Early Years Foundation Stage (Reception) 2023 - 2024

Welcome to Reception!

If your child is in Team RJ, their Class Teacher is Mrs Jeffs. If your child is in Team RM, their Class Teacher is Miss McDonald. Reception Classes are supported by Mrs Nichols, Miss King and Mrs Cooper, our Teaching Assistants, and Miss Sprowson, the School Inclusion Leader.

Key Information for This Term

• Children should wear full uniform and black school shoes each day unless they have PE or Forest School, in which case, they should arrive wearing their kit. They will remain in their kit all day.

• Children should not need to bring pencil cases, PE kits or other personal items to school. Children will be provided with their own stationery for use in school.

• Children should bring a water bottle with their name marked on it.

• Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will be provided with a free meal at lunchtime. There will be a choice of hot food and sandwiches each day.

• Staff will encourage hand hygiene and positive hygiene practices throughout the day.

In Reception, we learn a lot through our play. We learn to become independent learners and think for ourselves.

We base our planning and topics around different books although this can change based on the children’s interests. The activities set up in our classroom are carefully tailored to these and each individual child's next steps. Our planning considers all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum including: Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World, Expressive Arts and Design, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language & Physical Development.

We provide a 'Rolling Snack' facility within Reception. This involves the children choosing when they would like their snack and serving themselves. This has many benefits for the children's development and provides more time for exploration, learning and development. 

Rolling snack benefits: 

• giving children a choice  
• encourages independence, confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness
• it is a language, communication and conversation-rich period of the day 
• develops motor skills and self-help skills 

At snack time children are taught how to serve themselves. Children in Reception pour their own drinks and wash their own dishes. The children love having their own independence and autonomy over what and when they would like to eat. 

Children will continue to be provided with a healthy snack and milk/water during Rolling Snack. Please continue to provide a water bottle for your child each day and if you prefer to send your child with their own healthy snack, for example, fruit, crackers, cheese, you may continue to do so. 

When your child is settled into school, they will be sent home with a reading book and a reading diary. It is important to listen to your child read every night and record this in their diary. We will occasionally send home other activities for your child to complete at home. 

If you would like any help on how to support your child’s learning at home, please come and speak to a member of the team who will provide you with lots of ideas on how to do this.

Useful Websites for Additional Learning

www.whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/

www.iseemaths.com/home-lessons/

www.nhs.uk/start4life/baby/learning-to-talk/3-to-5-years/

www.literacytrust.org.uk/communities/better-health-start-for-life/

PE

Children will have PE once a week. Your child will need a full PE kit from the beginning of the academic year. 

Reception and Year 1 children will have PE in the School Hall, and therefore they will need to wear their indoor PE kit to school. They will wear their PE kit all day and not need to bring their uniform with them.

In warm weather, children can wear black/navy shorts and a plain white t-shirt. In cooler weather, children can wear grey/navy/black leggings/jogging or tracksuit bottoms, a warm top (preferably their school jumper) plus a waterproof coat (no football shirts or multi-coloured kits).

Forest School

Children will have a series of Forest School sessions during the term. Your child will need suitable outdoor clothing such as a named waterproof coat, hat, gloves and wellington boots from the beginning of the academic year. Children are to wear appropriate outdoor clothes to school, plus their school jumper or cardigan for the whole day, bringing an additional pair of shoes to wear indoors. Please see the timetable above.

Curriculum

Please download the curriculum overviews below to see what your child will be learning this term and visit our Curriculum page. For more information about the Early Years Foundation Stage, simply speak with your child's Teacher or visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2 or see the Assessment Booklet created by our Early Years Leader below.

We Won the Early Years Quality Mark Award!

We are delighted to announce that our school has recently been awarded the Quality Mark Award for Early Years!

In July 2022, we achieved the Early Years Quality Mark! Achieving this quality mark celebrates the commitment of our EYFS team to continually improving standards and providing high quality education and provision for our Reception children. It represents an external validation and acknowledgement of high quality provision, practice and performance and is also recognised by OFSTED.

The award involved a process of rigorous self-evaluation against the 10 Early Years Quality Mark Elements:

1. A whole setting strategy to improve children’s abilities and achievements

2. An analysis of the assessment of young children’s abilities and achievements

3. Setting appropriately high expectations for young children’s development

4. Planning ‘next steps’ in learning for young children’s development

5. Regular review of progress made by all children

6. A commitment to improving the skills of all practitioners

7. A balanced use of child-initiated and adult-guided play-based activities

8. The use of appropriate environments and resources

9. Partnership working between families, carers, practitioners and professionals in supporting young children’s learning and development

10. An effective procedure for monitoring planning and assessing improvement in practice and provision

All 10 of the Elements were strongly met and strengths within our practice identified and celebrated! The report acknowledges that the Early Years Team are reflective practitioners who actively research different strategies to support young children’s learning and development.