Welcome to Reception: Week 2!
We are so pleased to have all of our children in full-time! They have all settled into Reception so brilliantly and we are very proud of them all. We are enjoying getting to know them and all of their unique personalities and interests.
Take a look at what we’ve been up to this week:
Did you know…
Your child has their very own named space on display in the classroom, where they can choose to display the learning that they feel most proud of!
School library visits and books for home…
Each week, your child will visit the school library with their class. When they visit the library, they will be able to choose a book to share with their adult/s at home. It’s important that alongside teaching the children the skills they need to become readers, we help to develop a love and enjoyment of reading too! Here are some fun ways that you can support your child’s reading at home:
- Have conversations about the pictures in the book- what can you see?
- Introduce the author, illustrator and blurb. Discuss whether you have read any other books together, written by the same author. Does the blurb seem similar to anything else you have read together?
- Ask your child to predict what might happen in the story? What happens after the story finishes?
- Ask your child how the character feels. How do they know? Do the pictures give us clues?
- Ask your child to retell the story in their own words.
Snacks and Water…
In class, we provide a healthy fruit or vegetable snack each day. If your child would prefer to bring in their own snack, please ensure this contains only fruit and/or vegetables and that it is in a named container, which your child can keep in their tray. We are a nut-free school, so no nut products in snack or lunch boxes please.
If your child brings grapes as part of their morning snack, please always ensure that they are cut lengthways.
Water bottles should contain plain water. Your child can choose to have milk with their morning snack, which is free until they turn five. If you would like your child to continue having milk after their fifth birthday, you can contact the school office. The cost of milk is £12 each term.
Home-link Activity- Week Commencing 20.09.21
Our current learning is All About Me! This week, we’ll focus on our families and the way that all families are different. Please send a photograph in, of your child with their family. You could email the photo to the email address below and we’ll print it in school.
Please also feel free to use the Reception email address any time, to share achievements and learning from home. We’d love to celebrate these in class!
Helping Support Your Child at Home…
Thank you to everyone who has attended our recent Zoom sessions to help you support your child at home. Watch the phonics session and the Early Years introduction. (And apologies for the distracting cursor in the latter – maybe that’s a nervous habit of Mr Roundtree!)
Isolation Home Learning Emails…
This week, you will receive an Isolation/ Home Learning Email. This will be sent each week, to provide home learning activities. The activities should only be used if your child needs to isolate and cannot attend school.
Reminders…
Please ensure all of your child’s clothing and property is clearly labelled with their name.
Diary Dates…
–Reception: Support your child’s reading– 6.00pm, Thursday 30 September 2021 (Zoom link TBC)
–Individual School Photographs– Wednesday 13 October 2021
Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA)
The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is statutory for all schools from September 2021.
It is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early
literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin
school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with.
All Reception children will be participating in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting school.
The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between reception and year 6 / the end of key stage 2.
For further information about the RBA, please see this guide.
Introduction to Reception – Zoom session
We’d like to welcome new Reception parents to our school by inviting you to a short Zoom session on Wednesday 15 September at 6pm. This session will be a 30 minute introduction to Reception at our Sphere Federation schools.
The sessions will outline the recent changes to the EY’s Framework and the introduction of a Reception Baseline Assessment. It’ll also offer you a few top tips on how you can support your child at home.
The session starts at 6pm. It will last around 20-25 minutes, plus there will be a questions and answer session at the end of around 5-10 minutes.
If you’re interested in attending this Zoom session, please either send us a message on the School Gateway app or email the school office. We’ll then email the Zoom joining details out to all those who have expressed an interest.
Watch out for further workshops relating to both English and Maths on your child’s class website page in the coming weeks.
Our First Week
Our first groups have had a great first week in school.
All the children came in confidently. They happily waved at their grown-ups through the window before finding somewhere exciting to explore in the classroom.
We enjoyed taking part in our first PE lesson. Check out our super balances, hoop skills and jumps.
We can’t wait to welcome more new starters next week!
Lunch menus
PE days – which day to I wear my PE uniform?
We are going to continue with wearing PE kit on PE days – this cuts down on lost property and saves learning time, so we’re going to continue this for at least next year as a longer term trial. On the days your child has PE, they should come to school in their school uniform PE kit. (Track-suit bottoms instead of shorts would be good on colder days. Footwear : black/brown/grey/white flat shoes which are safe to run around in.)
Footwear on PE days could be children’s ‘school shoes’ which are often a plain ‘trainer’ style anyway, if you want to avoid having to buy 2 pairs of shoes.
Here is a link to our uniform policy.
Please find below the days each class has allocated PE times, which will be taught outdoors, except in extreme weather.
