word hunt, building words.
- Encourage independence when dressing, undressing, coats, and zips.
A Parents guide to EYFS
CBeebies – Alpha Blocks
CBeebies Get Squiggling
Crick Web Early Years Games and Activities
Dough disco
ICT Games
Number Formation Rhymes that we use in school
Teach your monster to read
Top Marks Maths Games
Phoneme pop! A fun interactive game to support letter recognition
Phonics Games
We have been having lots of fun learning in Reception!