- F2 Sunshine (Miss Parling) – Monday and Friday
- F2 Rainbow (Mrs Allen-Kelly/Mrs Wilkins) – Monday and Friday
- 1A (Miss Lowry) – Thursday and Friday
- 1,2B (Mrs Latham) – Thursday and Friday
- 2C (Mr Gathercole) – Wednesday and Thursday
- 3,4A (Miss Harker) – Tuesday and Thursday
- 3,4B (Mr Catherall) – Monday and Tuesday
- 3,4C (Mrs McCormick/Mrs Wadsworth) – Tuesday and Wednesday
- 5,6A (Mr Freeman) – Monday and Wednesday
- 5,6B (Mrs Hogarth) – Tuesday and Wednesday
- 5,6C (Mr Lindsay) – Wednesday and Thursday
Sunshine and Rainbow Superstars
Wow! What a fabulous year we have had!
Every member of the class has been absolutely amazing!
Here are a few snapshots of our final week in reception.
Have a wonderful summer and see you all in September.
Healthy living week and more! …
It has been such a busy week, here in Reception…
Healthy Living Week
As part of Healthy Living Week, we have been learning about ways to keep our bodies and minds healthy.
We have been thinking about the benefits of exercise and sports. As well as our sports day races, we’ve enjoyed dancing and movement play in the classroom and outside.
We’ve also been taking part in challenges, trying to beat our best scores in long jump, speed bounce and balancing.
We’ve been discussing personal hygiene and how to look after our teeth. We conducted an experiment using white egg shells (which are a bit like the hard enamel on our teeth), to see which drink was the most healthy for our teeth. We made predictions about which drink we thought might cause the most damage/staining on the egg shells. Take a look at our results:
We looked at the Eatwell healthy balance plate and made our own healthy balance paper plates, by cutting out pictures and drawing food onto them.
We’ve also been thinking about keeping our minds healthy, taking part in mindfulness/ relaxation videos and reading stories.
A visit from the farm
We were so lucky to have a visit from the farm this week! We made lots of new, animal friends and learnt all about how to take care of them. It was wonderful to see so many faces full of joy and excitement.
Transition Morning
The children spent some time with their new classes and teachers on Wednesday. Although there were a few nervous faces before the visit, all children came back happy and excited for year one!
Cooling down with some sensory ice exploration
Sports Afternoon
Thursday… the sun was shining, water bottles were filled and athletes were ready for Reception Sports Day 2021!
Running, egg and spoon, hurdles, sack race, plus many smiles and memories made.
Home Link Challenge
And just like that, we find ourselves preparing for the last week of the school year!
Such a bittersweet time for the adults in Reception. We are going to miss our amazing children so much but we couldn’t be prouder of how much they have achieved this year, the resilience they have shown and how ready they are for new adventures in year one.
This week’s home link challenge is a transition talk-time. Talk to your child about their happiest memory of their time in Sunshine/ Rainbow class this year. What are they most proud of achieving? What are they most looking forward to in year one?
Please send us an email with their responses, so we can share their thoughts and memories in class.
Reminders and Requests
-We will be sending lots of things home this week. Please send your child into school with a named carrier bag as soon as possible. Thank you.
-A reminder that on Friday 23 July (the last day) Reception may come to school in brightly coloured clothes for our Sunshine and Rainbow party. Your child may also bring in a party snack on this day.
We’re going on a bear hunt.
This week our focus has been on the fabulous book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt‘ by Michael Rosen.
It is a family classic and such a brilliant book to help our youngsters with their own story telling and writing. We have planned and begun writing our own versions of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ In Rainbow and Sunshine class our mini authors will take you on a unicorn hunt, fish hunt, dinosaur hunt, rabbit hunt, pony hunt, wolf hunt and many more hunts!
Here are some photographs of our own bear hunt around school.
Home-link Challenge
Can you go on your own hunt around your garden, house or a special place? Please take a photograph or two and send them to our email address. Children really enjoy sharing their photographs on our huge interactive boards. Photographs always spark amazing conversations.
Advance notice for your diaries:
On Friday 23 July we will be having a Rainbow and Sunshine party! We ask that all children come to school in brightly coloured clothes to reflect our theme. (No school uniform required). Please could we kindly ask parents/carers to provide their child with a party type snack on this date. We don’t really want the last day to happen but we’ll certainly make it a day to remember!
It’s coming home?
We sure hope that on Monday we will be in a party mood. Enjoy your weekend. Come on England!
Scarecrow competition
We will be making some scarecrows in school. If anyone lives in the village, you can join in individually and display them outside your house. If not, and you want to make your own, bring your scarecrow to school on Friday 16 July and we will display it outside school over the weekend.
